Fred Neulander, the former Cherry Hill rabbi convicted of orchestrating the murder of his wife Carol, died in prison on April 17. He was 82.
Neulander “was found unresponsive” in the infirmary unit of the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, according to a story in the Courier Post. “Prison staffers ‘immediately administered CPR and AED (automated external defibrillator),’” the story added, citing the state Department of Corrections. Neulander “was taken to a Trenton hospital, and the DOC learned of his death around 6:15 p.m.”
The rabbi leaves behind three adult children and a congregation, M’kor Shalom, now part of Kol Ami in Cherry Hill, that he started in 1974. Two of his children testified against him in the court case that led to his life sentence. The congregation had the following to say about his passing:
“We are aware of the passing of Fred Neulander, the founding rabbi of Congregation M’kor Shalom. His leadership of the congregation ended many years ago under well-publicized circumstances that ran counter to the values our congregation holds dear. Rather than dwell on the past, we at Congregation Kol Ami, born two years ago from the unification of Temple Emanuel and Congregation M’kor Shalom, choose to focus on our future.”
Neulander began his career as the assistant rabbi at Temple Emanuel before helping to open M’kor Shalom. He also helped it grow.
At one point, the synagogue had more than 1,000 member households. That number had dropped to less than 350 by the time of unification in 2022. The partnership between M’kor Shalom and Temple Emanuel created a congregation with about 700 households.
During his time as rabbi, Neulander had “a series of extramarital affairs,” according to the Courier Post story. In 1994, he was having one with Elaine Soncini, a local radio host.
According to Soncini’s testimony at trial, the rabbi “feared he would lose his job and position if the affair were discovered.”
“He said to me that he just wished that (Carol Neulander) were gone — poof, just gone,” Soncini testified, according to the Courier Post story.
Carol Neulander, the co-founder of Classic Cake in Cherry Hill, was bludgeoned to death in her home in 1994. Len Jenoff, a Collingswood man who knew the rabbi from an Alcoholics Anonymous program at M’kor Shalom, posed as a delivery driver and entered the home.
He later told jurors that “Neulander repeatedly asked him to kill his wife at their Wexford Leas residence,” according to the Courier Post story. The rabbi also suggested that Jenoff use a blunt instrument to make it look like “a robbery that had gone awry.” He even promised the assailant $30,000 and a job with the Mossad, Israel’s spy agency.
Jenoff and a co-conspirator, Paul Daniels, “testified against Neulander at trials in 2001 and 2002,” according to the Courier Post story. The former relayed a story that Carol Neulander asked, “Why?” as she fell to her living room floor.
As the story started to come out in 1995, M’kor Shalom held a congregational meeting. Sharla Feldscher, a member of the synagogue and its PR rep, invited the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Nancy Phillips to attend. Phillips walked in, and Feldscher teared up.
“I couldn’t believe this was happening to people I cared about, that Carol was lost, that this synagogue that we’d been part of for so many years was having this terrible crisis,” she recalled in a 2023 Jewish Exponent story on her career.
Neulander resigned in 1995. He was charged with conspiracy to commit murder and being an accessory to murder in 1998, according to the Courier Post story. The rabbi was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2002.
(Photo by Sharla Feldscher)
He maintained his innocence until his death, according to Dennis Wixted, one of his defense attorneys, quoted in the Courier Post story.
“I believe he lived out the balance of his days in dignity and giving appropriate religious counseling to other inmates,” said Wixted.
The Neulander saga became “a media circus,” as the rabbi’s Wikipedia page describes it. It also inspired multiple books and a 2022 play called “A Wicked Soul in Cherry Hill.”
The latter was written by Matt Schatz, who grew up in South Jersey and ran at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. It also angered congregants and former congregants.
“It was just a horrible experience for everybody,” said Martin Mellman, a Cherry Hill resident and M’kor Shalom member from 1990 to 2005, in a 2022 Jewish Exponent story.
