Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

William Rapfogel, Disgraced Met Council Chief, Freed From Prison Early

(JTA) — William Rapfogel, who was sentenced to 3 1/3 years to 10 years in prison for stealing $9 million from the New York Jewish nonprofit he headed, was released from prison after serving serving less than three years of his term.

Rapfogel, the longtime CEO of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, received a merit release on May 1 from a minimum-security work release prison in Manhattan, the New York Daily News reported this week, citing confirmation from state officials. He did not go through a formal parole hearing since he met the minimum requirements for the merit release, according to the report.

He will remain under state parole supervision until July 2024.

Rapfogel, who headed the Met Council for more than 20 years, pleaded guilty in 2014 to a grand larceny and kickback scheme.

Earlier this week, New York City Councilman David Greenfield of Brooklyn announced that he would not seek re-election and that he will be taking over as head of the Met Council.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version