Alleged Mossad Spy Jailed For Treason Had Chabad Connection

Ben Zygier, the alleged Mossad spy who was imprisoned in Israel under intense secrecy – allegedly because he acted as a double agent for another country – had a Chabad connection. The 34-year-old native Australian known to the world as "Prisoner X" is said to have committed suicide in his supposedly suicide-proof cell in a suicide-proof Israeli prison in December 2010.

Ben Zygier

The Age reports:

…[Ben] Zygier grew up in the comfortable suburb of Malvern, and attended Chabad House, a synagogue near the confluence of well-heeled Toorak and Kooyong. It is the congregation of (among others) retail billionaire Solomon Lew. A bright and studious learner, he went to Wesley College and then Bialik College, graduating from the latter in 1993. He completed a law degree at Monash in 2001, and later began an MBA at the same university. He started articles at law firm Deacons (now Norton Rose) in 2001, became a junior lawyer there and left in 2002. But these are the places - not the person.…

Comments

[Garnel Ironheart]

You just had to throw the Chabad connection in, didn't you!
I mean, what's the limit?
"Bob, who was arrested the other day, grew up in a small town that had a Chabad house within the legal city limits. Bob possibly passed by it on occasion when on his way elsewhere"
I mean, who cares?

[Shmarya]

You just had to throw the Chabad connection in, didn't you!
I mean, what's the limit?
"Bob, who was arrested the other day, grew up in a small town that had a Chabad house within the legal city limits. Bob possibly passed by it on occasion when on his way elsewhere"
I mean, who cares?

Posted by: Garnel Ironheart | February 15, 2013 at 11:19 AM

Please.

What if he was spying by releasing state secrets not to another country, but to hared right settler groups or to Chabad itself.

Would the connection matter then?

When people try to make sense of what happened to him, don't you think his background – including his closeness to Chabad – is important?

The man davened at a Chabad House; he did not "possibly pass[…] by it on occasion when on his way elsewhere."

[TheRealJoe]

@Shmarya your a little late to the party the Chabad connection was out in the open since the first day that this scandal burst open.

And that's completely outlandish to start making "What if" comparisons.

[Jordan]

Beware! This website has a Chabad connection.

It's publisher, Shmarya Rosenberg, is purported to have prayed at a Chabad synagogue.

[MEL]

Manny waks should get on this bandwagon, much media attention will be coming to this story,

[Garnel Ironheart]

> When people try to make sense of what happened to him, don't you think his background – including his closeness to Chabad – is important?

No I don't. He wasn't trying to pass state secrets to any Chareidi or Chabad organization. He was a double agent for a foreign power. Yes, he davened at a Chabad shul once upon a time. He also probably shopped at Supersol. Maybe they're in on it too?

You're trying way too hard to smear frummies on this one.

[Shmarya]

Posted by: Garnel Ironheart | February 15, 2013 at 01:14 PM

As usual, you're wrong.

We don't know who he was spying for or if he was spying at all. We don't have any idea what, if any, evidence exists.

For all we know, he could have been completely innocent.

But you rush in – as you so often do – to attack me and defend Chaabd or Orthodoxy from something that might not even be an "attack."

[jancsibacsi]

Its a shame that this happened under the israelis nose,i think even polard is being treated far better then he was very very sad,i feel sorrow that it happened to one of our own.

[Aussie]

You just had to throw the Chabad connection in, didn't you!
I mean, what's the limit?

Posted by: Garnel Ironheart | February 15, 2013 at 11:19 AM

Hey potz melamed....
Shmarya didn't make any connection....The Age newspaper did...
Click the link and read it for yourself.....

[Wanny Baks]

Potz Shmarya.

Zygier was a Hashomer Hatzairnik - that's far left Zionist for those who don't know.

After his death his father became close to a branch of Chabad here

[Levi Keller]

Too bad he didn't have the sense to stay away from the malkhus horisho.

[Kvuzat Dan]

What a waste of space

[Aussie]

What a waste of space

Posted by: Kvuzat Dan | February 16, 2013 at 10:26 PM

Actually from the positions of all Australians,(not just Jews) what he was doing or about to do can be seen as a good thing...
Read up on Israel and their use of stolen/forged Australian passports to learn more...
His crime was nothing like giving secrets to Arabs but rather to ASIO....,