WED June 21 11:12 PM ET

‘Too Jewish’ For Fire Department?

By GIMPEL the SHISTER, HasidicNews.com Writer  

Brooklyn (HN) -- Rabbi Birnhack said that shortly after the EMS-Fire Department merger, the FDNY’s Jewish chaplain, Rabbi Milton Rosenfeld, retired. Rabbi Birnhack said rather than hire another rabbi, he urged the department to hire an imam for the first time in the department’s history and to give Rabbi Birnhack the top
Jewish job.

Instead, the politically connected Rabbi Potasnik was hired, and an imam was not hired until 2001.

For more than a decade Rabbi Birnhack has been a fixture at accident scenes and emergency rooms, especially at Maimonides Medical Center in Borough Park. He also is known to aid families of victims on his own time. And although Rabbi Birnhack supports seven children on a salary of about $40,000, he reportedly
has offered money to disadvantaged emergency workers in dire straits.

Marianne Pizzitola, an emergency medical technician working in Brooklyn, said Rabbi Birnhack offered to help her financially during a divorce.

“He reached out to me and tried to help me spiritually, financially, any way he could,” said Pizzitola, a Catholic. “More and more people I talk to over the years say the same things about him.”

Lattin said that after meeting Rabbi Birnhack in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he pushed the rabbi to go public with his complaints.

“He wanted to keep it quiet, didn’t want to make any waves,” said Lattin, a chaplain’s assistant with the city’s hospital police. “He only recently decided to take any action.”

Lattin said his group was formed by chaplains across the state who worked at Ground Zero and wanted a way to keep in touch and work on common issues. He said when he and others have tried to reach Rabbi Birnhack at the FDNY Counseling Service, they were told he was fired.

Rabbi Birnhack said others trying to reach him have also been diverted.

“Why are they trying to hurt me when I am trying to help people, but when people call me they say he doesn’t work for us, call Rabbi Potasnik?” he asked.

A source in Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office said the civil rights unit, which has aggressively investigated religious discrimination complaints, was looking into at least one complaint by a Jewish employee of the Fire Department. David Kaplan, an Emergency Medical Technician trainee, was fired because he missed a Friday night training program. The source said he had not heard about Rabbi Birnhack’s case.