Zirkind, Money Laundering, Chabad, Drug Cartels, US, Canada, etc.etc.

Update: Rabbi Zalmund Zirkind was sentenced to 84 months for Money Laundering and was denied trips to Montreal. Using a lack of appropriate education to excuse his crimes seemed to fall on deaf ears.

Reprinted with Permission of the Author:

FEDS BUST NARCO MONEY LAUNDERING RABBI RING

 January 14, 2021  Larry Noodles 

In 2014 Canadian Rabbi Mark Zirkind was caught speeding on a highway leading to Montreal. Mark had just flown into the Toronto airport and was heading back to Montreal in a rental car. Mark had picked up over a million dollars in cash from an international narco drug dealer at a shopping mall near the Toronto airport. Lesson to learn from Mark: If you have over a million dollars in narco cash you should obey the traffic laws.

Mark got busted by the Canadian Mounties and went to trial. At trial Mark claimed that he was duped by rabbis and narco dealers. Mark thought he was transporting “Shoah Gelt.” Mark told the Canadian jury that he thought he was delivering cash for safekeeping for Jews in Europe who were afraid of a second Holocaust. Mark told the jury that he was doing a mitzvah. The jury didn’t believe Mark. Mark got sentenced to four years in a Canadian prison in Saskatchewan where he learned how to smoke salmon and tan pelts.

Rabbi Mark enlisted his American brother Rabbi Zalman Zirkind to help him launder money for international drug dealers. Rabbi Zalman in turn enlisted his nephew Rabbi Benzion Zirkind to join him in the family business. The Rabbis laundered tens of millions in cash through New York, Hong Kong, Israel, Columbia, Canada and Mexico. Zalman and Benzion both got busted by the Feds. Zalman pleaded guilty. Zalman is getting sentenced tomorrow in Federal Court before Judge Denise Cote in New York City. Zalman was facing 14 years of incarceration based on the Federal sentencing guidelines. The Justice Department agreed to lower their recommendation to five years based on Zalman’s health and family issues. Zalman has many children and has some personal medical issues, as well as medical issues related to his children.

Zalman’s nephew Benzion pleaded not guilty. Benzion will be facing trial with his co-conspirators Emiliano Bomba, Brian Para Machado, Jose Baez, and Andy Garibaldi Lopez. I don’t believe that you can count Benzion’s co-conspirators for a minyan.

Zalman’s attorney has made the following arguments for leniency in court filings: “In contrast to many men in Zirkinds’ Orthodox Jewish community, including his own father, who relinquished all child rearing responsibilities, ie., never change diapers, grocery shop, or take their children to community outings, Zirkind proudly and fully shared home and child rearing responsibilities with his wife…. he would also fill the family car with gas, take out the garbage, pay the bills, deal with the bank, take the children to school and doctors’ appointments, and for the Sabbath, would make the cholent a special meal prepared on Friday to be enjoyed on Saturday… The reactions from people in Zalman’s community upon learning of his crime include scorn, ridicule and ostracism. Even some family members no longer want to have anything to do with him… Though now of marriage age, Zalman’s son appears to be ostracized by the matchmakers and mothers in his community. Before Zalman’s arrest, mothers and matchmakers were promoting others to marry his oldest son. Before his arrest, a marriage was on the short horizon. The Zirkind family, now shamed in the community by Zalman’s sins, and plea of guilt, the heretofore imminent marriage appears as a black hole in that young man’s future.”

The Feds will argue at sentencing that Zalman continued to launder millions of dollars of narco dollars after his brother Mark got busted in Canada in 2014. Didn’t Zalman see the writing on the wall? Zalman’s attorneys argued in response: “In the exercise of its informed discretion, the Government continued to allow Mr. Zirkind to deal with others after he was identified as a money transmitter. Had the Government chosen to arrest Mr. Zirkind in 2018 Zalman could have cooperated and might be facing a lower sentence or guideline range.”

Zalman received numerous character letters of support from prominent Rabbis in the United States and Canada. Zalman also received a character letter signed by renowned Canadian Professor of Mathematics, and author of many inspirational books, Rabbi Doctor Abraham Boyarsky. Dr. Boyarsky wrote the following: “I believe Zalman is a victim of an educational system that I battled fiercely for years… in 1990 I founded TAV College with a mission of training young men like Zalman to acquire a profession such as computer training and earn an honest living. For attempting to do the unthinkable, I was called a traitor by the rabbinical leaders in the community and threatened with cheirim, excommunication. My novel, The Chassidic Trauma Unit, portrays life in this educationally impoverished community. It is my good fortune that most people in my community can’t read English, otherwise I would have been lynched a long time ago.”Zirkind Letters

DownloadZirkind

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Zirkind Memo Def Download

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Rabbi Zalman Zirkind, With No Intent to Go To Trial – any Chance There Can be Some Accountability?

Money Laundering Allegations, No Intent to Go To Trial, Nothing from Chabad, and Accountability?

We find it harrowing that in the face of allegations of one of their own, a Rabbi who is well-respected, well versed and generally accomplished as a leader, Chabad has said nothing.

