Israel Police said on Sunday that they will consider whether to launch a criminal investigation after new sexual abuse allegations surfaced against the co-founder and chair of the ZAKA emergency response organization.
According to the allegations, some of which go back decades, the Israel Prize laureate committed sexual assault, rape and other abuses.
The head of the Lahav 433 serious crimes unit, Deputy Commissioner Yigal Ben-Shalom, said there would also be a review of an earlier claim of sexual harassment made against Meshi-Zahav in 2010, in an investigation that was closed after the complaint was withdrawn.
No complaints have been filed with the police against the ZAKA chief despite widespread new allegations being made on social media and reported in the press.
According to Haaretz newspaper, Meshi-Zahav's alleged crimes were public knowledge in the Haredi community, specifically in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods.
A former member of the Haredi community told Ynet on Sunday that Meshi-Zahav approached her on the street and invited her to visit the ZAKA offices.
"I want to get to know you as well as I knew your mother," he reportedly told her.
"My mother was in her 20s with two small children was suffering from post-natal depression," the woman said.
"Yehuda went behind my father's back and made my mother into his sex slave. He abused her for months before my father found out and they divorced," she said.
"When I saw he was about to receive the Israel Prize I felt sick," she told Ynet. "How long will people continue to see him as some kind of saint?"
"Since the story was published on Thursday, I can't stop shaking. I am glad the truth is finally coming to light. There are thousands of men, women and children that this maniac attacked," she said.
After posting her story on Facebook, the woman was contacted by more people who said they were assaulted by Meshi-Zahav.
"Dozens have approached me, including people who worked with him at ZAKA and were harassed by him," she said.
"I tell all of them to file a complaint with the police, but they all say that they are unable to, but hope to see him face charges. It is unbelievable that such a person has been allowed to walk around freely for so many years," she said.
The accusations against Meshi-Zahav go back as far as the 1980s and tell of a man who continuously took advantage of his status, power, money and even the organization he heads to sexually attack women and children.
He was investigated in the early 2010s on suspicion of sexual assault, but the investigation was closed due to lack of evidence when his accuser refused to file a formal complaint.
The woman who accused Meshi-Zahav at the time said he promised her financial assistance to get close to her and then raped her when the two were alone.
“He took my clothes off by force,” the woman said, adding she begged him to stop as he was forcing himself on her.
“He said: 'If you talk, a ZAKA jeep will run you over'.”
Another alleged victim is a 41-year-old man who said he was sexually assaulted by Meshi-Zahav when he was 16 and Meshi-Zahav was 36.
"All the people close to him in those years knew I was his escort boy. I became a prostitute in every sense of the word," the man said.
He added that he had received certain “gifts” from Meshi-Zahav for his silence, such as trips to Tel Aviv to meet with prostitutes.
Another alleged victim is a 26-year-old man who claims he was assaulted by Meshi-Zahav when he was just five years old.
“He taught me in the synagogue. He would sit me on his lap and touch my genitals," the man told Haaretz in his testimony.
According to Haaretz, there are likely to be many more victims of Meshi-Zahav who have yet to come forward.
Meshi-Zahav has denied all the accusations against him.
"I received a call from Haaretz newspaper for the first time Thursday afternoon. The call included obscure and anonymous allegations that go decades back. I will make it immediately clear that they are nothing but false,” he said.
“Ever since it became known that I had won the Israel Prize, I have been the focus of various telephone threats," he said.
"After my parents passed away, some called me to express joy at their deaths. Others spat at me as I walked down the street. Unfortunately, this is part of the price I pay for the path I chose. Publishing the article is an attempt to settle scores with me,” he said.
“For as long as my strength permits me, I will continue to serve the people of Israel and the State of Israel as I have done all my life."