LOS ANGELES - A Brooklyn rabbi, invoking an ancient Jewish law, is refusing to testify in a California tax-evasion case involving people who made donations to the ultra-Orthodox Spinka sect.
Rabbi Moshe Zigelman is awaiting a judge's ruling on whether he will be found in contempt after he invoked "mesira" - the principle that forbids Jews from informing on other Jews - during an appearance in federal court in Los Angeles Wednesday.
Zigelman, 64, of Borough Park, already served a 2-year sentence for his role in a tax fraud scheme that solicited millions in donations and then funneled most of the money back, giving wealthy donors huge tax breaks.
"Everyone who knows anything about Rabbi Zigelman knows that he will never, ever testify," his lawyer, Michael Proctor, told the Daily News.
"For him, it is a matter of his pact with his God," Proctor said. "So what does the Government think it is accomplishing, other than to jail a religious man who has already served his time?"
Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel O'Brien said the religious stance could serve as a "convenient tool" to hide behind, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"Because the transgression of mesira is so dire, my mind won't change until I die," Zigelman, the son of Holocaust survivors, said in court through a Yiddish interpreter, the Times reported.
There is one important issue that wasn't mentioned here at all
ReplyDeleteThis holy hasidic jew already served in prison for his crime and he is just refusing to testify
against other NON HASIDIC jews because the torah does not allow him
What a Kidish Hashem
Only a hasidic jew would do this
So the jew made a pact with GOD to steal and then not inform about the rest of the other jew crooks. What utter BS...this shouldn't even be considered, the judge should put this *** Crook back in prison until he does talk. Religous beliefs should never be part of ANY justice system. Using this ***' logic it's ok for jews to be crooks because they made a deal with GOD. When did GOD start making deals with crooks?
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