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| Philip Drelich, an inmate at Green Haven Correctional Facility in upstate New York, blows the shofar during the Jewish month of Elul |
He was released on February 29, 2016 even though he was sentenced to serve two consecutive life sentences for murder!
I am very familiar with this story, because I lived in Monsey in the 70's, and Philip would come to visit his parents from time to time; his parents owned a bakery called "Pinkey's" on Kennedy Blvd off Route 59. I knew his parents very well, they were the nicest people and they davened at the Community Synagogue on Carlton off Maple Avenue. The Rabbi of that Shul was Rabbi Moshe Tendler z"l (this fact became very crucial in the story).
On the Friday night following the horrendous stabbing of his pregnant wife, Miriam, Philip davened at the Stanislover Shul on Maple Avenue, and quietly said kaddish for her without any emotion. I remember that there was a detective in a car outside the shul making sure he didn't disappear, he was already being questioned in the disappearance of Martin Paretzky 71, a diamond dealer.
Philip Drelich, was born in 1950 and raised in Brooklyn and attended Yeshiva Chaim Berlin receiving good grades. His father was a WW2 veteran. Sometime in 1975, he met Miriam Lea Ziskind, and they subsequently married and had 2 children.
