Chief Rabbi's Family Abducts, Tortures Teenage Boy (moved from ATSNN), page 1

A 17 year old Orthodox Jewish boy was abducted at gunpoint and held against his will by the son and, it is believed, wife of Isreal's Chief Sephardic Rabbi, Shlomo Amar, a high government and religious official. The boy had been courting the daughter of the Chief Rabbi, whom he met in an internet chatroom. The contact between the two is against Orthdox Jewish religious practices. The boy was tied up, beaten, had his locks cut off (a mark of great shame for Orthodox Jews), and was threatened with death to himself and his family if he entered Jerusalem for the next 2 years, carried a cellphone, or made any attempt to contact the daughter. The abduction was performed by the son of the Rabbi, Meir Aram. Meir and his mother, wife of Shlomo Aram, have been indicted by Israel's Attorney General on criminal charges relating to the incident.

story.news.yahoo.com
JERUSALEM - Kidnapped, beaten at knifepoint and told he would not leave his makeshift prison alive — that was the punishment the family of Israel's Sephardi chief rabbi meted out to a 17-year-old youth who sought the attention of the rabbi's daughter, according to an indictment issued Wednesday.

The rabbi, Shlomo Amar, is not a suspect in the case, but his wife, Mazal, son Meir, and two Arab accomplices were charged, variously, with kidnapping, assault, wrongful imprisonment and extortion through threats, the Justice Ministry said.

The case has prompted isolated calls for the rabbi's resignation or the dismantling of the office of chief rabbi, a government position. Israel has two chief rabbis — one Sephardic, one Ashkenazic — for Jews of Middle Eastern and European descent, respectively.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

I thought hard about posting this story when I read it, but it kept nagging at me. It disturbs me greatly that this would go unexposed, that the family of a religious authority could attempt something like this, in the name of "honor" and "tradition". I'm glad the Attorney General has seen fit to try the perpetrators of this sickening act, although I wonder just how politics will play into their trial, if it even makes it that far in the legal proceedings brought against them.

-koji K.

Related News Links:
www.haaretz.co.il

[edit on 19-5-2005 by koji_K]

[edit on 19-5-2005 by koji_K]

[edit on 19-5-2005 by koji_K]