An Orthodox rabbi may face jail time for refusing to testify before a grand jury regarding the federal governments ongoing probe of tax evasion in his community, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Rabbi Moshe Zigelman, a teacher and son of Holocaust survivors, has said that he will not testify against his fellow Jews, citing the Jewish prohibition of mesira, which prohibits Jews from turning their brethren into the secular authorities, the Times reported.

Open gallery view Hasidic Jews. Credit: Emil Salman

Zigelman has been ordered to testify in a tax-evasion case involving his Brooklyn-based Hasidic sect Spinka, the report said. This is not the first time he has invoked the principle of mesira, and in 2008 he was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to his part in the scheme and refusing to testify on the matter.

Prosecutors have claimed that Zigelmans claim is unsupported by Talmudic law, while his attorneys claim he is being forced to choose between heaven and earthly jail cells, the report said.

U.S. District Judge Margaret Morrow presided over the hearing on Wednesday on whether the Hasid should be held in contempt of the court or sent back to prison. The judge said she will rule at an unspecified date after reportedly dismissing the grand jury that was on standby.

The case is a decade-long affair in which Spinka and related charities allegedly solicited tens of millions of dollars in contributions from wealthy donors only to funnel between 80% and 95% back, allowing for tax breaks on the fake donation amounts, the report said.

In 2008, Zigelman pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the government for arranging the donations and coordinating money transfers, the L.A. Times reported.

Zigelman is a 64-year-old Hasid born in communist Hungary to Holocaust survivors. He moved to Brooklyn in the 1970s, the report said, where he eventually became executive assistant to the grand rabbi.