Back in 2003 Judy Klitsner of ‘The Jewish Week’ reported that Rabbi Yitzchak Cohen – a senior figure at the time at Bar-Ilan University in Israel - had been dismissed from his position at the university as the result of multiple complains that were made in 2002 concerning sexual harassment of female students by Cohen.
She writes:
‘Several women called Kolech to complain about Rabbi Yitzchak Cohen, a former head of, and later a lecturer in, the midrasha at Bar-Ilan University, who they claimed sexually harassed them when they were students at the university some years ago. Despite strong pressure against Kehat, who was accused of pursuing a "feminist" agenda, the university appointed a committee, headed by a rabbi, which heard testimony from several women in the presence of the accused rabbi. In the end, the unambiguous ruling was to dismiss Rabbi Cohen.
He is still fighting the decision and claims openly that he is the victim of a slander campaign by the "feminists." Rabbi Cohen says the feminists want to push rabbis out of their positions so they can replace them. The Bar-Ilan commission found no basis to his arguments and ruled that Kolech was operating entirely in good faith.’ (1)
Nettie Gross writing for the ‘Jerusalem Report’ in May 2009 confirmed this and provided further details writing:
‘Later in 2002, ten women complained to Kehat that they had been sexually harassed by Rabbi Yitzchak Cohen of the midrasha at Bar- Ilan University, a women's seminary offering courses in religious studies. Cohen denied all charges; Kolech, however, brought the matter to the attention of the university, which tasked a special committee to investigate the allegation. The committee recommended that Cohen be dismissed - he was; his subsequent petition to a Labor Court asking that he be reinstated was also rejected.’ (2)
We can this that Cohen was subject to complaints by ten different former female students that he sexually harassed them during their time at Bar-Ilan University in 2002 and was taken before an academic tribunal – as is normal in such cases – found guilty and dismissed from his position at the university. Further we learn that Cohen contested this decision at an Israeli labour court and also lost, which suggests that the evidence against Cohen is good even if the charges are relatively non-specific in nature.
We also learn from Neri Livneh writing in ‘Haaretz’ in February 2010 that the rabbis tried their old tricks of using political and financial pressure on institutions to defend Cohen and attack his accusers and their main supporters:
‘Kehat, a lecturer in Bible and Israeli thought, started taking on sexual harassment at Kolech, where she exposed how such harassment on the part of Rabbi Yitzchak Cohen, head of the women's religious college at Bar-Ilan University, had been handled. The affair nearly led to her firing from Orot College by its director, Rabbi Neria Guttel, and demonstrated the great need to establish the Takana forum. Kolech put pressure on Bar-Ilan; as a result the university set up an investigatory committee headed by Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, today one of Takana's leaders.’ (3)
As well as:
‘We had previously dealt with the case of [Rabbi Ze'ev] Kopilovitch from Netiv Meir [yeshiva] who harassed many students and had been protected by [other] rabbis; and with the cases of Yitzchak Cohen and Rabbi [Shlomo] Aviner. Deliberations about Aviner took place entirely in a rabbinical court - lasting seven years and ending only a few months ago - with the decision that Aviner may not advise women anymore.’ (4)
Note the mention of Rabbi Shlomo Aviner who I have recently covered in a separate article – (5) as well as pointed out his ‘Holocaust Survivor’ story is nonsensical – (6) the point being that rabbinical courts/groups as well as jewish organizations and the jewish community more generally will always close ranks to defend jewish criminals whether they be serial child molesters or thieves: it does matter.
They will still defend them!
References
(1) https://theawarenesscenter.blogspot.com/2003/05/case-of-rabbi-yitzchak-cohen.html
(2) https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/religion-and-revolution-extract
(3) https://www.haaretz.com/2010-02-25/ty-article/is-the-fuss-over-rabbi-mordechai-elon-down-to-his-homosexuality/0000017f-e545-d7b2-a77f-e74728010000
(4) Ibid.
(5) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/rabbi-shlomo-aviner-jewish-rapist
(6) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/fake-holocaust-survivors-rabbi-shlomo