Pair in court on harassment charges as part of Temple Fortune rabbi probe
Rabbi Chaim Halpern. Picture: The Jewish Chronicle. - Credit: Archant
Two men will appear in court charged with harassment in relation to police investigations into a Temple Fortune rabbi.
Samuel Erlanger, 37, and Shlomo Feldman, 28, will appear in court next month facing harassment charges as part of ongoing investigations into orthodox rabbi Chaim Halpern, 54, leader of Divrei Chaim Synagogue in Bridge Lane, Temple Fortune.
The pair were arrested in January on suspicion of harassment via telephone.
Mr Erlanger, of Powis Gardens, Golders Green, faces one charge of harassment without violence in relation to incidents alleged to have taken place between December 25 last year and January 23 this year.
He has been bailed to appear at Hendon Magistrates’ Court on May 2.
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Mr Feldman, of Lynmouth Road, Stamford Hill, faces three charges of harassment without violence. He will appear at the same court on May 15.
Rabbi Halpern was arrested and questioned in February on suspicion of sexual assault and perverting the course of justice.
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Police also arrested three other men, aged 62, 64, and 25, at addresses in Barnet on suspicion of perverting the course of justice in relation to Rabbi Halpern’s arrest.
They were all taken into custody at a north London police station and bailed, pending further enquiries.
Rabbi Halpern is due to return to police in July, while the other three men will return to a north London police station in late May.
The arrests follow an investigation by the Sapphire Unit at Barnet Police into claims of sexual assault.
In February, in a separate case, Rabbi Halpern won a High Court ruling forcing Google to divulge the identities of bloggers who posted disparaging comments about him on a blog site.
The rabbi claimed he was defamed by a blogger who goes under the pseudonym “Ifyoutickleus” and several others who posted comments on the Google-hosted blog.
Mrs Justice Gloster, sitting at London’s High Court on February 8, ordered Google to hand over the identities of those who made the comments to the rabbi’s lawyers.
