Former Minister Benizri's Sentence Reduced

Former Shas minister Shlomo Benizri.

Shlomo Benizri, who helped former President Moshe Katsav get accustomed to prison life, will be released this April after his sentence was reduced by a third.

The Israel Prisons Service parole board decided Monday to reduce the sentence of former minister Shlomo Benizri, a member of the Shas party who was recently sentenced to four years in prison for bribery and other offenses.

The parole board decided to cut Benizri's sentence down by a year and four months, so the former minister is due to be released in April.

The board made the decision after seeing his behavior and lifestyle during his imprisonment, ruling that he is not a problematic inmate. Moreover, since former President Moshe Katsav entered prison after being convicted of rape, Benizri mediated between him and the Israel Prisons Service.

Benizri was jailed in 2009 for four years for bribery, fraud, breach of trust, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to commit a crime.

Two years ago Jerusalem District Court sentenced the former health and social welfare minister to 18 months in prison for a number of violations including accepting bribes, breach of trust and obstructing justice, offenses the court found amounted to moral turpitude. Both Benizri and the state appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, which extended the former lawmaker's sentence to four years.

Benizri was found to have accepted expensive favors from a contractor in exchange for inside information on foreign workers scheduled to arrive in Israel.

In 2010, Benizri submitted a pardon request to President Shimon Peres and Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman.

When Katsav was sentenced to seven years in prison, Benizri was approached and asked to aid the former president to get accustomed to prison life. When Katsav refused to don his orange prison uniform and thus stripped of privileges such as going to the prison canteen, the prison allowed Benizri to go buy products for Katsav.

Report: Attempt to smuggle Assad's wife out of Syria foiled

Asma Assad - escape attempt foiled?

Syrian opposition sources tell Egyptian daily al-Masri al-Youm that Free Syrian Army rebel forces managed to prevent escape of first lady Asma Assad, relatives

Has Bashar Assad's wife been attempting to follow in the footsteps of the wife of Muammar Gadaffi? Egypt's al-Masri al-Youm newspaper reported Sunday that Syrian rebels thwarted an attempt to smuggle Asma Assad, wife of Syrian President Bashar Assad out of the country.

Sources within the Syrian opposition said that the Free Syrian Army forces managed to prevent the escape of the first lady of Syria and additional relatives through Damascus airport.

According to the Egyptian daily, the sources claimed that Asma Assad, her children, Bashar Assad's mother and his cousin were all in a convoy on the way to the airport when rebel forces under the command of a former senior officer in the Syrian army, blocked the their path.

After heavy exchanges of fire, the presidential security forces managed to get the convoy back to the presidential palace. The opposition sources alleged that Assad's security forces pursued the deserter general, Mahmoud Halouf, former head of the Palestine branch of Syrian intelligence.

Tactical withdrawal?

The general's unit, all former soldiers who deserted with him, 300 in total, said that when they saw the convoy the believed it was an attempt to smuggle senior officials out of the country – which is why they blocked the convoy's path.

Meanwhile, Armored forces loyal to President Assad took control on Sunday of eastern suburbs of Damascus that had fallen into opposition control after two days of bombardment and fighting with rebels, activists said.

The Free Syrian Army has made a tactical withdrawal. Regime forces have re-occupied the suburbs and started making house to house arrests," Kamal, one of the activists, said by phone from the eastern Ghouta area on the edge Damascus.

He was referring to army defectors loosely grouped under the Free Syrian Army.

If the report about Asma Assad's attempted escape is true, it would not be the first time during the Arab Spring that relatives of a failing ruler find a way to escape. Last August Muammar Gaddafi's wife and three of his children managed to escape war-torn Libya and reach Algeria. Gaddafi was killed not long after.

'Guardian' slammed for Jewish security article

'Guardian' article published on Holocaust Memorial Day criticized government support for security at Jewish day schools.

LONDON – The Guardian has apologized for the timing of an article that questioned government funding for security for Jewish schools, but has denied that the story was misleading.

The article on Friday attacked Education Minister Michael Gove for awarding a £2 million grant to the Community Security Trust (CST), a Jewish charity that he used to advise, to help pay for security at Jewish schools across the UK.

“CST is astonished that the Guardian chose to mark Holocaust Memorial Day by attacking the funding provided by the government to pay for security at Jewish state schools in England and Wales.

