New York, NY – Some Jewish Leaders Stood Alongside Jailhouse Imam

New York, NY – With his job as the Department of Correction’s top Islamic chaplain Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil hanging in the balance, the imam who equated the Bush administration with terrorism and blamed the Jews as reported on VOS IZ NEIAS, had no apologies for his remarks.

Abdul-Jalil’s statements have prompted sharp rebuke from officials at Jewish organizations and from the New York Tolerance Center, which questioned whether a figure with apparently extreme views should hold a leadership position in the city’s jails.

But some Jewish leaders stood alongside the imam, and defending Abdul-Jalil’s service to the city and asserting his First Amendment speech rights, like Jewish correctional leader, Rabbi Baruch Leibowitz of Brooklyn, who is also backing Abdul-Jalil. “Umar is my friend, and I support him,” Rabbi Leibowitz said in brief remarks, adding that what was being said about the imam “defied the reality of who he is.”

U/D: 03/15/06
Three of the six Jewish chaplains at the Correction Department — Leib Glanz, Baruch Leibowitz and Herbert D. Richtman — appeared at a news conference to support Mr. Abdul-Jalil. “The man has no, not even a fraction of, anti-Semitism in his bones,” Rabbi Glanz said. He added that the other Jewish chaplains were busy with a Purim service but supported Mr. Abdul-Jalil as well.