NYPD letter about wanted pedophile presented in Jerusalem court

Convicted offender Yona Weinberg, who fled to Israel, sues anti-abuse activist for comparing his actions to those of terrorists

By JTA 23 March 2018, 8:52 am

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Yona (Jason) Weinberg, a convicted US sex offender who moved to Israel and settled in Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood. (New York State offender registry)

A convicted pedophile from New York is wanted in the city for another alleged offense, according to a document issued by the New York Police Department that was presented in an Israeli court.

The document was presented Thursday at a preliminary hearing in the Jerusalem District Court for a libel suit filed by the convicted pedophile, Yona Weinberg, against Rabbi Yanky Horowitz, an anti-abuse activist from Monsey, New York.

According to the police document dated March 7, Weinberg’s move to Israel in 2014 with his wife and young children has prevented him from being arrested and charged with a new crime.

I stand by my statement that Weinberg is as dangerous as a terrorist with a machete. As I told the judge — I’ve sadly shoveled dirt on enough graves of our beautiful children who took their lives after being molested to say that they pose life threatening danger to kids. https://t.co/K9sX8fnxzI

— Yakov Horowitz (@yakovhorowitz) March 20, 2018

Weinberg spent about a year in prison after a 2009 conviction for abusing two boys in Brooklyn. He reportedly notified the NYPD about his change of address when he moved to Israel, but the police did not pass on the information to the Division of Criminal Justice Services, which manages the Sex Offender Registry.

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz, who is being sued by convicted child sex offender Yona Weinberg. Horowitz is a founder of Monsey’s Yeshiva Darchei Noam and Director of The Center for Jewish Family Life (courtesy Yakov Horowitz).

In April 2015, Weinberg filed a libel claim against Horowitz after the activist posted warnings on Twitter about Weinberg’s criminal history and status as a registered sex offender in New York.

In Israel, there is no obligation to warn residents about the presence of sex offenders in the community as there is in the United States.

Horowitz appeared in court Thursday for the preliminary hearing in the libel case. Weinberg did not appear but was represented by his attorney, who argued that the NYPD letter is inadmissible in the trial, which is scheduled to begin in late October.

The tweet compared Weinberg to a terrorist in the 2014 massacre at a synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem that left six worshipers dead. Weinberg’s suit says the tweet went too far.