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BEHIND THE HEADLINES Rabbi's murder trial: A first in U.S. history? By Marilyn Silverstein PHILADELPHIA, May 11 (JTA) -- One by one, the headlines have screamed the story of murder, marital infidelity, scandal and disgrace: "Rabbi Among Suspects in Wife's Death." "Religious Leaders React With Sadness, Shock to Neulander Indictment." "Suspect: Rabbi Paid to Have Wife Killed." "Confessions of 'Hit Men' Rock the Neulander Case." In a case that has both rocked and riveted the local Jewish community, Rabbi Fred Neulander, 59, founder and former longtime religious leader of one of the largest Reform congregations in Cherry Hill, N.J., stands charged with accomplice murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the brutal 1994 bludgeoning of his wife, Carol. In the latest stunning development in the case, two men have now come forward and confessed to beating Carol Neulander to death with a lead pipe -- allegedly at the behest of the rabbi. Leonard Jenoff, 54, a man who has portrayed himself as the rabbi's private investigator and friend, allegedly told Camden County Prosecutor Lee Solomon in late April that Neulander had offered him $30,000 to kill a woman the rabbi had described to him as "an enemy of Israel." In light of the confessions, Neulander's trial, which was to have begun June 19, has been postponed indefinitely. And Solomon is said to be considering "all the options," including seeking a new indictment against the rabbi for capital murder -- a crime punishable by death. The case quite possibly marks the first time in American Jewish life that a rabbi has faced trial for murder. The story began on the night of Nov. 1, 1994, when the 52-year-old Carol Neulander was found lying in a pool of blood on the living room floor of the family's stately Colonial home in Cherry Hill. Since that night, a story has slowly unfolded that some observers have likened to a Greek tragedy -- the fall of a man from his position of high status, honor and power through the agency of his own hubris, or pride, in a drama that evokes pity and terror in those who witness it. If so, then the chorus in that tragedy has been the media that have chronicled the often-sensational details of Neulander's fall:
The "media frenzy," the rabbi writes, has "revealed information I am not proud of" and "behavior that brings no honor to me." It is assumed that he is referring to revelations brought to light by the ongoing murder investigation of his involvement in marital infidelities, including a liaison with Philadelphia radio personality Elaine Soncini.
At his arraignment, the rabbi -- handcuffed, shackled around the waist with chains and wearing a bright-orange correctional facility jumpsuit -- is led into the courtroom by three police officers. The prosecutor charges in his brief that Neulander "planned and directed the murder of his wife, Carol Neulander," adding that the circumstantial evidence of the rabbi's involvement in the murder is "compelling and overwhelming." Neulander pleads "not guilty" and is released on $400,000 bail.
When Neulander's trial finally unfolds, will it truly be an event without precedent in American Jewish history? Will the State of New Jersey vs. Fred Neulander mark the first and only time in American Jewish life that a rabbi has been tried for murder? An extensive online search of American periodicals yielded a small but colorful catalog of criminal cases involving rabbis, but no murders. Gary Zola, executive director of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, the Reform seminary, said the only case he can recall happened in 1928, in Messina, N.Y. Zola said a rabbi was arrested and accused of killing a child in order to use the blood to make matzah for Passover -- a "blood libel" case that was ultimately dismissed. Jewish historians won't rule out the possibility that such a case existed before, but they say it is unlikely. Jonathan Sarna an American Jewish historian, said he is reluctant to give a definitive answer to the question, but added, "I can't think of another example of a rabbi on trial for murder." Sarna, who holds the Braun Chair in American Jewish
History at Brandeis University, said "I can't pretend to
know the history of every rabbi who's ever been, but I have
to imagine that a murder trial of a rabbi would have
reverberated through the pages of history. I've got to
imagine that a premeditated murder case would have had some
kind of ripples." Marilyn Silverstein is a staff writer for the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia. | |
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