Teaneck Rabbi Indicted On Child Sex Charges

A 64-year-old Teaneck, NJ rabbi was indicted yesterday on charges that he molested two 13-year-old boys in his home.

Rabbi Uzi Rivlin in court after his arrest last year

Teaneck rabbi indicted on sex charges
BY KIBRET MARKOS • The Record

A 64-year-old Teaneck rabbi was indicted on Wednesday on charges that he molested two 13-year-old boys at his home.

The indictment charges that Rabbi Uzi Rivlin made sexual contact with the two boys on several occasions in 2009 and 2010.

Authorities have said the boys were visiting from Israel and stayed at the rabbi's home during two summers as part of a scholarship program Rivlin had helped set up. Rivlin also was a teacher at the Temple Beth Abraham in Tarrytown, N.Y., they said.

Bergen County prosecutors said that after the boys returned to Israel, they complained separately to Israeli authorities that Rivlin had molested them.

Israeli authorities took statements from the boys and notified the FBI, which notified Teaneck police and the county Prosecutor's Office, authorities said. Rivlin was arrested at his home last August.

Rivlin's lawyer, Howard Simmons, did not return two phone calls Wednesday. Simmons said at the time of Rivlin's arrest that his client was perplexed by the allegations, and that prosecutors would need to fly the alleged victims to Bergen County for testimony before a grand jury.

But Ken Ralph, an assistant Bergen County prosecutor, said Wednesday that state law does not require their testimony before a grand jury.

If the case goes to trial, however, "there is an expectation that the victims will testify," Ralph said.

The 13-count indictment returned Wednesday by a grand jury charges Rivlin with child endangerment by sexual conduct, aggravated criminal sexual contact and criminal sexual contact.

If convicted, Rivlin faces up to 10 years in prison on each of the child endangerment charges. He remains free on $175,000 bail.

Rivlin wrote in the temple's bulletin in 2008 that he had 35 years of experience as a Jewish educator. His wife, Jenny, wrote in the same bulletin that the couple had been married for 36 years and had raised six children.

She also wrote that the Rivlins' scholarship fund was set up about 12 years ago to help orphaned and disadvantaged children in Israel. The program has brought more than a dozen Israeli children to the United States, she said.

Comments

[jancsipista]

If its true then it is a very very sad day for everyone who trusts our elders

[jewishwhistleblower]

Follow up to last weeks Rav Bina story.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial_opinion/gary_rosenblatt/lessons_rav_bina_story

[Malka Gittel]

Okay --

It didn't happen.
The Israelis are a couple of ungrateful seculars.
Besides, how frum is the man, where's his beard? So if it did happen, he's not frum.
Anyhow, he created a scholarship fund! That's tsedakah!
Obviously, this is nothing but rabid anti-semitic prejudice, as we can readily establish.

[jewishwhistleblower]

More of what is wrong in the Orthodox world. Read this outrageous letter by Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun and Principal, Ramaz School

http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial_opinion/letters/unspoken_testimony

[Devorah]

I was warned about him back in the 80's when my kids were bar mitzvahed. Parents knew back then he was fondling kids.

[מרדכי סטמר]

I was warned about him back in the 80's when my kids were bar mitzvahed. Parents knew back then he was fondling kids.

Posted by: Devorah | February 09, 2012 at 12:39 PM

------
Nuchem Rosenberg , said on his hotline, that "Rabbi" Rivlin learned in Satmar Williamsbug as a child, that why he's a pedophile...

And all the parents who knew about his actions and kept quite about him, didn't go to the police. All have first cousins still living in Williamsburg....

The joke is on Shmaryah...

[Hanging out]

Such a good looking man! WHY????????????

[jewishwhistleblower]

>I was warned about him
You should contact BC Prosecutor’s Office Sex Crimes & Child Abuse Unit. Call Main Office 201-646-2300.

[ebraun]

He is a REFORM rabbi,just look up Temple Beth Abraham

[jewishwhistleblower]

An Orthodox rabbi who teaches at a non-Orthodox institution. Try doing some basic research.

[who knows]

On the picture he has no kippa, how othodox he could possibly be?

[jewishwhistleblower]

http://www.jstandard.com/content/item/Israeli_youths_to_be_guests_at_local_shul/
...
receiving assistance from a scholarship fund administered by two Orthodox rabbis here
...
Rabbi Uzi Rivlin, the fund's president and a native Israeli
...

