Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley today announced the indictment of a former Massachusetts rabbi on child sexual assault charges dating back to the 1970s, when he allegedly assaulted two of his pre-teen male students.

The Suffolk County Grand Jury yesterday returned indictments charging STANLEY Z. LEVITT (D.O.B. 4/4/46) of Philadelphia with four counts of indecent assault and battery on a person under 14 for allegedly assaulting two former students of the Maimonides School in Brookline, where Levitt was a teacher.

“This was a betrayal of trust in the most awful sense,” Conley said. “The evidence suggests that Levitt abused a position of power, respect, and authority to engage in sexual behavior with boys who were too young to resist and too afraid to speak out.”

Levitt is charged with offenses against two former students, both about 11 years old at the time of the crimes, Conley said.

One charge stems from a May 1975 incident in which Levitt allegedly visited a Maimonides student who was recuperating at Children’s Hospital in Boston after an accident.

The other three offenses were allegedly committed against a different male student during a three-night visit to Levitt’s Chiswick Road home, also believed to have taken place in 1975.

Finding that many young victims of sexual abuse were unable or unwilling to speak about their experiences for many years, Conley spearheaded efforts to lengthen the statute of limitations for sex crimes against children. In 2006, those efforts paid off when the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse was extended from 15 years to 27 years.

It was a different aspect of the law, however, that allowed prosecutors to pursue the charges against Levitt, Conley said.

“It was the tolling provision in the statute of limitations that allowed us to bring these charges,” Conley said. “When Levitt left Massachusetts for Pennsylvania in 1980, the clock stopped and left him open to these charges.”

Conley’s office learned of the allegations when the Children’s Hospital victim notified Boston Police in September of last year.

Levitt is represented by attorney Scott Curtis. He is expected to face arraignment in Suffolk Superior Court on Oct. 17.