Case Name: JEWISH CENTER OF SUSSEX COUNTY, PLAINTIFF-RESPONDENT, v. CHAIM WHALE a/k/a LOUIS R. WOLFISH, DEFENDANT-APPELLANT
Court: New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New Jersey
Decision Date: 1980-02-13
Citations: 172 N.J. Super. 165
Docket Number: 
Parties: JEWISH CENTER OF SUSSEX COUNTY, PLAINTIFF-RESPONDENT, v. CHAIM WHALE a/k/a LOUIS R. WOLFISH, DEFENDANT-APPELLANT.
Judges: 
Reporter: New Jersey Superior Court Reports
Volume: 172
Pages: 165–172

Head Matter:
JEWISH CENTER OF SUSSEX COUNTY, PLAINTIFF-RESPONDENT, v. CHAIM WHALE a/k/a LOUIS R. WOLFISH, DEFENDANT-APPELLANT.
Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division
Argued January 16, 1980
Decided February 13, 1980.
Before Judges LORA, ANTELL and PRESSLER.
Anthony M. Mahoney argued the cause for the appellant (Bernstein & Mahoney, attorneys; Dennis M. Mahoney on the brief).
Lewis Stein argued the cause for the respondent (Nusbaum, Stein & Goldstein, attorneys).

Opinion:
PER CURIAM.
The judgment appealed from rescinding the contract of rabbinical employment between the parties is affirmed substantially for the reasons set forth in Judge Polow's opinion, 165 N.J.Super. 84 (Ch.Div.1978). We are persuaded that a rabbi's ethical and moral character is a matter which goes to the essence of his employment as a congregation's spiritual leader and educational supervisor and that a rabbi's recent disbarment as a lawyer occasioned by a series of ethical violations, his conviction of a crime of moral turpitude committed after the disbarment and his service of a custodial sentence in a federal penitentiary are facts so obviously affecting ethical and moral character as to leave absolutely no doubt of his obligation to have disclosed them.
Affirmed.
Appellant's disbarment proceedings are reported in Matter of Wolfish, 33 A.D.2d 113, 305 N.Y.S.2d 879 (1969). Appellant's criminal conviction was affirmed in United States v. Wolfish, 525 F.2d 457 (2nd Cir. 1975), cert. den. 423 U.S. 1059, 96 S.Ct. 794, 46 L.Ed.2d 649 (1976).