A rabbi in Teaneck, N.J. was arrested on charges of molesting two Israeli boys who had stayed at his home.
Rabbi Uzi Rivlin, 63, pleaded not guilty last week in New Jersey state Superior Court in Hackensack, N.J., to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual contact and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He was arrested Aug. 16 at his Teaneck home.
Rivlin, who authorities said is a teacher at the Congregation Beth Abraham in Tarrytown, N.Y., had hosted the two 13-year-old boys in his home as part of a program he founded that brings disadvantaged Israeli children to the United States for the summer. One boy stayed at his home in the summer of 2010 and one in 2009. The boys reported the abuse to Israeli police once they returned home.
The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Sex Crimes Unit, the Teaneck Police and the FBI were involved in the investigation, according to reports. The probe is continuing to determine if any other boys were molested.
The rabbi’s attorney, Howard Simmons, said Rivlin is “perplexed and upset” by the accusations, the Record of Hackensack reported.
“It was a complete, utter shock to him,” the paper quoted Simmons as saying after Rivlin was charged in court. “He just doesn’t understand why these children would make these allegations. — jta