Cleveland-area rabbi gets 22 years for sex abuse

A Cleveland-area rabbi will serve 22 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexual abuse of a minor.

Rabbi Frederick (Ephraim) Karp, 51, was sentenced Thursday in Baltimore County Circuit Court in Maryland, the home county of the victims, all females. He had been scheduled to go on trial later this month.

Karp, the former director of spiritual living at Menorah Park Center for Senior Living in Beachwood, Ohio, was sentenced to 35 years, with 13 years suspended, plus five years of supervised probation after he is released, the Cleveland Jewish News reported.

The abuse reportedly took place when family friends visited the Karp’s suburban Cleveland home, and also when he visited the family, over a five-year period that ended last December. The victims lived in Baltimore County at the time of the incidents. Two of the three were under the age of 18.

Karp was president of Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains until being suspended from the position in January. He was arrested the same month at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York while on his way to New York for the association’s annual conference, the Baltimore Jewish Times reported.