A teacher from the Jewish High School has been arrested 22 times - but continues to harass the rabbi

January 10, 2023   

mystery: What leads a 31-year-old Haredi teacher with a master's degree in English teaching from Bnei Brak to repeatedly come to the courtyard of Rebbetzin Leah Kook in Tiberias, the wife of the Kabbalist Rabbi Dov Kook, to cross her boundaries and harass her - despite the fact that she has already served more than 400 days in detention and prison for the exact same offense? On Friday, the teacher was arrested for the 22nd time, after crossing her boundaries and coming to the Rebbetzin's courtyard again in Tiberias, and her detention was extended until Sunday. Immediately after her release, she crossed the Rebbetzin's boundaries again. Today (Tuesday), the police filed another indictment against her and requested her detention until the end of the proceedings. According to a report by Israel Moskowitz on the Ynet website, the first incident occurred in 2018, when she came to the Rebbetzin's courtyard like hundreds of other applicants - but unlike them, she insisted on staying there and disrupted the household's routine. After contacting the police, the suspect was arrested and asked to leave the yard - but immediately after she was released, she returned to harass again. The police went to court and received a restraining order, but nothing helped. The police were forced to arrest her again and again - and she even spent time in jail. Since then, the teacher has accumulated 22 cases, and has spent more than 400 days in prisons and detention centers. Attorney Yosef Tzemach said: "In all my years as a prosecutor in the Northern District Prosecution Office, and as an investigation officer in Tiberias, I have never encountered such a phenomenon. This is a very smart and educated woman, who provides no logical explanation for her actions. We tried in dozens of interrogations with her to understand why she continues to repeat the offenses time and time again, and we did not receive any logical explanation for the phenomenon." A police source explained to Ynet: "She is released from four months in prison in a women's prison, and immediately returns to the rabbi's court in Tiberias - when she realizes that within minutes she will be arrested again." Attorney Erez Moshkowitz, who is representing the suspect on behalf of the public defender's office, said in response to Ynet: "This is a very educated suspect, with a master's degree in English teaching. I have been representing her for about four years in ten cases, and she has not yet revealed the motive for her actions. "In 26 years of legal experience, I have never encountered such a mystery, of such an educated woman who comes from a completely normative Haredi family, who knowingly commits the offenses, despite the fact that she is paying a heavy personal price for her convictions." According to him, "She has already served nine different prison terms in conditions of confinement in Neve "Tirza, and despite this, immediately after each release she returns to the court of Rebbetzin Kook in Tiberias. This time too, she could have been released in an instant, but she refused to promise that she would not return to the rabbinical court, and therefore her detention was extended.".