Cantor Philip Friedman Sentance Includes 6 years Probation and Registering as a Sex Offender

Cantor receives six years probation
Philip Friedman, former cantor at Temple Israel, must also register as sex offender for molesting girl
By Marc Parry
Times Union (Albany, NY)
December 14, 2006


ALBANY -- A City Court judge on Thursday sentenced disgraced cantor Philip Friedman to six years probation for molesting an 11-year-old girl.

The former cantor at Albany's Temple Israel must also register as a sex offender under the sentence imposed by Judge William Carter.

``I wish to apologize to the members of Temple Israel, to Rabbi Paul Silton, and, most of all, to my students,'' Friedman said in court, according to his lawyer.

Friedman, 66, had access to the child while preparing her for the Jewish rite of passage known as bat mitzvah.

He pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors in August in a deal with prosecutors.