ISRAEL — In a stunning turnaround, Dovi Weinroth, Chaim Walder’s lawyer and personal confidant, appears to have backtracked from his role as an apologist of Walder’s.
In addition, Mr. Weinroth apologized to the Haaretz reporter who first broke the story, after calling him a murderer at Walder’s hesped.
On Thursday Mr. Weinroth published an emotional and candid Facebook post, in which he discussed the importance of focusing on the unspeakable pain and torture that the victims suffered. He also expressed remorse for his own words at Walder’s levaya.
He wrote, “I write post-trauma. Like everyone else, I have been going through a very difficult personal upheaval since Chaim Walder’s suicide. This story is a kind of horror film. It is never too late to hear the sound of those who were shattered.”
He also addressed his apology to the reporter, saying, “I picked up the phone and called Aharon Rabinovitch. Truthfully this was the first time, and for a simple reason. To apologize. At the end of the day I never spoke with him. [Yet] I got up at the levaya and demeaned him.”
He wrote about Mr. Rabinovitch’s gracious and forgiving response. “Dovi I’m not upset at you. You were eulogizing a friend. I can understand that. Of course I disagree with you and think you did not convey the right message. You missed the most important point, but I did not take it as an attack. Do not worry one bit.” .
Mr. Weinroth went further, saying that the extreme concern to avoid lashon hara may have led to a lack of concern about the victims.
He wrote, “I understand that the most dangerous part of this has been the lectures against lashon hara, for one simple reason: The Charedi community has not offered any alternative. To frighten people about speaking lashon hara about a matter like this only worsens the situation.
“I missed [the point], and I missed it in a huge way. At the hesped, I spoke about lashon hara, and I now realize that only exacerbates the problem, if certain other prerequisites are not first met. Likewise, everyone must ask themselves, what is their motivation for their comments or publication–to repair or to gossip?”
As reported by Vos Iz Neias