R’ Mordechai Samet of Kiryas Joel was released from prison on Erev Rosh Hashanah, after serving 20 of his 27-year sentence.
Samet was released under the new “First Step Act” law.
R’ Moshe Margaretten of the Tzedek Association who was highly influential in the passing of the law – and in securing his release – was there to greet him.
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17 Responses
Sorry. But why does he get the title R’
Wow, Yosef was freed on Ros Hashana if I’m not mistaken.
Its Erev RH so i will refain what I want to write, lets just say he spent 20 of his best year locked up in a cage, crime does not pay
I hope the people he and his cohorts swindled out of their money are happy as well. Boruch Matir Asurim indeed.
Will they now make him into a big tzadik and speaker like Rubashkin?
shema usi tshuva vadyi usi tshuvah
Why was he in jail, for those of us who didn’t see the article from 20 years ago…..
Hopefully he and others learnt their lesson that these type of actions are not acceptable and blacken our name as a nation
20 years time served. No need for any negative comments. He Should enjoy the rest of his life. What a brave man.
Wearing a black hat doesn’t mean you can cheat Yidden in business. He broke Jewish law.
Can’t believe people are writing such negative comments. Especially after he served 20 years in prison. Whoever writes such comments doesn’t believe that there’s such a thing as doing teshuva and should remember that when he’s davening on Rosh Hashanah. I’m sure that people could find many aveiros on you or your family so please stop judging.
@commonsaychelyou dont have any common saychal,maybe the common part becuase your probably a very pushiter person like a “vasser treiger”, my question to you is why are you that guy the one at the bottom of the page on ywn thats posting that nasty comment seriously dude! even if he broke the law and showed a lack of respect for the law in a very strong way and deserves punishment he still suffered like crazy and I am sure he regrets every minute of it trust me so why do you need to be the one to shoot your mouth off you lack common sense, now youll always be that guy whose comment is on the bottom of the article for years and years to come when people pull up this article in the archives which I am sure people will.
So he needs to ask himself, was it worth it? Twenty years. A wasted life.
Chazal teach that only death attones for desacrating G-ds Name, not a mere 20 years in jail.
Criminals are not heroes. Not in Torah Judaism.
He should go around preaching to people (especially people from similar backgrounds) that they should live proper lives of ישרות, and be mindful of business ethics as they are mindful of what they eat. To borrow some phraseology from Rav Breuer zt”l, they should be glatt yosher, not just glatt kosher.
Zvei, he gets the title “Reb” because he is an Orthodox Jewish man. That is all that title means.
@gnenukshoen, I maybe the “shtoots vasser traiger” but at least I am not the “shtoots ganif”, I never took a dime that didn’t belong to me and I certainly did not ruin a whole bunch of young naïve peoples life’s, I remember back 20 years ago right before peasch.
Its the Areses yimay teshuva so I am toning it down, he is hardly a hero he ruined a lot of people