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Last update - 10:31 26/07/2009
Brooklyn Sephardic community rocked by detention of leading rabbi
By Shlomo Shamir
Tags: Israel News, Crime, Brooklyn

NEW YORK - "Don't talk to him," the woman shouted as she pulled at the lapels of a yeshiva student's jacket. "Can't you see he's a journalist?" She then chased the student away from a man standing before the synagogue of Shaare Zion, the Brooklyn Syrian Sephardic community's central and most prestigious synagogue. The woman's reaction hinted, perhaps without her realizing, at the injury and insult prevalent in the community ever since last week's arrest of several prominent Syrian Sephardic rabbis on money laundering charges.

Bernie Madoff, dubbed the "biggest ever crook" by the U.S. media, was an alien to the Brooklyn Jews - a millionaire in a penthouse somewhere on faraway Park Avenue. But the pictures flickering across TV screens and staring from newspaper pages since last Thursday and Friday have rocked this large, well-to-do community to the core. Images of an elderly rabbi being helped into his coat by an FBI agent, an enlarged passport picture of a Hasid, and the headline "Nothing is Holy" - all these will not be soon forgotten.

Among the detained are rabbis from Williamsburg and Borough Park, two Brooklyn neighborhoods that are home to a large number of orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews, hundreds of synagogues, and dozens of yeshivas and Hasidic courts. The insult was most bitter among the Syrian Sephardic community, a general term for Jews with roots in Iraq, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey. The Syrian Jews are considered one of the elites of Brooklyn, something they will always make sure to remind visitors of. It's also a closed community, many members of which have done extremely well in the export and import businesses. Children of Syrian Jews are normally only married to those whose Syrian ancestry is beyond reproach; many years ago, a chief rabbi of the community had ruled its members could not wed Ashkenazi Jews.
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The shock was even greater when it transpired that one of those being questioned by the FBI is Rabbi Saul J. Kassin, the chief rabbi of the community and of the Shaare Zion synagogue. The general reaction to the news was one of disbelief. "The suspicions against the rabbi are completely false," said a young man in a black skullcap who identified himself as a relative of the Kassin family. "When it gets to court, everyone will see they were unfounded."

New York assemblyman Dov Hikind, who represents Borough Park, told Haaretz he thought the charges against Kassin were ridiculous. "One of his sons is a multimillionaire," he said.

Others, however, were less certain. "If the charges against the rabbis are proved to have been correct," one veteran Brooklyn rabbi said, "it'll be the worst and most terrible blasphemy that will ever be remembered about the New York Jews."
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  1.   Aleppo or Damascus? 07:02  |  Fortuna Benmayor 26/07/09
  2.   Fortuna Benmayor 08:06  |  David 26/07/09
  3.   Aleppo or Damascus? 08:31  |  shulamit 26/07/09
  4.   Ms Benmayor, there are exceptions 09:08  |  Zev Davis 26/07/09
  5.   SY community 10:24  |  Sarah 26/07/09
  6.   The Greed of the Rabbis 10:32  |  Shylock 26/07/09
  7.   Rabbi Racist happened to also be a Thief 11:22  |  Ben 26/07/09
  8.   no one is exempt from the temptation of "greed" 11:52  |  eric 26/07/09
  9.   Unworthy action 12:03  |  Frank 26/07/09
  10.   i`m Syrian, you people are completely uninformed 16:11  |  alex 26/07/09
  11.   Rabbi Racist 16:19  |  Joycie 26/07/09
  12.   you asked for goldene medina, ran after goldene calf and got 16:41  |  Am Yisrael Chai 26/07/09
  13.   #6 The Greed of the Rabbis? 16:42  |  TheMik 26/07/09
  14.   To: Ben-lack of understanding 16:45  |  Sarah 26/07/09
  15.   Stop the Negative Judgement 16:48  |  Sarah 26/07/09
  16.   Standard business practice for Azkenazim too 17:05  |  Ho Hum 26/07/09
  17.   the truth comes out: black hats worse than madoff 17:10  |  michelle 26/07/09
  18.   Blasphemy? Now they think they are God? 17:13  |  Shelley 26/07/09
  19.   #10 alex.....leftist news always cherry picks 17:51  |  Lynn 26/07/09
  20.   #5 Sarah 17:57  |  BDS 26/07/09
  21.   Sephardic Rabbi 18:02  |  Sue 26/07/09
  22.   You Will Love The Convert 18:05  |  JW 26/07/09
  23.   RE: Shylock 19:31  |  judith 26/07/09
  24.   Sarah & Shylock 19:57  |  Barry 26/07/09
  25.   For David, # 2 20:05  |  Fortuna Benmayor 26/07/09
  26.   For Zev Davis # 4 Thank you 20:07  |  Fortuna Benmayor 26/07/09
  27.   For Shulamit # 3 20:11  |  Fortuna Benmayor 26/07/09
  28.   Brooklyn Sephardic community rocked... 20:26  |  Mair Tzvi 26/07/09
  29.   The Jewish people has 20:51  |  dani.a 26/07/09
  30.   THERE IS NO RESTRICTION ON MARRYING ASHKENAZIM 21:34  |  Sarah 26/07/09
  31.   Ignorant Reporter 21:48  |  David B 26/07/09
  32.   Rabbis and russian hookers 22:19  |  j 26/07/09
  33.   Fortuna Benmayor and others 22:40  |  hala 26/07/09
  34.   Syria - Improve Your Image 23:06  |  soeasytomakefriends 26/07/09
  35.   zeev davis 22:33  |  A proud Moroccan Jew 06/08/09
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