“This funding is provided to protect Jewish schools against terrorism. This is a real threat: Just this week, authorities in Azerbaijan announced that they had foiled a terrorist plot relating to a Jewish school in Baku,” CST said on Friday.

According to CST, the story was misleading because it suggested the Department for Education pays for CST to provide security at Jewish schools, when in fact the money is only administered by CST and distributed to schools that employ their own security guards.

It added that the Guardian did not come to the charity for comment ahead of the article’s publication.

CST said the overwhelming bulk of its funding comes from voluntary donations from the UK Jewish community, and not from the government. It added that it is grateful for the grant and proud of its role facilitating it.

“There is no allowance made for CST’s staff time in administering the funds to each school. In the end the project actually costs CST money, the exact opposite of the impression given by the Guardian.

“If the Guardian had contacted CST for comment before running the story, we could have explained all of this to them,” CST said.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post on Friday, the Guardian said that the story was not misleading, as it included “lengthy” comment from the Department of Education. It said CST was not contacted because the story did not claim that the charity had done anything improper.

“The story does not in any way suggest that the funding of security guards for Jewish schools was inappropriate, only that Mr. Gove should have stood aside from the grant giving process given his relationship with CST,” a spokesman said.

The Guardian said it regretted the timing of the article, saying it was entirely inadvertent.

“It was scheduled for publication on Thursday but pushed back because of the volume of news that day. We should have spotted the unfortunate timing and regret any offense caused,” the spokesman said.

After CST contacted the Guardian, the story was amended to say that the money is distributed to the schools, which then employ the security guards themselves.

“As the trust’s role is essentially administrative, none of the money is retained by the trust or pays for any of the trust’s work,” the paper added.

However, CST said the acknowledgment was not reflected in the headline or opening paragraph, “which has not been amended.”

Questions have also been asked about the source of the story, said David Miller, an academic from a pressure group called Spinwatch that calls for transparency in government.

Miller submitted a report against CST at a hearing for Sheikh Raed Salah – head of the Islamic Movement in Israel’s northern branch who is currently in the UK fighting deportation – questioning the charity’s credibility. His report concluded that CST has “a tendency to treat denunciation of Israel or Zionism as evidence of anti- Semitism.”

The Post has asked Miller for a copy of the report.

“The issue here is not really to do with CST but the conduct of the minister, and need for the government to overhaul its transparency rules and regulations,” Miller told the Post.

Popular London-based blog Harry’s Place accused a website run by Miller of lack of transparency after it reproduced material from a well known neo-Nazi in 2009.

Speaking to the Post, Miller said that after this was pointed out, he personally removed the material, acknowledged it was racist, and issued an apology.

However, Harry’s Place said that there has never been any transparency, asking why the author who used the racist material has not been named and if other postings by that author had been removed.

Author and Daily Telegraph blogger Toby Young said on Saturday that nobody was sacked from Miller’s project “for promoting neo-Nazi anti-Semitism.”

Young said the Guardian article “inadvertently highlights the two biggest weaknesses of Guardian journalists: their knee-jerk opposition to public service reform and their willingness to regurgitate anti-Semitic propaganda. Given that Gove is a conspicuous philo-Semite, I daresay he will continue to be targeted. Let’s hope next time the Guardian doesn’t rely on the likes of David Miller,” Young said.

Last year, Miller co-authored a report, titled the “Cold War on British Muslims”, which attacked the funding of two prominent London think tanks. Attending the launch of the report, blogger Richard Millett accused it of inflating the role of Jewish/Zionist funding of those organizations to imply that Zionists are behind Islamophobia in the UK.

Jane Bashara Husband Is a Person of Interest in Her Death

'Person of interest': Bob Bashara has reportedly failed a lie detector test during four hours of police interrogation. His wife was found strangled in her car

The husband of a suburban Detroit woman who was found strangled to death in the back seat of her Mercedes Benz has been called a “person of interest” in the case.

Bob Bashara and police say he is cooperating with the investigation into the death of his wife, Jane.

Sources told ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV in Detroit that Bob Bashara, the husband of the woman, failed the test administered Friday night.

Police have no official comment on the test.

It’s unthinkable that this happened to her and what she had to suffer,” Bob Bashara said. “I’m doing what I need to do to cooperate with the authorities to find who did this to my wife.

