Brooklyn Child Sex Abuser Caught After Fleeing To Israel, DA Says

BROOKLYN, NY — A Brooklyn rabbi who fled to Israel to escape child sexual abuse charges has been brought back to New York, prosecutors announced Thursday.

Gershon Kranczer, 65, had eluded authorities for more than a decade after he was accused in 2010 of sexually assaulting two young relatives, prosecutors said. He was arraigned in Brooklyn on Thursday and ordered to be held without bail.

“This defendant tried to escape justice by fleeing our jurisdiction," Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. "Today’s arraignment on these serious charges is our first step to bringing him to justice for this alleged terrible betrayal of trust. There is no place in our society for this type of predatory behavior, and I am committed to prosecuting cases such as this despite lengthy extradition proceedings.”

Kranczer — who according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency is a rabbi and was once principal of a local yeshiva — fled to Israel in November 2010, where he managed to hide from authorities until the country's law enforcement arrested him in 2020, the outlet reported.

He was returned to New York today by the United States Marshals Service.

The rabbi is charged with second-degree course of sexual conduct against a child, second-degree criminal sexual act and second-degree sexual abuse.

Investigators say that Kranczer sexually assaulted a child from the time she was 6 years old until she was 13 years old between 1996 and 2003, and abused a second child between 2001 and 2002 when she was 11 years old.

He is scheduled to appear in court again on March 25.