‘When I heard about the rabbi attending the wedding, I just fell apart,’ one of the students who made the accusations told Haaretz
Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef last week attended the wedding of the daughter of Rabbi Yitzhak Tufik, a head of the Be’er Yehuda Yeshiva in Jerusalem, who is accused of sexually assaulting his students. Many other prominent rabbis and yeshiva heads as well Shas party politicians also attended.
Tufik has been the subject of police complaints filed by students who allege that he sexually assaulted them while they attended his yeshiva. The police have completed their investigation and prosecutors are examining the material to decide whether to proceed with an indictment.
“When I heard about the rabbis’ attending the wedding, I just fell apart,” one of the students told Haaretz.
The student alleges that from the time he reached age 14 until his wedding, Rabbi Tufik manipulated him into believing the acts were permissible. “He explained that everything is permissible according to the halakha [Jewish law] and he knows this because he makes [halakhic] rulings. Later, he told me that I’m the one who made him commit such acts and that it was my responsibility.”
The rabbi and his brother, Moshe, who heads the yeshiva with him, deny the accusations. Haaretz has learned that Rabbi Yosef and other rabbis who attended the wedding were aware of the accusations made against Tufik.
The accusations were first made public in August 2021 after a Haredi religious court, which heard the students’ testimonies, issued a ruling banning study at Be’er Yehuda. The unusual ruling called on students who had allegedly been victimized to turn to the police immediately.
“Yitzhak and Moshe Tufik constitute a serious danger to young men,” the religious court judges said. “The matter concerns dozens of young men over a period of several years who were harmed in a serious way that cannot be put on the record. Even now, these serious acts continue.”
According to the court ruling, the Tufik brothers cannot engage in any contact with adolescents because they had violated previous commitments designed to prevent such incidents. The judges warned that “those who assist in the attempts to cover up the facts and purify the vermin, their guilt will be too great to bear.”
Haaretz has learned that 10 former students appeared before the court, and that most of them testified against Yitzhak Tufik and alleged that the acts attributed to him were the more serious. The police investigation that opened following their complaints also focused on Yitzhak and not his brother.
Despite that, the yeshiva continues to operate as usual, with the brothers leading it. Officially, the institution’s president is their father, Rabbi Eliyahu Tufik, but Yitzhak and Moshe head it in practice.
Other prominent rabbis who attended last week’s wedding included Yitzhak Ezrahi, head of the Mir Yeshiva; Rabbi Shlomo Zafrani, head of the Or Elitzur Yeshiva and president of the Igud Amalei Hatorah; Rabbi Shraga Steinman, head of Yeshivat Orkhot Torah; Haim Biton, a minister in the Education Ministry and other Shas politicians.
A spokesman for Rabbi Yosef said in response: “The Rishon Lezion is unaware of the cases cited in your query. Additionally, it should be emphasized that the rabbi does not maintain any relationship with the individuals cited. His participation in the event, as in other events of the family, stems from pious family ties with the bride’s grandparents, which are indisputable.”