Brooklyn, NY – The lawyer for a prominent rabbi arrested today in a federal money laundering and corruption probe said he “remains confident that the truth will come out and he will be cleared.”
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Robert G. Stahl, representing Saul Kassin, 87, of Brooklyn, N.Y. said his client has been a rabbi for more than 60 years and is a well-respected member of the community.
Kassin, who officials called the leader of the Syrian Jewish community in the United States, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Falk this afternoon, along with others charged with money laundering. His bail was set at $200,000, which he plans to secure with his Brooklyn residence where he lives most of the year with his wife.
A refined human being & religious leader, framed by a scumbag YM”SH SH R”Y.
Kamza Ubar kamtza …aime bei kurtze lemalka.. Bniv Sfosayim Ci heiche ldidon hava muma uldidhu loi hava muma… [Talmud Gitin].
Even Kamtza was viled by the Audience including the prominent Rabbis & publically shamed & humiliated, when he thought he would be going to a party to make up with a freind.
This svcumbag robbed & hurt & damaged many including acheinu bnei yisroel, & to save his skin, he looks & frames in the same way Bar Kamza did.
So sad.
The Government should be going after real criminals & corrupt those who broke the Banking system & Wall street, not framing people to make criminals to indite arrest & Jail.
BTW through out te Golus the Pogroms started by a Yiddishe Moiser & went from there, & many started Bein Hametzorim or on Tisha B’av, this story is extremly troubling to me.
Rabbi Kassin is our Rabbi and a most sincere and honest man of the Sephardic community.I know these checks were used to pay for Yeshivot for many families that were in need, including myself. To all my Ashkenazi friends, PLEASE do not judge the Syrian’s for this unjustly story. Loshon Hara is very strong especially during these 9 days.
We need all the prayers by ALL JEWS to be United during these difficult charges. Everyone knows the Syrians are very well known for their Charity and Tzedaka for ALL JEWS of many communities.The truth will come out. Moshiach needs to ariive today.
he’s 87-give him a break. besides its enough he has to live with the pain that one of his own people caused so many jews to suffer
So many comments about the moser on the other thread. Hardly one comment about the 40 Rabbis and choshiver menschen doing completely illegal things. Maybe someone should tell these Chachomim that even goyim do not behave this way and if they do want to make big money doing illegal things they should be prepared to do big time without complaining and accusing others and making excuses. There are no excuses for laundering millions, selling kidneys etc and living lavish lives.
In Australia, it is the 3rd lead story in all the newspapers and on the web. I haven’t seen a newspaper yet It is an unbelievalbe CHILLUL HASHEM and no-one, especially goyim, like people pretending to be so frum and involved in such slimy acts.
As someone said on the other thread, maybe these people should only invite 100 people to their weddings instead of 1,000 and try to spend less and earn less illegally .
How does someone ensnare an 87 year old man? Where is their conscience?
BE”H. The RBS”O protects his loved ones.
When Harav Amnon Yitzchok said that things will get very difficult for the American jews in the next years, I never fathomed how quickly things can take a turn for the worse.
Things may have been done wrong but nothing nearly as bad as the anti semitism were about to experience.
Step up and take responsibility for bringing moshiach. He is very close. Very very close.
Today was a tough day for us. But we are still the Am Hanivchar and that is somthing to be proud of.
There are good days up ahead.
