CORRUPTION: Satmar Rabbi Behind Jail Bar Mitzva Bash Got Job Through Backroom Deal

Republican mayor said to have rewarded Satmar for bloc vote by appointing rabbi over objections of chaplaincy committee in violation of city's labor agreement.

BAR QUITS-VAH!
JEWISH-BASH JAIL HONCHO RESIGNS
By DAN MANGAN and REUVEN BLAU, NY Post

A top city Correction Department official under fire for allowing a bar mitzvah in the Tombs jail resigned yesterday.

Correction Chief Peter Curcio's decision comes less than a week after The Post exposed the behind-bars bash -- and after he was questioned over the weekend by Department of Investigation officials probing the scandal, two top city sources said.

The Correction Department's second-highest-ranking uniformed officer, Curcio quit without being ordered to do so by either Commissioner Martin Horn or Mayor Bloomberg, both of whom were furious to learn that the jail had been used as a banquet hall, the sources said.

Before the controversy, Curcio was being eyed as a leading candidate to become the agency's next chief of department.

He had spent more than 20 years in the Correction Department and was earning about $162,000 annually as the three-star bureau chief for facility operations, responsible for overseeing security at the city's jails.

The Post last week revealed how Curcio, over the objections of the Tombs' deputy warden, signed off on the Dec. 30 bar mitzvah reception for the son of fraudster Tuvia Stern.

Sixty non-inmate guests attended the affair, which was organized by jail chaplain Rabbi Leib Glanz. China and silverware -- including knives -- were brought in from outside.

The soiree also featured a band, and guests were allowed to keep their cellphones inside the lockup, a breach of security rules.

Last Wednesday, Horn suspended Glanz for two weeks. Curcio, Correction Chief Frank Squillante, Tombs Warden George Okada and head Correction chaplain Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil each lost two weeks' vacation pay.

Meanwhile, several people said Glanz -- who himself was questioned yesterday by DOI officials -- got his job in a very un-kosher way.

Glanz is the only city-chaplain rabbi who was not approved by a Chaplaincy Committee, as required by the city labor contract, sources said.

They said Glanz's unorthodox appointment came at the behest of then-Mayor Giuliani's administration in 2000.

"Glanz didn't come through the New York Board of Rabbis," said FDNY chaplain Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, the executive vice president of that board, which is part of the Chaplaincy Committee.

Glanz's appointment "was a decision made by the [Giuliani] administration," he said.

A top City Hall source said there was controversy over Glanz's selection, but "the board agreed to let that one go" at the Giuliani administration's request.

Glanz is a member of the ultra-Orthodox Satmar sect, which had backed Giuliani for mayor.

Bruce Teitelbaum, the former Giuliani chief of staff who recently has said he helped Glanz get the job, could not be reached for comment.

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