lohud The Rockland rabbi being sued for tweeting about a child molester's whereabouts is not the only child advocate the sex offender has attempted to silence using Israeli courts.
Yona Weinberg threatened to sue Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn for defamation in May, spurring the psychologist and anti-abuse activist to immediately remove all mention of the convicted sex offender from his blog. Both are based in Israel.
The action comes a year after Weinberg filed a defamation suit against Monsey's Rabbi Yakov Horowitz, a case that is set for trial in November.
"This is a classic example of the sex offender as a bully," Eidensohn told the Journal News/lohud.com in an email. "He didn't say to remove particular items that he felt were false or misleading -- he said everything." [...]
Eidensohn, had posted newspaper accounts of Weinberg's 2009 conviction for abusing a 12- and 13-year-old boy, crimes for which he spent roughly a year in a New York jail. And, like Horowitz, he informed readers that Weinberg had moved to the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem and included his address, "information which is vital for the protection of neighborhood children and classmates who might end up going to his home," Eidensohn said, adding that Weinberg claimed "that some of my posts constituted incitement to violence against him and his family."
"Eidensohn was violating the privacy of my own children. That's against the law in this country," Weinberg said in an email, noting that a local "money changer" threatened him and his family on the street. Weinberg reported that man to police.[...]
Horowitz contends that many didn't know of Weinberg's conviction because Israel doesn’t have a public sex-offender registry. He vowed to fight the lawsuit, which he sees as part of a larger effort designed to thwart others from exposing sex offenders and warning potential victims of the danger. The Israeli court actions are key to this tactic, he said. The lawsuit remains pending.
Weinberg and his lawyer insist he is not a danger.
Columbia psychiatrist "Dr. Richard Kreuger has already stated that I am not a pedophile," he said.
Karliner confirmed the results. "On those tests, he did not come out as a risk," he said.
Kreuger did not return a call requesting comment.
Weinberg maintained that he simply wants to be left in peace. "I pay my rent and taxes on time. I bother no one. I would like to move on," he said.
Horowitz said his denial makes him more dangerous to children and that he has brought media attention upon himself.
Eidensohn agreed, "What he is doing does not seem rational. His lawsuit is generating a large amount of publicity — none of it favorable to him."
RDE, why don't you take a stand in court, like Yankie is doing, and defend your right to publish?
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