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Case of Cantor Joel Gordon


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Table of Contents:

Cantor denies charges of running a Windy City prostitution house (03/23/2001)

Chicago cantor and wife who ran brothel plead guilty (03/23/2001)

Cantor charged in prostitution ring (12/06/2000)

Arrest of former cantor on charges of prostitution shocks community

Prostitution charges for former cantor

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Cantor denies charges of running a Windy City prostitution house

http://www.jewishsf.com/bk010105/uscantorprostitution.shtml

JTA - March 23, 2001

CHICAGO (JTA) -- A Chicago-area cantor accused of running a brothel has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In a brief appearance Dec. 26 in Cook County Circuit Court, Cantor Joel Gordon, 52, and his wife Alison Ginsberg, 23, pleaded not guilty to charges of keeping a house of prostitution and, in her case, also to committing acts of prostitution.

In the small, crowded courtroom of Judge Lawrence Terrell, Gordon and Ginsberg requested additional time to review extensive discovery evidence, gathered during a 10-week investigation by an undercover policewoman. The next court date was set for Feb. 27.

The investigation focused on three Cook County apartments used by employees of Golden Touch Massage, said by the Cook County Sheriff's Police to be a cover for a prostitution operation. The officer applied for a job with Golden Touch and was told she could make between $600 to $1,100 a day, but the activities would be "illegal," the sheriff's department said.

Gordon and Ginsberg were arrested Nov. 21 along with several others. Gordon resigned from the Cantors' Assembly a few days later.

Neither the couple nor their attorney answered questions as they left the courtroom.

Gordon was a cantor at other local Reform congregations before serving Congregation Shirat Emet, in the Chicago suburb of Buffalo Grove, Ill. Shirat Emet disbanded in mid-2000.

The Reform temple grew from about 50 families in 1995, when it broke from Temple Chai in Long Grove, Ill., to more than 275 families in 1997. Key leaders began to leave in 1999 when they wanted to add a rabbi to the professional staff and Gordon rejected the idea.

Two former congregation members attended the Dec. 26 court proceedings.

Sam Bell, an attorney, said, "all who put their trust in him and who knew him feel incredibly betrayed."

Howard Peritz, another lawyer and one of the original members of Shirat Emet, said of Gordon: "He changed from the person we had all known. He was quick to fly off the handle, and rumors about inappropriate behavior were around for years. We now realize that in starting a congregation around a man, we were canonizing him."

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Chicago cantor and wife who ran brothel plead guilty

JTA - March 23, 2001

http://www.jewishsf.com/bk010323/uscantor.shtml


CHICAGO (JTA) -- An area cantor and his wife have pleaded guilty to charges of involvement in a prostitution ring. G. Joel Gordon and Alison Ginsberg each received six months of court supervision and a fine of $200 for the crime after their pleas on Tuesday.

Gordon resigned from the Conservative movement's Cantors Assembly after he was arrested last November.

A 10-week undercover investigation last year focused on three Chicago-area apartments used by employees of Golden Touch Massage.

Investigator Robert Fitzgerald said he is particularly gratified by the guilty pleas because the prostitution ring operated in neighborhoods with many young children.

Two members of Gordon's last congregation attended Tuesday's court proceedings. "In the time I was a member of his temple and shortly afterward, I came to see the many sides of Joel Gordon, from a man who could engage in vicious shouting to one who was sanctimonious and insidious," said one former congregant, lawyer Sam Bell.

Gordon previously served as a cantor in other Chicago-area congregations, as well as in New Jersey and Atlanta.

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Cantor charged in prostitution ring
By Ruth Silverman

JTA - December 6, 2000

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/12/06/JewishWorld/JewishWorld.16901.html


(December 6) CHICAGO (JTA) - Members of Chicago's Jewish community are expressing shock and dismay about the arrest of a former synagogue cantor and his wife of a few weeks.

The two were charged in connection with a prostitution ring. Joel Gordon, 51, who has served at several Chicago-area synagogues, was charged November 21 with keeping a house of prostitution following a police raid on three massage parlors, operated out of private apartments in the northern suburbs.

His wife, Alison Ginsberg, 23, was charged with prostitution and keeping a house of prostitution.

