A former teacher at the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto was arrested in Israel for alleged sexual abuse of a 14-year-old male student at a religious boys’ high school.
The Hebrew edition of Ha’aretz reported on Sept. 14 that Avichai Zehavi – a 41-year-old, married father of four whose wife is pregnant – was accused of sodomizing the youngster. Zehavi denied the charges, the article said.
A subsequent report that appeared last Friday on ynet.co.il, also in Hebrew, added that two other boys had come forward and accused Zehavi of further sexual offences. As well, according to ynet, the alleged offences occurred both at the school during school hours and off the premises when a student was invited by Zehavi to a relative’s house on Shabbat.
In Toronto, Zehavi taught Tanach and rabbinics, and served as director of student programs and activities when he was a shaliach at TanenbaumCHAT’s Richmond Hill campus from 2000 to 2005. In 2002, he received a Teacher of Excellence award, a privately sponsored award that is no longer given.
He then spent about 10 months as cantor at Shaarei Shomayim Congregation, where he worked with teens and children, before returning to Israel. Among other duties, he led youth programming and ran the synagogue’s bar mitzvah program.
Last Friday, Paul Shaviv, TanenbaumCHAT’s director of education, e-mailed a statement regarding the situation to current school parents, staff and board members, and to all students who attended the school while Zehavi was on staff and whose addresses the school has.
Until the school learned of the allegations, “we had no cause to doubt the integrity of this individual,” Shaviv wrote. “The school takes any such allegation very seriously. The safety and security of our students is our first priority” (italics are Shaviv’s).
However, he told The CJN, recently the school received “information of concern, from official channels.”
He asked that any parents or former students “with information or concerns about any relevant incidents” to contact him directly either by e-mail at [email protected], or by phone on his direct line at 905-292-4380.
Shaviv’s statement didn’t name Zehavi, following legal advice the school was given, he said. “He is not accused of anything in this country.
“We are deeply concerned about this, and deeply concerned to ensure that we act in a responsible manner,” Shaviv told The CJN. “We do want to stress that at this point there were only allegations regarding incidents that may have happened in Toronto.”
Shaviv added that the school has been in contact with other local institutions that Zehavi was connected with.
Shaarei Shomayim president Charlene Arje told The CJN that the news about the allegations “was a complete shock.” The shul also sent out an e-mail to members last week about the case. Arje said that “there are no allegations or knowledge of misconduct here, but we take it very, very seriously.”