A prominent New Jersey rabbi sexually assaulted a single mom \u2014 and even sent her a pic of his genitals, admitting, \u201cNot great. But works\u201d \u2014 before launching a cyber-smear campaign against her, court papers allege.<\/p>\n
Married Rabbi Avraham Appel \u2014 who runs an elite rabbinical seminary in the tight-knit Lakewood Orthodox community \u2014 used \u201chis position as a rabbi, mentor, and trusted community leader to sexually assault and exploit\u201d mom-of-two Israeli immigrant Miryam Malachi for months, according the explosive Ocean County lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Rabbi Avraham Appel is accused in an explosive lawuist of of sexually assaulting a desperate mom and then embarking on a scorched-earth retaliation campaign when she threatened to sue. ZAAKAH<\/p>\n
Malachi, then a single mom, had approached Appel for financial help with daycare bills \u201cduring a period of acute financial distress\u201d in 2020, says her suit filed earlier this year in Ocean County Civil Court.<\/p>\n
Appel helped her financially, the lawsuit says. But things took a dark turn in June 2022, when Appel sexually assaulted her as she was home alone, court documents allege.<\/p>\n
This message was allegedly sent by Appel to Miryam Malachi after the first assault took place, according to the lawsuit. NJ Ocean County Civil Court<\/p>\n
Malachi\u2019s suit claims Appel sent her lewd texts with \u201cincredibly crude and graphic sexual content.\u201d NJ Ocean County Civil Court<\/p>\n
Appel \u201cforced himself\u201d on Malachi and \u201ctook sexual advantage of her\u201d multiple times afterward, the suit claims.<\/p>\n
He also sent her lewd texts with \u201cincredibly crude and graphic sexual content,\u201d including descriptions of oral sex, his desire to \u201csqueeze your breasts\u201d and an image of his genitals, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n
Appel wrote under the genitals image, \u201cNot great. But works,\u201d court documents claim.<\/p>\n
When Malachi finally threatened to sue last fall, a vicious smear website popped up calling her \u201cA DANGER TO KLAL YISROEL\u201d \u2014 roughly meaning a threat to all Jewish people, her suit says.<\/p>\n
Malachi, then a single mom, first approached Appel for financial help with daycare bills \u201cduring a period of acute financial distress\u201d in 2020, her suit claims. NJ Ocean County Civil Court<\/p>\n
Malachi claims Appel\u2019s allies even plastered defamatory flyers at her children\u2019s private school, according to the court papers.<\/p>\n
Appel allegedly offered $50,000 to buy her silence before his lawsuit threat, a move she \u201cvehemently rejected,\u201d the suit says.<\/p>\n
Appel and his lawyers have denied all of the accusations, claiming that the pair only had a \u201cbusiness relationship,\u201d court papers show.<\/p>\n
His lawyer, Ian Goldman, told The Post on Tuesday that Malachi\u2019s \u201ccredibility, motives, and factual assertions are not only disputed but entirely fabricated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goldman added that the \u201cscreenshots are fabricated and form part of what he contends is an extensive extortion and smear campaign directed against him,\u201d and that Appel claims \u201ceven a cursory examination of the photographs at issue demonstrates that the individual depicted is not him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Appel\u2019s court papers also accuse Malachi of fraud and extortion \u2014 and deny any connection to the website.<\/p>\n
But subpoenaed records from GoDaddy revealed that the smear site was registered directly to Appel\u2019s cell phone, his brother\u2019s email and his business partner\u2019s credit card, Malachi\u2019s suit claims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A prominent New Jersey rabbi sexually assaulted a single mom \u2014 and even sent her a pic of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23409,2850,57,1066,9,11,10,3019,58],"class_list":["post-269190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-defamation","tag-lawsuits","tag-metro","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-sexual-assault","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}