Rabbi Kassin is very well known, even in my chasidish community, as a real ehrliche yid. i am positively sure that he is completely innocent. the feds, together with this rasha dreck, just took advantage of that innocent unsuspecting old rabbi.
i have no words to describe the cruelty of the feds to actively try to entrap innocent people at all, especially such a great man.
may all these evildoers rot in hell
As an ashkenazi, I don’t know much about the Syrian community since they are so tight lipped about everything but answer a question for me please. How are there so many extravagant to the extreme homes around Ave R and T not to mention Deal. Most of these people are not even college educated? How did they get there hands on so much money?
shame on the federal gov. shame on you !!!! we the Jewish people will god willing avenge his blood , feds. the day of atonement is near god saved us from all Jews haters in all forms in all of our history he will avenge you too in this democracy designed to hurt Jews by the law !!!!! gov. you started the fight and we will b’h reply the almighty god will bring justice to you all were ever you will run or hide justice will be brought to you trug’s terrorists in suits and toxidos עם ישראל חי….. ‘ let’s get ready for the largest protest of the Jewish people in American history after the nine days in Manhattan yes we will all unite , details to come ,,,,,,,,
as a chabad student my self, (involved in outreach -ps children to yeshiva) i’ve learned of the tremendous ahavas yisroel and charity by Harav Kasin shlita!
he has personally helped out more than just moniterily!
any spare change in his pocket went straight for the needy who flocked to his door!
may g-d help him through this witch hunt
Guess it was his final way of saying “kens mir kishen” to his own community leaders for the chinuch they oversaw, the values they emphasized, the midos and tzedakas they all supported.
Wanted to let them know he thought it was a sham, they were all really a sham, and he just continued the sham when he was running the Deal Yeshiva too.
Bottom line, that’s what happens when the gashmi is emphasized as the ultimate.
I look at the Rabbi’s face and it exudes innocence, and to all our syrian an d sephardi friends, hashem will protect all of yisroel and will shomer and matzil us btov hanireh vhaniglah, amen
as a גלות איד i will never go to protest the US government but we אידן should not blame each other before we hear ALL the details and ALL the facts. I believe that many people here are just victims and innocently got in to a mess that they didnt even know what they are doing.
How low can someone sink? Anyone that knows Rabbi in any way will tell you the same; he’s the last canidate to be involved in these ‘drek’ scams..if anything ‘drek’ took total advantage to ‘entrap’ him!! just to save his own fat b**** while he used the scam money for all drek…
Why is anybody making comments about the size or elegance of syrian homes??? BH that yidden have brachos from Hashem. May Hashem give more to all the yidden including the Syrian Jews. Why sound jealous?? We have to be happy for our fellow Jews and speak only good of everyone and judge everyone l’kav zechus!
I don’t know him, but you can see on his face that he is innecent, a heavy price will be paid for this by the people who got him into it, and it hurts but we can’t blame the goyem for this, we gave them the appertunity
From this story you should take one lesson, don’t deal with a Crook, this informant/dweck was arrested how did you trust him????
Hi everyone its a known fact tha the sphardic jews don’t talk in shul and during kaddish how many more problems or sick people do the ashkenazim need they should get the lesson
Enticement to commit an offense(or as Europeans prefer to call it by the French term, ‘agent-provacateur’) is a valid legal defense, especially in the case where the instigator (CW)pleads to the victim for sympathetic humane involvement, as appears to have been the case in this instance.
calm down everyone!!!! wait until the wind is over the clouds will disappear and… the sun will shine again!!!!!!
check it out on most of them the evidence is pritty poor for such a storm.
For years I said, that the cavalier attitude to the law, which Chasidim in particular exhibit will come back and shame us all, it is high time that real Rabbis should come out with vigor and denounced any action by an orthodox Jew which could be a CHILLUL HASHEM let alone make a real CHILLUL HASHEM. What would it take us to figure out that we give ammo, to every Anti Semite out there? It is nobodies but our fault, we look the other way, when we know that someone is cheating the government, or outright collecting benefits when they are not entitled, with the excuse that EVERYBODY does it. Just go back and read all the posts related to this story. My God what excuses rational people could come up with? We as Jews are not everybody; we are the chosen ones who must be a beacon to the rest of the world. We might as well start fasting right now.
