Rabbi Saul Kassin the chief rabbi of a synagogue in Brooklyn N.Y, rabbi Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum and other rabbis were arrested in a federal investigation of public corruption and international money laundering, in Newark NJ. July 2, 2009. In explanation of his criminal act, rabbi Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum, whose picture is on the left, said: “Let me explain to you one thing. It's illegal to buy or sell organs…So you cannot buy it. What you do is, you're giving a compensation for the time… I am what you call a matchmaker . . . I bring a guy what I believe, he’s suitable for your uncle…We put together something--the relationship. The hospital is asking what's the relationship between [the donor and recipient.] So we put in a relationship, friends, or neighbor, or business relations, any relation…[you] wouldn't go to cousins because it's, they--the recipient is not going to be investigated, but the, the donor is investigated . . . . So if, if you start with family, it's real easy to find out if he's not . . . it's not the family, because the names and the ages and who is who . . . it doesn't work… I put together the story by seeing your uncle, seeing him . . . Could be, ah, ah, neighbors, could be friends from shul, could be friends from the community, could be friends of, of, of his children…business friends. The price with what we are asking here is a hundred fifty- thousand dollars… One of the reasons it's so expensive is because you have to ‘shmear’ everyone."
Criminal acts of Jewish religious leaders in the USA
Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum is one of 44 people arrested on July 23, 2009 from New York and New Jersey in a sting on corruption. Rosenbaum has been charged with selling kidneys. The Levy Izhak Rosenbaum arrest has put a spotlight on the organ trafficking in the U.S.
Rosenbaum is a Hasidic Rabbi from Brooklyn, New York who was part of an FBI sting earlier this month that exposed Rabbis and politicians of long-time, widespread corruption. The three mayors, five rabbis and 36 other men stand accused of money laundering and public corruption. Most shocking is that they also stand accused of selling black-market organs. Rosembaum is accused of brokering the sale of kidneys. He is buys the organs from Israelis for $10,000 and sells them to patients in the United States for $160,000. Rabbi Rosenbaum claims that he is a ‘matchmaker’ but seems to have been matching human organs to humans in need of them more than matching husbands and wives. If the accusations against Rosenbaum are true, then it is the first documented case of organ trafficking in the U.S.
Rabbi Rosenbaum’s arrest came after he met with an undercover FBI agent and an informant who were posing as prospective buyers. They went to Rosenbaum in with the story that they were searching for a kidney for a sick uncle. In recorded conversations, Rosenbaum told the informant and agent that he has been doing this for about 10 years and has sold ‘quite a lot’ of kidneys.
The scheme involved bringing donors from Israel to undergo surgery to remove their kidneys. There is no information available to the public as to what hospitals and doctors performed the surgeries and received the kidneys.
Orna Cohen of the Israel Medical Association has said these reports are shocking if true and denies there have been any reports of Israelis selling organs.
Even by New Jersey standards, Thursday’s roundup of three mayors, five rabbis and 36 others on charges of money laundering and public corruption was big. But what put this FBI dragnet head and shoulders above the rest are the charges of trafficking in human body parts.
According to a federal criminal complaint filed in district court in New Jersey, Levy Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn conspired to broker the sale of a human kidney for a transplant. The cost was $160,000 to the recipient of the transplant, of which the donor got $10,000. According to the complaint, Mr. Rosenbaum said he had brokered such sales many times over the past 10 years.
“That it could happen in this country is so shocking,” said Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of the Red Cross.
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