The Awareness Center is The Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault (JCASA)

Case of Ben Amotz

Tel Aviv and Jaffa, Israel

Dahn Ben Amotz was an international celebrity whose friends included Marlon Brando, Shelly Winters and other Hollywood luminaries; and a man with so much talent and creativity that he had half a dozen successful careers - radio star, journalist, film actor, artist, linguist and best-selling novelist.

His performances on the famous "Three in One Boat" radio program (at a time when Israel had no television) helped define Israeli humor. He was one of the first local authors to break away from formal Hebrew and write the language as it is spoken in the streets. His dictionary of Israeli slang, written with Netivah Ben-Yehudah, remains a classic. And his fiction, while not particularly artful, set new standards of sexual frankness in the puritanical Israel of the 50s and 60s

There were also allegations made that he was pedophile, a man who combed Tel Aviv and Jaffa for 12- and 13-year-old girls whom he lured to his seaside apartment, drugged and seduced. Everyone, of course, knew of Ben Amotz's reputation as a legendary ladies' man, but it was Dankner who discovered that many of the "ladies" were, in fact, lost, confused little girls.

Ben Amotz's first sexual encounter was an incestuous affair with his mother; that he used his "girlfriends" as volunteer pimps, or to provide sexual services to his guests; that he seriously contemplated sleeping with his teenaged daughter and eventually offered her to a close friend.

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Table of Contents:  

1. A Shock in the Mirror  (01/23/1992)

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By Ze'ev Chafets

The Jerusalem Report - January 23, 1992, SECTION: Pg. 20

If a Palestinian state had been established this week, no one in Tel Aviv would have noticed; people were too busy reading and gossiping about Amnon Dankner's shocking new biography of the late Dahn Ben Amotz.

The book was, as they say in publishing circles, eagerly awaited; Ben Amotz was, after all, one of the most famous and intriguing cultural figures this country has ever seen. Moreover, his life was dramatic and improbable enough to make him a biographer's dream. Ben Amotz was a Polish-born immigrant who arrived here at age 13 and reinvented himself as the quintessentia l sabra; a Palmah veteran who became a prominent peacenik; an international celebrity whose friends included Marlon Brando, Shelly Winters and other Hollywood luminaries; and a man with so much talent and creativity that he had half a dozen successful careers - radio star, journalist, film actor, artist, linguist and best-selling novelist.

His performances on the famous "Three in One Boat" radio program (at a time when Israel had no television) helped define Israeli humor. He was one of the first local authors to break away from formal Hebrew and write the language as it is spoken in the streets. His dictionary of Israeli slang, written with Netivah Ben-Yehudah, remains a classic. And his fiction, while not particularly artful, set new standards of sexual frankness in the puritanical Israel of the 50s and 60s.

Impressive as his accomplishments were, Dahn Ben Amotz's real importance was as a symbol of his generation, the generation of the War of Independence. With great charm, wit and good humor he presented his countrymen and the world with a curly haired, blue-eyed model of the Real Israeli, a man of contemplation and action, a figure who combined a finely honed moral conscience toward Israel's Arab adversaries with a stubborn insistence on personal freedom.

At the now-legendary good-bye party that Ben Amotz, just before his death from cancer, threw for himself, columnist Amnon Dankner told the assembled guests, who comprised a cultural and political Who's Who of the secular elite, that Dahn was a mirror in which sabra society had watched itself change and grow. Dankner spoke that afternoon not simply as a friend, but as Ben Amotz's authorized biographer; but he had no idea, at the beginning of his research, that the mirror would produce a distorted image, and that his subject would emerge as a pedophile, a man who combed Tel Aviv and Jaffa for 12- and 13-year-old girls whom he lured to his seaside apartment, drugged and seduced. Everyone, of course, knew of Ben Amotz's reputation as a legendary ladies' man, but it was Dankner who discovered that many of the "ladies" were, in fact, lost, confused little girls.

There are other sensational revelations in the book as well: That Ben Amotz's first sexual encounter was an incestuous affair with his mother; that he used his "girlfriends" as volunteer pimps, or to provide sexual services to his guests; that he seriously contemplated sleeping with his teenaged daughter and eventually offered her to a close friend. There are also stories of almost unbelievable cruelty, callousness and stinginess. The reflection in Dankner's mirror is not that of a lovable artist, much less an ideal sabra; it is the face of a dangerous pervert.

Naturally these revelations have caused serious embarrassment among Dahn Ben Amotz's admirers, who include some of Israel's most prominent secular moralists (at his farewell party, he was eulogized by Amos Oz, Amos Kenan and Uri Avnery, among others), and it is well deserved. Dahn Ben Amotz was more than just a celebrity with a bad character. He was a culture hero, a member in good standing of the left-wing intelligentsia and, toward the end of his life, even something of a guru. The fact that he was taken seriously by so many supposedly serious people, and beloved by so many more, indicates, at best, a bad case of moral myopia.

Orthodox circles are now gleefully pointing to Dahn Ben Amotz as Exhibit A in their case that godless liberalism leads inevitably to immorality. The rabbis are mistaken, but their reaction is both understandable (imagine how we would react to similar revelations about a well-regarded religious figure) and, I think, useful. The intellectual elite of this country too often confuses political correctness with character, and sociability with social responsiblity. Corrupt rabbis make inviting targets, but Dankner's life of Dahn Ben Amotz provides a needed, if shocking, reminder that not all the moral charlatans are on the other side.

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Last Updated:  10/08/2003

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