Ex-student Accused of $50,000 Theft from N.Y. Yeshiva

NEW YORK (JTA) — A Staten Island man was charged in the theft of blank checks from a yeshiva he reportedly attended and cashing them for more than $50,000.

Yehuda Rubin, 31, who lives near the Yeshiva of Staten Island, allegedly cashed 16 checks stolen from the school office in 2011 over a five-month period, the Staten Island Advance reported. The checks belonged to the account of the Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem, a related school in Manhattan.

Rubin was arrested May 15 following a routine car stop when he was found to possess marijuana, painkillers, anti-anxiety drugs and amphetamines, court papers allege.

The criminal complaint against Rubin alleges that he cashed increasingly large checks between August and December 2011 using a Brooklyn check-cashing store.

Rubin was arraigned on May 16 in Stapleton Criminal Court on drug and theft charges, with bail set at $35,000.

Rabbi David Ceder, the yeshiva’s head of security, told the Staten Island daily that he had no knowledge of the case.