A person texting on a mobile phone – Photo: Christian Wiediger, via Unsplash.
Thousands of LGBTQ Israelis received text messages saying they “deserve severe punishment, death and deportation” and demanding that they “repent” on Monday, according to The Aguda – Israel’s LGBT Task Force.
“You are LGBT and an apostate. You deserve severe punishment, death and deportation from Israel,” the text message reads. “Come to Yeshiva Ohr Elhanan in order to repent. We would be glad if you undergo conversion to faith.”
The message included a phone number and a Telegram account to contact and claimed to be sent by Rabbi Chaim Aryeh Hadash, the dean of Yeshiva Ohr Elhanan, a Lithuanian-style Orthodox yeshiva in Jerusalem.
The rabbi denied having any connection to the message, telling KAN news that he has never talked about LGBTQ issues nor addressed them in his yeshiva, according to the Jerusalem Post. Hadash urged police to investigate who sent the messages.
The Aguda and Havruta, an organization seeking to promote tolerance and acceptance of LGBTQ people within the Orthodox community, called in a letter for Rabbi Hadash to publish a public condemnation of the text messages sent in his name and to “prevent the further great desecration of God that has already been done.” They also invited Hadash to engage in a dialogue with the LGBTQ religious Jewish community.
It is unclear if the person who sent the messages used information leaked by the Black Shadow, an Iranian-based hacker group, following a ransomware attack against the Atraf dating website in October. The attack eventually forced the LGBTQ geo-located dating service to shut down permanently, and hackers began releasing users’ personal information in waves unless they were paid a ransom of $1 million.
The hacking of Atraf also underscored the vulnerability of online dating apps or websites — particularly those serving the LGBTQ community — that fail to put proper security measures into place. Earlier this year, the gay dating app Manhunt was hacked, exposing potentially thousands of users’ data.
If the text messages did indeed utilize information from the Black Shadow leak, former Atraf users could find private details or pictures exposed, subjecting them to public humiliation, or, even worse, those users who are still in the closet could be “outed” by the release of such data.
In addition to leaking the information of the LGBTQ users of Atraf, the Black Shadow has also uploaded what is claimed was the full database of personal information and in-depth medical records of patients at Israel’s Machon Mor medical institute, according to the Times of Israel. Other websites affected included public transportation companies Dan and Kavim, a children’s museum, public radio’s online blog, a tourism company, and a medical service.
Yoram Hacohen, the director-general of the Israel Internet Association, also called for an investigation into who sent the text and whether they used data from the Black Shadow attack, saying it should be possible to track such information.
Israeli police subsequently opened an investigation into the text messages, saying it is looking for possible suspects.
The Aguda called on people who received the texts to report the incident via its website or by contacting Israeli police directly.
People who received the text and are seeking someone to talk to have been encouraged to reach out to the Aguda’s hotline by dialing *2982 or via WhatsApp at 058-6205591. The hotline operates Sunday through Thursday and on Saturday night from 7:30-10:30 p.m.
A masked assailant threw a sharp rock through the front window of a gay couple's home in Northeast D.C., striking one of the men in the head.
The attack occurred last Friday in the city’s Kingman Park neighborhood, just as WorldPride weekend festivities were set to begin.
Surveillance video captured the assault. In the footage, a masked individual approaches the couple’s house -- decorated with rainbow Pride flags in the front yard -- and hurls a rock through the front window before fleeing. A cry can be heard from inside the home.
Jackson Vogel has been sentenced to life without parole for strangling his cellmate -- 19-year-old Micah Laureano, a Black gay man -- inside Green Bay Correctional Institution in what prosecutors described as a racially and homophobically motivated killing.
The Wisconsin inmate was found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide by a jury last month.
Before sentencing, Vogel -- who was already serving a 20-year term for attempting to kill his mother in 2016, when he was just 16 -- told Brown County Circuit Judge Donald Zuidmulder he was "sorry" for his actions, although he did not appear to show any signs of regret.
In one of the stranger crime sprees of Pride Month, a masked man on an electric unicycle is reportedly stealing Pride flags across Longmont, Colorado.
Since Memorial Day weekend -- just ahead of Pride Month -- the man has vandalized homes by bending flagpoles and tearing down flags.
Sheryl Colaur, one of the victims, told the Longmont Daily Times-Call that at least 10 -- and possibly as many as 15 -- of her neighbors in Longmont's Harvest Junction Village neighborhood have had their Pride flags stolen, allegedly by the same man.
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