Convict Stages Son’s Bar Mitzvah in NYC Jail
City Taxpayers Paid Overtime for
 Some of the Jail Staff to Help out in Event

Associated Press
June 13, 2009

NEW YORK - The young boy read from the Torah during his bar mitzvah, his guests enjoyed a catered kosher spread and the proud father returned to his cell.

The party for the son of a convicted scam artist was held at a New York City jail, and city taxpayers paid overtime for some of the jail staff to help out.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
The Manhattan House of Detention, known as was fuming Thursday after learning of the
the Tombs, on White Street in lower                bar mitzvah held at the lower Manhattan
Manhattan, N.Y. The bar mitzvah party for the lockdown known as The Tombs.
 son of a convicted scam artist was held at the
New York City jail.                                 A Correction Department spokesman
confirmed that five staff members were disciplined over the December bash, which was reported in the New York Post on Thursday.

Bloomberg said the bar mitzvah should not have happened.

"I don't care how you sugarcoat it or how you define it, it's sort of through the looking glass," the mayor said, adding that the city Department of Investigations was looking into the incident.

The bar mitzvah host, Tuvia Stern, was accused in June 1989 along with his brother Ephraim of stealing $1.7 million through two scams including a bogus deal to lease back office equipment and a check-kiting scheme targeting Morgan Guaranty Trust.

While out on $250,000 bail, Tuvia Stern fled to Brazil with his wife and five children.

Stern was detained in 2006 while trying to enter England and was returned to the United States last year.

Stern, 47, pleaded guilty earlier this year to bail jumping and to grand larceny from the 1989 indictment; he was sent to Woodbourne state prison in the Hudson Valley in April.

Dozens of guests
The bar mitzvah took place Dec. 30 in the gym at The Tombs. About 60 guests attended, and Stern was allowed to use his own kosher caterer.

Stern also was permitted to swap his jail garb for more festive clothing, and guests kept their cell phones, which normally are not allowed in city jails. A popular Orthodox singer, Yaakov Shwekey, performed.

The party was so successful that Stern held a small engagement party for his daughter at the same venue four months later.

Rabbi Leib Glanz, the chaplain who arranged the bar mitzvah, was suspended for two weeks, and four other staff members lost two weeks of vacation each.

Bloomberg: Jail Bar Mitzvah
Should 'Not Have Taken Place'

By David Seifman and Dan Mangan
New York Post
June 11, 2009

Not in our jails.

Mayor Bloomberg said today that the city has launched an investigation into who allowed a wealthy inmate to host a lavish bar mitzvah behind bars for his son at the downtown lockup known as the Tombs.

letting inmate Tuvia Stern (sketch) stage his blowout                 "Clearly, this is not something
at the Tombs.                                                          that should have taken place,"
                                                                           Bloomberg said,.
                                                                

The Post reported in an exclusive story today that Tuvia Stern, a financial-scam artist who jumped bail and spent nearly 20 years on the lam, was allowed to hold the party.

City Correction Department officials permitted him to use his own caterer, who supplied kosher food, china, forks -- and knives -- for about 60 guests who partied and danced the hora for six hours in the jailhouse gym.

Stern's family and friends were allowed to keep their cellphones -- normally a huge security no-no. And Stern was given the OK to dress in clothing appropriate for the occasion.

The guest list at the jail included several prominent rabbis as well as Yaakov Shwekey, a popular Orthodox singer, and a band.

The city threw in its own present -- overtime pay for the correction officers staffing the soiree.

The Dec. 30 bash was so successful that jailbird Stern chose the same venue four months later for his daughter Breindy's engagement party for 10 family members, sources said.

Shame-faced Correction officials yesterday quietly disciplined five top employees, including a rabbi and an imam, for signing off on the bar mitzvah.

"I've never seen, in my career, anything as stupid as this," said a Department of Correction insider about the bar mitzvah, which was permitted over the objections of at least one jail official. "It's outrageous what transpired."

Correction Commissioner Martin Horn was "livid" and "views the events as a spectacularly gross error of judgment up and down the command chain," said a department source.

Horn suspended Rabbi Leib Glanz, the correction chaplain who arranged the bar mitzvah, for two weeks.

Four other officials were stripped of two weeks of vacation.

Bloomberg said the Department of Investigation is now looking into the matter.

"I don't care how you sugarcoat," said Bloomberg