Attorney Yisrael Enden, 46, of Beit Shemesh, is seeking NIS 50,000 in damages from Keshet Broadcasting over a mako article that he says misrepresented his legal status in the United States. According to the lawsuit, the article reported that Enden was awaiting a criminal trial in the US, even though his case had concluded months earlier.
Enden was arrested in January at the Rainbow Bridge crossing in Niagara Falls, New York, after US Customs and Border Protection officers found Elazar Wigdorowitz, once described in the Israeli media as the “operations officer” of Gur chassidus, hidden under luggage in the back of a rental car Enden was driving into the United States from Canada. According to US prosecutors, the two men had flown together from Warsaw to Toronto the previous day. Wigdorowitz, whose US visa had been revoked over his criminal record in Israel, told investigators he wanted to visit his rabbi’s grave.
Enden pleaded guilty in April to bringing an alien into the United States. On May 18, US District Judge Lawrence Vilardo sentenced him to time served, the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York announced.
The article at the center of the lawsuit was published on mako on October 25 by journalist Shimon Ifergan. It reported on a decision to release Wigdorowitz to house arrest with electronic monitoring and mentioned Enden in passing. According to the lawsuit, the article stated that Enden was “awaiting trial in the US for his role in the attempted smuggling of Wigdorowitz.”
Enden argues that this was false at the time of publication. The lawsuit cites the federal prosecutor’s May 18 announcement of his sentencing as proof that the US criminal proceedings against him had ended five months before the article appeared.
The lawsuit also challenges a second sentence in the report, which stated that “the prosecution is expected to file an indictment against him for involvement in fraud upon his return to Israel.” Enden says that when the article was published, no indictment had been filed against him in Israel in the real estate case mentioned in the report, and he had not been notified of any decision to file one. He further argues that the article did not cite any current prosecutorial decision to support the claim.
According to the filing, the report could harm Enden’s reputation and his professional standing as an attorney by presenting him as someone facing ongoing criminal proceedings, with a possible additional indictment in Israel.
Enden says mako did not contact him for comment before publishing. He argues that had the editorial team reached out, he could have provided the date of his US sentencing and clarified his position on the claim of an expected indictment in Israel. He says he contacted mako on October 26, the day after publication, and demanded a correction and a prominent clarification. According to the lawsuit, when he checked the article on November 7, both sentences he objected to were still online.
Enden is asking the court to order Keshet to pay NIS 50,000 in damages without proof of harm and to publish a prominent correction or retraction at the top of the article.
The filing also includes a request for exemption from court fees. Enden notes that he is subject to insolvency proceedings in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court and says he intends to ask that court for approval to pursue the lawsuit against Keshet.
The document does not include a case number or confirmation that proceedings have been opened in the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court, and it could not be confirmed that the lawsuit has been formally filed.