I think that with everythiing that is going on, we should all cry out to Hashem to send the geula for His name’s sake
G-d willing, the geula is coming and our sojourn in America is going to end very soon. Unfortunately, too many Yidden are not yet ready…neither physically nor spiritually. But Hashem is now giving us a final wake up call…as powerful as blowing the shofar on Rosh Hashanah.
This past year, anti-Semitism has increased alarmingly in Europe. The Jews of England, France and Scandinavia have been given a clear message from the Ribbono Shel Olam: “it’s time to leave the lands of your golus and go home.”
Now it’s our turn in the good ole’ USA — the “goldena medina” — a TOO comfortable golus to which we have tenaciously clung. Forgetting that we are merely temporary guests in this land, we have steadily increased our stake here. The Ribbono Shel Olam is now slamming us for decades of reciting “next year in Jerusalem” but never really meaning it. Instead, too many of us have chosen to order our lives — sacrificing our neshamas on the alter of gashmius — as if we will be here forever. For those who still actually YEARN FOR the geula, our bags are at the ready…and eastward to Eretz Yisrael we desperately long to go.
I am a legal layman and yet I see the entrapement – I could even see myself being “entrapped”
BUT the organ thing??? That was a business already going strong when the informer got the FBI agent to hear first hand of the successful scam. The Syrian community should NOT be linked to this in anyway – they are a good, kind, hard working people. This Rabbi will be OK – -I feel it in my heart and soul and am usually right about those feelings.
My beef with the Syrians is their hatred of converts – which is me and my family. It is hurtful (specifically mine and my family’s feelings) Their convert ban promotes an anti-convert stigma especially pervasive in the shidduch world. Hopefully, my daughters beautiful middot and college educations will cancel out the convert stain on their pedigree.
I am not part of the Syrian community, but I do remember Rabbi Kassin as a younger man, and I remember his father, Z’L. There is no way that I can believe he is guilty of criminal activity. I know that in the end the truth will prevail.
Let’s hope he won’t be cleared. Let’s hope he and his conspirators bear the full weight of the damage they’ve committed and spare the Jewish people another holocaust for our sins.
I usually I don’t post comments defending alleged (NOT indicted) people from our world. I don’t defend or criticize, because I don’t know the full story. However, this case is different. I am not Syrian or Sephardic, I live close by and even within the Brooklyn Syrian community. Rabbi Kassan is revered by everyone and it crosses communities. When he issues an edict, the Syrian community accepts his mussar without question. I simply cannot believe for a minute that HaRav Kassan is involved in this. In addition, they have to mitche an 87-year-old rabbi?
Rabbi Kassin is innocent !!!!! Read the indictment. I do not see that he is culpable. There is nothing charged that was illegal. He received a check for $25,000 for his shul and wrote a check for $22,500 to another shul. I do not see that he took one cent and I don’t see that he paid the cooperating witness even one cent. As sure as the sun goes up, we will see the charges against Rabbi Kassin dismissed. Period. B’ezer haShem !!!!!
Firstly, we should not rush to judgment about this sorry situation no of us knew for sure what we would do in similar circumstances. Further innocence or guilt is all but irrelevant as the message from Hashem is clear concerning our interaction with the broader society. Additionally maybe there is a lesson for those who organize our communities and set what being on the “Derech” means. Maybe those who are at the helm of Klal Yisrael set a vigorous agenda for put honesty and ingerity and a life of Kiddush Hashem as the priority in chinuch and institutional lifewithout comprimise.
To simply blame all this on Antisemitism or on an individual trying to save his own skin is just to easy and simplistic. Worse yet accepting the easy answer avoids dealing with the real issues this and othe recent incidents give rise to,
Instead of wringing our hands let us use this as an opportunity to grow and overcome this gezara.
This is a terrible lie!!!!!!!! How could a very well respected Sephardi Rov and head of Syrian American Jewry have done this. Know one should believe for a second that it’s true. (This moiser did this to save his own skin.) The same with the Rebe of Spinka- Boro Park, shlita. People believe lies about him too. Klal Yisrael should be mechazek in Torah and zug Tehillim for their release and for the bochrim in Japan and for all of the tzaros of Klal Yisrael to end with the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu Bimheira Vyomeinu. AMEN!!!!!!!!!!
