Blackmailer of Sharon, Mass. Sex Scandal Rabbi Sentenced
Image by Getty Images
A 31-year-old man was sentenced to four to five years in prison for extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Boston-area rabbi who was having an affair with a male teenager.
Nicholas Zemeitus, who pleaded guilty last month to extortion and larceny for blackmailing Rabbi Barry Starr of Sharon, Massachusetts, also will face three years of probation after he is released from prison, the Boston Globe reported. He was sentenced on Friday.
Zemeitus, who is from the Boston area, had threatened to expose Starr’s two-year affair with a 16-year-old male unless he was paid by the rabbi. Starr resigned a year and a half ago from Temple Israel, a Conservative synagogue in Sharon.
Starr allegedly paid Zemeitus nearly half a million dollars — taken from synagogue funds and borrowed from his congregants. Much of the money came from the rabbi’s discretionary fund, including checks altered by the rabbi. Starr also borrowed thousands of dollars from an elderly congregant, a Holocaust survivor.
Zemeitus claimed to be the older brother of the teen, who was 18 when the affair ended.
Zemeitus said he met the rabbi on Craigslist and then met Starr at his home after an exchange of emails.
Authorities have found no evidence that Starr had sex with minors, according to the Globe. Starr was charged last year with larceny and embezzlement. He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
Starr, a married father of two, is credited with expanding the congregation he served for 28 years to over 600 families. He has served on the Rabbinic Cabinet of the Jewish Theological Seminary and as president of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis, as well as the region’s Rabbinical Assembly.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
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 the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
