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Still reeling from the revelation of local Jewish leaders' connections to "unprecedented" corruption involving money laundering, organ trafficking, and bribery, New Jersey's Jewish communities are condemning the crimes while trying to protect themselves against guilt-by-association.

A two-year investigation by federal authorities resulted July 23 in the charging of 15 people, including five rabbis from the Syrian communities of Deal and Brooklyn, linked to a $3 million international money-laundering scheme, and 29 others busted for influence peddling and bribery. One of the Jewish defendants is charged with conspiracy to commit human organ trafficking.

Law enforcement agents said that an informant -- identified in published reports as Solomon Dwek, 36, a philanthropist and high-profile member of the Syrian Jewish community of Deal who is awaiting trial on federal bank fraud charges filed in 2006 -- led them to uncover the money-laundering operation.

Howard Gases, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Monmouth County, acknowledged that "anytime anyone does something like [these crimes] it implicates the community," but stressed that the Syrian community of Deal is a closed group that traditionally hasn't been involved with other Jews in the area.

"In the past, that segment and those rabbis involved have not been a part of our [federation] community," Gases said.

As recently elected Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III was among the politicians accused of accepting bribes from Dwek, Rabbi Robert Scheinberg, of the United Synagogue of Hoboken, was concerned that initial headlines led several people to contact his synagogue even though it had no ties to any of the involved parties.

"It is of course terribly damaging and embarrassing to the Jewish community that there were so many observant Jews, including at least five rabbis, apparently involved in financial misconduct," Scheinberg said in statement. "But headlines like 'Mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus, and several rabbis arrested in corruption probe' make it appear that rabbis are the big players in corruption in New Jersey, when that is obviously not the case."

FBI Special Agent in Charge Weysan Dun said that the arrests were "unprecedented," not only because so many were implicated but because of the individuals' "prominence" in the community and because of the "broad variety of crimes" involved.

According to the federal complaint, Dwek told the rabbis and their associates that he was in bankruptcy and that he wanted to hide assets by laundering money in increments ranging from tens of thousands of dollars to $150,000 or more at a time.

The FBI alleged that between June 2007 and June 2009, the rabbis and their associates complied by converting checks drawn from charities and yeshivas to cash through contacts in Israel and elsewhere and pocketing a percentage as a transaction fee.

In one case, the feds say that Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, 58, of Brooklyn, illegally conspired with Dwek, between February 2008 and July 2009, to transport a human kidney for $160,000 on behalf of someone who allegedly needed a kidney transplant. Rosenbaum told the FBI informant that he'd been arranging these transactions for 10 years. When asked why his price was so high, Rosenbaum said that the prospective donor was from Israel and that, "One of the reasons it's so expensive is because you have to shmear all the time," according to the complaint.

Those rabbis implicated in the money laundering scheme are: Saul J. Kassin, 87, chief rabbi of Congregation Shaare Zion, of Brooklyn; Mordchai Fish, 56, rabbi at Congregation Sheves Achim in Brooklyn; Lavel Schwartz, 57, Fish's brother and a rabbi in Brooklyn; Eliahu Ben Haim, 58, of Elberon, and principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal; and Edmund Nahum, 56, of Deal, principal rabbi of Deal Synagogue.

Some members of the Deal synagogues, who asked not to be identified, expressed disbelief that rabbis who had performed so many charitable acts for Jews were involved in corruption, and asked the public to consider them innocent until proven guilty.

But Dr. Alex Grobman, president of the Institute for Contemporary Jewish Life, said that right now it's counterproductive to bring up the rabbis' good deeds because those deeds don't excuse their corrupt actions, if the accusations prove to be true.

"It's a big mistake when we look at these people and say that because they wear the garb they are religious people," Grobman said. "They are just hiding behind this façade that effects all of us."

Also charged in the scheme are: Levi Deutsch, 37, an operator of the Tzedek Levi Yitzkak charity, of Brooklyn; Yolie Gertner, 30; Schmulik Cohen, 35, an electronics store owner; David S. Goldhirsh, 30; Abe Pollack, 40, a vending business owner; Binyomin Spira, 28, a bakery employee; Naftoly Weber, 40, owner of an elevator installation and repair business; Arye Weiss, 34; and Yeshayahu Ehrental, 65, all of Brooklyn.

