Katya Sukhova vs. Laitman: "I Just Waited for It to Be Over"
Where you are in the dossier: Harm and testimonies Testimony
Bnei Baruch Investigation · Entry point · Part 1 of 4
In 2014 Michael Laitman, according to the signed testimony of Katya Sukhova, used her faith in him as the only “channel to the Creator” to get her to have sex with him. Katya recorded: “For me it was revolting. I just waited for it to be over.”
Katya signed the testimony under her own name. Her email katia.soukhova@gmail.com, phone number +33652447883, and public Google Maps profile with reviews are publicly accessible.
Katya set down her testimony in writing and signed it in the presence of a lawyer. This is a primary signed first-person testimony: every serious claim below stands under the frame “according to the signed testimony.” The original is in Hebrew. It never became part of a court case: according to her, confidential information about her was leaked by people seeking to prevent her testimony. After threats were made against her and her family, she refused to testify against Laitman.
2011. France. The Douiev Coordinators
According to Katya’s signed testimony, in 2011 in France she enrolled in a Bnei Baruch distance learning course. Morning lessons and collective study displaced everything else in her life. The belief that everything later rested on was not hers to invent; she was taught it. Laitman taught that the Creator is felt only through Bnei Baruch, and he explained anything wrong a person noticed inside it as a flaw in the person who noticed. The way in ran through him alone.
The European coordinators Jacques Douiev and Noam Douiev, husband and wife, assigned her book translations, website content management, and administrative work without pay. Bnei Baruch became Katya’s family, and serving its goals meant serving the Creator. The mechanics of this entrapment are detailed in the article on the path inside the system.
The 2014 Congress. Mineral Water and Special Status
In 2014 Katya traveled to Israel for the Zohar Congress. Prior to this trip she did not know Laitman personally, but already revered him as a spiritual teacher.
During a meeting at his apartment in Petah Tikva, Laitman beckoned her to be photographed beside him. Before the next European congress, the coordinator announced to everyone that Katya would serve as the Rav’s personal assistant. She prepared his table and cottage, brought tea, yogurt, and a specific brand of mineral water. Katya writes that everyone around was prepared to fulfill any demand from Laitman, because they viewed him as the man who would connect humanity with the Creator.
On the photo, Laitman is looking at Katya’s chest while she holds her friend’s hand in support. This is exactly what Katya described in her lawsuit—she told her friend about it, but the friend didn’t believe it was even possible.
Arye Makarevich Explains the Rules
After an evening lecture, Laitman invited Katya to his room ostensibly to discuss Kabbalah. Fearing his possible intentions, she did not go. The next morning, when Katya offered him coffee, Laitman snapped sharply: “I don’t need anything from you!” and demanded that another woman make his coffee.
Laitman’s bodyguard and assistant, Arye Makarevich, took her for a walk and explained: he was married but sometimes he liked other women, and this was normal. According to Katya, this was clearly meant to suggest: sex with the married Laitman is also normal. Makarevich added that Laitman had chosen her as his assistant from a photograph and preferred blondes. When Katya said that she was married, he did not reply. That evening Makarevich told her to take the gifts for the rav to his room at night. Katya knocked so quietly that he would not hear; the next morning Laitman flew back to Israel. It was not Laitman who explained the rules to her; his bodyguard did it for him, and did it in advance.
In the photo from Laitman’s circle is Arie Makarevich—his bodyguard and assistant, who rented him an expensive room with a huge bed during the congress “for spiritual rituals” 🙂
Petah Tikva. Night Calls. Fever
After the congress, Laitman began calling Katya on Skype, messaging her, and telling her she possessed special spiritual qualities. In the summer of 2014, she arrived as a volunteer at the Bnei Baruch center in Petah Tikva. On the night of her arrival, Laitman summoned her to his room, began touching her, and tried to kiss her. Katya pushed him away. The next day he again tried to pressure her into sex, but she refused.
Following her refusal, Katya writes, Laitman alternated between complete rejection and sudden tenderness. When he returned from a trip to Sochi, he called her into the study in his apartment and told her directly that he wanted to have sex with her. Katya offered to give him a massage instead. Laitman asked: “Do you think I have a problem with women?” and said he had not lived with his wife for twenty years. When Katya said that she was married and that an extramarital affair was unacceptable, he laughed: “We are not going to get married.”
Katya writes that by this time, the thought of Laitman’s anger and rejection had become unbearable. She viewed her body as a sacrifice to her spiritual teacher. “As a result of the psychological state I was in, I agreed to sleep with him,” the testimony states.
She describes the episode itself without euphemism: “We had intercourse. For me it was revolting. I just waited for it to be over.” Laitman convinced her not to use a condom: “Don’t worry, you won’t get pregnant.” The next day he summoned her again. According to Katya, he could not get an erection; he demanded oral sex, and upon her refusal grew enraged and threw her out of the apartment. Katya developed a high fever, her blood pressure spiked, and she lay in bed for two days. She had planned to spend two weeks at the center, but flew home after ten days. Laitman never contacted her again.
Katya articulates her own assessment of what occurred: “Looking back, I feel that he coerced me into this using psychological manipulation, and that he exploited the trust I had in him.”
Aftermath. Threats. Silence
After returning home, Katya was broken. Fear gripped the victim: she was afraid to stay alone and asked her husband not to leave the house. She had suicidal thoughts. She could no longer separate Kabbalah from the man she and her friend were already calling a “monster.”
Ten days later, Katya wrote to someone she trusted within Bnei Baruch, telling him she had come to know Laitman up close and considered him a monster. He asked if this was related to sex, and then advised her to ignore the matter, continue studying, and “cross the barrier.” According to Katya, about a month later Laitman wrote to her claiming regret, admitting his guilt, and hoping everything would be forgotten.
Katya attempted to return to classes and translations, but could no longer believe in Laitman blindly. The break began after a critical Facebook post by an author identified in the testimony as M. It showed her that Kabbalah could be studied without Laitman.
Upon leaving Bnei Baruch, Katya wrote: “I realized that I had not been working for the Creator at all, but for a greedy organization that tries to control people, and especially for Laitman, who used my spiritual aspirations to satisfy his carnal desires.”
Threats against other Bnei Baruch witnesses are examined in a separate report. Katya was prepared to confirm her signed testimony in court. According to her account, confidential details about her were leaked by people seeking to prevent her testimony. After threats were made against her life and the lives of her family, she refused to testify against Michael Laitman.
The testimony never reached a courtroom. No court rejected it, and no court tested it. Mona Andersen and Olesya described the same order: spiritual authority, a “spiritual” justification for sex, and pressure after the attempt to speak. That is the mechanism: the witness disappears before cross-examination, and the cult leader never has to answer.