The rumors first hit Israeli media early this November. A very senior member of Israel’s LGBTQ community was a suspect in the sexual assault of young men. An investigative report by the Kan Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation soon revealed that the suspect was Gal Uchovsky, 63, a well-known media personality and leader of Israel’s gay community. At the time, Uchovsky also served as president of the gay youth group IGY (Israel Gay Youth).

For years, Uchovsky topped the list of the most influential members of Israel’s LGBTQ community. He was known for the way he helped gay youth and his frequent condemnations of sexual assault. Within the gay community, he was known as the “Admor,” a term used in Hassidic circles to describe their spiritual leader. He was one of the first people in the media to come out of the closet, and he since took on the task of outing other famous gay people, sometimes by force and against their will. He saw this as a kind of “holy war.”

The Kan report included detailed testimony from two young men who claimed that Uchovsky forced himself on them during sexual encounters that he initiated when they were both very young. They said that he applied physical force against them and ignored their requests to stop.

As a result of these revelations and in an attempt to stop the crisis from spreading, Uchovsky resigned as president of IGY, apologized on Facebook and said, “I never, never intended to hurt anyone and apologize directly, candidly and with the purest intentions to anyone who felt uncomfortable, embarrassed or disappointed because of me.”