NY Mayor Angry Over Behind Bars Bar Mitzvah

June 11, 2009— -- New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg condemned city correction officials who allowed an inmate to host a bar mitzvah for his son behind bars at a city jail known as The Tombs where 60 guests rocked to the klezmer strains of the hora and dined on a fully catered kosher meal.

Tuvia Stern, 48, who was being held at the jail while on trial for larceny, was twice given unprecedented free reign of the grim Manhattan detention center that is adjacent to the city's criminal courts.

Stern hosted a bar mitzvah celebration for his son on Dec. 30 and then four months later held an engagement party for his daughter at which 10 guests attended, according to Stephen J. Morello, spokesman for the city's Department of Corrections.

While just yards away inmates ate city-supplied meals with plastic utensils, Stern's guests ate from silverware on fine china in the facility's visitors area.

Several prominent rabbis were in attendance and music was provided by as Yaakov Shwekey, a popular Orthodox Jewish singer, according to the New York Post which first reported the story and was confirmed by corrections officials.

In addition to metal forks and knives, guests flaunted other contraband inside the jail including cell phones.

At a press conference today, Bloomberg said the party was not "something that should have taken place. I don't care how you define it or how you sugar coat it."

He said he had ordered an investigation into the incidents and called reports of the party surreal, a "through the looking glass" occurrence.

Five corrections officials including two chiefs, two chaplains and a warden have been disciplined and are under investigation, Morello said.

"They have been disciplined for being aware of the plan, being involved in the plan, and failing to inform their superiors," he said.

"Uppermost management including the commissioner [Martin Horn] are outraged," he said.

Corrections chaplain Rabbi Leib Glanz was suspended for two weeks. Another chaplain, Muslim Imam Umar Abdul-Jamil, who in 2006 had been disciplined for anti-Semitic comments, was docked two weeks' vacation.