Shomrim Member Gets Probation in Beating
Eliyahu Werdesheim, a member of a volunteer Orthodox Jewish neighborhood watch group, will serve three years probation for assaulting a black teenager in Baltimore.
Werdesheim, now 24, avoided jail time for the November 2010 beating of Corey Ausby, then 15, the Baltimore Sun reported. Werdesheim was a member of the Shomrim watch group at the time of the assault in the Upper Park Heights neighborhood, which is largely Orthodox but is adjacent to heavily African-American communities.
He and his now 22-year-old brother, Avi, originally were charged with false imprisonment and second-degree assault. Eliyahu Werdesheim was convicted on the two charges and faced up to 10 years in jail. His brother was cleared of all charges in early May.
The case had been the buzz of some local African-American radio talk shows and prompted a series of meetings between local African-American and Jewish leaders who were concerned about tensions between their communities.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30