The Jerusalem District Court on Sunday convicted Elimelech Stern, a 22-year-old avreich from Beit Shemesh, of contact with a foreign agent and conspiracy to make threats, after he maintained communication with an Iranian operative and carried out actions under her direction.
Stern’s attorney requested that he be reviewed for probation prior to sentencing, citing his young age.
According to the indictment, Stern knowingly communicated via Telegram with an Iranian agent using the profile name “Anna Elena” and was asked to perform various tasks in Israel.
Stern carried out assignments given to him and recruited two other Israelis to complete the missions. He was paid in cryptocurrency.
For one task, Stern printed and posted posters depicting a blood-soaked palm alongside the text in English: “It will be written in history that children were killed. Let us stand on the right side of history.” He recruited one Israeli to carry out the posting in Tel Aviv, who documented the act and sent the photos to Stern. Stern then forwarded them to “Anna” and received payment in return.

In another assignment, that same recruit collected a cell phone from the Atlit area according to “Anna’s” instructions. She later directed Stern to carry out additional actions, including sending packages containing a knife and a bouquet of flowers to the home of Israel’s representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Stern, however, responded that he feared going to prison.
In his defense, Stern claimed he did not suspect “Anna” was a foreign agent and argued that his rights were violated during the investigation, asking the court to invalidate his confessions.
However, the court found that Stern was aware he was in contact with a foreign agent, stating in its ruling, “From all the evidence presented, it is clear that the defendant harbored suspicions about the identity of ‘Anna’ from the very beginning of their contact. These suspicions grew stronger as the tasks she assigned became more severe in nature, taking on a distinctly security-nationalist character, and as she increasingly revealed her identity as a foreign agent intent on recruiting him and providing combat training for espionage.”
Attorney Yishai Zigman stated, “Throughout the proceedings, the prosecution argued that Elimelech Stern chose to act in the service of a foreign agent. He accepted assignments, carried them out, recruited others, and was paid for it—all while fully understanding that a hostile entity seeking to undermine state security was behind ‘Anna.'”
“The message from the court today is clear: anyone who collaborates with foreign agents and hostile elements will be held accountable. We will continue to act decisively to safeguard Israel’s security, even against covert threats that operate below the radar and endanger us all.”
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
11 Responses
Good. Lock him up and lose the key.
Why doesn’t out system provide proper Parnose abilities and appropriate financial activities ?????
Why is his name important for me to know, why all of the sudden we are trusting a non chareidi bais din? Are you starting a pidyon shevuyim fund?
When you’re religion is hating Zionism
Loshon Horah is also a horrible misdeed.
Not sure if what he did was worse.
Why does an avreich have access to Telegram? It’s known to be the cesspool of messenger apps.
The poor Charedi did not not have a parnassa. “יפה תלמוד תורה עם דרך ארץ”
yet another. how many more are there?!
@ haimie: so you prefer to use lashon hara as an excuse to cover up crimes against am yisrael? is that how torah works for you?
Shloimeboruch,
The authorities caught him, Why does we need to know his name & photo?
There’s no toeles.
This is what happens when you poison young minds telling them that the “Medina” and IDF is bad. Shame on this horrible חינוך in our system.
None of us can sit back and say ידינו לא שפכו when the frum websites have comment after comment disparaging fellow Yiddin that dropped everything to run to the front lines. Such disgust.
I wonder how we have come to such a low.