{"id":102032,"date":"2026-05-07T09:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/102032\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T09:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:30:16","slug":"meron-rabbi-arrested-over-serious-sex-crime-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/102032\/","title":{"rendered":"Meron rabbi arrested over serious sex-crime allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rabbi Yosef Shoveli, 54, of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/culture\/article-895314\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Meron<\/a>, was arrested overnight Thursday on suspicion of serious <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/article-892877\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">sex offenses<\/a> following a covert Northern District police investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">The investigation into Shoveli was opened after several complaints were filed over the past month, police said, adding that evidence connecting the suspect to the allegations led to his arrest. He was taken for questioning and is expected to appear in court for a remand hearing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Police urged anyone who was harmed or has relevant information to contact the nearest police station or call 100.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">In a public warning letter, Eliyahu and several other rabbis said they had received serious testimony against a man who presented himself as righteous while allegedly committing grave acts. The rabbis said they could not detail the allegations \u201cbecause of modesty,\u201d and cited claims of intimidation against those who said they were harmed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">\u201cDue to the severity of the testimony, we express our view and call on the public to distance themselves from him and his bad deeds, and not to listen to his guidance or lessons,\u201d the rabbis wrote, according to the letter cited by Ynet.<\/p>\n<p>The Israeli Center for Cult Victims said it had gathered 16 testimonies since 2011 about a group in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/crime-in-israel\/article-895115\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Safed-Meron area<\/a> allegedly led by Shoveli.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">The testimonies described patterns of control, dependence, family estrangement, unpaid labor, fear, humiliation, and exploitation, the center said. Some witnesses alleged that members in Shoveli\u2019s inner circle subjected personal and family decisions to his approval.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Four testimonies included allegations of sexual harm under spiritual authority, with alleged acts described to victims as part of a \u201cspiritual process,\u201d \u201crectification,\u201d or \u201cspecial closeness,\u201d according to the center.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Shoveli denied the allegations through his attorney, saying he \u201ccategorically rejects everything stated and dismisses the claims outright.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rabbi Yosef Shoveli, 54, of Meron, was arrested overnight Thursday on suspicion of serious sex offenses following a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[3538,37,5869,30341,3136,10293],"class_list":{"0":"post-102032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-arrest","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-israel-police","11":"tag-mount-meron","12":"tag-rabbi","13":"tag-sexual-violence"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116532597536471305","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}