The Interior Ministry has denied the immigration request of an American Orthodox rabbi convicted of sexually assaulting his pupils, the ministry said this week.
However, the disgraced rabbi, Baruch Lanner, will be able to remain in Israel for nearly a full year with the temporary residency status he was granted a few weeks ago, a spokesperson for the ministry’s Immigration and Population Authority told The Times of Israel.
“Interior Minister [Ayelet Shaked] clarified this morning that in light of his grave actions, she has no intention of approving his request to receive citizenship after the temporary residency visa he has expires,” the spokesperson said.
Lanner served nearly three years in U.S. prison for sexual assault crimes. Dozens of other victims have accused him over the years, but their allegations were not included in the indictments against him.
Shaked’s decision came after near-universal criticism of the decision to grant Lanner temporary residency in Israel, both from Israelis and American Jews.
Earlier this week, one of the leadership bodies of the Orthodox Union—the Rabbinical Council of America—sent Shaked a letter about Lanner’s immigration case, warning that he represented a threat to public safety.
“We write on behalf of the Rabbinical Council of America, the leading membership organization of Orthodox rabbis in North America, to express our concern that convicted sexual offender Baruch Lanner was granted temporary residency status in Israel and that his request for citizenship is under consideration by your ministry,” the group wrote.
“Lanner is on the U.S. Sex Offender Registry. We are very concerned that granting him citizenship would erase the relevance of this listing and enable him to disappear into general society, clearly a threat to public health and safety,” the rabbis wrote.
Under Israel’s Law of Return, anyone who is Jewish or who has at least one Jewish grandparent is eligible for Israeli citizenship. However, requests can be denied if they are “likely to endanger public health or the security of the State” or are “engaged in an activity directed against the Jewish people.”
The letter was signed by the president of the Rabbinical Council of America, Rabbi Binyamin Blau, and the executive vice president, Rabbi Mark Dratch.
Magen, an Israeli organization that advocates for sexual abuse victims, especially in the ultra-Orthodox community, similarly raised these concerns when Lanner’s case first emerged earlier this month.
If granted citizenship, “Baruch Lanner could tomorrow walk into any school and apply for a job and be given a certificate of good standing from Israel law enforcement and get a job working with kids,” the director of Magen, Shana Aaronson, said.
