Yesterday, the lawyer for Levi Aron, the man who confessed to killing and dismembering 8-year-old Hasidic boy Leiby Kletzky this past fall, stirred up controversy when he unveiled his defense strategy, blaming Aron's alleged insanity on a childhood head injury, schizophrenia, and most contentiously, inbreeding. While lawyer Howard Greenberg was chastised by Assemblyman Dov Hikind for "degrading to our entire community,” one rabbi told the Post that inbreeding wasn't uncommon amongst Orthodox Jews...but that still doesn't mean they grow up to be killers: “There are thousands of [married] people in the community who are related and there’s no problem. It’s preposterous to say that because there’s a possibility of his parents being related, [Aron] would be crazy,” said Rabbi Bernard Freilich. more ›

It's the Orthodox-Rabbi-who-groped-a-female-Israeli-army-officer-on-an-airplane story that just keeps giving! The children of convicted grabby-hands Rabbi Gavriel Bidany pleaded with the court for leniency for their father, who faces up to six months in prison, because it hurts their chances to get married: "Today I am 21 and I need to start my own family...and without my dad it is impossible. It would hurt my match-making possibilities," said Avishar Bidany. more ›

An Israeli rabbi flying from Tel Aviv to NY allegedly twice fondled a female passenger as she slept. Rabbi Gavriel Bidany, 47, has been charged with misdemeanor assault in the March 27 incident aboard a Delta flight. And according to court papers obtained by The Smoking Gun, the shlemiel tired to use the lamest excuse in the old testament when confronted by the woman: “It’s a mistake, I’m asleep,” he claimed. more ›

In a sickening story echoing several other similar sickening stories, a Brooklyn Rabbi and three of his sons are suspected of sexually abusing four female relatives. Rabbi Gershon Kranczer, 58, has been accused of sexually abusing two underage relatives; the eldest victim, a 20-year-old woman, told a co-worker at a Brooklyn yeshiva that she was sexually assaulted by the rabbi. The co-worker went to police, who soon discovered that three of the woman's relatives, aged 19, 17 and 8, were also abused in the Rabbi's home. more ›

A Brooklyn man was charged yesterday with hiring two ex-cons to carry out a hit on a former suburban cop and his nephew. And by Brooklyn man, we mean an overweight, gun-toting Rabbi who claims to suffer from seizures. Basically, the whole thing sounds highly unkosher. more ›

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." more ›

After army medic John Stone performed the Heimlich maneuver on Toby Weiss as she was choking at Wednesday's Yankees game, the Weiss family has been nothing but grateful. "We're connected now," Weiss told Stone. "It's not a one-shot deal. I would be dead without you." Married to Rabbi Avi Weiss of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, Weiss invited Stone to their synagogue, and continued with the onslaught of praise, insisting that Stone was a gift from God. "I thank God that he sent John to the Stadium that day," she said. "If I had another baby, I'd name him John Stone - boy or girl. Without you, I don't know if I'd be here today." more ›

After being convicted of sexual abuse last month, Rabbi Baruch Lebovits was sentenced to the maximum 10 2/3 to 32 years in prison. He was found guilty of molesting a 16-year-old student by luring him into a car and performing sex acts on him. (The student is no longer a member of the Hasidic community.) Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango showed no mercy, telling the court, "It is important for the courts to send a clear message that abusing and harming children will not be tolerated." Someone want to tell the Catholic Church? more ›

An Arizona rabbi was cuffed in the parking lot of his synagogue, accused of raping a 7-year-old girl a decade ago in NYC. According to the victim, now 17, 45-year-old Bryan Bramly sexually assaulted her when she was spending the night at his family's home in 2000. At the time Bramly was finishing up his rabbinical studies, says the AP. She didn't report the incident until August 2009, but officials says they jumped on the case. more ›

A Tourette's-afflicted woman is suing her brother for kicking her out of a shiva service in 2007, but her brother claims she had to be ejected after saying "F--k the rabbi." Karen Feld filed a $110 million federal lawsuit against her brother—Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus boss Kenneth Feld—after her sibling allegedly had security guards beat her up and kick her out of the memorial for their deceased aunt. more ›

