Jews for Allah

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RABBI BUSTED IN NYPD PERV STING

By ERIKA MARTINEZ
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February 21, 2003 -- A prominent rabbi was arrested yesterday on charges of trying to pick up a 13-year-old girl in an Internet chat room.
Israel Kestenbaum, 54 - who works for the New York Board of Rabbis - is accused of multiple counts of attempted child endangerment and attempted dissemination of indecent materials to a minor.

Kestenbaum, of Highland Park, N.J., was arrested at work after a monthlong probe, during which police say he solicited the girl for sex.

But the "girl" was really an NYPD undercover detective, cops said.

Kestenbaum allegedly arranged to meet the teenager on Sunday at a Starbucks at the corner of Dey Street and Broadway downtown.

She didn't show up, of course, but police sources say cops have video of the rabbi looking for her.

After his arrest, police sources said, Kestenbaum indignantly challenged cops, saying, "Don't you know who I am and who I know?"

Police said they confiscated Kestenbaum's computer. His career involves helping Jewish people who are infirm and homebound, and he has contributed to books on the topic.

Kestenbaum is director of chaplaincy at the Jewish Center for Spiritual Care, which is part of the Board of Rabbis.

Before he took that job last year, Kestenbaum was the founder and director of the Jewish Institute for Pastoral Care, which teaches rabbis how to help people coping with "aging, illness, loss or crisis."

Kestenbaum wrote that the institute served "chaplains, rabbis, seminarians, those seeking to learn the art of providing healing relationship in the context of our tradition."

The Board of Rabbis named Kestenbaum one of its "Rabbis of the Year" for helping people in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

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'RUBBER' RABBI ALL SET FOR SEX: D.A.,
New York Post, February 22, 2003
"Manhattan prosecutors revealed creepy details of a New Jersey rabbi's alleged online pursuit of a 13-year-old girl yesterday - including the black bag of condoms and lubricants they say he brought to their first 'date.' 'We could meet and kiss,' prosecutors say prominent rabbi Israel Kestenbaum, 55, typed in his overture to a male undercover cop posing online as 'Katie' ... Prosecutors also revealed yesterday that Kestenbaum - a married father of six from Highland Park who serves on the Manhattan-based New York Board of Rabbis - may be charged with additional related crimes. In their ongoing search of the rabbi's computer, cops found 'at least one image of child pornography,' prosecutor Jennifer Steiner told a Manhattan judge yesterday morning. 'Further, police also found evidence that the defendant engaged in electronic instant message conversations with another young girl," the prosecutor added."

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Rabbi, Ethics Overseer, Denies Child Pornography Charges,
New York Times, February 22, 2003
"Rabbi Israel Kestenbaum, an ethics watchdog for a national pastors association and a chaplain of the year for his work at ground zero, assumed a different role yesterday, that of defendant in a child pornography case. The rabbi pleaded not guilty in State Supreme Court in Manhattan to five felony counts of attempted dissemination of indecent material to a minor and 10 misdemeanor counts of attempted endangering the welfare of a minor. He was arrested at his office at the New York Board of Rabbis on Thursday after being taken to the 17th Precinct station house on East 51st Street for questioning. The police said he had engaged in erotic electronic conversation with someone presented to him as a 13-year-old girl named Katie and had arranged a tryst with her at a Starbucks in Manhattan. In fact, he was talking with an undercover police officer. Yesterday, an assistant district attorney, Jennifer Steiner, said that computers at the rabbi's home in Highland Park, N.J., had been searched and that the police had found at least one image of child pornography and messages to another under-age girl. Rabbi Kestenbaum, 54, was expected to be released yesterday on $5,000 bail, pending the surrender of his passport. He faces four years in prison if convicted. The rabbi's lawyer, Raymond Granger, said, 'My client has pled not guilty and will fight these charges.' He noted that the rabbi was a member of the ethics panel of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, a professional group. The rabbi has a reputation as an expert in chaplain affairs. He founded and directed the Jewish Center for Spiritual Care, which was set up to provide pastoral services to the homebound and infirm. The center is part of the New York Board of Rabbis, which immediately placed him on administrative leave ... Rabbi Kestenbaum is married and has six children. The board, an association of 700 rabbis in the metropolitan area, named him chaplain of the year last February for his ministerial work at ground zero. Rabbi Kestenbaum also contributed to a handbook called Jewish Pastoral Care and has appeared as a featured speaker at chaplain gatherings, including a symposium last year sponsored by the UJA-Federation of New York. Before joining the New York Board of Rabbis, Rabbi Kestenbaum was director of the Jewish Institute for Pastoral Care of the HealthCare Chaplaincy, a chaplain training institute. New details of the charges emerged in court yesterday. According to Ms. Steiner, Rabbi Kestenbaum entered a chat room called 'I Love Older Men' and held instant-message conversations with 'Katie.' Katie was actually Detective Mike Smith of the New York Police Department's computer investigation unit, Ms. Steiner said. The rabbi asked Katie whether she had ever been with an older man, and asked her for a physical description of herself, including her bra size."

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