A Brooklyn Rabbi was arrested for allegedly trying to lure a 14-year-old girl to an undisclosed location in Queens, where police say he intended to rape her. And investigators say he would have gotten away with it too, had the girl actually existed. Rabbi Nathan David Rabinowich of Midwood, Brooklyn spent months flirting online with a person whom he believed to be a young teenager, but was in fact an undercover detective impersonating the girl.
Prosecutors say some of the messages sent by Rabbi Rabinowich were sexually graphic in nature. According to Failed Messiah, Rabinowich runs a synagogue and tour company called Jewish Heritage Tours from his Midwood home, and PIX 11 reports that he used the online screen names “NYC-NORMAL100” and “NORMALGENTNYC.” He's charged with four sex crimes, including attempted rape.
“It is disturbing that a man who is supposed to be held in high esteem by the community in which he lives would allegedly try to lure a child to meet him for sex,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement. Rabinowich was released last night on $25,000 bail.
