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Scandal-Scarred Jailhouse Rabbi Busted With UFA Parking Placard
By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 5, 2009
Modified Oct 5, 2009
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By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 5, 2009
Modified Oct 5, 2009
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The NY Post is clinging to Rabbi Leib Glanz like a tenacious dybbuk. After exposing the perks he arranged for Jewish inmates at the Manhattan Detention Complex—from allowing one to throw his son's bar mitzvah at the Tombs to allegedly allowing sex with female prisoners—Rabbi Glanz resigned. But the Post is still all over him, and on Friday they caught him using an official Uniformed Firefighters Association placard.
A reporter spotted a black Chevy Suburban with official license plates double-parked in front of Glanz's home on Ross Street in Brooklyn; the vehicle had emergency lights on the roof and dashboard, plus two parking placards. One read, "Active firefighter . . . This vehicle is on official UFA Business . . . Uniformed Firefighters Association . . . Expires Feb 1, 2010 . . . #22344." The other was a placard from "Chevra Hatzolah," the volunteer emergency ambulance service.
The reporter followed Glanz as he drove around Brooklyn, parking illegally at will. When confronted, Glanz explained that he'd been given the firefighter placard by the Fire Department "as a courtesy" so he could park at the main synagogue of the Satmar sect on Hooper Street: "In case I have to respond, I can park there. There aren't a lot of spaces." But when asked why had been seen using the placard to illegally park away from the Hooper Street synagogue, he replied: "I'm willing to take it off. I don't need it." Then he drove off.
They Bloomberg administration has made reducing the glut of parking placards a priority, with mixed results. Last February there was an outcry over employees at an Upper East Side synagogue using bogus DIY parking placards, as local cops looked the other way.
Tagged
bar mitzvah
parking placard
Rabbi Leib Glanz
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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