The Rabbis ... received a $2.5 million grant in 1995 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to create a counseling program 'tailored to meet the needs of elderly Holocaust survivors,' helping them 'deal directly with the Holocaust experience.'

New York, August 10, 2000

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JAIL DEAL FOR RABBIS IN HOLOCAUST SCAM

BY CHRISTOPHER FRANCESCANI

A Brooklyn federal judge reluctantly agreed to a plea deal yesterday in which two Brooklyn rabbis - one a former adviser to then-Mayor Ed Koch - will serve 33 months in prison for swindling hundreds of thousands of dollars earmarked for Holocaust survivors.

Noting the "wanton fraud and venality" of rabbis stealing from Holocaust victims, U.S. District judge Raymond Dearie said he "might think twice about buying into this agreement," but said he'd been swayed by the two rabbis' apparent lifelong service to the Hasidic communities in Brooklyn.

"As you read this file and try and reconcile all the things people say about these two men with the crimes they committed, it's seemingly in contrast to everything they stood for as members of the community."

Rabbis Jacob Bronner, 51 - who served for 12 years as Koch's unpaid adviser - and Rabbi Efroim Stein, 55, controlled the non-profit Project Social Care. The group received a $2.5 million grant in 1995 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to create a counseling program "tailored to meet the needs of elderly Holocaust survivors," helping them "deal directly with the Holocaust experience."

The rabbis then paid grant money to the Council of Jewish Organizations of Borough Park in a deal in which the council kicked back the cash to businesses controlled by Bronner and Stein. Several COJO officials were convicted of fraud in the late 1990s.

The pair also paid for nonexistent goods and services from companies that also kicked the money back to the rabbis.

Funds were also paid to several of Stein's relatives for nonexistent training; that money was then funneled into a Stein-controlled synagogue.

Dozens of letters of support detailing the rabbis' charity work in Borough Park were submitted to the court, and a crowd of Hasidim turned out to voice their support.

"I did a very stupid thing," Bronner said in court. "I literally ruined Project Social Care. I regret this more than anything else.

"I guess you might say that good you have done has been undermined," Dearie told the rabbis before sentencing them.

The pair, who paid $162,500 in restitution, will surrender on Oct. 15, after the Jewish holidays.

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