Fred Neulander, a New Jersey rabbi, died in prison at the age of 82 after paying hitmen $30,000 to kill his wife, Carol, in 1994. Neulander was found unresponsive in the New Jersey State Prison infirmary and later pronounced dead at a local hospital. The cause of his death has not been released as of now. Neulander founded the Congregation M’kor Shalom Reform Jewish synagogue in Cherry Hill in 1974, where he and his wife were prominent members of the community through both the shul and a bakery.
Carol Neulander, a mother of three, was brutally murdered in her home with a lead pipe in a staged scene that looked like a robbery gone wrong. However, investigators quickly realized it was a planned murder due to the lack of movement or theft in the house. In 1999, Fred Neulander was indicted for the murder, but it wasn’t until a year later that the case came together after a private investigator revealed that Neulander had paid him and another man to kill Carol. Neulander was charged with her murder in 2001.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that Neulander wanted to get rid of Carol to continue his affair with Philadelphia radio host Elaine Soncini. Soncini even converted to Judaism to be with the rabbi after meeting him when he performed funeral rites for her late husband. Neulander believed divorce would bring shame to him in the community, so he resorted to murder to be with Soncini. He was convicted of Carol’s murder in 2002 and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.
Despite the conviction, Neulander’s children testified against him, with his son Matthew testifying that he heard his father telling Carol their marriage was over shortly before her death. The case became a media sensation and was covered extensively on CourtTV. True crime author Arthur Magida immortalized the case in the book “The Rabbi and the Hit Man,” which was later adapted into documentaries and a musical. Neulander’s accomplices were released from prison in 2014, while his appeals to overturn his conviction were rejected in 2016.
The Congregation M’kor Shalom merged with another synagogue in the 2000s and is now known as Congregation Kol Ami. Rabbi Jannifer Frenkel of Kol Ami stated that Neulander’s leadership of the congregation ended under circumstances that went against the values of the congregation. Frenkel emphasized focusing on the future and moving on from the past incidents involving Neulander. Despite the tragic events that unfolded, the community is looking towards a future that doesn’t dwell on the past.
