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Convicted Child Molesting Rabbi's Special Food Delivery
By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 15, 2010
Modified Aug 15, 2010
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By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 15, 2010
Modified Aug 15, 2010
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This is not as scandalous as the "Private Club" for Orthodox Jews at The Tombs, but since it's August, it's scandalous enough to earn some front page time on the Post: Even though Rikers Island has kosher food for its Jewish prisoners, a Satmar rabbi gets "special food brought straight to his Rikers Island cell." Baruch Leibovits complained that the food "hadn't had proper rabbinical supervision," but the Post notes his "adherence to holy law apparently didn't preclude repeatedly sexually abusing a 16-year-old classmate of his son."
Leibovits was convicted in March and sentenced to up to 32 years in prison; he's currently at Rikers awaiting trial for a different sex abuse case. The Queens company providing the special Kosher food (Salisbury steak! cheese ravioli!) had offered to ship the items, but a Rikers captain went to pick it up because a delay.
While the head of United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg told the Post, "This is not a privilege or an accommodation -- it's a right. Any Jewish prisoner has the religious right to eat food that is appropriate according his religious traditions," another Jewish advocate called it a "big chutzpah... They are bending over backwards to help this molester. None of the other Jewish inmates can get that same food." Even FDNY chaplain Joseph Potasnik said, "There's no reason to give special food to one inmate."
Tagged
baruch leibovitz
kosher food
prison
rabbi
Rikers Island
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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