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October 25, 2002/Cheshvan 19 5763, Vol. 55, No. 9
Rabbi again faces death penalty charges
MARILYN SILVERSTEIN
New Jersey Jewish News
WHIPPANY, N.J. - Monday, the rabbi went on trial for his life.
It sounds like a sequel to "Friday the Rabbi Slept Late" or one of Harry Kemelman's other best-selling religious mysteries. But in chilling counterpoint to those works of fiction, this is a real life story of murder, conspiracy, adultery, and disgrace, in which a once-prominent pulpit rabbi is facing murder charges in the brutal slaying of his wife.
The main characters are Rabbi Fred Neulander, founder and former religious leader of Congregation M'kor Shalom, a thriving, 1,000-family Reform congregation in Cherry Hill, N.J., and his late wife, Carol, who was found lying dead in a pool of blood on the living room floor of the family home in Cherry Hill on the night of Nov. 1, 1994.
In what has been alleged to be a classic case of murder for hire, Fred Neulander, 61, stands charged with arranging for his wife's murder so that he could carry on his love affair with former Philadelphia radio personality Elaine Soncini.
One year ago, in Camden, N.J., his first trial in the capital murder case ended in a hung jury.
On Oct. 21, eight years after Carol Neulander was bludgeoned to death, the rabbi again went on trial for his life - this time at the Monmouth County Court House in Freehold, N.J.
As opening arguments got under way, Camden County Assistant Prosecutor James Lynch told the jury panel of nine men and seven women that people had looked up to Neulander as a religious leader. However, he said, the rabbi failed to live up to his role.
"The man was deeply, deeply flawed," Lynch charged.
The journey from the last night of Carol Neulander's life to the first day of Fred Neulander's second murder trial has been a long one. It began with the rabbi's fall from grace in early 1995, as the murder investigation unearthed his marital infidelities.
In the spring of 1996, the Reform movement's Central Conference of American Rabbis suspended Neu-lander's membership. Still, Neulander continued to officiate at funeral services and weddings - including the wedding of Leonard Jenoff, the man who later confessed to beating Carol Neulander to death at the rabbi's behest.
In 1998, Neulander was arrested and indicted on charges of accomplice murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
In June 2000, on the eve of Neulander's scheduled trial on those charges, the case was rocked by a stunning development. Two alleged hit men - Jenoff, now 55, and Paul Michael Daniels, now 28 - came forward on their own and confessed to the murder, alleging that the rabbi had hired them to kill his wife. Neulander was alleged to have promised Jenoff $30,000 to carry out the contract.
In light of the confessions, a Camden County grand jury indicted Neulander anew on charges of capital murder, felony murder, and conspiracy to commit murder.
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