Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Kosher Meals Not Kosher Enough for Pedophile

When most inmates complain about jail food, they’re told — literally — to eat it up. Not Baruch Lebovits. The disgraced Satmar hasid, who was convicted of sexually molesting a teenage boy, is getting kosher food from a store in Queens delivered to his cell at Rikers Island, according to the New York Post – even though the jail already provides kosher catering for Jewish inmates.

Lebovits apparently complained that Rikers’ kosher offerings “hadn’t had proper rabbinical supervision,” the Post reported. Last week, “a Rikers jail captain was ordered to pick up $60 worth of glatt kosher canned meals for the sicko, including Salisbury steak, stuffed shells, cheese ravioli and barbecued chicken wings from Alle Processing in Maspeth, Queens,” the newspaper fumed.

“Lebovits’ adherence to holy law,” the Post noted, “apparently didn’t preclude repeatedly sexually abusing a 16-year-old classmate of his son, a heinous crime for which he was sentenced in March to up to 32 years in prison.”

As disturbing as the Post story were some of the reader comments it elicited. “He need [sic] a kosher noose around his kosher neck,” wrote “bobbyt.” “shlomo-dee” claimed, “hasidics are well connected with city hall.” And “MichaelGourdine,” a reader claiming to be a former cop, implied Orthodox Jews get favorable treatment across the board:

“AS a N.Y.C. Police Officer assigned to Brooklyns Criminal court section. I did all kinds of favors for Rabbis I won’t name. I would rush them through the sysytem [sic] and have their paperwork on the “Bridge” before judge Karopkin or Delory in 2 hours while everyone else would be sleeping on the floor like sardines for up to three days waiting to see a judge. I would go get them kosher food from lee avenue in williamsburg. Let them make long distance phone calls to Isreal and all sorts of things…….They sure do know how to return a favor.”

Stephen Morello, a Department of Corrections spokesperson, did not return the Forward’s request for comment.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

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.

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. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.