The real Michael Bodenheimer keeps a low profile

“We’re not very excited that my husband’s name has been used in this way, but it makes no difference, what's been done has been done."

By SAM CROSS
Suspected Mossad agent (photo credit: Courtesy)
Suspected Mossad agent
(photo credit: Courtesy)
When Rabbi Michael Bodenheimer made aliya with his family, he could not have imagined that one day he would be entangled in a web of international espionage.
Originally from the United States, Bodenheimer currently resides in Bnei Brak and reportedly heads a kollel in Modi’in Illit. A woman identifying herself as his wife spoke to The Jerusalem Post briefly on Sunday, saying the family had been surprised to see Bodenheimer’s name linked to the assassination of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
“We’re not very excited that my husband’s name has been used in this way, but it doesn’t make any difference now,” the woman told the Post. “What has been done has been done, and we have no other comment besides that.”
According to foreign media reports, an Israeli secured a German passport in June 2009 under the name of Michael Bodenheimer. As the son of a pre-war Jewish citizen of Germany, he is entitled to a German passport and citizenship.
However, when the Dubai story originally broke, Bodenheimer told Maariv that he had made no such requests.
“I have never asked for a German passport. I have never had one,” he said.
On Saturday, Poland arrested an intelligence officer by the name of Uri Brodsky for his alleged use of “false information” to obtain Bodenheimer’s passport, according to a spokesman for the German federal public prosecutor.
While Brodsky was not the individual who allegedly travelled with Bodenheimer’s German passport to Dubai, he had been present during the passport application process, according to the spokesman.
Bodenheimer is not the only victim of what is alleged to have been identity theft by the Mossad. British-Israelis Melvyn Adam Mildiner, Stephen Hodes and Paul John Keeley also found their names among the 11-member squad of Mossad agents, as released by Dubai police, that allegedly carried out the assassination last January in Dubai.
Mildiner, who lives in Beit Shemesh, told Ynet in February that he realized his identity had been stolen only after reading media reports. He said he was deeply troubled by the news.
“Everyone [from his family] is angry and afraid, especially at the prospect of having trouble leaving Israeli borders,” he said.
“I also don’t know what are the other repercussions concerning my identity.”
Jewish Agency spokesman Michael Jankelowitz denied that the Israeli government asks olim to use their identities.
“No such clause exists,” he said.