Ring of Observant Jewish Drug Dealers Refused to Work on Shabbat

Strange Hours: Police noticed that members of a drug ring told customers not to come by during Shabbat hours. Image by Getty Images

By Renee Ghert-Zand September 10, 2013

Law enforcement took note that the members of a drug ring in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn were keeping unusual hours. What drew attention was not when the pushers were doing business, but rather when they weren’t.

According to the New York Daily News, a group of apparently Jewish men have been indicted for running a shomer Shabbos drug operation. The sellers of oxycodone, cocaine and heroin sent messages to clients warning them not to come by between sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday.

“We are closing 7:30 on the dot and we will reopen saturday 8:15 so if u need anything you have 45mins to get what you want,” read one text message they blasted on Friday to clients. In another message, they wrote that business was “closed for Shabbat.”

The men may be observant of Jewish law, but the secular authorities don’t see anything kosher about their allegedly criminal behavior.

Prosecutors charged David Gerowitz, Philip Mandel, Eduard Sorin, Jack Zaibak, Jack Zibak, and Aaron Dombroff with criminal sale of a controlled substance. Zibak, Zaibak, Sorin and Gerowitz were also charged with criminal possession of a weapon, as they were found not only with hundreds of thousands of dollars of illegal drugs and stolen prescription pads, but also a sawed-off shotgun.

Sorin, a Russian citizen with a previous federal drug-related conviction, was arraigned Tuesday and entered a not guilty plea. Mandel has not posted bail and is in jail. The others are out on bail pending arraignment.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO