The Crimes of Father Amaro - A Review for ad rian

[ad rian]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareofnick

 

November 23, 2002

Rabbi Gets Jail, Not Death, for Hired Murder of Wife

By ROBERT HANLEY

 

 

REEHOLD, N.J., Nov. 22 — A jury spared the life of a prominent South Jersey rabbi today, sentencing him to 30 years to life in prison after he pleaded with them not to give him the death penalty for arranging the murder of his wife eight years ago.

 

The 12 jurors, who convicted the rabbi, Fred J. Neulander, of murder-for-hire and two other charges on Wednesday, deliberated today for nearly two hours but could not agree on a death sentence. Under New Jersey law, which requires a unanimous verdict for the death penalty, the lesser sentence was automatically imposed.

 

Today's verdict closed a legal marathon that included two trials, the first ending in the fall of last year with a hung jury. The case exposed the double life of a popular clergyman who led one of the largest temples in South Jersey while conducting at least two adulterous love affairs.

 

His determination to free himself for one of those romances, with a Philadelphia radio personality, was the reason prosecutors say Rabbi Neulander promised a friend $30,000 to kill his wife, Carol, a successful bakery owner, and make the crime look like a result of a robbery.

 

Rabbi Neulander, 61, must serve at least 30 years before he is eligible for parole in the killing of Mrs. Neulander, 52, who was found bludgeoned to death in their home in Cherry Hill, N.J., on Nov. 1, 1994.

 

This morning, he gave an elaborate 22-minute speech to the jury, asking them to spare his life and send him to prison, where he promised he would teach inmates to read. The remarks were framed as a sermon, laden with biblical references and delivered at times in lecturing tones.

 

There was no indication whether his plea moved the jury to show mercy; one juror said afterward that he was put off by the speech.

 

Rabbi Neulander told the jury he loved his wife and said they had looked forward to growing old together. Referring to his adultery, he said his behavior had been reprehensible and disgraceful. "Note that that's a theological word, disgraceful," the rabbi said. "And yet you must believe I loved her and love her."

 

He did not express any remorse. Rabbi Neulander has contended for years that he had no involvement in the killing by the friend, Leonard Jenoff, who has pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter. The state law for such appeals to the jury does not allow convicted murderers to challenge the verdict or any of the state's evidence.

 

As the jury forewoman read the sentence, Rabbi Neulander remained composed and placid, as he had throughout the trial, clenching his fingers and bowing his head for a split second. The presiding judge, Linda G. Baxter, set formal sentencing for Jan. 16 in Superior Court here.

 

The rabbi's first trial, in Camden, drew so much news media attention — and interference with the jury, according to Judge Baxter — that she moved the second 50 miles away to this quaint seat of Monmouth County.

 

The coverage only increased, and this week brought the revelation by The Philadelphia Daily News that the rabbi had developed a close relationship with the woman known as Miss Vicki, the former wife of the falsetto singer Tiny Tim.

 

At both trials, a double portrait of the rabbi emerged. On one hand, there was the revered clergyman who founded a Reform synagogue, Congregation M'Kor Shalom in Cherry Hill, built it into one of the largest temples in South Jersey, and developed a reputation as a commanding preacher.

 

At the same time, Rabbi Neulander admitted that he had had extramarital affairs. Other testimony revealed he had used a friend who had once served time in federal prison for food stamp fraud to funnel an illegal, usurious $5,000 loan to a businessman, charging him $500 in interest after only one month. The parade of witnesses against the rabbi included two of his three children and his former mistress Elaine Soncini, the former radio host. A friend of Rabbi Neulander's testified that the rabbi had once told him he wished he would come home and find his wife dead.

 

But the rabbi's chief accuser and accomplice, Mr. Jenoff, had just as troubling a past. In both trials, the rabbi's lawyers attacked the credibility of Mr. Jenoff, 56, who admitted on the witness stand that he had repeatedly lied. He and Paul Daniels, 28, a schizophrenic drug addict who aided him in killing the rabbi's wife, are to to be sentenced on Jan. 23, a week after Rabbi Neulander.

 

Mr. Jenoff faces a prison term of up to 30 years, and Mr. Daniels could get up to 50 years.

 

Today, both the state's prosecutor, James P. Lynch, and Mrs. Neulander's sister, Margaret Miele, expressed satisfaction with the rabbi's life sentence and praised the jurors who had imposed it. Of Mrs. Neulander, Mr. Lynch said, "She was a fine, fine person who was killed for no good reason."