Police investigators from Detroit, where Jane Bashara’s body was found, and Grosse Point Park, where she and her husband lived, are collaborating on the investigation and searched the family’s home Friday night, seizing computer hard drives, taking photographs and leading search dogs through to sniff for evidence.

Also Friday night, band Bob Bashara, 54, was at the police station for an interrogation that lasted four hours.

A tow truck driver found the body of Jane Bashara, 56, Wednesday inside her car, which was parked in an alley on the east side of Detroit, roughly eight miles away from the family home.

Police said they don’t believe the mother of two, a marketing executive, was killed in her car. Her co-workers said they last saw her after a meeting at Detroit Edison’s down headquarters Tuesday.

Police said they believe she made it back to her Grosse Point Park home that night, but her husband said she was not home when he got there around 8 p.m., though the TV was on and her company ID was there. He said he began phoning their children about 11:30 to ask if they’d heard from their mother.

They were just a great couple,” neighbor Alex Jones said of Bob and Jane Bashara, adding that Jane Bashara used to walk him to school when he was a boy. “There’s no doubt in my mind that it was not him.”

According to the Detroit News, Bob Bashara’s SUV license plate reads “Big Bobb” and he is president of the Grosse Pointe Rotary Club and was involved in various charities.

Visitation for Jane Bashara, the first Grosse Point Park resident to be murdered since 1992, according to the News, is scheduled for 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday, and a memorial service is slated for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in Grosse Point Farms.

Rabbi Eliezer Berland Hospitalized at Hadassah

Rabbi Eliezer Berland

Rabbi Eliezer Berland, a leading rabbi in the Breslav movement, faced surgery, Sunday evening, after experiencing pain during Shabbat, although he did not complain about it.

Early Sunday morning, his aides decided unanimously to send him to Hadassah Ein-Kerem hospital, where a series of examinations determined the need for the surgery. Following the procedure, the head of the Shuvu Banim yeshiva is expected to be in the hospital for a number of days.

The public is asked to pray for Rabbi Eliezer ben Atiah. His students were asked to say the Tikun Clali prayer three times in his name.
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הרב אליעזר ברלנד מנהיג קהילת 'שובו בנים - ברסלב' אושפז בבית-חולים.

אמש (מוצאי-שבת) לאחר חצות לילה הרב חש שלא בטוב והובהל לבית-חולים 'הדסה עין-כרם' בירושלים, כשהוא סובל מכאבים פנימיים עזים.

הרב הגיע ברכבו הפרטי יחד עם מקורביו והובהל מיד למחלקת טיפול נמרץ, שם עבר סדרת בדיקות וטיפולים.

בשעות הבוקר (ראשון) התייצב מצבו של הרב והוא הועבר למחלקה פנימית בבית-החולים.

עוד אומר המקורב: "אנחנו מקווים לפי מה שאנחנו מבינים מהרופאים שהרב ישתחרר בימים הקרובים, ומבקשים מהציבור להתפלל לרפואתו - הרב אליעזר בן עטיה".

Florida highway pileup kills at least 10 people

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- A long line of cars and trucks collided one after another early Sunday on a dark Florida highway so shrouded in haze and smoke that drivers were virtually blinded. At least 10 people were killed.

Visibility was so poor that when rescuers first arrived, they could only listen for screams and moans to locate victims, police said. At least 18 people were hurt.

Authorities were still trying to determine what caused the pileup south of Gainesville on Interstate 75, which had been closed for a time because of the mixture of fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire that may have been intentionally set. At least five cars and six tractor-trailers were involved, and some burst into flame.

Photographs of the scene revealed a gruesome aftermath, with twisted, burned-out vehicles scattered across the pavement and smoke still rising above the wreckage. Cars appeared to have smashed into the big rigs and, in one case, a motor home. Some cars were crushed beneath the heavier trucks.

Reporters who were allowed to view the site saw one tractor-trailer that was burned down to its skeleton, charred pages of books and magazines in its cargo area. Bodies were still visible inside a burned-out Grand Prix. The rubber on the tires of every vehicle had burned away, leaving only steel belts.

State police estimated that wreckage was strewn for nearly a mile in both directions.

Steven R. Camps, 23, of Gainesville, said he and some friends were driving home early Sunday morning in separate vehicles.

