Former rabbi given 20-month suspended sentence for possession of child abuse material

A former rabbi from north London has been sentenced to 20 months in prison suspended for two years after National Crime Agency officers found him in possession of hundreds of indecent images of children.

An investigation was launched in July 2022 after NCA officers received a referral from online storage provider Dropbox, which stated that a user was uploading suspicious images on their platform.

NCA officers identified the user as Yuval Keren, 56, from Pinner. A former rabbi of Southgate Progressive Synagogue (SPS), Keren was arrested at his home address, where several devices were seized.

Officers found a total of 1694 indecent images of children, of which 189 were category A (the most extreme). The images dated back to 2010, and indicated that Keren had accessed content repeatedly over the last thirteen years.

He pleaded guilty to all charges on 11 October.

Holly Triggs, NCA operations manager, said: “Yuval Keren had accessed images showing the horrific abuse of children for over 10 years.

“The NCA is committed to protecting children and ensuring that individuals who collect this material, and create a demand for abuse content, are held to account.”

Keren was suspended from his post immediately following his arrest, and no longer holds a position within Liberal Judaism.

Liberal Judaism said it finds Keren’s crimes to be “shocking and abhorrent. Our sympathies lie with the victims of his appalling actions, as they do with all victims of child abuse everywhere.

“Within 24 hours of the National Crime Agency informing the synagogue that Yuval Keren had been arrested for these crimes (on 21 July 2022) he was immediately suspended both from his role as minister of SPS and from the Conference of Liberal Rabbis and Cantors.

“He was not allowed to return to the SPS premises and, after due process, his employment ended on 31 August 2022. He has subsequently been expelled from the Conference of Liberal Rabbis and Cantors, and disbarred from membership of the Assembly of Reform Rabbis and Cantors.

“At all times, following his arrest, Liberal Judaism and SPS followed guidance from the National Crime Agency and the LADO (the Local Authority Designated Officer responsible for managing allegations of this nature) about procedure and the sharing of information, including an instruction not to disclose or discuss the circumstances of the arrest.

“Liberal Judaism and its communities have robust safeguarding processes and reporting in place and these are followed with the utmost rigour. We are also taking the necessary steps to ensure that Yuval Keren will never again be able to work anywhere within a Liberal or Reform Jewish community, in the UK or abroad.”