 

Before the jurors' deliberations, Mr. Lynch asked them to consider the facts, the law and the dictates of their consciences, but never explicitly asked for the death sentence.

 

"It's unseemly to demand of citizens that they put a fellow citizen to death," he said later in a news conference, adding that a juror's rendering a death sentence is a "uniquely personal" decision. It may also, in New Jersey, be a moot one: although the state reinstated the death penalty in 1982, court rulings and appeals have prevented any executions.

 

The defense lawyer, Michael E. Riley, who plans to appeal the guilty verdict, told the jury that several mitigating factors argued against the death penalty: the rabbi's age, his years of service to his community, his lack of a previous criminal record and the prospect that he could help fellow inmates.

 

One of the jury's five women said that members had decided before deliberations began today that they would write their votes for death or life imprisonment on scraps of paper from a yellow legal pad that court officials provided. After the forewoman collected the votes, she began opening them one at a time.

 

The first was for death, the second for imprisonment, said the juror, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "We stopped the count then," she said. "We flushed the others down the toilet. We had agreed not to find out how anybody else had voted because we didn't want to put pressure on anybody."

 

The juror explained that she and the others had "shed many tears" during their 27 hours of deliberation on their guilty verdict.

 

"We did a very thorough job of examining every piece of evidence several times before we reached a verdict," she said. She said the jury took a single vote on guilt or innocence, and all 12 voted to convict.

 

The woman declined to say if she had voted for the death penalty, but she said jurors were impressed during the first day of the penalty hearing Thursday by a letter that the rabbi's former assistant at M'Kor Shalom, Rabbi Gary Mazo, wrote appealing for Rabbi Neulander's life.

 

"He used the word repentance when he was asking us to spare Rabbi Neulander's life," she said. "That is my hope for Rabbi Neulander; that he would come to repentance."

 

One of the jury's seven men expressed disappointment today with the rabbi's appeal to the jury. "Personally, I had a problem with him saying he loved his wife and still loves her," said the man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "He didn't say anything about the children growing up without their mother. There were no apologies made."

 

Rabbi Neulander made one oblique reference to forgiveness in his remarks to the jury. He said the privilege of teaching prison inmates would provide him with redemption and atonement.

 

He called the eight years between the murder in 1994 and his conviction on Wednesday a "dark, unproductive, diminished" time, and appealed for a future of teaching illiterate prison inmates to read and appreciate books. "That's all I want is that opportunity to teach," he said.

[Guest Bitchboy]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareofnick

 

I was thrilled to see that Neulander was convicted of this heinous murder. His "hung jury" first time around denied the existence of some of the most damning evidence. Having watched two of his three children testify against Neulander was a heartwrenching sight. Particularly, testimony of his oldest son, Dr. Matthew Neulander, obviously convinced of his father's guilt, was a passionate instance of real human drama. Thank God justice was done in this horrific case.

 

Now if we could get as much justice for the children abused and scarred for life by the few (but far too many) clergy who use their collars as a means to satisfy their debauched natures, we'd be doing something the stop these hedonistic clerics of all faiths from placing themselves above the law.

[ad rian]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareofnick

 

>Now if we could get as much justice for the children abused

>and scarred for life by the few (but far too many) clergy who

>use their collars as a means to satisfy their debauched

>natures, we'd be doing something the stop these hedonistic

>clerics of all faiths from placing themselves above the law.

 

Has the rabbi been "defrocked"? Has his Congregation paid compensation to his victims?

[phage]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

This is the silliest thing I have seen you post on this subject to date.

 

If Catholic priests occasionally murdered a family member or priest-wife and the Church was called upon to compensate the victim’s family then you might have a point. This is not even remotely the same as priests who prey upon the children of their congregation and then receive protection from Church leaders in order to avoid bad press.

 

Of course every religion has its bad apples, but you will never ever be able to make a case that there is similar scope or institutionalized collusion in any other religion.

[trilingual]

Eça de Queiroz

 

The original novel, "The Crime of Father Amaro" is even more bitter, in its way, than the film. I'm amazed Eça got away with it in 19th Century Portugal.

