Chief Rabbi Placed on House Arrest for Graft
Police placed Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Yona Metzger, under house arrest following a 10-hour interrogation on corruption allegations.
According to The Jerusalem Post, police ordered Metzger not to leave his home for five days at the end of his interrogation Thursday.
Investigators from the National Fraud Squad raided his home and offices as part of a bribery, fraud, money-laundering and breach-of-trust case. Police suspect Metzger pilfered donations, the Post reported. Metzger’s lawyers said he denied all allegations against him.
Metzger is forbidden to make contact with either of the other suspects in the case, including Haim Nissan Eisenshtat, who worked for years as Metzger’s driver and personal assistant, and Simcha Karkovsky, the manager of the Beit Hatavshil charity in Bnei Brak.
Following an undercover investigation, officers went public on Thursday, arresting the three suspects and seizing documents, computers and other materials from Metzger’s home and office.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
