Alleged Police Impersonator Rabbi Fired From Jewish Learning Center Post
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Westchester County rabbi has been fired from his post at the helm of an adult Jewish learning center on the Upper East Side, after being accused of pretending to be a police officer and harassing motorists on at least three occasions.
Rabbi Alfredo Borodowski has been terminated from his position as executive director of the Skirball Center for Jewish Learning at Temple Emanu-El on East 65th Street, according to Congregation Emanu-El administrative vice president Dr. Mark Weisstuch.
Borodowski, who also serves as the rabbi at Sulam Yaakov in Larchmont, was charged last month with first-degree criminal impersonation following an incident in Mamaroneck.
"The man was acting extremely aggressively and started shouting out his car window at her," her attorney, Richard Clifford, said.
The woman said she was driving 20 mph -- the posted speed limit in the school zone. The rabbi allegedly got mad at her slow speed and then is accused of flashing a fake police badge.
"Driver pulled alongside her, had his window down, identified himself as a police officer, was shouting at her 'pull over!'" Clifford said. "She pulled over, wouldn't get out of her car and called police. Police responded immediately."
That was when they arrested the rabbi and charged him with criminal impersonation -- a felony.
Not long after that incident, a second victim came forward with accusations that Borodowski was impersonating a police officer during a road rage incident.
A CBS 2 viewer who saw the original report about Borodowski said that he recognized him from a similar run-in.
"When we saw that face, we knew that the person who had accosted us -- and left my wife completely unnerved and afraid -- was the same person who was in the report on Channel 2," Peter Moses said.
He said it began on the Scarsdale bypass, with an impatient driver first tailgating, then honking his horn and passing his car, and finally waiting farther up the road to block Moses' way.
Moses said the man was shaking with rage, and identified himself as a police officer.
"He had a small badge that did not have the name of a police department on it, so I knew he wasn't really cop at that point, but I didn't want to escalate the problem," Moses said. "But he did threaten to arrest me. I told him 'Fine, let's call the police,' at which point he left."
The man claims that Borodowski pulled the badge and demanded that he pull over after he swerved into the rabbi's lane.
"Maybe I cut him off a little bit, but nothing to be alarmed about," the man told The Journal News.
The man said that he could tell the alleged impersonator was not a cop and that a shouting match ensued after Borodowski allegedly followed him off an exit ramp at Central Park Avenue in Yonkers, The Journal News reported. He said that a passenger recorded the incident and turned the video over to authorities.
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