A follower of the New Square grand rebbe knows he’s going to state prison for severely burning a village dissident during an arson assault, but the number of years behind bars will be revealed by the judge during Tuesday’s sentencing at the Rockland County Courthouse in New City.
Shaul Spitzer, 18, faces five to 10 years for first-degree assault in the attack on Aron Rottenberg at 4:15 a.m. May 22 during an attempt to burn down the family’s home on Truman Avenue in New Square.
Rottenberg, 44, once a plumber, continues to recover from third-degree burns over 50 percent of his body, suffered when Spitzer set off an incendiary device while grappling with Rottenberg. Spitzer suffered burns to his hands and arms.
Before Spitzer pleaded guilty Feb. 8, state Supreme Court Justice William A. Kelly told the teenager that he would cap his prison term at 10 years.
The violent felony assault charge carries a sentence range of five to 25 years for a first-time offender.
Kelly came down from his original 15-year cap after Rottenberg suggested leniency and the Rockland prosecutors offered 10 years.
Spitzer’s lawyers optimistically hope for five years, allowing Spitzer to get out earlier with good behavior. He’s being represented by former Rockland County District Attorney Kenneth Gribetz and former prosecutor Deborah Wolikow Loewenberg of New City, as well as Paul Shectman of Manhattan.
“We’re appealing to the court and will be asking the court to render the minimum sentence of five years,” Gribetz said. “Five years is a hard sentence for anyone. But for a young man who has lived in New Square for his entire life, the sentence will be even tougher.”
Prosecutor Stephen Moore will call for the 10-year sentence agreed to when Spitzer pleaded guilty, District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said.
In the autumn months of 2010 before arson attack, mobs of New Square followers of grand rebbe David Twersky had protested outside the homes of Rottenberg and several other families in the 57-year-old Skver Hasidic Jewish community.
Rottenberg and other dissident residents became targets when they bucked the stringent rabbinical rules and prayed outside the village’s synagogue on the Sabbath. They prayed with the patients at the Friedwald House rehabilitation center on New Hempstead Road.
Rottenberg became a symbol for some younger residents who desire independence from the rigid social rules set by Twersky.
Others have thought Rottenberg was wrong to challenge Twersky, contending he chose to live in New Square and should abide by the rabbi’s rules.
Rottenberg and others had their car and house windows smashed. At least one family moved out of the village.
Rottenberg said his daughter was kicked out of school, his plumbing business boycotted and efforts to sell his house blocked by the religious theocracy that controls the village and answers to Twersky.
Rottenberg negotiated a peace with the community’s religious hierarchy. He had hoped to be left alone to sell his house and move out if he kept silent about the pressure and other issues within the community.
The peace lasted for several months until about week before the arson attack, during which time Rottenberg has said he received threatening telephone calls.
He had installed surveillance cameras, and his son monitored the camera early one morning when a man tossed an incendiary device on the back porch. Rottenberg confronted the masked man, who turned out to be Spitzer.
Spitzer worked as a butler for the grand rebbe and lived in his home. At one point, Rottenberg and his family blamed Twersky for inciting Spitzer and the violence.
Spitzer admitted during his guilty plea that he acted because of Rottenberg’s defiance of the grand rebbe’s edict that all his followers pray in the community’s only synagogue on Truman Avenue, down the block from Rottenberg’s home.
Gribetz said Spitzer is remorseful and contrite.
The religious leadership has urged the grand rebbe’s followers to pray that Spitzer doesn’t go to prison or gets a light sentence, residents have said of the letters posted in the synagogue.
Just last month, another New Square resident set fire to Rottenberg’s car during Purim. Aron Fromowitz, 22, who works in Twersky’s kitchen, once prayed with Rottenberg at the Friedwald house and his uncle was forced to leave the community for following Rottenberg.
Rottenberg said there was no connection to the Spitzer attack and that Aron Fromowitz was drunk celebrating Purim and took issue with Rottenberg lecturing him on drinking.
Fromowitz is scheduled to return to New Square Village Court on May 21. He is charged with felony counts of third-degree arson and second-degree criminal mischief.
After Spitzer pleaded guilty, Rottenberg’s son-in-law Moshe Elbaum said Rottenberg’s main concern was his family.
Rottenberg reached a settlement of his civil lawsuit with Twersky and Spitzer for about $2 million.
Elbaum said the settlement brought assurances from the community’s leaders that they will respect his religious rights to pray wherever he wants, allow him to sell his Truman Avenue house and permit him to send his children to any school without interference.
“We have to move on with our lives,” Elbaum said at the time. “He’s going to prison, and he’s going to pay for what he did.”
Rottenberg and other dissident residents became targets when they bucked the stringent rabbinical rules and prayed outside the village’s synagogue on the Sabbath. They prayed with the patients at the Friedwald House rehabilitation center on New Hempstead Road.
Rottenberg became a symbol for some younger residents who desire independence from the rigid social rules set by Twersky. Others have thought Rottenberg was wrong to challenge Twersky, contending he chose to live in New Square and should abide by the rabbi’s rules.
Rottenberg and others had their car and house windows smashed. At least one family moved out of the village.
Rottenberg said his daughter was kicked out of school, his plumbing business boycotted and efforts to sell his house blocked by the religious theocracy that controls the village and answers to Twersky.
Rottenberg negotiated a peace with the community’s religious hierarchy. He had hoped to be left alone to sell his house and move out if he kept silent about the pressure and other issues within the community.
The peace lasted for several months until about week before the arson attack, during which time Rottenberg has said he received threatening telephone calls.
He had installed surveillance cameras, and his son monitored the camera early one morning when a man tossed an incendiary device on the back porch. Rottenberg confronted the masked man, who turned out to be Spitzer.
Spitzer worked as a butler for the grand rebbe and lived in his home. At one point, Rottenberg and his family blamed Twersky for inciting Spitzer and the violence.
Spitzer admitted during his guilty plea that he acted because of Rottenberg’s defiance of the grand rebbe’s edict that all his followers pray in the community’s only synagogue on Truman Avenue, down the block from Rottenberg’s home.
Gribetz said Spitzer is remorseful and contrite.
“He knows there’s no excuse for what he did,” Gribetz said. “Without being overly dramatic, he cries and prays every day for Aron Rottenberg to recover.”
Just last month, another New Square resident set fire to Rottenberg’s car during Purim. Aron Fromowitz, 22, who works in Twersky’s kitchen, once prayed with Rottenberg at the Friedwald house and his uncle was forced to leave the community for following Rottenberg.
Rottenberg said there was no connection to the Spitzer attack and that Aron Fromowitz was drunk celebrating Purim and took issue with Rottenberg lecturing him on drinking.
Fromowitz is scheduled to return to New Square Village Court on May 21. He is charged with felony counts of third-degree arson and second-degree criminal mischief.
After Spitzer pleaded guilty, Rottenberg’s son-in-law Moshe Elbaum said Rottenberg’s main concern was his family.
Rottenberg reached a settlement of his civil lawsuit with Twersky and Spitzer for about $2 million.
Elbaum said the settlement brought assurances from the community’s leaders that they will respect his religious rights to pray wherever he wants, allow him to sell his Truman Avenue house and permit him to send his children to any school without interference.
“We have to move on with our lives,” Elbaum said at the time. “He’s going to prison, and he’s going to pay for what he did.”
the wrong person is being sent to prison,it is the godfather Twersky himself who should be behind bars,this is the second time that this gangster has someone else taking the fall for him,
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