אינעם היינטיגען נ.י. פאסט, אין נאך א גרויסע ארטיקעל און עדיטאריעל, ערקלערען זיי קריג קעגן ר' ארי' לייב
[בילד – נישט אפגעהיט][בילד – נישט אפגעהיט]
RABBI'S 'CLUB' KEPT 'EM WELL FED & COMFY
Move over, Goodfellas.
The lower Manhattan lockup known as the Tombs was like a "private club" for a group of Orthodox Jewish jailbirds, whose politically connected prison-chaplain rabbi regularly treated them to feasts of roast beef, salmon and chicken with all the trimmings, The Post has learned.
Rabbi Leib Glanz -- the city jail chaplain suspended Wednesday for organizing a 60-guest bar mitzvah in the jail for an inmate's son -- also ensured that those "chosen few" inmates awaited trial there instead of at the more dangerous Rikers Island, according to a bombshell correction officers' memo, a copy of which was provided to The Post.
"The outlandish and outrageous things that the rabbi is allowed to do in the facility have gotten beyond words and belief," the memo says. "When it comes to Rabbi Glanz, it would [seem] that the Jewish inmates are not in jail but in a private club reserved just for them."
"The inmates are untouchable," the memo added. "When it comes to the Jewish inmates, all rules are put aside."
The memo also claims that Glanz:
* Twice a week unloaded an SUV filled with food for the Jewish inmates, including "sodas, salmon, roast chicken, roast beef, mash potatoes, vegetables, cakes, condiments." The scene was reminiscent of Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas," where imprisoned mobsters have filet mignon and lobster brought into their cells.
The food was taken to Glanz's office, where the inmates "proceeded to conduct their services by themselves" before chowing down.
When Tombs officers complained, they were told the normal jail food was "not kosher and the rabbi has 'juice' " with Correction Department brass.
* Hosted an annual summer picnic for jail officers, administrators "and all the top brass, and only the Jewish inmates are allowed to cook and serve the food, and then they are allowed to sit at the table and eat like invited guests." When the picnic is over, "other inmate workers . . . come and clean up the place, which usually consist of the black or Hispanic inmates."
* Doled out Christmas presents to correction officers and other jail employees, a practice cited by supervisors in the rabbi's defense whenever staffers "complained about anything the rabbi is doing."
An anonymous letter obtained by The Post, which was sent to Mayor Bloomberg's office and Correction officials last month, details how Glanz "has made it his practice of ensuring that all Orthodox Jewish inmates incarcerated are housed at" the Tombs, where they are allowed to meet for non-religious purposes. Bloomberg did not see the letter, which was soon after referred to the city Department of Investigation, according the mayor's spokesman.
"That is not done for any other religion or group -- Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, etc.," that letter said.
The Post yesterday revealed that Glanz was suspended for two weeks, and four other top Correction officials lost two weeks of vacation, for allowing the bar mitzvah for the son of fraudster Tuvia Stern. It took place Dec. 30 at the Tombs in shocking contravention of security concerns.
The non-inmate guests partied in the jail's visitors room for nearly six hours, dining on catered food, used china and silverware brought in from outside, and listened to Orthodox singer Yaakov Shwekey as up to eight correction officers worked overtime monitoring the shindig.
Warden George Okada, who had been out of work sick, was ordered to go to the Tombs to watch the soiree, sources said.
Four months later, days before Stern was shipped upstate to begin a prison sentence, he was allowed to host an engagement party for his daughter, Breindy, at the jail, for about 10 non-inmate guests.
"I didn't quite know what to say when I saw the article," a clearly annoyed Bloomberg said about The Post's revelations yesterday. "Clearly, this is not something that should have taken place. I don't care how you sugarcoat or define it. It's sort of 'through the looking glass.' "
Bloomberg revealed that DOI is now probing the case.
Glanz will not be allowed to work at the Tombs after his suspension, sources said. And all Jewish inmates were transferred from the Tombs on Wednesday.
The other sanctioned officials include Chief Peter Curcio, the head of security who overruled the objections of the Tombs' deputy warden to allow the bar mitzvah.
"Curcio approved everything," a source said. "How can you, as security chief, do something like this?"
"The officers and the staff are furious and embarrassed," said the source, who also fumed that Correction Commissioner Martin Horn gave Curcio and the others only "a slap on the wrist."
