NJ religious community rallies around ‘family man’ accused of soliciting teen sex

🚨 Jewish student Binyamin Kubani offered work to a 15-year-old male

🚨 He has been charged with luring

LAKEWOOD — A Jewish school is rallying behind a 40-year-old student who was charged with luring a 15-year-old boy on Thursday.

Binyamin Kubani of the Beth Medrash Govoha was released by a judge Monday after he was charged with second-degree child luring and solicitation in a July 3 incident with a 15-year-old.

According to investigators, Kubani approached the teen, who was on a bicycle near a car wash on Ocean Avenue, and asked if he had a job. When the teen said he did not, Kubani asked if he would "'like to make some money' while gesturing the motion of masturbation."

The teen took a picture of Kubani and rode off to report the encounter to police.

Beth Medrash Govoha, the world's largest yeshiva outside of Israel, issued a letter strongly defending Kubani before his release, calling the charges a “travesty and miscarriage of justice."

"The circumstances of this case reflect a disturbing failure of the system. Beth Medrash Govoha stands firmly and unequivocally behind our student. We are actively engaged in using every resource and tool at our disposal to clear his name and secure his immediate release," BMG CEO Yoself Heinemann said.

It is not uncommon for a man of Kubani's age to still be learning and considered a religious student.

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A 'pious, religious, family-oriented man'

New Jersey 101.5 has learned that Kubani's children were in the minivan he was driving at the time. Kubani speaks limited English and was trying to ask if the teen would want to help clean carpets that had been damaged by recent heavy rains.

Kubani's attorney, Yosef Jacobovitch, told the Asbury Park Press that his client is a "pious, religious, family-oriented man" and has a reputation as a "good man."

Following a rally of about 100 supporters outside Lakewood police headquarters on Sunday, Lt. Greogory Staffordsmith asked the community for patience to allow the process to properly unfold. He said the department recognizes the seriousness of supporters' concerns and "the importance of maintaining transparency and accountability."

"While we are limited in what we can share at this time due to an active internal affairs investigation, we want to reassure the public that this matter is being taken with the utmost seriousness and is being investigated thoroughly and objectively in accordance with established protocols," Staffordsmith said in a statement.

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