 

Eça de Queiroz, by the way, is a brilliant writer. It's worth reading whatever of his works you can find in translation, if you can't read Portuguese. Besides "Father Amaro", his magnum opus is "The Maias," a multi-generational tale of an attractive, aristocratic family in decline, paralleling the decline of 19th Century Portuguese aristocratic society into sordid decadence. I don't think "The Maias" is in print anymore in English, but you can get it from a public library (you may have to ask for it through interlibrary loan). Eça's a good read. He's a remarkably sardonic observer; if Jane Austen had been male and writing in late 19th Century Portugal, you'd have Eça! Hardly anyone escapes being skewered by him! I also can't help wondering if Eça was gay. His descriptions of male beauty, and his meticulous attention to matters of decor and women's dress and fashion, raise my suspicions. . .

[ad rian]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

>Of course every religion has its bad apples, but you will

>never ever be able to make a case that there is similar scope

>or institutionalized collusion in any other religion.

 

So is that a "yes"? Has the good rabbi been "defrocked"? Has his Congregation paid compensation to the victims? Will I find some institutional repudiation of rabbis slaughtering their wives? If so, please share a link to one. If not, your csase for collusion might be just a tad premature or self-righteous, n'est ce pas?

[phage]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

Go ahead, just ignore the previous paragraph that said your question was ridiculous and repeat yourself endlessly. The truth is I don’t know or care whether he was defrocked. I’m not Jewish and don’t even know what kind of leadership structure they have or if there is something comparable to being defrocked or excommunicated. However, I’m sure that if it’s discovered that there has been hundreds of these cases and the Rabbis have just been reassigned to hide their crimes, I’ll hear as much about it as I have the Catholic scandal.

[ad rian]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

>However, I’m sure that if

>it’s discovered that there has been hundreds of these cases

>and the Rabbis have just been reassigned to hide their crimes,

>I’ll hear as much about it as I have the Catholic scandal.

 

On that we agree. I checked a few sites - American Jewish Congress, American Jewish Committee, Union of American Hebrew Congregations and Central Conference of American Rabbis - I did a search for "Neulander", but did not find one single reference. That does seem strange to me, but it underscores the points I have made here consistently: (1) we should not generalize about these incidents to tar an entire group; (2) no one religion has a monopoly on deviancy or denial. Funny, that two such simple points elict such strong responses.

[trilingual]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

>(1) we should not

>generalize about these incidents to tar an entire group; (2)

>no one religion has a monopoly on deviancy or denial. Funny,

>that two such simple points elict such strong responses.

 

It's constantly amazing how "ad rian" doesn't ever get the point.

 

1) Anger about the pederasty problem in the Catholic Church isn't directed against a group (i.e., all Catholics). It's directed against an institution (the Church itself) which has deliberately sheltered, protected and covered up for the perpetrators. Given the hierarchical structure of the Church, it bears institutional responsibility for the actions of its clergy, especially when sexual abuse of minors by clergy members took place in the context of religious activities.

 

2) Of course no religion has a monopoly on deviancy or denial. However, I can't think of any other organized religion except the Roman Catholic Church where deviancy and denial have become systemic lately, to the point that they are destroying the institution from within.

 

As for the murdering rabbi: I'm not sure it's possible to revoke a rabbi's ordination. Once ordained, always ordained. (Although I'm sure there are exceptions to that rule in Jewish law; I just don't know what they are.) Being ordained doesn't mean that a rabbi who does something egregious will keep his job, or will ever be able to find another pulpit after doing something beyond the pale. American Judaism is organized congregationally. Rabbis are hired and fired by the congregations they serve. There's no "higher authority" in charge. Rabbis get fired by congregations all the time, for actions far less outrageous than murdering their spouses. In Rabbi Neulander's case, there's no connection between his congregation and his actions. He wasn't acting in his capacity as a congregational leader when he arranged for his wife's murder, and there's no evidence that the congregation was in any way complicit in his crime by trying to protect him or cover up for him. There have been cases where a rabbi took advantage of his official position to seduce members of the congregation who came to him for rabbinical counseling, and in those cases there have been settlements with the victims on behalf of the congregation. (That would be more comparable to the current situation in the Catholic Church than Rabbi Neulander's crime.)

