Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Former Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger to Plead Guilty of Corruption

(JTA) — Yona Metzger, a former Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, reportedly has reached a plea deal on corruption charges.

Under the agreement reached with state prosecutors, Metzger will plead guilty to some of the charges in exchange for a reduced prison sentence, according to reports Wednesday in the Israeli media.

The rabbi was charged in October 2015 with fraud, theft, conspiracy, breach of trust, money laundering, tax offenses and accepting bribes. He is accused of accepting nearly $2.6 million in bribes — keeping nearly $2 million for himself while paying the rest to accomplices and charitable organizations.

Metzger is accused of profiting from donations directed to charitable causes and taking bribes to sway his opinion on matters he decided as chief rabbi.

He completed his 10-year term as chief rabbi in July 2013. Metzger was arrested and questioned a month before his term ended and released.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.