Two rabbis from Israel’s Chief Rabbinate were sentenced to prison terms for selling rabbinic ordination diplomas to Israeli security personnel.
On Sept. 29 the Jerusalem District Court sentenced Rabbi Meir Rosenthal to seven years in prison along with a $135,000 fine for handing out more than 1,000 fake ordinations to soldiers, police officers and intelligence officials from 1993 to 2008. Those who received the ordinations paid Rosenthal approximately $540,000 in bribes.
An accomplice to the crime, Rabbi Yitzchak Ochana, received a 10-month prison term. Ochana was the personal assistant to former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, who is being tried separately on the offense.
Rosenthal and Ochana, as well as Chief Rabbinate officials Meir Roimi and Aharon Gutsdiner, were convicted of aggravated fraud in the case in April. Gutsdiner and Roimi also received prison sentences. — jta