Slaying of rabbi's wife returns to spotlight

FINALLY, THE EVIDENCE, or at least some evidence, has come out in the slaying of a Cherry Hill, N.J., rabbi's wife. But are the confessed hit men to be believed?

CHERRY HILL, N.J. - On Tuesday, the rabbi hired a hit man. Or did he?

When the wife of a prominent rabbi was found bludgeoned to death on her living-room floor in 1994, residents of this affluent suburb were stunned by the accompanying news: Her husband, a popular and charismatic figure in the community, a man who had helped build its largest reform synagogue, was a key suspect in the killing.

Rabbi Fred Neulander, investigators said, had been involved in several extramarital affairs, the most recent with a Philadelphia talk-show host, and she had pressured him to end his 29-year marriage. The rabbi, fearing a loss of stature if he went through a messy divorce, allegedly hired someone to get rid of his wife, Carol Neulander, a bakery-shop owner and mother of their three children.

But where was the evidence? Who were the hit men? And how did they carry out the crime? As Neulander proclaimed his innocence, Cherry Hill police were stumped for six years. Some locals couldn't help but see parallels to "Crimes and Misdemeanors," the Woody Allen film in which a Jewish physician has his mistress murdered to cover up an affair - and gets away with the crime. Although Neulander was indicted for murder last year, investigators had only a circumstantial case.

Now, amid dramatic new revelations, the sordid saga again is in the news, and this time it seems more like a bumbling take on "The Sopranos." Two roommates at a halfway house for recovering alcoholics confessed to murdering Carol Neulander, 52, at the direction of her husband. Their disclosures, prompted in part by a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter who has covered the story for six years, have thrown Cherry Hill into a new uproar.

The rabbi's trial, scheduled to begin in June, has been delayed, probably until next year. Although prosecutors initially said they would not seek the death penalty for Neulander, 58, who is free on $400,000 bail, they might now refile the case as a capital crime.

"These new disclosures changed things because we never had the smoking gun, the identity of the killer before," said Rabbi Gary Mazo, who worked as an assistant to Neulander at Congregation M'kor Shalom, the synagogue Neulander and his wife founded in 1973. Mazo took over the traumatized congregation of more than 1,000 people when his boss resigned in 1995, after disclosures about his sexual affairs with two female congregants.

"I can't tell you how this has filled people with anger, rage and disillusionment," added Mazo, who since has moved to a Cape Cod, Mass., congregation. He says the rabbi deserves his day in court. "It's a classic Greek tragedy. This man (Neulander) had everything in life, yet now there is complete devastation - for him, his family and the whole community."

Leonard Jenoff, 54, the alleged lead hit man and a licensed private investigator, told authorities in late April he had no idea the woman Neulander asked him to kill was the rabbi's wife. He said the rabbi told him only that she was an "enemy of Israel" and that Jenoff would earn $30,000, plus a job with the Mossad, Israel's secret service, if he carried out the task.

But Jenoff got cold feet, he said, and turned the job over to an unemployed companion, Paul Daniels, 26. Asked at his arraignment on murder charges last month if he had a job, Daniels quietly answered: "I have a mental illness."

Then there's Meyer "Pep" Levin, a convicted arsonist who used to play racquetball with the rabbi. He told police Neulander had complained about his marriage several weeks before the Nov. 1, 1994, murder and wished aloud that he could come home and find his wife dead on the floor.

Finally, there's the other woman, WPEN radio host Elaine Soncini. Neulander officiated at her husband's funeral in 1992, and the grieving widow told prosecutors the rabbi offered her extraordinary counseling. A 20-month affair began. Soncini, who converted to Judaism during the affair, has apologized publicly for her indiscretions.

"I was as shocked as anyone else," she told a local TV station, as news spread of Jenoff's and Daniels' confessions. "Maybe finally now this whole very tragic situation will have a quicker solution. . . . There's been so much pain."

Neulander's lawyers dismiss Jenoff as a mentally unstable publicity seeker. Defense attorneys have subpoenaed all the notes taken by Inquirer reporter Nancy Phillips, saying she "crossed the line" from being a reporter to a participant when, at Jenoff's request, she helped him arrange an April 28 meeting with Camden County prosecutors. The alleged hit man confessed during that meeting; Daniels was arrested soon after and also confessed, prosecutors say.

Both Jenoff and Daniels were ordered held in custody. The two suspects, pending negotiations with the Camden County prosecutor's office, entered pleas of not guilty to charges of murder and conspiracy.

According to Jenoff, Neulander approached him in the spring of 1994, saying he had a special assignment for him.

Investigators believe Carol Neulander let the two men in when they visited her a second time, a fact recollected by daughter Rebecca.

Neulander came home and found his wife dead on the living-room floor. She had been struck seven times on the head with a blunt object.

Jenoff told authorities he came forward because he thought Neulander might be acquitted, and because he could no longer live with his guilt.