Orthodox Jew Sent to Prison for Selling Kidneys

AP

Levy Izhak Rosenbaum outside the Trenton courthouse.

A New York City man was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison Wednesday in what experts said was the first ever federal conviction for illegally selling human kidneys for profit.

Levy Izhak Rosenbaum showed little reaction to the sentence, handed down in a federal courtroom in Trenton. The 61-year-old Israeli native, a Brooklyn resident, pleaded guilty in October to brokering three illegal kidney transplants for New Jersey-based customers in exchange for payments of $120,000 or more.

He was arrested in July 2009 in a sweeping federal case that became the largest corruption sting in New Jersey history.

Rosenbaum admitted wrongdoing Wednesday but said his motives were altruistic. Several people testified that he’d helped saved their lives.

Prosecutors allege Rosenbaum would buy organs from vulnerable people in Israel for about $10,000 and sell them to desperate patients. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark McCarren said Rosenbaum made millions by exploiting desperate recipients and paying donors a paltry sum.

“The defendant has attempted to portray himself as the ‘Robin Hood’ of kidneys,” McCarren said. “There is only one thing that his story has in common with Robin Hood, and that is, it is fiction.”

The daylong sentencing hearing featured divergent views of Rosenbaum’s conduct, from a man who said he felt taken advantage of when Rosenbaum paid him just $25,000 and coached him to lie about his kidney donation, to others who said Rosenbaum had saved their lives or the lives of their desperately ill loved ones.

The courtroom was packed Wednesday to standing room capacity and spilled into the jury box with supporters from Rosenbaum’s Orthodox Jewish community. Many said they had traveled from the Borough Park section of Brooklyn.

Rosenbaum’s lawyer, Ronald Kleinberg, argued that his client had admitted engaging in the sale of kidneys but did so only to save lives. Several of his supporters said he was a revered member of their Orthodox community.

“There are no victims here,” said Rachel Warshower, who traveled from Brooklyn to support Rosenbaum, whom she called a family friend. “The donors are happy and the recipients are happy; Izhak Rosenbaum is not the monster the media has made him out to be.”

Rosenbaum was one of more than 40 people arrested, including politicians and rabbis in New Jersey and Brooklyn, and was not a rabbi himself. The image of rabbis illegally selling kidneys garnered international headlines and made its way into the routines of late-night comedians for weeks afterward.

Rosenbaum was arrested after he tried to set up a kidney sale to a man posing as a crooked businessman but who actually was government informant Solomon Dwek, a disgraced real estate speculator facing prison time for a $50 million bank fraud.

Rosenbaum testified Wednesday that he had spent the three years since his arrest thinking about what he had done.

“It was wrong, but I thought the cause was good,” he said. “I can assure this court I will never do this again.”

Earlier Wednesday, a doctor with Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia testified that Rosenbaum brought as many as 15 pairs of donors and recipients to the hospital for transplants from 1999 to 2002.

The physician, Radi Zaki, and Beth Duffy, the vice president of health care services at Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, testified separately that Rosenbaum always presented himself as a legitimate facilitator of donor matches for Israeli patients and provided all the correct paperwork for the donor matches.

When asked by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark McCarren how he felt upon learning that Rosenbaum had been profiting from the sale of the organs, Zaki said he was opposed to illegal organ sales.

“It can become predatorial,” Zaki said. “It’s a slippery slope.”

Rosenbaum, who was born in Tel Aviv, could face deportation following the serving of his federal sentence.

7 Comments

  • shame

    shame for posting this article this mane is a huge baal tzedaka and sits and learns most of his time,

    these feds can come to anyone and make a case from nothing and put it in the paper

    hope he gets out soon

  • Did he sell any of his own kidneys?

    I believe Levi Itzhak that he didn’t know selling kidneys for profit is bad. I also believe the buchrim didn’t know they were transporting drugs to Japan. I also believe the R’s are a good family from Brooklyn who opened a butcher shop that got over their heads. I also believe that the people who were caught money laundering were erliche people who didn’t realize bad people were leading them astray … and on and on. So when I look at all these cases together I see that the Yeshivas (and parents) are doing a terrible job educating our kehilos. This is not a matter of belief, this is fact. The principals and Roshei Yeshiva can take their [Chassidus and] Nigleh and shove it, if they are turning out Yidden who don’t touch their beards, but don’t get that it’s evil to broker human organs for profit. Derech Eretz Kodma LeTorah. And Reb Levi Itzhak isn’t so young, so it seems this bad education has been going on for a while.

  • Rachel Warshower is right !

    There are no victims here. It was a win win situation. The donor was happy and the recipient was definitely happy.

    I feel very bad for Rosenbaum. He doesn’t deserve this. and I feel that Dwek is Drek.

  • Dani Estragas, Long Island

    There is nothing that can be done at this stage. He will have to serve out the 2.5 years in prison. I am surprised the judge just gave him a measley 2.53years… I’ve read of people getting up to 25 years for this organ selling scheme. Not only that, this guy does not have a medical license to handle bodily items. I feel very bad for him.

  • Benoni

    What about the people who didnt have the money to buy a kidney? Just because someone has the money should they get preference. He will have time to do thsuva in prison.

  • Milhouse

    Benoni, he did a mitzvah, why should he do teshuvah? And why should someone get something for free, when there are others willing to pay top dollar? Yes, one who is able to pay should get preference. That is justice. What else is money for, if one can’t use it to save ones life?

  • to #5:

    So I guess top specialists should all rot in prison. After all, they lend priority to patients willing to pay top dollar.

    By the way, poor people aren’t undermined when a rich man gets a transplant. Because, if #38,247 in line buys a kidney in Taiwan, then Poverty stricken patient #42,007 in line moves up to #42,006 in line. Everyone on waiting list wins when people on the national waiting list get kidneys. Legal or otherwise. It is pathetic that in the land of the free, kidney transactions remain illegal when it is the most effective REALISTIC way to end the kidney shortage.