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Rabbinical court delays ruling on Berlin rabbi accused of sexual misconduct after he offers 11th-hour doctor’s note

BERLIN (JTA) – A Jewish religious court has convened to hear testimony against a Berlin rabbi who was fired following allegations that he preyed on young women, using religious arguments to lure them into sexual relationships.
The beit din, or religious court, of Germany’s Orthodox rabbinical association, the ORD, announced on Monday night that it had “heard several affected persons in the case of allegations of sexual assault by a rabbi.”
But the group, working together with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Conference of European Rabbis, said it was not prepared to make a ruling because the rabbi had presented a letter from his doctor saying he could not testify, two hours before he was scheduled to do so. He will be given another chance, on July 13, according to the beit din’s statement.
The rabbi, Reuven Yaacobov, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Tuesday that his doctors have told him to rest completely for a month because of the shock he had endured. “If we don’t end the situation, then the post-traumatic situation will follow,” he recounted via WhatsApp.
The ORD would not offer more specificity about the number of women who testified. But a source outside the ORD with knowledge of the proceedings said that at least 10 women took part, locally or remotely, in the hearings held before an international panel of rabbis convened specially to deal with this case.
The hearing came one month after the Jewish Community of Berlin fired Yaacobov and locked the doors of his synagogue, the Sephardi congregation Tiferet Israel, a day after several women testified about what they described as years of sexual and psychological abuse.
The swift actions by both the Jewish Community of Berlin and Germany’s Orthodox rabbinical association stands in contrast to past responses to allegations against Yaacobov. JTA reported last month that multiple entities had received complaints about him during the 17 years that he was employed by the official Berlin Jewish community.
Yaacobov has not commented publicly on the allegations. He told JTA that he had not been told officially why he was fired. He also said he plans to contest his termination in German court and had informed the ORD he was “ready to come to a neutral Beit Din at any time and in any place as soon as my health condition improves and the labor court has met.”
Yaacobov had been a popular spiritual leader in a subset of Berlin’s large community of Russian-speaking Jews. Born in Uzbekistan and ordained by the Midrash Sepharadi Yeshiva in Jerusalem, Yaacobov, 46 and a married father of four, also studied at the Moscow Yeshiva in Russia and the Shavei Gola Yeshiva in Jerusalem before being hired by the Jewish Community of Berlin 17 years ago, according to a biography that was removed from the organization’s website last month.
Some of Yaacobov’s former congregants have joined him in a private Berlin location for services since his firing, he told JTA. Speaking Tuesday, he also questioned why Tiferet Israel, which operates inside an apartment building owned by the Jewish Community of Berlin, remained closed, with personal belongings locked inside.
“If the community has a problem with me, then they can solve the problem with me, but why does the synagogue have to be closed because of that?” he asked, noting that the Nazis had destroyed a synagogue on that same street in 1938. “Why should the worshippers pray in another synagogue?”
A spokesperson for the Jewish Community of Berlin told JTA on Tuesday that the closure of the synagogue was essential for demonstrating to women that their concerns were being taken seriously. The spokesperson, Ilan Kiesling, said additional women had come forward with allegations against Yaacobov since the closure.
“Many of Rabbi Yaacobov’s victims did not dare to report their suffering to the community board … because they thought that Rabbi Yaacobov might be able to return to his old place of work,” Kiesling said by email Tuesday. “The closing of the synagogue on Passauer Strasse also sends a clear signal that he will never serve as rabbi there again.”
The synagogue will remain closed until both civil and religious court proceedings have been completed, he said, adding, “The ban on Rabbi Yaacobov in all institutions of the Jewish Community in Berlin remains in force.”
The ultimate ruling of a rabbinical court could deepen that estrangement. A beit din can issue pronouncements that affect a person’s role in the Jewish community locally and beyond.
Elena Eyngorn, a Berlin Jew who originally brought some of Yaacobov’s alleged victims to testify to the Jewish community’s board, told JTA on Tuesday that she had arranged for a psychologist to accompany the women at the hearings by the Jewish court this week, if they so wished. The psychologist donated her time, she said.
Eyngorn, who did not attend the hearings herself, said she understood that the ORD also had permitted each woman to bring a support person.
One of the women who testified to the beit din told JTA that she had been asked to sign a statement that she was telling the truth. With her permission, she said, the religious court recorded her testimony so the three rabbinical judges could listen to it again. She estimated that she spoke with them for about 20 minutes.
“I told them at the end of the meeting that I thought it was very important to decide something about him, because we are very responsible towards the girls who are growing up in this community,” she said in a telephone interview with JTA, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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The post Rabbinical court delays ruling on Berlin rabbi accused of sexual misconduct after he offers 11th-hour doctor’s note appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.