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Times of Israel
December 20, 2013
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday sentenced Rabbi Mordechai Elon to six months of community service, as well as a 15-month suspended jail term, rejecting the prosecution’s demand that he be sent to prison for fondling a minor. Elon, once a celebrated mentor of Israel’s religious Zionist movement, was also ordered to pay the victim NIS 10,000 ($2,850) in compensation.
The court explained its decision to forgo a prison term, saying that the trial and conviction had themselves caused the rabbi to “fall from grace” and constituted a “severe” punishment for him and his family.
After the sentencing, Elon said that he “happily accepted” the community service, wryly noting that has already been serving the community for years and “will be happy to engage in public service until I’m 120 years old.” As for the conviction, he said, ”The entire process is based on a mistake. The charges are false. The whole process was flawed. I’m in a good place, and I’ve only grown from this.” Elon’s attorney, Asher Ohayon, said he and his client would mull an appeal.
The sentencing came four months after the court convicted Elon of committing an indecent act against the minor, known as A., on two separate occasions, but acquitted him of two other charges of sexual assault and harassment.
On Tuesday, the court partially lifted a gag order on the case to reveal more damning information about Elon, including the testimony of a woman who said she saw the rabbi kissing and hugging a 15-year-old boy in a car. While the alleged incident preceded the cases for which Elon was tried, and was not stipulated in the indictment, the court allowed the testimony.
According to the witness, in 2001, while Elon was head of the Horev yeshiva high school, she was on her way to a house near the rabbi’s Jerusalem home when she saw Elon standing outside a car in which a boy was seated. On her way out of the house, she said, she saw two people in the car kissing, and initially thought it was the rabbi with a woman, but then the two got emerged and she realized he was with the boy she had seen earlier.
“She saw [hugging] and caresses… their heads meeting, one head resting on the other,” court records said. The witness said she recounted the incident to her therapist, who later called Elon and his wife for a meeting, during which the rabbi claimed that he was just comforting the boy.
The state prosecution asked the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court in October to sentence Elon to nine to 12 months in prison, saying that the punishment in similar cases ranged from six to 18 months, and suggesting that the rabbi be sentenced to a term in the middle of that range. The prosecution also demanded that the rabbi be forced to pay compensation to the minor.
Elon’s defense attorney, on the other hand, requested that he receive only community service and a suspended jail sentence.
Before the allegations against him surfaced, Elon was one of the most prominent Zionist Orthodox leaders of his generation in Israel.
He was indicted in November 2011 on two counts of indecent and sexual assault against two 17-year-old male students between 2003 and 2005, when he was head of Yeshivat Hakotel in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Both of the students claimed that they turned to Elon during a time of personal crisis. The first student, known as A. in court documents, was not a student of Elon, but was rather experiencing an emotional crisis when a friend suggested that he consult with the rabbi. A. claimed that, on two separate occasions, Elon hugged him, had him lie down on his stomach, and then kissed and caressed him. Elon claimed that he did not recall meeting A. and that if they did meet, it was conceivable that he had kissed A. to console him, but not for sexual gratification.
The second student, known as B., claimed that Elon had placed his foot between his legs, had him sit on Elon’s knees, hugged him, patted him on the stomach and knees, and kissed him on the face.
Rabbi Mordechai Elon outside the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court, Wednesday, December 18, 2013 (photo credit: Meital Cohen/Flash90)
Both A. and B. said that Elon recited the “priestly blessing” after his acts.
