An Israeli TV channel has broadcast allegations of sexual assault by a Golders Green rabbi who 10 years ago was embroiled in controversy over his behaviour towards women.
A 21-year-old woman from London, who lives in Israel, told Channel 12 that Rabbi Chaim Halpern had touched “private parts” of her body when she came to him for counselling in London and had repeatedly tried to see her when he visited Israel recently.
In recorded telephone exchanges apparently between the woman and the rabbi, he said he loved her, that she was beautiful and asked if she wanted him to “come with you in bed”.
Ten years ago, Rabbi Halpern stepped down from the presiding rabbinate of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew congregations under pressure from local rabbis over allegations of inappropriate conduct in counselling sessions, though he remained at the head of the UOHC-affiliated Divrei Chaim synagogue.
His new accuser told the TV station how she had come to Rabbi Halpern for rabbinic guidance. She was surprised that he had locked the door because of yichud (the religious prohibition of a man being alone with a woman who was not his wife) “but I thought that he’s a rabbi so he knew what he is doing.”
Rabbi Halpern was “sitting very close to me, so I moved back a bit and he came again. And then he started touching my leg muscles and then he went all the way up my thigh and then I froze and dissociated and shook, so he let go. Like it was so twisted.”
When the conversation ended, she said, he gave her a “tight hug” with one hand around her and the other “rubbing private parts of my body and I was so confused.”
Since the episode, she had come to Israel - but the 64-year old rabbi repeatedly called her.
“I felt so sick, I couldn’t tell him I didn’t want to talk about this because then he would maybe realise that I had told someone,” she said.
According to Channel 12, he had sent her emails with photos of him. When he came to Israel earlier this month, he repeatedly called her and asked her come to his apartment late at night. She did not because she feared he would “abuse” her.
She wanted to spread the word that what he was doing “is evil and must be stopped”.
But confronted by the evidence in Golders Green, Rabbi Halpern told Channel 12 that the woman’s story was “what they call in Yiddish bubbemeises (fairytales).”
Asked about the recorded phonecalls, he claimed the recordings were faked saying that anyone could “copy voices of many people” Insisting that it was a “made-up story” adding “I didn’t send any emails, I didn’t meet any girl in Israel. I totally deny it.”
The alleged victim of Chaim Halpern speaks on Israeli TV (Channel 12)
Ten years ago when allegations first surfaced, Rabbi Halpern protested his innocence despite a number of prominent local rabbis, including the influential Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu, then head of the London Beth Din, concluding that he was “not fit and proper to act in any rabbinic capacity”.
Police launched an investigation at the time but no charges were brought.
Following the broadcast, a video message from one of North-West London’s most prominent rabbis, Rabbi Shraga Feivel Zimmerman, head of the Federation of the Synagogues said that Rabbi Ehrentreu and those who had acted 10 years ago were owed an apology by some people.
While some at the time had not believed the allegations against Rabbi Halpern, there were others, he said, “who knew this was true but nevertheless they insisted on covering it up for their ulterior motives”.
Rabbi Halpern was unavailable for comment.
