More in ‘Syrian Jews’

After the former deputy mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey, was convicted on some corruption charges broken in part by informant Solomon Dwek but exonerated on several other, more serious charges, some are raising questions about prosecutors’ reliance upon Dwek, the Syrian-Jewish scion who turned on many in his community by cooperating with the FBI.
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• Per court order, the IDF is rerouting a portion of the West Bank security barrier, placing 170 additional acres in the Territories. The nearby Palestinian village, Bilin, has been a lodestar of anti-barrier protest. [LAT]
• Mideast envoy Tony Blair will take a more active role alongside envoy George Mitchell in helping facilitate peace talks. ...

• The Jewish Agency for Israel feared Russia would not permit its Board meeting to take place in St. Petersburg, and moved it to Jerusalem at the last minute. The group says Russia told it a couple weeks ago that there were issues with its “legal status.” [JTA]
• Solomon Dwek, who wore a wire to ...

The Syrian Jewish community of Deal, New Jersey, may have been humiliated by the public-corruption investigated by then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie—five prominent rabbis were arrested there over the summer, along with a dozens of politicians and government officials across the state—but voters there didn’t seem to hold a grudge in yesterday’s gubernatorial election. Christie, the ...

It’s no surprise that the road into Deal, New Jersey, the predominantly Syrian Jewish enclave tucked along the Jersey Shore about an hour south of New York City, was littered this morning—like most roads in the state—with campaign signs for today’s gubernatorial election, a high-profile neck-and-neck race between Republican Chris Christie and the Democratic incumbent, ...

Let’s review: Solomon Dwek, the son of a prominent rabbi in the exceedingly insular and tight-knit Syrian Jewish community, gets wrapped up in some unsavory business (specifically, a multimillion-dollar real estate Ponzi scheme involving dozens of properties in northern New Jersey), and winds up getting arrested trying to kite more than $50 million in checks. ...

Solomon Dwek, who helped federal authorities in New Jersey build a wide-ranging corruption investigation that ensnared the chief rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community and a clutch of local politicians, is expected to plead guilty today to federal fraud charges, according to NJ.com.
Dwek, the son of a prominent Syrian rabbi, was arrested in May 2006 ...

Last month, when federal agents arrested five rabbis from the Syrian Jewish community, including Chief Rabbi Saul Kassin, on charges that they used religious charities to launder money for their congregants, some were reminded of a similar 2007 case involving the Spinka sect. Yesterday, the Grand Rabbi of Spinka, Naftali Tzi Weisz, entered his guilty ...

New York has posted an article from next week’s issue by Tablet Magazine editor-in-chief, Alana Newhouse. The subject is Bernard Madoff and New Jersey’s Syrian-Jewish money-laundering ring, and specifically how Jews reconcile the existence of such prominent Jewish wrongdoers with the Tribe’s penchant for believing themselves to be “chosen.” According to Alana, the paradox comes ...

Perhaps the most memorable of the 44 people arrested in last week’s FBI sting was the Orthodox Brooklynite accused of trying to sell a human kidney for $160,000. Such a transaction would violate a U.S. law, similar to those in most developed countries, banning the sale of human organs. A piece in today’s The New ...