Jack Abramoff the Kosher Pizza Man

WSJ reports that the not-so-kosher lobbyist has gone into the kosher pizza business, Jack Abramoff: Back in Business. And we found out in the article that we have something remarkable in common with Jack

He taught a course in Jewish liturgy (Introduction to Davening) in prison and we taught one (Introduction to Jewish Liturgy) at JTS.

Small world. From the WSJ's Washington Wire:

Disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff was released from federal prison to a halfway-house earlier this month and is taking steps towards a new start—at a pizza shop.

The Baltimore Jewish Times reported Monday that Abramoff is working with Tov Pizza (“Baltimore’s Best Kosher Pizza”) owner Ron Rosenbluth in “almost all areas of the restaurant business” with the expectation of focus on marketing strategies during his six-month stint.

Abramoff, before his precipitous decline and imprisonment in November 2006 on felony counts of fraud and corruption charges, listed among his business interests a kosher restaurant in Washington, D.C., so the industry is not new to him.

Rosenbluth told the paper that he was considered it part of his faith to help others, and that he was pleased his pizza business was a place where Abramoff could start a new path. “We’re all Jews, we’re all on the same team,” said Rosenbluth. “I’m more than happy to help a fellow Jew in any way I can.”

The Baltimore Jewish Times notes that Abramoff reportedly immersed himself in his faith while in jail. Citing a former inmate at the prison during his incarceration, the paper reports that Abramoff “gave shirum, or Torah lectures, to the Jewish inmates on an almost daily basis. He focused on Nach, Halachah (Jewish law) and the weekly Torah portion. He also taught an introduction to davening course.”