[jewishwhistleblower]

He's Orthodox and a member of this congregation http://www.bethaaron.org/joomla3/
Check your facts.

[cumquat for you]

Orthodox Rabbis don't associate with reform deviants especially "Temples". When you see the word "Temple" you know that it is a deviant reform place where Judaism is not practiced. Orthodox/Chareidi Jews are forbidden to enter such a place. If he did grow up Orthodox then he is no longer considered Orthodox by anyone in the know. He is a reform follower who is alleged to be a molester. I'm not sure which one is worse. A heretic or a molester!

[Brucey LaRuex]

OH NO MR. BILL!!!

A REFORM HEBLEW!!!

[jewishwhistleblower]

I guess you don't believe in Kiruv. One can't teach Hebrew to children because they're not reform? His teaching at the reform institution was known within his Orthodox community/shul and no one had a problem with it.

[jewishwhistleblower]

You claim he is a heretic because he taught Hebrew to jewish children in a reform school. Are you insane?

[cumquat for you]

Hey jewishwhistleblower,

Don't confuse the readers with your phony spin on where this reform pervert teaches.

Here is the real website:

http://www.tba-ny.org/index.cfm?

[SketpicalYid]

Conservative synagogues are also called "Temple" on occasion. Cumquat is using the tired "No True Scotsman" defense. It doesn't fly.

[jewishwhistleblower]

Idiot. He taught at a reform shul but he was a member and davened at an Orthodox shul. The links are above.

[jewishwhistleblower]

For the challenged:
http://www.jstandard.com/content/item/Israeli_youths_to_be_guests_at_local_shul/

[cumquat for you]

To jewishwhistleblower,

As I stated in my earlier comment:

Don't confuse the readers with your phony spin on where this reform pervert teaches.

Here is the real website:

http://www.tba-ny.org/index.cfm?

Conservatives sometimes do use "Temple" but there is little difference between conservative and reform, neither one practices Judaism! They're both frauds!

[jancsipista]

I'm not sure which one is worse. A heretic or a molester!
Youre worst then both of them if that is possible di shoite

[jewishwhistleblower]

That's the website for the reform shul where he taught. He davened and was a member of an Orthodox shul. Try reading.

[SketpicalYid]

JWB, don't bother. That troll is going to continue lying no matter what evidence is presented to the contrary.

[zoobiemanyak]

Religious Jewry is a revolting fucking joke!

[chicago sam]

Rabbis should never be alone with children, much like women should never be alone with male doctors. I always have a parent in my office. We live in a crazy world and children must always be protected.

[BiF]

JWB, what is "outrageous" about the letter in defense of Rav Bina? There is no solid, impartial evidence that Rav BIna is anything other than what the letter describes - a flawed man who does his best, a man who has made mistakes, a man who by all accounts cares deeply for wehat he does and his role as an educator. Calling the letter outrageous simply dilutes your voice when the truly outrageous rears itself. Lookstein's letter is hardly as you describe. And Bina has not been found guilty of anything other than poor judgment and perhaps a short temper. Indeed, thousands have voted with their feet and attend Netiv gladly.

[Devorah]

"I was warned about him
You should contact BC Prosecutor’s Office Sex Crimes & Child Abuse Unit. Call Main Office 201-646-2300."

The parents did go to the police in the 80's in Fort Lee. (I think it was Fort Lee.) I had no first hand knowledge of this--only through my friends and I lived in another state.

[s tilansky]

Ya ya bla bla touch a kid and u become a molester no proof is needed just say u wrer molested and conince some other kid that when he pat him on the back he was really molesting him then u both have excuses to go off the derech b/c when u were in first grade u were touched the wrong way bla bla bla yes I am sure every one of these allegations is 100 percent true none of them are false how could they be? After all the kid said so! Abd after all he did go off the ferech ppl get real!!!!

[jewishwhistleblower]

Devorah you should still report the information.
Tilansky you should volunteer at a rape crisis center and stop being so ignorant.

[Office of the Chief Rabbi]

I interviewed him for a job once. Orthodox rabbi, forgot from where. He's taken jobs where he could get them: Conservative Day Schools, and, like above, a nearby Reformic shul.

[adams]

this sleepover thing got to stop. I feel fortunate my kids were spared this calamity in such yeshivos.