Rabbi Indicted on Sex Abuse Charges

The Patch
February 9, 2012

http://teaneck.patch.com/articles/rabbi-indicted-on-sex-abuse-charges


A Teaneck rabbi was indicted Wednesday on charges he sexually abused two boys who were visiting from Israel as part of a scholarship program, northjersey.com reported.

Rabbi Uzi Rivlin, 64, was arrested in August after the FBI alerted Teaneck and Bergen County investigators to the sexual abuse allegations, authorities said at the time. The two boys first made separate complaints to Israeli police, prosecutors said.

Rivlin, who is married, met the boys through the Scholarship Fund for the Advancement of Children in Israel, which he partly sponsored, the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office said. The program brings children from Israel to stay in the United States over the summer.

After his arrest, Rivlin’s attorney Howard Simmons told Patch prosecutors would need to bring the alleged victims to New Jersey to testify before the grand jury.

According to northjersey.com, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Ken Ralph said state law did not require the two to testify before the grand jury. If the case goes to trial, "there is an expectation that the victims will testify," Ralph said in the report.

Rivlin is out on bail and faces charges including child endangerment and criminal sexual contact, records show.