A former Kabbalah Centre executive and his accuser in a multimillion-dollar sexual assault lawsuit both testified as the civil trial got underway in Los Angeles this week.
Yehuda Berg, 43, the son of the center’s founder, is accused of pushing alcohol and drugs on a follower before fondling her.
In testimony on Nov. 17 in Los Angeles Superior Court, Berg acknowledged offering alcohol and the painkiller Vicodin to the plaintiff, Jena Scaccetti, and touching her leg, but insisted he left her alone when she rebuffed him.
“The reason I gave her Vicodin is because she had kidney stones. The reason I gave her a drink is because she was coming over for a drink,” Berg testified, adding that he “could not recall” forcibly restraining or intimidating her. Berg is married.
Scaccetti, who said prior to the alleged incident she’d considered Berg a spiritual mentor, is seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages from Berg and the Kabbalah Centre, whose celebrity adherents include Madonna and Ashton Kutcher. Berg officiated at Kutcher’s 2005 wedding when he married Demi Moore.
Rabbi Philip Berg founded the trendy spiritual group in 1965. The nonprofit Kabbalah Centre, which has been the target of numerous lawsuits over the years, has 50 branches worldwide. Critics in the Jewish world have long accused the center of distorting and misrepresenting Jewish traditions. — jta