The Rabbi and the Hit Man: A True Tale of Murder, Passion, and the Shattered Faith of a Congregation

Overshadowed in the headlines of 1994 by an ex-football player murdering his wife and her friend, Rabbi Fred Neulander unhatched an equally devious plot. This serial philanderer, in order to marry a girlfriend, sought the murder of his wife. In an easy flowing style, Arthur Magida tells this story in "The Rabbi and the Hitman". Not being familiar with many of the Jewish customs, I appreciated Magida's explanations of landmark dates on the Jewish calendar as the story was told. Neulander had several love interests outside of his marriage that he used to make his congregation develop. A man with "people skills", Neulander was believed to be a great rabbi and builder of a thriving synagogue community. This all changed when his wife was murdered. In a murder-for-hire scheme, Neulander may have never been convicted had the hitman not confessed. This book is a truly fascinating tale of the Jewish fate of one deceitful rabbi. It was apparent from the beginning that Neulander was not a rabbi for the right motives. For this reason, his murderous crime should not be an implication of all rabbis.

I saw part of Neulander's second trial on CourtTV last fall and thought he was guilty then; this book only confirms that opinion. This book is very readable and hard to put down. I would like to have known more about the victim, the rabbi's wife. This book only goes to show once more than truth is stranger (and a lot more interesting) than fiction, and nobody really knows what goes on behind closed doors.

This book should come with a disclaimer: Read only on a weekend when you don't have early morning plans.Magida effectively portrays Fred Neulander as the rabbi from hell: a sociopath who breaks every possible commandment while abusing the trust of his congregation and community, not to mention his profession. That Neulander meets up with Janoff, the hitman, is tragic karma for Janoff, the classic loser, who is easily manipulated by this evil man. Had the two not met, Neulander would have found some other mechanism through which to kill Carol. This book demonstrates Magida's journalistic skill. He does not moralize but rather salts his narrative with quotes from Jewish sources that leading the reader to conclude that Neulander's lifelong behavior and choices represent an inversion of normative Jewish values and ethics. I hope that Magida sells the film rights to this book to a foreign director. I don't know if an American could capture the sense of "film noir" that the story demands.

This one of those books that keeps you up all night and forces you to read it from cover to cover. As the layers of truth are peeled off, one by one, the story gets more and more fascinating and gruesome. The author has done a magnificent job of not only objectively describing the events, but, even more, of capturing the shock of an entire community and family as they begin to recognize the kind of monster they had been living with and deifying.

Arthur Magida has done a fantastic job of bringing the details and motivations behind a shocking crime to light. Far more than a journalist's recounting of events, the author sheds valuable insight on the meaning of faith, congregation, community, and spiritual leadership. He skillfully weaves the facts of the crime and investigation with the disturbing details of the Rabbi's narcissistic, sociopathic personality traits. The reader is taken inside the congregation and made to understand how Rabbi Neulander captivated an entire congregation, seduced several of its members, and came to believe he was above the laws of man. A captivating story from beginning to end that forces us to look inside and to question those in whom we place our faith and trust.