The agency's chief of department, Carolyn Thomas, wanted Correction officials' "heads" over the matter, and, in particular, demanded that Glanz be fired, the source said.
She wanted to suspend or demote the others -- who include Curcio, Okada, Chief Frank Squillante and the head chaplain, Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil.
FIRE SOMEBODY, MIKE
So a convicted felon behind bars after 20 years on the lam is allowed to throw two catered parties in a city lockup -- and those responsible only lose two weeks' vacation?
That's ridiculous.
As The Post's Dan Mangan and Reuven Blau reported yesterday, financial-scammer Tuvia Stern last December threw a catered bar mitzvah for his son -- complete with fancy china, a singer and a band -- at the downtown lockup known as the Tombs.
Then Stern hosted his daughter's engagement party there four months later.
Both times, taxpayers footed the overtime bill for the guards.
So how did Stern -- who fled to Brazil and spent 20 years there before finally being nailed for a $1.7 million grand-larceny scam -- get away with it?
Well, for one thing, he had a real rabbi: politically juiced Rabbi Leib Glanz -- who got Imam Umar Abdul-Hamid, the assistant corrections commissioner for ministerial services, to sign off on it.
(Abdul-Hamid was suspended for two weeks back in 2006 after The Post disclosed that he'd given a speech denouncing "Zionists of the media.")
The jail's warden, George Okada, and two department chiefs, Peter Curcio -- who reportedly overrode the deputy warden's objections -- and Frank Squillante, also were in on the deal.
So what did outgoing Corrections Commissioner Martin Horn do about it?
Well, as The Post reports today, DOC Chief of Department Carolyn Thomas, who conducted an internal probe, recommended that Glanz be fired and that the others all be demoted or suspended.
But Horn handed out a wrist-slap: Glanz got suspended for two weeks. The other four lost two weeks of vacation.
Mayor Bloomberg wasn't saying much yesterday, other than that the parties "should [not] have taken place."
Ya think?
He's ordered a DOI investigation.
That probe had better result in a smaller Corrections Department payroll.
[בילד – נישט אפגעהיט]
LOCKUP CROONER'S TAL-MOOD MUSIC
He's the Jewish Johnny Cash.
But instead of singing for a raucous crowd of inmates at Folsom Prison, as Cash famously did in 1968, Orthodox Jewish singer Yaakov Shwekey was the headline act for a group of about 60 non-inmates invited into a Manhattan jail to celebrate the bar mitzvah of a prisoner's son last December.
The bar mitzvah boy -- whose dad is former fugitive fraudster Tuvia Stern -- "was happy" at the Dec. 30 event in the Tombs, Shwekey told The Post.
"[But] you could tell it was rough on the family with the father being in jail."
A major macher in Jewish recording circles, the 31-year-old, Jerusalem-born Shwekey came out with his first album, "Shomati," in 2001.
Last year, he kicked things up a notch with his eighth album, "Shwekey -- Live in Caesaria."
He said he did the unorthodox jailhouse gig at the Tombs -- for free -- after being asked by a friend of a friend of Stern's.
Shwekey said he had never met Stern until the day he shook his hand in the lockup.
"I was asked to come and give my services, and I went. That's why God gave me this gift," said Shwekey yesterday at his home in Long Branch, NJ.
"I try to use my talent to uplift people.
"It didn't really concern me, the situation. I was there for the family. I didn't find it unusual."
But unlike normal bar mitzvahs -- that is, ones not held in jail -- which are typically happy affairs, the party for Stern's son began on a solemn note, according to Shwekey.
Guests in the Tombs' visiting house were apparently feeling restrained by the grim surroundings.
So Shwekey and his band tried to lighten the mood with several upbeat songs, which he said got the crowd loosened up.
But he also trotted out one of his most famous numbers, "Racheim," whose lyrics are a prayer asking God for mercy.
"It's a sad song," Shwekey said.
The crooner said he was surprised yesterday by the furor over news that a bar mitzvah was allowed in the downtown lockup as a favor to an inmate.
"We didn't think we were doing anything wrong," Shwekey said.
"I would never do something that was illegal or wrong. I just focus on the uplifting."
תוקן על ידי יכול ב- 12/06/2009 16:41:20
Acheinu Bais Yisroel,