New York – William Rapfogel, who pled guilty last year to an insurance fraud scheme where he pocketed $3 million from the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, received letters of support written to the state Attorney General asking for leniency for the 59-year-old.
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About 70 Rapfogel supporters nationwide and from New York City, including 19 rabbis, various politicians and leaders of prominent Jewish organizations, sent letters to AG Eric Schneiderman asking him to take it easy on Rapfogel’s sentencing, according to City and State (http://bit.ly/1FaejWG).
The letters were sent to Schneiderman right before Rapfogel’s guilty plea in April.
The letters referenced Rapfogel’s acts of kindness and integrity, not directly discussing his crimes at all. Three of the letters were written by men on the Jewish Daily Forward’s list of 50 most powerful Jews in the U.S. –Julius Berman, chair of the Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany; Rabbi
Menachem Genack, CEO of the Orthodox Union’s Kosher Division; and Shmuel Lefkowitz, the chief lobbyist for Agudath Israel of America.
National supporters on the letter list include Howard Friedman, the first Orthodox president of AIPAC; Richard Stone, ex-chair of the Conference of Presidents of
Major American Jewish Organizations; Raphael Butler, former president of the Orthodox Union; and Steven Weil, current top executive of the Union.
Letter writers well known in New York were Joseph Potasnik, president of the Board of Rabbis; Assemblyman Dov Hikind; Michael Miller, who runs the Jewish Community Relations Council; David Niederman, executive director of the United Jewish Organization of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn; CUNY trustee Jeff
Wiesenfeld; Former state Democratic Party executive director Chung Seto; and NYU city affairs expert Mitchell Moss.
Schneiderman spokeswoman Elizabeth DeBold says the letters had no impact on the handling of the case.
Rapfogel admitted last year to financing an extravagant lifestyle by taking up to $30,000-a-month from an insurance company the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty deliberately overpaid.
Why is this a story? It’s not unusual for people to write letters on behalf of someone committing a crime to try avoiding the harshest penalty for them. It has nothing to do with condoning what he did or making excuses for it..
investigate all of these people as well and what a chillul Has=em for Agudah to support a crook, lock him up and throw away the key, this is why legitimate Jewish orgs get no money.
Looking over the list of the names and i would not buy a used car from half of them, most of them are legends in their own minds
This man stole money from the poor … from the POOR! There is no way to excuse what he has done and no person – much less a leader of the Jewish community – should write a letter to try and mitigate Rapfogel’s sentence. This was not an error of judgement, or human failure. It was a crime of greed in which the perpetrator took advantage of his position to take advantage of the poor and elderly to enrich himself. He is the lowest of the low and does not deserve our mercy, sympathy or forgiveness. It is only Hashem who knows what is in Rapfogel’s heart and it is only Hashem who can grant him forgiveness. Think of it this way … he took medicine and bread out of the mouths of your poor elderly parents. In the court shel lamatah, he got off easy.
The real question is what does this say about our supposed leaders if they would defend such a man? Is this the leadership we need?