Yeshiva head arrested for shooting

Rabbi allegedly shot and wounded one of his students early January.

By ABE SELIG
Jerusalem police on Tuesday cleared for publication the details of a shooting in the capital’s haredi Beit Israel neighborhood nearly four months ago, in which the head of a yeshiva in the area allegedly shot and wounded one of his students after a dispute had erupted between them.
The 47-year-old rabbi, whose yeshiva was established as a sort of halfway house for rehabilitated criminals and prisoners serving alternate sentences, was arrested a number of days ago after investigators said they had enough evidence to tie him to the crime.
In early January, police responded to reports of a shooting in the Beit Israel neighborhood where eyewitnesses told them that two men on a motorcycle had fired at a yeshiva student before fleeing the scene.
The yeshiva student, whom police identified as 23-year-old Eliyahu Liberty, was wounded in the leg, although he also fled the scene and was only found later by police in a Haifa hospital.
Both Liberty and the rabbi have previous criminal records, and thelatter, whose name along with the name of his yeshiva have not beencleared for publication by police, established the institution afterbeing released from prison, where he served two years for attemptedmurder.
According to police, the rabbi called Liberty on January 9 to tell himthat he had been expelled from the yeshiva and that he needed to comegather his belongings. Liberty arrived at the yeshiva accompanied bytwo of his friends, when they were suddenly approached by two men on amotorcycle, one of whom was masked. The masked man fired at Liberty,who began to run away, although the motorcycle gave chase andadditional shots were fired, hitting Liberty twice in the leg.
When he fell, the police report continues, the masked man dismountedthe motorcycle and hit Liberty on the head with his weapon. Footagefrom a nearby security camera shows the two men riding off, leavingLiberty lying bloody on the ground.
Liberty later told investigators that he was afraid to report theincident, and had asked his friends to take him to his family’s home inthe north. However, when he continued to lose large amounts of blood,his family evacuated him to a Haifa hospital, where he was laterlocated by police.