Case of Rabbi Haim Pardes

Former President of the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court

Israel

Convicted of sexually blackmailing" and performing "licentious acts" with women who sought his counsel in a synagogue. Pardes was sentanced to six months in prison and given an 18-month suspended prison sentence and fined 25,000 shekels ($12,500).

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Table of Contents:  

1. Rabbi Named in Sex-For-Divorce Scandal (12/04/1989)

2. Police Interrogate Rabbinical Court Judges ABout Sex-Bribe Allegations  (12/05/1989)

3. D.A. Gets Sex-Case File Against TA Rabbi  (01/11/1990)

4. Top Of The News - World  (12/07/1990)

5. Rabbi Starts 6 Months in Jail for Sex Abuse  (01/01/1992)

6. Prosecutors Joins MK's Plea to Discipline Judge  (05/23/1992)

Also see:  

Rabbis, Cantors and Other Trusted Officials

Offenders: Problems Our Parents Wouldn't Speak Of

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by Andy Goldberg and Haim Shapiro

The Jerusalem Post - December 4, 1989

TEL AVIV - Rabbi Haim Pardes, head of the local rabbinical court, is facing a police investigation into suspicions that he asked a woman for sexual favour in order to speed up her divorce proceedings.

Police are still waiting for permission from Attorney-General Yosef Harish to interrogate Pardes, as Pardes has the legal standing of a district court judge. The initial finding of the police investigation were transferred to Harish's office late last week.

The national fraud squad has already interrogated people connected with the allegations against Pardes, including two senior clerks of the court and the woman he allegedly approached.

Police believe that Pardes had been dealing with the woman's divorce case for some seven years when he suggested to her that they meet alone in a room at a North Tel Aviv synagogue. In return he promised to speed up the courts' treatment of her divorce proceedings.

The woman apparently recorded her conversations with Pardes and afterwards used the tape to force him to accelerate treatment of her case and to blackmail him.

Rabbinical circles expressed shock over the allegations.

Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, director of the rabbinical courts, told The Jerusalem Post yesterday that no action would be taken against Pardes at this stage. It was not necessary to suspend a rabbinical court judge unless he had actually been charged with a crime, Ben-Dahan said.

According to the daily Yediot Ahronot, which first broke the story, Rabbi David Einhorn, assistant director of the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court, was also suspected of accepting bribes.

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By Andy Goldberg

The Jerusalem Post - December 5, 1989

The rabbinical court judge at the centre of a sex-for-divorce scandal was interrogated for seven hours yesterday by officers of the Jaffa-based National Fraud Division.

Rabbi Haim Pardess, 54, was released on his own recognizance after the interrogation and praised his investigators for "their fair and correct treatment."

The police are investigating allegations that Pardess solicited sexual favours from women in return for speeding up treatment of their divorce proceedings. One woman told officers last month that Pardess had been dealing with her divorce case for about seven years when he suggested that they meet alone in a room he had at his disposal at a local synagogue. In return for such a meeting, he promised to expedite the court's handling of her divorce. The woman apparently recorded her conversations with Pardess and afterwards used the tape to force him to expedite her case and to blackmail him for NIS 20,000.

Officers have already questioned several persons connected with the allegations against Pardess.

Pardess's attorney, Dr. Ya'acov Weinroth, told The Jerusalem Post that his client had cooperated fully with the police. He did not know whether Pardess would be summoned for further questioning. He said that the police did not have in their possession any tape recording that incriminated Pardess.

Rabbinical court judges have the legal standing of district court judges, whose interrogation is permitted only with the approval of the attorney-general. Yosef Harish granted this approval in Pardess's case on Sunday.

"I am very happy that I have had the opportunity to give my version of events and explode the baseless allegations against me," Pardess told Kol Yisrael radio after his interrogation.

He was highly critical of the press for publishing the story and his identity before he had been charged. He told reporters that he planned to continue working as usual despite the allegations and said he hoped that "with God's help the truth will out."

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The Jerusalem Post - January 22, 1990

TEL AVIV - Police have transferred to the District Attorney's Office details of their investigation into complaints of sexual assault against Haim Pardes, the head rabbi of the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court.

The Jaffa-based National Fraud ...

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From Wire Dispatches and Staff Reports

The Washington Times - December 7, 1990

TEL AVIV, Israel - A court jailed a senior rabbi for six months yesterday after finding him guilty of "sexually blackmailing" women who sought his counsel and of having sexual relations in a synagogue, court sources said.

Rabbi Haim Pardes, chief of Tel Aviv's rabbinical tribunal, committed "licentious acts" with women who appeared before him and he confessed to having sexual relations in a synagogue, according to the sources.

He was also given an 18-month suspended prison sentence and fined 25,000 shekels ($12,500) for "shamefully taking advantage of his judicial status and of the distress of the women who appeared before him." Rabbinical tribunals in Israel are charged with marital affairs and conversions to Judaism.

Shulat Aloni, a lawmaker for the Civil Rights Party, argued that the sentence against Rabbi Pardes was too lenient. Mrs. Aloni called for a review by the high court.

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By Michael Rotem

The Jerusalem Post - January 1, 1991

TEL AVIV - The former chairman of the local rabbinical court convicted of sexually abusing women is to start his prison term today. A court here rejected Rabbi Haim Pardes's offer to do community service work, instead of going to prison, as

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PROSECUTOR JOINS MK'S PLEA TO DISCIPLINE JUDGE

The Jerusalem Post - May 23, 1991

In an unusual move, the State Prosecutor's Office yesterday supported MK Yair Tsaban's petition asking the High Court of Justice to order that the pension of Rabbi Haim Pardes, president of the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court sentenced to six months in prison for indecent acts, bribery and violating a trust, be stopped and that he be brought before a disciplinary hearing.

After the State Prosecution's move, the High Court issued an order nisi instructing Pardes to show within 30 days why the decision of the judicial appointments committee which awarded him a pension should not be overturned and why the president of the Supreme Rabbinical Court has not fulfilled his responsibility to bring him before a disciplinary hearing.

In his petition, Tsaban said that it was obvious that a judge convicted of such serious offenses should face a disciplinary hearing. Pardes, he noted, managed to avoid this by resigning his position when the charges were brought against him. He also maintained that he should not have been granted any pension, let alone the same one as judges who honorably retired from the bench.

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