ISRAEL
Israel Hayom
Rabbi Mordechai Elon’s conviction of indecent acts rattles national-religious community • Forum Takana, which exposed him, says more serious complaints were not revealed in trial • Elon’s supporters insist: There is no one else of his caliber.
Yehuda Shlezinger
At 11 a.m. on Wednesday, merely an hour and a half after the Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court convicted him of two counts of indecent acts against a minor, Rabbi Mordechai Elon spoke by telephone with another prominent national-religious public figure, Rabbi Haim Druckman.
Druckman was taken aback by the judge’s verdict. “Dear God in heaven, that’s ridiculous. It can’t be, it simply can’t be. I’m no lawyer, but maybe you should appeal to the Supreme Court and explain it to the judges,” he told Elon.
Like other rabbis in the national-religious community, Druckman was struggling to come to terms with the new reality. Elon, who for years had been considered the star of the national-religious public, to the point where he was dubbed the “admor,” an honorific title meaning “master, teacher and rebbe,” had been deemed a sex offender. Neither Elon nor the Forum Takana, a group which seeks to fight sexual abuse by authority figures in the national-religious community and which first exposed Elon’s actions, ever envisioned that the outcome would be so conclusive.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.