On May 4, Peter Light, the former rabbi in charge of the Marlboro Jewish Center, Marlboro, received a five-year prison term for his admitted theft of more than $86,000 from the synagogue.
State Superior Court Judge Ira E. Kreizman, sitting in Freehold, imposed the sentence after considering remarks made by Light’s attorney, David Glass-man, Assistant Prosecutor John Loughrey, and a representative of the Marlboro Jewish Center’s Executive Board, according to a press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the press release, an investigation conducted by the Mon-mouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the Marlboro Police Department revealed that Light, 49, of Cherry Hill, began stealing from his congregation almost immediately after being in-stalled as the Marlboro Jewish Center’s rabbi on July 15, 2004.
Among his official duties for the congregation was to administer a bank account known as the Rabbi’s Discre-tionary Fund. The stated purpose of this account was to provide money to the less fortunate members of Marlboro’s Jewish community.
As the sole signatory of the account, Light had unfettered discretion to disburse money from the fund as he saw fit, as long as he operated within the fund’s guidelines. Most of the money Light misappropriated came from the Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund.
Thousands of dollars were spent on a ring for his mistress, summer camp for his children and his mistress’ children, and nonessential luxury items. Light, currently in the midst of divorce proceedings with his wife, has two teenage children, according to the press release.
Following the sentencing Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis A. Valentin said, “Rabbi Light stole money from a charitable account intended to aid the truly needy, and in doing so he shattered the trust his congregation had unhesitatingly bestowed upon him just two years earlier. This breach of trust and venal betrayal by a spiritual leader makes the crime all the more upsetting. The prison sentence imposed should serve as a lesson of punishment and, just as importantly, deterrence.”