I’M a Syrian Jew who is disgusted and ashamed to be Jewish and Syrian. Shame Shame on everyone who makes CHilul Hashem..Especially people who are “Rabbis”.
Jews commit crimes and should be punished. Rabbis commit crimes and should be punished. Whether or not those indicted committed the crimes and are held culpable for those crimes will await a trial or their individual pleas/deals. The facts are yet to be established beyond a reasonable doubt. Nonetheless, the Federal Government does not indict individuals for no reason whatsoever and wiothout any corroborating evidence. Whether the accused are innocent; all will have to wait. At the same time, the crimes these individuals are accused of, are very serious and constitute a complete embaressment (and incalculable Chillul Hashem) to the Jewish community at large. Even the appearance of impropiety and a remote connection to any of the events alleged, is still a complete and unfettered shame on all Jews.
Finally, our Rabbis teach: “Rebbe Yossi said: whoever honors the Torah, will himself be honored by others. But, anyone who disgraces the Torah, will himself be disgraced before others.” [Avos 4:8]
A very sad day for the orthodox community.
We need to clean up our act, big time.
KAL YISROEL ARAVIM ZU LIZU
If all these stories are coming out now it means we all need to look into ourselves well, for not caring about profaning Hashems name and for all this rotten caring about more money and gashmius. NOW!!!
To all the families of the accused, I just wanted to say that I feel your pain, I know how it feels, please stay strong, “Yeshias Hashem Ke’heref Eyin”. Please know that there are a lot of Jewish people all over the world who share your pain and we pray for you, we are all brothers and sisters, we love you! Even though I never met any of you. Shabbat Shalom
Who made the greater Chillul Hashem?
1. Those who were entrapped by their love of money, or
2. The many miscreants here who defend the indefensible?
My father knows him very well and he said that he is innocent. He’s a big tzadik.
1. As an attorney, let me clearly state that no one can or should comment upon the guilt of those arrested until he or she reviews all of the evidence. Allegations are easy to make. Evidentiary proof is another thing.
2. In the spirit of Ahavas Yisrael, we are obligated to davan for the well being of those arrested. Further, no one should be speaking Loshon Hora about about this situation.
3. I am very disappointed to be reading disparaging comments about “Syrian Jews”. Such comments are antithetical to Yiddishkeit. Even if Syrian Jews are tight knit, all Jews are responsible for the well being of their fellow Jews. This is “TORAH 101”. Perhaps the finest man I ever had the privilege of knowing was Jack Gindi, z’t’l, a Syrian Jew who lived in Beverly Hills.
For those babbling on what a mensch “Rabbi” Kassin is…what part of money laundering and tax fraud do you not understand?
What “Rabbi” Kassin did is commit 3 crimes. (1) Receiving stolen property.If someone comes to a Yeshiva and says I just stole $10,000.00 from the bank and I want to give it all to the Yeshiva, with nothing coming back, it is a crime.The Yeshiva cannot take the money. (2) If the Rabbi gives money back he has committed tax fraud, by setting up a fraudulent charitable tax deduction.(3) and if the Rabbi takes money from someone in bankruptcy, he has committed bankruptcy fraud, by hiding assets from the bankruptcy trustee. All these crimes are serious felonies.The Rabbi knew what he was doing and it was all on tape.
Personally i have more than a bit of schadenfreude involved here. Here’s a rabbinical shmuck who’s spent his entire life telling others to be a holy nation who has written books on halaha and yet breaks it daily with his fatwa on accepting gerei tzedek and seemingly placing himself above the law of the land. It makes me happy to see what goes around comes around.
i hope he spends what little is left of his miserable life rotting in prison.