Cops Catch Up With Brooklyn Rabbi
Rabbi Joel Yehuda Kolko was arrested yesterday in Brooklyn and charged with child sexual abuse. Back in May, New York’s Robert Kolker detailed allegations against the rabbi that went back at least two decades, noting that the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office would often defer to Orthodox authorities instead of investigating complaints. But David Framowitz, a former student of Kolko’s, sued the rabbi and his Flatbush yeshiva for $20 million in federal court in May. Kolko now faces other civil suits filed by adults who claim they, too, were abused. “The bottom line is that abuse is a universal issue that closed communities hide because it threatens them,” one former Lubavitcher who said he was abused told Kolker. “Whether it’s Jewish or Amish or Mennonite or Catholic or Muslim, it doesn’t make a difference.”
On the Rabbi’s Knee [NYM]
Sex-Rap Rabbi is Busted in Brooklyn [NYDN]
basel blog
Doing Good at Ralph Lauren; Eating Late With David Bouley
MIAMI BEACH — Fashion met art at Art Basel Miami beach last night, and this was not necessarily a good thing. The worlds collided in David Bouley’s place — specifically, his gorgeous new South Beach restaurant, Evolution, where Jimmy Choo’s Tamara Mellon was throwing a fête for the Whitney. The problem: There were other, nearly as important places to be, and stops at those other events made everyone very late for this one. What were the rivals? A Russell Simmons dinner at the Delano penthouse, and a lush UBS-sponsored dinner, where billionaires were as common as palm trees. At the packed and chaotic Ralph Lauren party to benefit RxArt, which was one of the rare and welcome charity events at the otherwise largely venal Art Basel, the wife of a hedgie, bearing an invitation, was initially denied entrance — to a store, she noted, annoyed — because she hadn’t RSVP’d. (Once she got inside, she’d find Andrew Shriver, Nikki Haskell, Gene Pressman, Bob Colacello, the lovely mom of Ralph Lauren exec David Calle, and some nice clothes.)
But what about back at swanky Evolution?