His friend was ahead of them as they headed toward Gainesville on Interstate 75 and called to warn them of heavy fog and smoke. The friend told Camps he had just seen an accident and warned them to be careful as they approached the Paynes Prairie area just south of Gainesville.

A short time later, Camps said traffic stopped along the northbound lanes because of heavy smoke and fog.

"You couldn't see anything. People were pulling off the road," he said.

Camps said he and his friend began talking to a man in the car stopped next to them about the road conditions, when another vehicle hit them man's car.

Camps said the man's vehicle was crushed under a semi-truck stopped in front of them. Camps said his car was hit twice, but he and his friend were able to jump out. They took cover in the grass on the shoulder of the road.

"You could hear cars hitting each other. People were crying. People were screaming. It was crazy," he said. "If I could give you an idea of what it looked like, I would say it looked like the end of world."

He said cars and trucks were on fire and they could hear explosions as the vehicles burned.

It was happening on both sides of the road, so there was nowhere to go. It blew my mind," he said. "It was like a war zone. It literally looked like someone was picking up cars and throwing them."

At least 18 people were treated at an area hospital.

Dr. Timothy Flynn, chief medical officer for Shands Healthcare at the University of Florida, said three of the six patients being treated in the trauma center needed surgery. Four patients remain in the hospital's emergency room, and eight people have been treated and released.

Flynn said most people had head and chest injuries or broken bones. Those treated at the trauma center had the most serious injuries.

All six lanes of the interstate - which runs virtually the entire length of Florida - remained closed at midday as investigators surveyed the site and firefighters sprayed foam on the wreckage to put out the last of the fires.

It was not clear when the highway would reopen because part of the road melted, Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Patrick Riordan said. That means transportation inspectors have to first sign off on the road before it can open to traffic again.

At some point before the pileup, police briefly closed the highway because of the fog and smoke, which came from a fire in the Paynes Prairie area south of Gainesville. The road was reopened when visibility improved.

Riordan said he was not sure how much time passed between the reopening of the highway and the first crash.

Traffic was being diverted onto U.S. 301 and State Road 27, Riordan said.

Ludie Bond, a Florida Forest Service spokeswoman, said the fire began Saturday, and investigators are determining whether the fire was intentionally set or caused by accident. She said there were no controlled burns in the area and no lightning.

She said the fire had burned 62 acres and was contained but still burning Sunday. She said a similar fire nearby has been burning since mid-November because the dried vegetation is so thick and deep. She said no homes are threatened.

Four years ago, heavy fog and smoke were blamed for another serious crash.

In January 2008, four people were killed and 38 injured in a series of similar crashes on Interstate 4 between Orlando and Tampa, about 125 miles south of Sunday's crash. More than 70 vehicles were involved in those crashes, including one pileup that involved 40 vehicles.

Several dead in multiple crashes on I-75: MyFoxORLANDO.com

Police responding to robbery find 5 dead in Alabama home

Ravenn Carlton, center, wife of one of the five people found dead, is comforted by two people near the scene where five bodies were found inside a house in Birmingham, Ala., on Sunday.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Police officers called early Sunday morning to investigate a possible robbery at a home in Birmingham found five people dead inside, authorities said.

Birmingham Police Sgt. Johnny Williams said the officers arrived at the house around 3:30 a.m. Sunday after getting a call that a robbery was in progress and soon discovered the five victims.

The victims were not immediately identified, and the cause of death was not yet released. No arrests or charges were filed on Sunday morning, but Williams said police launched a homicide investigation.

Brenda Houston, who lives across the street from the west Birmingham house where the bodies were found, said the house had been rented for about a year and a half by a woman in her late 40s and her son and brothers.

"They would speak to us, and that's all we knew," she said. "We didn't know their names but they were always friendly."

Houston, 64, said her street was a quiet one filled with older residents who were friendly with each other. She said there was a constant stream of visitors coming in and out of the home, but that the residents never seemed to cause any disturbances.

"Most people are in a state of shock. They never had any trouble over there," Houston said. "I never seen the police over there. This was really strange that this happened. It wasn't like they were real rowdy."

Brad Pitt Admits: Angelina Jolie & I Want To Get Married

It was revealed that Brad Pitt has made a dramatic U-turn earlier this week, admitting he'd like to wed the mother of his six children, Angelina Jolie.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, the Oscar-nominated actor gushed over his partner of seven years and said: 'I don't think we'll be able to hold out.