There have been no words of condemnation.

There has been no measure of apologies (for the victims).

There has been dead silence.

And, with Rabbi Zirkind having stated through counsel that he has no intention of taking this to trial, are we to assume that perhaps he is going to offer a plea? And, will that plea include implicating his family members, at least one of which was actively involved in allegations of drug trafficking several years ago?

Is it not about time that a committed Jew share a commitment to civil law and practice? Is it not so much to ask that the leaders of respectable Jewish communities actually act respectably?

If one is to wear the title “Rabbi” with the level of grace of that of Rabbi Zirkind, should he not be an exemplar for a community which is so lacking in respect for civil laws?

We hope, Rabbi Zalman Zirkind, that it is your intention to do the right and honorable thing even if it means reporting on those within your community, whether in New York or in Canada. Complacence is complicity. 

The Zirkind Family Saga Continues – From “Shoah Gelt” to an Alleged Family Laundry Business

All In the Chabad Family.  From Shoah Gelt to a Bail Request for Synagogue and Mikvah Attendance – Why is No One Reporting on This?

[Edited – 8.13.20]

Chabad Lubavitch is not without its scandals. It is, in our opinion, largely lacking in accountability, particularly where one of their own, a pillar of their community is involved.  

To give some historic perspective, Colel Chabad is the oldest and most prestigious Chabad charity in the world. It is well respected and called upon as a Chabad Partner for Shluchim (outreach).  In the 1990’s the Zirkind family established a branch of Colel Chabad in Montreal, Canada, a task completed by patriarch of the family, Simcha Zirkind. Going back as early as 1998, the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission approved a television station for and on behalf of Rabbi Zalman Zirkind. 

In 2015, the Chabad Lubavitch Headquarters Magazine honored Rabbi Simcha Zirkind as a “pioneer of Chabad Activities in Quebec who died at the age of 76. 

Rabbi Simcha Zirkind, Pioneer of Chabad Activities in Quebec, 76

[Excerpted]

Rabbi [Simcha] Zirkind was among the pioneering activists of the Lubavitch Youth Organization in Montreal. He later raised funds for Colel Chabad, Machne Israel and Kehot Publication Society.

In 2004 he launched the Advice for Life project which made the Rebbe’s teachings available to many in the Jewish community of Quebec. Over the years he distributed over 200,000 copies of the various editions of the publication.

It seems, however, the family has used this charity as a slush fund and vehicle for money laundering. Colel Chabad is based in Brooklyn, NY, with branches around the world. It is to some extent the financial epicenter of Chabad.

Rabbi Zalman Zirkind is the Director of the Canadian branch of Colel Chabad. Colel Chabad of Canada has long been connected to money laundering schemes, going back to 2011 and earlier, as seen in the National Post article linked here.

In 2019, long after the article above from 2011, the LostMessiah Blog reported on Mark Zirkind, drug trafficking and the claims of “Shoah Gelt” which were raised in a 2019 Canadian appeal of a 2014 sentence for money laundering. It was not until this blog reported on that story in 2019, that other papers picked it up.

On July 21, 2020 Chabad member and Crown Heights resident Benzion Zirkind, formerly of Montreal, Canada, was arrested and indicted by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering, from 2018 to 2020. 

A few days earlier, on July 16, 2020 Benzion’s uncle, Zalman Zirkind, of Montreal, Canada, was arrested in Champlain, New York for Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering, on charges related to those of his nephew. 

Montreal, Canada and Covid-19 Quarantine Assistance from a Compliant Haredi Community

In the Tosh Jewish community in Boisbriand, more than 40 per cent of people tested for COVID-19 were found to have the virus. Pierre Obendrauf / Montreal Gazette

The Tosh Jewish community, a Hasidic community of 4,000 living in the Laurentian community of Boisbriand, has appealed to Laurentian public health authorities and to the Boisbriand police force to help to enforce a quarantine of its community for fear that the novel coronavirus could tear through it.

The community was placed under a 14-day quarantine by public health authorities on Sunday, said a spokesperson for the Laurentian health authority, the CISSSS des Laurentides, but is asking for help to ensure it is respected.

One hundred members of the community were tested for COVID-19: 40 results had been received by Sunday and more than 40 per cent were positive.

The community lives in relative isolation from the outside world and from other Hasidic communities in Montreal, but it does have links to Tosh communities in New York. New York is a hotspot for the COVID-19 pandemic. Community members would have travelled to New York to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim this month.

 

To continue reading, click here.

 

Couple Sues in Quebec, Canada to Compel Province to Ensure Children are Educated

From The Monte Scoop

Couple in Quebec Sue to Obtain for Others, What They Themselves Were Denied, an Education!

‘They aren’t seeking money. They want a declaratory judgment which, if they win, would force the province to take steps to ensure children who attend private religious schools are taught the provincial curriculum.

Yohanen Lowen, who first launched the legal action, alleges that, when he finished school at 18, he could barely add or subtract, couldn’t read and write in English or French and was left unequipped to find work outside his community.”

