Author and publicist Chaim Walder on Wednesday night announced that he will resign from all public duties.
The announcement comes one week after Haaretz published an expose in which women testified that Walder had sexually abused them when they were teens.
A statement on behalf of Walder said that he "decided to take a break from all of his public duties, so that he will be free to fight to clear his name and dedicate his time to his family during this period."
Earlier this week, the popular Eichlers Judaica bookstore in Brooklyn, New York, announced that it would remove all of Walder's books from its shelves, despite the significant financial loss involved.
Walder's attorneys told Haaretz, "Our client absolutely denies all claims of inappropriate behavior on his part, and especially that which was published in the article. These are false claims based on crass lies, which are equivalent to a literal blood libel."
According to them, throughout the years Walder fought for children who suffered violence and abuse, "and as a result of this, there were several who joined up together with the goal of hurting him, and we have proofs of some of these foolish attempts to incriminate our client."
"This article represents a direct continuation of this [issue]. which is sourced in a false claim filed against him many years ago and which was closed as quickly as it was filed."