But in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning airing tomorrow, the Academy Award nominee went further and admitted that his six children are begging him to propose to In the Land of Blood and Honey director Jolie, 36.

And they want their father to make it official with a piece of jewellery, which Pitt has sensationally agreed to do.

We're getting a lot of pressure from the kids,' Pitt, 48, says. 'It means something to them.

And when his brood of six - Maddox, 10, Pax, 8, Zahara, 7, Shiloh, 5, and Knox and Vivienne, 3 - asked him to 'get mommy a ring,' Pitt said he acquiesced and said: 'Okay, I will! I will.

However, despite his U-turn after saying they wouldn't wed until gay marriage was legal in all US states, he reiterated his support for that right.

But to be in love with someone and be raising a family with someone and want to make that commitment and not be able to is ludicrous, just ludicrous.

On the Ellen DeGeneres show in September, Brad told the host: 'I've said that we would not be getting married until everyone in this county has the right to get married.

We live in this great country that is about freedom. It is defined by our freedom and equality and yet we allow this discrimination to go on everyday and that's not what we're about. That's not what makes us great. Until that is reversed. I just don't get it.

They started dating after starring in the 2004 film, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, while Brad was still married to Friends star Jennifer Aniston.

In April 2005, two months after Jen filed for divorce, the first pictures emerged of the couple together on a beach win Kenya with Ange's son Maddox.

They pair are parents to biological children Shiloh, five, and twins Knox and Vivienne, three.

They also have adopted children Maddox, 11, Pax, eight, and Zahara, six.

Brad, 48, who was nominated for an Academy Award this week for his role in Moneyball, also revealed during the interview the couple may have more children.

We haven’t closed the book on it,' he said.

There’s a really nice balance in the house right now, but if we see the need and get that lightning bolt that says "We can help this person; we could do something here," then absolutely.

He also cleared up rumours on his recent knee injury which saw him using a cane at the Golden Globes two weeks ago.

His best friend George Clooney had been joking about how he hurt himself.

I think George went down the line, making things up.

I was just walking in our backyard, on a hill, carrying my daughter, and I slipped — and it was those parental instincts: me or her. And she’s fine.

Yesterday, Ange, 36, was spotted taking some of the couple's six children to Baskin Robbins for ice-cream.

Their driver pulled up at the drive-thru in the family's black Volvo SUV at the Los Angeles takeaway shop.

Sitting in the front seat, the actress dictating her order.

It is not known what sugary treats she ordered.

It marks the third time the family have been spotted at a fast food joint in recent weeks

Last week, Ange was spotted pulling up to the drive thru at the Hollywood branch of In-N-Out burger.

The Oscar-winning actress leaned over to discuss menu options while a perplexed looking restaurant worker waited to take the order.

One option she may have gone for is the 'Protein Style' burger, which consists of a meat patty, lettuce, tomato and onions without the calorific sugary bun.

Although it was likely she was ordering lunch for her six children.

And the family also contributed to McDonald's recent sales boost, by dining at the restaurant recently.

Over the weekend, Ange was seen out with most of her brood, with daughter Shiloh showing off her new tomboy haircut.

Greg Kelly & rape accuser drank at bar covered in bras

Jeremy’s Ale House is where Greg Kelly, son of NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and co-host of Fox 5’s ‘Good Day New York,’ and the woman who accuses him of rape had drinks the night of the alleged incident.

Bras hang from the ceiling at Jeremy’s Ale House.

The South Street Seaport bar where television host Greg Kelly wooed the woman who accused him of rape is hardly the place for a romantic rendezvous.

Jeremy’s Ale House, a fixture on the East Side waterfront, is a place where cops, construction workers and Wall Street wizards wander in off the cobblestone streets to knock back some brews.

The Front St. tavern — where sources told the Daily News Kelly and his accuser hung out before heading to her lower Manhattan law office on Oct. 8 — offers 21 beers on tap and blares classic rock. It’s a hard-drinking crowd: Beers are served in 32-ounce styrofoam cups, and the empties are stacked on the tables.

On weekends, there’s more of a singles vibe in the bar that once catered to Fulton Fish Market workers with an 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Happy Hour.

During the week, the bar attracts a fair amount of retired firefighters and cops — including some who stop by from 1 Police Plaza, where Kelly’s father sits as commissioner of the NYPD.

