The State Attorney’s Office on Tuesday filed an indictment in Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court against a 33-year-old Haredi man from Beit Shemesh. He is charged with serious sexual offenses against four minors, aged about 13 to 16, in a mikveh, in shuls and in a public place in the city.
According to the indictment, filed by attorney Bracha Ben Aderet-Zerachia of the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office, the defendant, identified as Brand, exploited various occasions when the minors were at the mikveh or in synagogues in the city. The incidents allegedly took place on multiple occasions between 2024 and 2026.
In one case, the indictment says, Brand pressed up against a minor during prayers at a Beit Shemesh shul while the boy was reciting the Amidah, and committed an indecent act. The boy tried to stop him, but Brand allegedly continued for several minutes. When the boy moved to pray elsewhere in the shul, Brand allegedly followed him and did it again.
In other incidents, Brand allegedly committed indecent acts against minors at a mikveh in the city, including once as a boy was coming out of the immersion pool and once in the changing area. He is also accused of committing indecent acts against another minor at the mikveh and at a supermarket in the city.
The indictment charges Brand with indecent acts, indecent acts against a minor under 14, and attempted indecent acts.
The investigation was conducted by the Israel Police’s Beit Shemesh Zion station.