The Borough Park rabbi/travel agent accused in hundreds of incidents of sexual abuse was convicted yesterday of molesting a 16-year-old student. Baruch Lebovits could be sentenced to 32 years in jail, after being found guilty on eight counts. "I understand that there are a significant number of Jewish holidays coming up,” said the judge. “And I am sorry." The young victim testified that in 2004 Lebovits offered to let him drive his car, then unzipped his fly and performed oral sex on him. Among the rabbi’s other alleged victims is a young Hasidic man who committed suicide on his honeymoon, by jumping from the seventh story of a hotel. more ›

Today a 22-year-old testified In Brooklyn Supreme Court that he was sexually molested by Borough Park Rabbi Baruch Lebovits. The young man, who's no longer part of the Hasidic community, was dressed in "jeans, white shirt, tie and a yarmulke" and spoke softly, according to the Daily News. "How did you feel?" asked the assistant district attorney. "Very uncomfortable and very confused," he responded. Lebovits will soon stand trial on charges of sodomizing two others, and has been accused of hundreds more counts of child rape and abuse [Pdf Charge Sheets]. Still, his lawyer called the witness a "con man" and warned the jury, "You're going to be sold a bill of goods." more ›

An Orthodox rabbi is accused of telling a woman he would help her convert to Judaism if she had sex with him and his friends. According to the blog Failed Messiah, Rabbi Leib Tropper of Rockland County told Shannon Orand, a 32-year-old gentile who was interested in becoming a Jew: "If you fulfill my needs, I'll fulfill yours — and you need a conversion." more ›

Williamsburg cyclists got a new bike lane on Bedford Avenue yesterday morning, but they lost one last night when dozens of cars obstructed the cycling path on Kent Avenue. Just hours after biking activists repainted a cycling path on Bedford Avenue that was recently removed by the city, the equally controversial Kent Avenue bike lane was blocked by parked cars for a major Hasidic celebration. more ›

Well, the New York Post earned its fifty cents today. Let's start with the cover, which at first glance seems like a work of fantasy but actually documents a real-life, tough-talking rabbi and his plastic pistol-packing "God Squad." Jewish security forces are hardly new to New York (Hasidic communities like the Satmar Jews in Williamsburg have their own private patrols, for instance), but none have produced a training video as uplifting as this one. A mix of Wes Anderson, Adam Sandler, and the "Sabotage" video, it depicts Rabbi Gary Moscowitz, who was an NYPD cop for nine years and holds a black belt in karate, training his fellow Jews to defend their synagogues. Enjoy! more ›

The young son of the Brooklyn rabbi and his wife who were killed in the terror attacks in Mumbai celebrated a tearful second birthday yesterday. A community leader described the scene as Moshe, the orphaned son of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, was watched over by his maternal grandparents, "He had been crying. He is too small, you see, and all this must be affecting him so much." Indian officials had not yet sent the couples' bodies to be buried in the Holy Land because they are performing an autopsy on them--something prohibited by Jewish law. Today India's top security official resigned amidst growing questions around the nation's vulnerability to this week's attacks. more ›

After Indian commandoes stormed a Chabad-Jewish Center in Mumbai, where some of the workers had been taken hostage, the NY Times reports, "In the end, six of the hostages were killed, including the Brooklyn couple who operated the center." more ›

When Pope Benedict XVI visits NYC this month, one of his stops will be to a synagogue on Manhattan's Upper East Side. It will be the first time a Catholic pope has visited a Jewish temple on U.S. soil, although it will be Benedict's second visit to a synagogue as pope after a 2005 trip to his native Germany. The visit continues a movement for ecumenicism and interfaith dialogue that was strongly supported by the current pope's predecessor. more ›

An influential group of rabbis have put the kibosh on a concert planned for next Sunday at MSG’s WaMu theater. Billed as The Big Event, the show was to be headlined by popular Hasidic pop singer Lipa Schmeltzer and raise money for an Israeli charity that finances weddings for orphans. But after an edict was issued against the event, Schmeltzer dropped out, saying, “I have to get out of the fire.” more ›