One wall is covered with police and fire memorabilia, including a tribute to the heroes of 9/11, while an assortment of signed bras dangle from the ceiling.

On Saturday afternoon, a manager said all the recent NYPD visitors weren’t looking for a cold beer. Detectives stopped by each of the previous three days to inquire about the October meeting between Kelly, 43, and his 30-year-old date.

The investigators asked for any video footage and for a list of workers on duty the night of the alleged attack, he said.

They wanted to know if anyone had seen them together,” said the manager of the bar, in its fifth location since opening in 1973. “They wanted to know if they were drunk.”

The woman, after appearing last Tuesday inside the 13th Precinct stationhouse, told cops that the typically chipper “Good Day New York” co-host raped her while she was in a boozy stupor after a few drinks at Jeremy’s.

Why’d you do that?” she asked Kelly in a phone call, sources said.

The woman — a Long Island native whose identity is being withheld by the Daily News — was impregnated and had an abortion after the late-night sexual encounter, sources told the News.

The paralegal was a philosophy major, according to her Facebook page. In addition to her day job, she waitressed at renowned Red Sox hangout the Hairy Monk on Third Ave. — where her boyfriend was a bartender.

She would just fill in shifts over the summer when the other girls needed time off,” said a former co-worker, describing her as “just a normal person.”

Her online entries for October, when the incident with Kelly occurred, showed nothing out of the ordinary.

There was a picture of her boyfriend, a distance runner, walking to his first day of student-teaching tucked among the otherwise mundane information.

Her brother is a former NYPD Internal Affairs investigator who now works for the crime scene unit.

Kelly, a former Marine fighter jet pilot, has denied the allegation and is cooperating with the Manhattan district attorney’s probe of the case, according to his lawyer.

His father refused to comment at all on the ongoing investigation. Raymond Kelly learned about the charges when the woman’s boyfriend snapped at him during a public event, “Your son ruined my girlfriend’s life.

770 Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue $5 cut

A beggar asks for alms outside the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Some are outraged the synagogue reportedly charges a $5 fee to beg inside, defying Jewish tradition

Beggars must pay seat license

It’s pay to pray at one Brooklyn synagogue.

Down-on-their luck panhandlers at the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in Crown Heights have to follow the 11th Commandment: Fork over $5 for the right to beg inside.

If you want to collect, you have to pay. If you don’t pay, you go on the street. It’s very simple,” said one outraged panhandler. “Poor people collecting money have to pay? It’s like extortion.

The beggars either position themselves by the stairwell, in the lobby, or inside the prayer area of the monolithic, four-story brick temple, which stands alongside the original Lubavitch synagogue.

All said they are unemployed, live nearby, and sometimes attend services at the bustling temple, where hundreds come to pray from morning until night every day.

They say their right to panhandle in the house of worship comes from a higher authority — Jewish law, which allows begging in synagogues and public events, including weddings, where food is set aside for beggars and uninvited guests.

But instead of a helping hand, Rabbi Avrohom Holtzberg, a synagogue administrator known as a gabbai, looks for a handout, the panhandlers said.

It’s like graft, payola,” charged a second beggar. “It’s embarrassing that you have to beg, and the fact they won’t help you is embarrassing — you’d think your rabbi would help you.”

“I can’t afford it — I only make about $40 a day,” the man added, saying he refuses to pay up, and instead stations himself outside the Eastern Parkway synagogue.

If they don’t comply inside, they’re shown the door and warned that if they don’t leave, the police will remove them, beggars said.

The policy has left the beggars with a sour taste in their mouths — and less cash in their frayed pockets.

They feel like we use this place a lot, so they want a percentage,” said Steven, a third beggar, who would only give his first name.

Synagogue administrators did not respond to a Post inquiry, but some congregants denied that such a policy exists.

It’s a lie from top to bottom!” said worshipper Mendel Drizin. “These rabbis are not poor people — they don’t need the $5 for people to beg inside.”

Beggars told the blog Failed Messiah that they were being slapped with a $5 fee because the congregation is “losing too much money” to the panhandlers. The policy has been in place for at least a year and a half, but only recently began to be enforced, beggars said.

There are some of these guys who are legitimate, but a lot of them are disrupting the congregants,” a worshipper who wished to remain anonymous told The Post. “These [beggars] stay here for 12 hours. They don’t want them there.”