Hasidic couple’s lawsuit against Quebec could change what’s taught at religious schools

Breaking the Glass Ceiling for Haredi Students and Building an Economy

 

Israel Launches a Tech Integration Program for Haredi Students

Amounting to 11% of Israel’s population, the number of Haredi Jews employed in high-paying jobs is relatively low

Israel’s Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services is setting up a new program to help ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Jewish students find jobs in international tech companies. With a budget of NIS 10 million (approximately $2.8 million), the program will offer scholarships of NIS 12,000 (approximately $3,400) a year, help students scout for potential employers, and provide guidance on acquiring essential workforce skills.

According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, Haredim made up 11% of the country’s population as of 2018, but their number among employees in high-paying jobs is relatively low. According to the ministry, in 2017, Haredi women held 4% (3,800) of high paying tech jobs, while Haredi men held just 1% (800). Ultra-Orthodox Jews are rarely seen in more sought after positions, Shira Berliner, head of the Haredi employment section in the ministry, said in a recent interview with Calcalist.

…

The program will support 50 Haredi students a year and its success and future budget will be examined after its second cohort. One of the main objectives of the program is to integrate Haredi students into high paying part-time jobs during their second year of study to help them gain relevant experience, and the program is already in talks with HP, network and cloud security company Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., and chipmaker Mellanox Technologies Ltd., according to Nathan Kendler, a vice president at Yedidut Toronto.

To read the article in its entirety click here.

 

ADDITIONAL READING:

Related stories:

• Exclusion of Haredi Jews From Workforce Could Cost Israeli Market Over $100 Billion a Year, Official Says
• If WeWork and a Yeshiva Had a Baby: Coworking Spaces for Haredi Jews Are Israel’s Latest Trend
• Jerusalem Launches Accelerator for Haredi Entrepreneurs

Mazel Tov, Orthodox Montreal Clergy – Woman – RABBA

ORTHODOX MONTREAL CLERGYWOMAN CHANGES HER TITLE TO ‘RABBA’

Six years after serving Congregation Shaar Hashomayim as its first female clergy member, Rachel Kohl Finegold is changing her title from “maharat” to “rabba,” because she is confident her community is now ready for it.

In a June 27 article in The Forward – headlined I am an Orthodox Clergywoman, and I am Changing My Title – she explains the reasons for her decision.

To her, the title “rabba” recognizes that she “can fill a rabbinic position without compromising my adherence to the halakhic parameters for women.”

The Shaar is the largest and second-oldest congregation in Montreal.

In 2013, Rabba Kohl Finegold was one of three women in the inaugural graduating class of Yeshivat Maharat in New York, which was the first institution in the world to train and ordain Orthodox women as spiritual leaders and halakhic authorities.

The New York native, now 39, has been serving the Shaar as director of education and spiritual enrichment since then.

“Maharat” is a Hebrew acronym denoting a female “leader of Jewish law, spirituality and Torah.” “Rabba,” which is used by some ordained women in Orthodoxy’s liberal wing, has been contentious because of its similarity to the word “rabbi.”

The ordination of women is not recognized by mainstream Orthodox bodies, such as the Orthodox Union or the Rabbinical Council of America.

Rabba Kohl Finegold writes: “I have found the title (maharat) to be unsatisfying for those on all sides of the issue of Orthodox women’s ordination. More liberal-minded Jewish feminists may feel it does not sound rabbinic enough, that it shies away from the fact that I have the same ordination as any Orthodox rabbi.

“Traditionalists, on the other hand, those who object to the ordination of Orthodox women regardless of the title, may feel the title ‘maharat’ might be masking some hidden agenda that I have not been honest about, or even, at some point down the line, that I intend to violate halakhic norms.”

She notes that “maharat” is “an invented acronym only a decade old.” It is little understood, she says, and is difficult to pronounce.

“The time is ripe for me to move toward a title that is more rabbinic to the ear, and more familiar to the tongue,” she writes.

Rabba Kohl Finegold says she has the support of her synagogue’s leadership and even the more traditional congregants now accept that the term “rabba” more accurately reflects her clerical role.

In addition to her educational and programming duties, she can officiate at weddings (but not sign as a witness on the ketubbah) and at funerals (but not be counted among the minyan for Kaddish).

The title “rabba” was first used by Sara Hurwitz, who was the first woman ordained by Yeshivat Maharat founder Rabbi Avi Weiss, a few years before the inaugural class. It stirred considerable controversy.

Those in Rabba Kohl Finegold’s inaugural class could choose the title they wanted. One of the other two graduates was Abby Brown Scheier, the wife of the Shaar’s Rabbi Adam Scheier and an educator, who has been using the title “rabba” for a couple of years. She is not on the synagogue’s staff.

Rabba Kohl Finegold says she always hoped for a title that was a feminized version of the word “rabbi,” but put that aside in favour of the less contentious word “maharat” when she was hired by the Shaar.

“This community was taking a risk on me. They would be the first congregation in North America to hire an institutionally ordained Orthodox woman as part of the clergy,” she writes. “As they took this courageous step, they needed to ensure that this monumental change would be accepted, and that my title would not be divisive.”

To read the remainder of the article click here.