 

Except in some ultra-Orthodox sects, excommunication doesn't exist in modern Judaism because there's no central authority which can carry out such an act. Even among the ultra-Orthodox, excommunication doesn't mean the same thing as it does in Christianity. As there is no such thing as communion in Judaism, you can't be excluded from it (thereby imperiling your chance for salvation). Jewish "excommunication," where it exists, is in the nature of "shunning." You get excluded from the community, but that doesn't kick you out of the religion. The only way to stop being Jewish is to explicitly renounce the faith yourself, usually (but not always) by converting to another religion. Merely being non-observant doesn't exclude a person from the Jewish community.

[ad rian]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

>Rabbis get fired by congregations all the time, for

>actions far less outrageous than murdering their spouses. In

>Rabbi Neulander's case, there's no connection between his

>congregation and his actions. He wasn't acting in his

>capacity as a congregational leader when he arranged for his

>wife's murder, and there's no evidence that the congregation

>was in any way complicit in his crime by trying to protect him

>or cover up for him. There have been cases where a rabbi took

>advantage of his official position to seduce members of the

>congregation who came to him for rabbinical counseling, and in

>those cases there have been settlements with the victims on

>behalf of the congregation. (That would be more comparable to

>the current situation in the Catholic Church than Rabbi

>Neulander's crime.)

 

See we can agree after all. Perhaps it is the lawyer in me, and I have to admit that I did not watch the entirety of both trials, but there appears to have been evidence on the part of the Congregation of his extra-marital affairs and other mental abuse of his spouse. It also appears to me that the good rabbi continued to speak to people with the authority of a rabbi right up until andincluding his elocution to the jury in the death penalty phase. Furthermore, his Congregation could very well have spoken up before the rendering of the verdict in the death penalty phase. I could see some theories of liability that might reach his Congregation, but admittedly that might be more likely with a Mississsippi rather than NJ Jury.

 

More fundamentally though I would ask why it is fair to assume that abuse by RC priests occurs while they were acting in their capacity as a priests while conceding that in the case of Neulander "He wasn't acting in his capacity as a congregational leader when he arranged for his wife's murder"? I think that is precisely the distinction that the RC church draws and why they want to treat the sickness.

 

>Except in some ultra-Orthodox sects, excommunication doesn't

>exist in modern Judaism because there's no central authority

>which can carry out such an act.

 

Nor would I expect that to be the case, but that is very different from asking whether a rabbi's title can or should be rescinded as I gather is one prevalent request in the RC priest sex abuse cases.

[Guest Bitchboy]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

I assume by now anyone can see that ad rian, while apparently living in society as a normal person, is completely insane. Any of you who bother engaging in a dialogue with an insane person deserve what you get.

[ad rian]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

>I assume by now anyone can see that ad rian, while apparently

>living in society as a normal person, is completely insane.

>Any of you who bother engaging in a dialogue with an insane

>person deserve what you get.

 

Name calling when you disagree or can't defend your own views is really the most convincing form of argumentation isn't it?

[Guest tcd31]

A point of information and clarification, although off topic from the main subject of your post:

 

>It also became the country's biggest box office hit --

>and the official nominee in Oscar's best foreign language film

>category. Talk about blasphemy . . . how can they have passed

>over "Y Tu Mama Tambien," one of the best films of the year,

>for a so-so picture that has a lot in common with the soap

>operas on Telemundo?

>

 

Y Tu Mama Tambien was not "passed over". It was released in Mexico in 2001 and it was Mexico's 2001 entry into the Academy Awards. That Oscar voters didn't make it one of the 5 finalists is unfortunate, but given their track record unsurprising. Now, The Crimes of Fr. Amaro, released in 2002 in Mexico, will be its entrant into the awards cycle that we're in now.

 

The Crimes of Fr. Amaro has been that popular in Mexico partly because it incorporates the melodramatic conventions of fotonovelas, Telemundo, etc. This mixture of serious social criticism with heavy-breathing melodrama may be hard for those of us accustomed to art films to take.

[BewareofNick]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

>>I assume by now anyone can see that ad rian, while

>apparently

>>living in society as a normal person, is completely insane.

>

>>Any of you who bother engaging in a dialogue with an

>insane

>>person deserve what you get.

>

>Name calling when you disagree or can't defend your own views

>is really the most convincing form of argumentation isn't

>it?

>

 

No, but responding to a movie review with more anti-Jewish drivel certainly is.

[ad rian]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

>>Name calling when you disagree or can't defend your own

>views

>>is really the most convincing form of argumentation isn't

>>it?

>>

>

>No, but responding to a movie review with more anti-Jewish

>drivel certainly is.

