Kabbalah guru arrested for fraud
                   Avi Cohen 


                  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 
                  
                  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. 
                   
                

                    Holy water at NIS 26 a bottle (Photo: Fraud unit, Tel 
                        Aviv police)


                   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. 
                   
              
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