Imprisoned Rabbi Reaches Settlement With Officials
A Los Angeles rabbi serving a five-year prison term for money-laundering reached a settlement with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons on Wednesday, allowing him to use a donated Torah scroll in his cell and requiring the prison to accept the donation of 25 prayer books for other Jewish inmates.
Rabbi Abraham Low, 48, who is to be released from Boron Penitentiary next year, will be housed at a halfway house during the High Holy Days under the settlement.
When he sentenced Low to prison in 1994, U.S. District Judge Robert Takasugi read a letter from the Bureau of Prisons pledging to honor Low’s religious needs, but the rabbi later filed suit against the prison, saying officials were not abiding by their promise.
The settlement requires the government to pay $270,000 in attorney fees.
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