Brooklyn-based Rabbi Yosef Mordechai Paryzer was arrested in Jerusalem last week (Pictures: Tinder/Israel Police)
A married rabbi and father-of-two has been arrested in Jerusalem after allegedly using his dating profiles to dupe dozens of women and raping some of them.
Brooklyn-based Rabbi Yosef Mordechai Paryzer, 35, is accused of using the alias Jake Segal on dating sites including Tinder and Bumble to lure women into sexual relationships.
Paryzer, an American citizen who moved to Israel about a decade ago, allegedly dated several women at the same time and claimed that he was single with roommates and working for a nonprofit organization training dogs to guide blind people.
In reality, Paryzer was a teacher at a yeshiva and married with two young kids.
Rabbi Yosef Mordechai Paryzer is in police custody in Jerusalem on charges of rape by deception after allegedly duping women into having sexual relationships with him using a false identity (Picture: Israel Police)
Two women filed a rape by deception criminal complaint with Israeli authorities. That led to Paryzer’s arrest last week.
Since the arrest, officials said they have interviewed 18 more women and that a dozen more have come forward, reported the Daily Mail.
One of the victims who declined to share her identity for legal reasons said she and Paryzer had ‘deep conversations’ in public places and that ‘it took quite some time to actually have sex, and we were pacing our emotional closeness’.
The woman said she started seeing ‘barriers’ when their relationship felt like it was progressing, like Paryzer never inviting her over due to his ‘roommate’ and last-minute cancelations, according to Fox News.
Rabbi Yosef Mordechai Paryzer allegedly used the alias Jake Segal and other fake names (Picture: Israel Police)
They broke up twice in seven months together and once when she went to the apartment she believed was Paryzer’s to apologize, she did not find anyone of his name there. She eventually uncovered his scheme by tracking down two women he followed on Instagram, who both said they were in a relationship with Paryzer or had ended one with him.
‘Receiving a phone call like that from a stranger was very hard for them,’ she said. ‘I contacted those women too and heard very similar stories. The conversations we had were devastating and very emotional.’
Some of the women decided to confront Paryzer together by inviting him to one of their apartments with all of them there to demand the truth.
Paryzer admitted to being in relationships with all of them but did not reveal his true identity and said he was depressed and lost.
‘Consensual sex performed under false pretenses, ie false identity of the perpetrator, is a criminal offense that is legally defined as rape,’ stated the group of women on social media, according to i24news.
Paryzer’s lawyer said his actions ‘were immoral but not criminal’.
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A Brooklyn-based rabbi and father-of-two was arrested on suspicion of rape through fraud in Jerusalem.