A 64-year-old community rabbi from Netanya was charged on Monday at the Petah Tikva District Court with forcing a 13-year-old girl into having sex with him by exploiting his authority and using “mystical threats” to intimidate her.
The defendant, named as Rabbi David Ben-Haham Hafuta, was arrested on May 30, and is charged with carrying out sexual acts on three occasions with the girl, after telling her that she had to “repair her sins” and that she would be “the mother of the messiah.”
The girl had approached the rabbi for religious advice, and he in turn said he wanted to “reveal to her the role she would play in the world,” charge sheet said.
Between July and August 2010, the defendant picked up the girl at a Netanya intersection and drove her to a local beach.
In the car, “he told her she was destined to be the mother of the messiah and that she had to repair all of her sinful acts that she committed until now. The way to repairing these acts was to hold sexual relations,” the charge sheet said.
He then held a “marriage ceremony” with the girl, and swore her to secrecy.
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