NEWLY UPDATED: Joe Lieberman Goes Slumming – Holds Meeting In Home Of Disgraced Orthodox Fundraiser Rabbi Milton Balkany – Head of ZOA, Young Israel Also Attend – So Does Convicted Swindler Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum

The Forward reports Connecticut Senator Josef Lieberman last week held a meeting in the Brooklyn home of Rabbi Milton Balkany. Also in attendance was the Zionist Organization of America's Morton Klein and Young Israel's Rabbi Pesach Lerner.

Rabbi Balkany, known as the "Brooklyn Bundler" for his practice of bundling campaign contributions from his family – including the Rubashkins of Postville and Allentown infamy – and close friends. This effort allows Rabbi Balkany to skirt existing campaign financing laws and "give" donations well in excess of the legal limit, later using the influence this buys to further his projects.

Rabbi Balkany misused a $700,000 federal grant meant for handicapped students. Balkany admitted wrongdoing in an agreement with government and returned the money. But, as the Forward notes, Balkany now denies the facts of that agreement and the very text he signed:

Balkany, interviewed by telephone, said that press reports of his legal woes were nothing more than "smearing."

"There never was an indictment," he said about the 2003 charges. He added: "The government raised something. They walked away with egg on their faces. They made an apology."

"I have dedicated my life to Jewish education and the Jewish community," he said.

Helpfully, the Forward prints the statement Rabbi Balkany signed:

In 2004, prosecutors released a statement from Balkany in which he acknowledged violating an "understanding" with the government.

"Contrary to my understanding with HUD, I authorized the use of the grant to pay for general administrative and operational expenses of both Bais Yaakov and the Children's Center of Brooklyn, even though I knew that the specific terms of the grant did not permit me to use the funds in this manner," the rabbi said in the statement.

In other words, Rabbi Balkany admitted embezzling the money, money which was meant to benefit handicapped Jewish students. (If memory serves, something like $300,000 of the embezzled funds ended up in his son's bank account in Israel.) The politically well-connected rabbi got off without a record. But reports at the time indicated that Rabbi Balkany is also barred from receiving further government grants. He also was barred from a federal Parisian chaplaincy he created, apparently because of allegations he sold his services – and political influence – to prisoners and their families. Balkany is alleged to have delivered special privileges in return for payoffs.

Balkany is the  son-in-law of Aaron Rubashkin, patriarch of the Rubashkin family that runs the Postville, Iowa-based AgriProcessors slaughter house. AgriProcessors is under investigation by the USDA for alleged cruelty to animals (please see the links on the left side of this page). The USDA investigation started in December of 2004. The USDA indicated it would release the results in January of 2005. But it did not, and has remained silent for more than one year. Freedom of Information requests regarding the investigation have been rejected because the investigation is classified as "open."

There are those who believe Rubashkin and Balkany arranged for this unusual delay through Balkany's influence. As the months tick by without result, the number of insiders who believe this grows. Others believe Agudath Israel and the OU were able to get the investigation report quashed, allegedly because the rabbis charged with the plant's kosher supervision  advocated and administered the cruelty.

That Lieberman would consort with Balkany is surprising. As the Forward notes, several politicians – including President Bush – have returned Balkany-related donations.

But why were Klein and Lerner there? Apparently, taking $700,000 from handicapped Jewish children is not enough to keep Klein and Lerner away from the Balkany money trough.

UPDATE: A reader points out that Rabbi Balkany was not the only crooked rabbi in attendance. A photo of the event in HaModia shows Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Alliance of America. Who is Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum? A two-time convicted swindler, once in the 1970's, and again in the 1990's:

Download gershon_tannenbaum_1.pdf    Download gershon_tannenbaum_2.pdf     Download gershon_tannenbaum_3.pdf Download gershon_tannenbaum_sec_litigation.pdf
Download gershon_tannenbaum_stock_fraud.pdf
Download gershon_tannenbaum_federal_bureau_of_prisons.pdf

Why is Joe Lieberman associating with these shysters? And why do Orthodox Jews allow them to lead their community?

Comments

[Tzvee Zahavy]

Love that hat!

[Neo-Conservaguy]

I love the hat too - now, that's styling! It's not a Chabad hat because he is a misnagid that married into a Lubavitch family. I met him once or twice; he was very charming in person. I can't speak to his other "issues".

