Kabbalah guru arrested for fraud

Police arrest Sunday Shaul Youdkevitch, head of Kabbalah Center in Israel, on suspicion he extracted money from cancer patient, convinced her donations will make her recover from illness

Ynet.news, Israel/October 30, 2005
By Avi Cohen

A woman suffering from cancer was talked into paying tens of thousands of dollars to the Israeli Kabbalah Center, on the pretext that the donation would help improve her condition.

After her death at the age of fifty, the woman's husband filed a complaint against the head of the center, Shaul Youdkevitch, who was consequently arrested by the police Sunday.

Youdkevitch, one of the main figures in Kabbalah studies worldwide and the man behind Madonna's visit to Israel last year, was arrested on suspicion of exploiting and deceiving the woman and her husband.

The couple has previously complained several months ago that they were told by the rabbis who run the center in Tel Aviv that the woman should make 'a significant and painful donation' if she wanted to get well and overcome cancer.

Center: Donations, holy water will cure cancer

A devotee of Kabbalah, the ill woman put her faith in the center and contributed USD 36,000 to the organization. When her condition deteriorated, members of the Israeli branch recommended she donate another USD 25,000. Meanwhile, rabbis recommended that she also purchase holy water to improve her condition - at an exorbitant price.

The couple, who soon after extending the donations ran out of financial resources, continued to seek help with the center. The rabbis then suggested that the husband leave his job and devote himself completely to work at the center.

The husband, a father of two young children, turned down the proposal and instead turned to the police to report the incidents.

First Sergeant Morris Tal told Ynet that according to Youdkevitch, the Kabbalah Center proposed that the woman donate the money, but did not force her to do so.

Youdkevitch will be brought before the Tel Aviv Magistrates court for extension of remand Sunday.

Osnat Youdkevitch, his wife And the CEO of the center, will be interrogated by the Police fraud unit as well.