PNN – Scandals in Israel show no signs of abating; this time, the grandson of a prominent rabbi of Israel has reported being sexually assaulted by a school principal.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network; the Zionist news outlet Ynet reported that the grandson of Ovadia Yosef—Israel’s most renowned rabbi—revealed he was sexually assaulted at the age of 14 by the principal of the religious school he attended.
The report states that Ovadia Cohen, the grandson of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, has spoken for the first time about the prolonged sexual abuse he says he was subjected to at the age of 14 while studying at a religious school (yeshiva) in (occupied) Jerusalem.
In an interview with a podcast—which was also broadcast across various online media channels—he described how a supervisor at the religious school had harmed him, as well as how he grappled with memories of the abuse and the guilt that had plagued him over the years.
Cohen said the abuse began with a prolonged interaction initiated by the Nazim—a member of the religious school’s faculty (and a rabbi): It started with long conversations. He would ask numerous, highly detailed questions about my sexual habits while constantly lecturing me on morality. It was an endless nightmare.
Cohen stated that he had suffered from guilt for years and has now decided to speak out publicly to help others who have been harmed—of whom there are many within the Zionist community.
Cohen—who bears the name of his grandfather, the Chief Rabbi of Israel and spiritual leader of the Shas movement—comes from a family whose influence within the Haredi community and the religious sphere of the Israeli regime cannot be overlooked. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is considered the preeminent religious authority among Jews of Eastern (Mizrahi) descent in recent times; nearly all eleven of his children, along with their spouses, hold high-ranking positions within the rabbinic establishment.