After seven and a half years, this morning (Sunday) the sex offender Ezra Sheinberg was released from Maashiyahu prison. Shainberg, as I recall, was convicted of a series of sexual offenses and is expected to arrive in the city of Katzrin in the Golan Heights where he plans to live with his family. Yesterday (Saturday) there was a demonstration of victims in front of the prison, and we spoke with one of the organizers of the demonstration and one of its victims, Michal Danino.
“The victims are still in the prison of harm”
Danino spoke about the feelings upon his release: “The feelings are hard. I smile at his release when we, the victims, are still in the prison of the harm. With all due respect, the harm has not gone away and we are still establishing our rights.”
She adds painfully about his behavior: “There is a man who comes out of prison, saying to people, ‘Congratulations,’ giving out greetings and smiling with a smug face without shame. He does not regret and even tries to establish a new community. It is sad and difficult, the only thing to do is for the public to know how to fight against him.” .
Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg Photo: Basel Awidat/Flash90
Danino is worried: “It’s ordinary people like you and me that Ezra Sheinberg just knocks them down online”
Sheinberg’s plans drive sleep from the eyes of Danino, who talks about her relationship with the community in Katsrin. “I am in contact with the community in the city and we support each other,” she says, warning of the dangerous process that is taking place there. “People refuse to accept that he is sophisticated,” she says painfully, “there won’t be people who will say he is righteous, but there will be people who will say he paid his debt to society and will give him a place in the synagogue.”
“Little by little they will believe him and fall into his net, we see it in Katsrin. I see influential people who resented his arrival in Katsrin, and now they speak differently. This is the result of a few months of him living there and his hard work, they say ‘confession and leave Yeruham ‘, ‘He repented’. These are ordinary people like you and me that Ezra Sheinberg just knocks them down online.”
(The demonstration against Sheinberg in front of Mashayo prison, yesterday)