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NEW YORK RABBIS LOOT GOVERNMENT FUNDS

Two Brooklyn rabbis - including an adviser to former Mayor Ed Koch - on Feb. 9, 2001 pleaded guilty to swindling the federal government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars earmarked for Holocaust survivors. Rabbis Jacob Bronner, 51, and Efroim Stein, 55, each agreed to serve 33 months in prison and repay up to $162,500 in restitution.

The Hasidic rabbis - who controlled the not-for-profit charity Project Social Care - remain free on $500,000 bond until their June 8 sentencing. They read details of their crimes in Brooklyn federal court in front of U.S. Magistrate Viktor Pohorelsky, but would not comment afterward.

Bronner served for 12 years as unpaid adviser on Jewish affairs to Koch, who appointed him to the city's Human Rights Commission. Brooklyn-based Project Social Care was established in 1994 to provide Holocaust survivors and immigrants with medical, job training, and other services. In 1995, the organization applied for and received a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development department.

The application detailed a program "of support and counseling tailored to meet the needs of elderly Holocaust survivors," helping them "deal directly with the Holocaust experience."

The court papers say Bronner and Stein conspired to misspend hundreds of thousands of dollars of the grant in three ways from 1995 to 1996:

* Project Social Care allegedly paid companies for non-existent goods and services, with the bulk of that money then kicked back to the rabbis.

* Funds were paid to an institute and several of Stein's relatives for nonexistent training; most of the institute-earmarked funds then went to a Stein-controlled synagogue.

* Project Social Care paid the Council of Jewish Organizations of Borough Park (COJO) in a subcontracting deal that required the council to kick back money to businesses controlled by Bronner and Stein. Those included United Housing & Community Services, B&B Furniture Company, and CCI Community Consultants.

COJO officials were prosecuted in Brooklyn federal court in the late 1990s on charges of swindling the federal government out of funds. Several were convicted.

City records show Bronner signed a letter of intent with lobbyist Suri Kasirer on Dec. 29, 1998 to try to win city contracts.

But the $3,000-a-month deal apparently was never consummated, since Kasirer reported receiving no payments and said she conducted no lobbying. Kasirer is married to Bruce Teitelbaum, N.Y. Mayor Giuliani's former chief of staff.

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