 

Oh, then what was the purpose of putting my name in the title? And while you are at it, please tell us why discussing a rabbi who murdered his wife is anti-jewish drivel? Do you have something to hide? Can you not take a punch, or can you only throw them?

[Guest fukamarine]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

>Oh, then what was the purpose of putting my name in the

>title? And while you are at it, please tell us why discussing

>a rabbi who murdered his wife is anti-jewish drivel? Do you

>have something to hide? Can you not take a punch, or can you

>only throw them?

 

ad rian - dear child - give it a rest - please!

 

fukamarine

[ad rian]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

>ad rian - dear child - give it a rest - please!

 

Let me get this straight. I am attacked. I respond. But you want me to give it a rest? Hmmh! Sorry, there is a limit to respecting my elders!

[Guest fukamarine]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

>>ad rian - dear child - give it a rest - please!

>

>Let me get this straight. I am attacked. I respond. But

>you want me to give it a rest? Hmmh! Sorry, there is a limit

>to respecting my elders!

 

 

fukamarine

[BewareofNick]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

>>>Name calling when you disagree or can't defend your own

>>views

>>>is really the most convincing form of argumentation isn't

>>>it?

>>>

>>

>>No, but responding to a movie review with more anti-Jewish

>>drivel certainly is.

>

>Oh, then what was the purpose of putting my name in the

>title? And while you are at it, please tell us why discussing

>a rabbi who murdered his wife is anti-jewish drivel? Do you

>have something to hide? Can you not take a punch, or can you

>only throw them?

>

The point of putting your name in the title was to show that you are incapable of responding to anything without going into one of your anti-Jew frenzies. Thanks for proving my point. Pavlov would be proud.

[trilingual]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

> The point of putting your name in the title was to show that

>you are incapable of responding to anything without going into

>one of your anti-Jew frenzies. Thanks for proving my point.

>Pavlov would be proud.

 

Not just Pavlov. How about Krafft-Ebing? ;-) If you find his ravings amusing, check out the anti-Semitic-one's antics in the "Escorts South of the U.S.A." board. He's in full eruption over there, too! Honestly, you could start a perfectly innocuous thread on doughnut recipes and our own little resident disciple of Dr. Goebbels would find a way to turn it into a Jew-baiting screed. . . But that's OK. Every one of his posts just exposes him more and more. However, it's now safe to reveal that the Elders of Zion have got his number, and they're going to be pulling his plug at any moment. After all, he can't go on bad-mouthing the owners of all the banks and the media and the internet and everything else and think he can get away with it. . .

[ad rian]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

> The point of putting your name in the title was to show that

>you are incapable of responding to anything without going into

>one of your anti-Jew frenzies. Thanks for proving my point.

>Pavlov would be proud.

 

Any time you want to exp;lain why you think that talking about a rabbi killing his wife at the same time as you talk about priests who abuse is antisemitic, I am ready to listen. Me thinks you dost protest too much. Are you embarassed by your people?

[ad rian]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

>He's in full

>eruption over there, too! Honestly, you could start a

>perfectly innocuous thread on doughnut recipes and our own

>little resident disciple of Dr. Goebbels would find a way to

>turn it into a Jew-baiting screed. . . But that's OK. Every

>one of his posts just exposes him more and more.

 

It is clear that you want to live in a world where you can criticize other religions with impunity, while your own gets scant treatment. I am not surprised that a man trained with that expectation would in another lounge brook no criticism of his ideas about ripping off escorts when travelling abroad. Ok Shylock, we know where you are coming from. To paraphrase Orwell, "[t]he creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say" which was Goebbels and which was Shylock.

[Guest fukamarine]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

>Any time you want to exp;lain why you think that talking

>about a rabbi killing his wife at the same time as you talk

>about priests who abuse is antisemitic, I am ready to listen.

>Me thinks you dost protest too much. Are you embarassed by

>your people?

 

Not nearly as much as I'm embarassed by you!

 

fukamarine

[BewareofNick]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

This

is

a

movie

review

 

It

has

nothing

to

do

with

Jews

 

Try

discussing

the

topic

at

hand

instead

of

hijacking

the

thread

into

another

anti-Jew

frenzy

[ad rian]

RE: The Crimes of Rabbi Neulaner - A Review for Bewareo...

 

Try to avoid refering to me in the titles of your posts, and I'll try not to point out your hypocrisy!