The outrage is not that there are people community leaders like Rabbi Milton Balkany. The outrage is that the community is not outraged by such leaders. I know a few shuls in Boro Park that are lead by rabbis with a very checked past i.e., fraud, money laundering, stealing millions from the government, insurance scams, yet their shuls are packed with followers. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE PEOPLE

Balkany is not of Litvak misnagid descent, rather Hungarian. He prays in a non-Lubavitch Hassidic shtiebel.

You and the Forward left out someone else who was at the meeting - none other than Gershon (the swindler) Tannenbaum. He is very clearly seen and listed in the photo and caption of this story in the NY based Hamodia of January 11, 2006, p.4.

It seems that Tannenbaum has basically taken over the RAA lately. Long time RAA President Rabbi Abraham B. Hecht is on in years, lost his wife in tragic circumstances about two years ago, and was bruised in an Israel-related controversy a while back, which led to his losing his long time position. One rarely hears from Hecht nowadays. He used to be prominent and public in leading the RAA. Now it's like all Tannenbaum all the time. He is using his phony tactics in conjunction with the Jewish Press to try to convince people that the RAA is a large and important organization. If you read the reports of their monthly meetings in the Jewish Press however, a different picture emerges. The attendees are to a large degree the same people every month, with some irregulars. Mostly Brooklyn based, some are retired or otherwise having questionably active Rabbinical status.

Tannenbaum also has shifted the stance of the RAA in terms of public policy. Whereas in the past Hecht was a fiery prominent spokesman for traditional morality, battling homosexual activists and politicians who went along with them, Tannenbaum has taken a different path. He goes out and says he loves the Boro President of Brooklyn after he comes out for homosexual marriage, despite his stance, and covers for a local politician under fire for supporting a gay candidate. He brings the RAA to the local borough hall for a convocation after the boro president flies the gay flag over it. Does Hecht know what's going on ? Do the RAA members realize the situation ? I suspect they don't fully, if at all, grasp it.

Shmarya, you ask "why do Orthodox Jews allow them to lead their community?"

They are self-appointed 'leaders'. They were not elected. Those in the know, know that. Tannenbaum is just a big mouth with the Jewish Press behind him. If the Jewish Press wouldn't give Tannenbaum and the RAA all that free space they would really be up the creek. Tannebaum is basically a creation of the Jewish Press. The RAA predates the JP, so we can't say it's a JP creation, but the JP is constantly promoting it and propping it up with massive infusions of gifts in the form of free space in the paper, so it's something similar. It's a free country. You can have someone like Tannenbaum pose as a big Rabbinical leader in Boro Park, when actually all he has there is a nice-sized old Shul building with a few old-timers and some more recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union. It's on the fringe of the Hassidic neighborhood there in more ways than one - geographically as well as in terms of serving a relatively marginal non-Hassidic group in the Hassidic dominated area.

To previous poster

Do we need to name names of major rabbis who have large following in Boro Park who where and are involved in fraud and insurance scams. Maybe what you say is true about Tannenbaum, but there are others who are major leaders (or their yeshivas) who stole and steal money from the government and everybody knows about it.
Let not try to white wash this situation- Shmarya, you ask "why do Orthodox Jews allow them to lead their community

To previous poster

Do we need to name names of major rabbis who have large following in Boro Park who where and are involved in fraud and insurance scams. Maybe what you say is true about Tannenbaum, but there are others who are major leaders (or their yeshivas) who stole and steal money from the government and everybody knows about it.
Let not try to white wash this situation- Shmarya, you ask "why do Orthodox Jews allow them to lead their community

[Jew]

To all of you frieked up bored soles (i don't know about the souls),

SHUT UP!! Stop YOUR madness. All you do is gossip, lies about Rabbi Balkany, why don't you tell the honest truth. It was swindlers like you who set him up. Eventually, indeed justice has prevailed and he was acquited and vindicated over all the allegations.

MIDVAR SHECKER TIRHAK!!! Stop all of your DEVARIM BETALIM and LITZENUS promoting. Go do something USEFUL with yourselves!

There is also a (different) photo of it on page 12 of the Algemeiner Journal of Feb. 3,2006, which shows Gershon the swindler in it.

[jesus]

two all you crazy people do somthing with your life u people have know lives so u try to destrot other peoples you will go to hell may all u ppl have a refuah shlaima now!!!!

[a bystander]

This is c**p! I know Rabbi Balkany well and he is a tzaddick, nothing less!