After the defendants were arraigned in Federal Court in Newark July 23, Michael Bachner, a New York attorney representing Fish, told reporters outside the courtroom, "I expect these transactions will be satisfactorily explained so that the jurors will understand that no laws were broken."

Bachner said that the government's cooperating witness, Dwek, "used the sterling reputation of his family to manipulate (the rabbis and others) who trusted he would never be involved in illegal conduct."

Kassin's Jersey City attorney, Samuel De Luca, said he needed more time to review the charges with his client.

The government alleged that three "rings" were involved in the money laundering movement of funds:

--Ben Haim allegedly got bank checks payable to a charity associated with him and his synagogue and returned the amount of the check in cash, minus a 10 percent cut, with the help of an Israeli who would funnel the money through "cash houses" run by Weiss, Cohen, and Ehrental.

--Kassin and Nahum allegedly ran separate laundering operations out of Brooklyn and Deal, respectively.

--Fish and Schwartz allegedly also ran laundering enterprises, relying on cash supplied by Deutsch, who commuted frequently between Israel and New York and who reportedly made money through the diamond business. Cash houses allegedly run by Spira, Gertner, Goldhirsch, Pollack and Weber, helped dispense the money.

Meanwhile, the government said that Dwek also had dealings with Moshe "Michael" Altman, 39, a Hudson County developer from Monsey, N.Y., who "between approximately May 2007 and June 2009... engaged in money laundering transactions... totaling approximately $668,000," mostly from his business in Union City.

The feds alleged that Friedlander, who worked for Altman's development company, and Haber, were both Altman's co-conspirators.

The feds said that it was Altman who introduced Dwek to Jersey City building inspector John Guarini, 59, of Bayonne, who is charged with taking $20,000 from Dwek in July 2007 -- and, ultimately, a total of $40,000 through April 2008 -- to provide "future official assistance" in helping clear prospective development projects in Jersey City.

U.S. Attorney Marra said: "That initial bribe (in July 2007) is what gave rise to the public corruption portion of the investigation."

The government said that Guarini subsequently introduced Dwek to Maher A. Khalil, 39, of Jersey City, the deputy director of the Jersey City Department of Health and Human Services and a former member of the Jersey City Zoning Board of Adjustment.

Marra said that Khalil -- accused of taking $30,000 in cash from Dwek to pave the way for development plans -- "made key referrals that set in motion a kind of 'corruption networking' among the defendants charged (July 23), as well as others."

Among the public officials accused are Cammarano, 32, Assemblyman Daniel M. Van Pelt, 44, of Waretown, Assemblyman/Hudson County Undersheriff L. Harvey Smith, 60, of Jersey City, Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez, 42, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, 64, Jersey City City Council President Mariano Vega Jr., 59, Deputy Jersey City Mayor Leona Beldini, 74, Jersey City Housing Authority Commissioner/Hudson County Affirmative Action Officer Edward Cheatam, 61, and Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority Commissioner Joseph Cardwell, 68.

Steven Fulop, a Jewish city councilman in Jersey City, expressed that a culture of corruption has become "part of the well-known cost of doing business in our city." Fulop called for the implementation of a formal review of City Council activities, to see what city businesses may have been impacted by corruption.

"Individuals and businesses that engage in bribery should not be allowed to benefit at everyone else's expense," Fulop said in a statement.

The Jewish community "shouldn't be demonized or scapegoated because of allegations against a handful of people," said Etzion Neuer, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League's New Jersey region. Grobman, however, cited the Jewish concept of "kol Yisrael areivim zeh l'zeh," how all Jews are responsible for one another. Yeshivas must teach exactly why what their fellow Jews did was wrong, he said.

"The leadership of the Jewish community needs to come out, if and when these people are found guilty, and say this has to stop," Grobman said. "We have to re-think our value system."