Gordon was most recently the cantor and spiritual leader of Congregation Shirat Emet, a now-defunct synagogue in the Chicago suburb of Buffalo Grove, Illinois.

Cantorial colleagues of Gordon's were stunned by the news.

Cantor Shlomo Shuster of Ezra Habonim-Niles Township Jewish Congregation trained Gordon as a cantor.

He remembers his student as "very talented and bright - but one who liked to dance on the edge." "I'm very sad," he continued. "It's very bad for all Jews, for the profession, and it's a disgrace to God's name, especially for a member of the clergy who wears the mantle of God."

Cantor Eric Wasser, president of the Midwest Region of the Cantors Assembly, said, "Obviously, we want to give anyone the benefit of the doubt until due process has taken place." Gordon, he said, "has a real musical talent. We will offer our support in whatever ways we can. Certainly, there have been clergy with problems before, but this is pretty unique."

Wasser, whose group is affiliated with the Conservative movement, said he had not seen Gordon in a couple of years. Gordon used to be active in the organization, helping to plan programs, Wasser said, but had curtailed his involvement the last several years.

Gordon resigned from the Cantors Assembly last week.

One of the founding members of Shirat Emet, Betsy Delman, expressed a mixture of anger and heartbreak at the news of Gordon's arrest.

"Once you get over the shock and disgrace of his part in something so sleazy, you feel sorry for him," said Delman, who remembered Gordon as a "Pied Piper" with children.

"What was it that turned him in this direction - the demise of his synagogue? His age? His voice was incomparable. Was it all just superficial? Was there another person in him? Was there something that made him change? How do we explain to our children what a supposedly spiritual man has done?"

Cook County Sheriff's Police said female employees at three Golden Touch Massage parlors offered sexual favors for money and the business featured massages performed by nude women.

As part of the undercover investigation, a female officer applied for a job with the owner of the business.

The officer was told by the owner she could make between $600 and $1,100 per day working for him, but that all activities performed would be "illegal," the sheriff's department said.

Both Gordon and Ginsberg declined comment, when reached by phone at the home of her mother. When asked if their lawyer, whom she refused to identify, would comment on their behalf, Ginsberg said, "Don't call him. He doesn't want to be bothered." Several other people were also arrested in connection with the ring. All were released on bail.

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Prostitution charges for former cantor

(Chicago Sun Times)


A former Jewish temple clergy member and his wife have been charged in connection with a prostitution ring. Gordon Joel Gordon, who was at one time the cantor at Congregation Shirat Emet in Buffalo Grove, a now-defunct synagogue, was charged with being a keeper of a house of prostitution after Cook County sheriff's police Tuesday raided three massage parlors operated out of private apartments in the suburbs. His wife, Alison Ginsberg, was charged with prostitution and being a keeper of a house of prostitution. Neither could be reached for comment. Police said the apartments were at 10120 Holly Lane near Des Plaines, 3476 Salem Walk near Glenview, and 4264 Plymouth Woods, near Glenview.

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Arrest of former cantor on charges of prostitution shocks community
(Daily Herald)

http://www.usajewish.com/scripts/usaj/paper/Article.asp?ArticleID=1007


Members of the Jewish community were shocked Friday that a former temple clergy member and his wife have been charged in connection with a prostitution ring. Gordon Joel Gordon, at one time the cantor at Congregation Shirat Emet in Buffalo Grove, a now-defunct synagogue, was charged with keeping a house of prostitution after Cook County Sheriff's police Tuesday raided three massage parlors operated out of private apartments in the suburbs.

His wife, Alison Ginsberg, was charged with prostitution and keeping a house of prostitution.

Gordon scheduled appointments at all three locations, sheriff's spokeswoman Penny Mateck said Friday. "The last time I saw them was when I sang at their wedding in late August," said Cantor Roger Weissberg, of Congregation Beth Judea in Long Grove. "I simply can't believe that they could have been involved in all this."

Voicing similar disbelief was Cantor Eric Wasser of Wilmette, who serves as president of the Midwest Region of the Cantors Assembly, the governing body of about 70 cantors in the Midwest.


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