Lawsuit Increases Scrutiny of World Jewish Congress
By NATHANIEL POPPER
January 20, 2006
While the World Jewish Congress continues to be under investigation by the New York attorney general, a separate lawsuit in Israel is bringing further scrutiny on two top figures close to the organization.
Israel Singer, chairman of the WJC, and Zvi Barak, a consultant to the organization, are coming under fire in a lawsuit filed by Vera Keller, the widow of a former WJC supporter. Keller's late husband, Leslie, set up a foundation in 2000 that is now run by Barak and Singer's son, Elie, and also an Israeli relative of Keller whose role in the case is unclear.
The case is being pursued by Vera Keller's grandnephew, Menachem Kahn, who has her power of attorney. The complaint alleges that since Leslie Keller died in early 2003, the $1 million foundation has given out grants with no accountability to Vera Keller and her family.
Kahn's affidavit also says that Israel Singer attempted to wrest control of Keller's will in the months before Keller died.
The lawyer representing the foundation's trustees, Elad Mann, said the case "has no standing on the procedural grounds or on its merits. It will be dismissed in a short time."
Calls to Israel Singer were directed to the secretary general of the WJC, Stephen Herbits. Herbits said that the WJC had no role in the case. However, Herbits has compiled a report on it, which says that the allegations involved "are scurrilous and completely false."
Singer and Barak, a Tel Aviv attorney whose offices are the mailing address for the foundation, are also at the center of a dispute over transfers to and from the WJC's Geneva bank account.
That dispute arose after Singer transferred $1.2 million from a Geneva bank account to a custodial account controlled by Barak in London. Barak had no official role in the WJC at the time, but he has since become a consultant to the organization. The case in Israel involves criticism of Barak and Singer from persons outside the circle of critics who have been hammering at the WJC over the Geneva controversy.
Some of the charges in the Keller case involve Singer. Two of Keller's grandnephews state in their affidavits that Singer tried to convince Keller to sign a will that would have made Singer the executor of Keller's will, along with another associate of Keller, David Moskovits.
One of the grandnephews, Kahn, told the Forward that a few weeks after Leslie Keller died, in March 2003, Moskovits and Singer came to Vera Keller's house and presented the will naming them as executors as a done deal — a deal from which Kahn says they later backed away.
Singer's son, Elie, told the Forward: "This is false and the suggestion is preposterous. These outrageous accusations do not merit a response."
Kahn's version is also refuted in an affidavit written by Moskovits. He states that Keller became good friends with Singer in his last 15 years, and it was Keller who asked Singer to sign the will and become his executor. According to Moskovits, Singer turned down the request multiple times.
Moskovits states that the lawsuit was brought by "a few of Keller's relatives who seem to have misrepresented the intentions of Mr. Keller... because it seems they think they could benefit financially from doing so."
A lawyer for Vera Keller said the lawsuit came about only after the foundation trustees refused to release basic financial information about the foundation to Vera Keller — particularly information about where the foundation's grants were going.
"We came into this extremely innocently, thinking we would ask for information and get it," said a lawyer in the office of Menachem Harutz, which is representing the Kellers. "We had no idea how complicated everything would be."
The foundation did present financial documents for 2003 and 2004 in its response to the lawsuit. Most of the grants in 2003 — after Leslie Keller died — went to Jewish research projects. But the first grant after Keller's death, for $5,000, went to the WJC office in Buenos Aires.
The foundation was created in 2000, with the goal of aiding "study and research of the Jewish heritage."
When the foundation was created, Israel Singer was listed as a trustee along with two WJC employees. When those two left the WJC in 2003 and 2004 Barak and Elie Singer were chosen to replace them at the foundation.
The grandnephews have asked the court to allow the family to appoint new trustees who will carry out Leslie Keller's original wishes. The case is scheduled to open February 8 in Jerusalem district court.
The Belsky files can be downloaded here:
http://savefile.com/files/53776
(copy & paste)
EVERY SIGNATURE MATTERS - THIS BILL MUST PASS!
CLICK - GOAL - 100,000 NEW SIGNATURES! 75,000 SIGNATURES HAVE ALREADY BEEN SUBMITTED TO GOVERNOR CUOMO!
EFF Urges Court to Block Dragnet Subpoenas Targeting Online Commenters
CLICK! For the full motion to quash: http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/hersh_v_cohen/UOJ-motiontoquashmemo.pdf
73 comments:
Kuhl's grandson is Ralph Herzka's right hand man. I don't know either of them well enough to know if they are capable of dishonesty. Whatever happened with the investigation of Meridien?
Elie Singer pops up all over donating to politicians from his Upper West Side address. Curiously, he registers his occupation as "homemaker"
http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_yad/magazine/data5/american_society.html
Chairman of the American division of Yad Vashem.
http://www.i-compass.com/
Executive of a tech co whose clients include NYC, Columbia U, Citigroup, Panasonic and the crooked law firm Milberg Weiss.
http://nyc.chamber.com/directory_cat.asp?catid=665
Local representative of Russia's NTV
http://www.taxexemptworld.com/organization.asp?tn=144428
Heads a charity called the FOUNDATION FOR HOLOCAUST AWARENESS
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/104-1303379-8726300?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Elie%20Singer
He's even published by the Columbia U press.
Me and Steven I Weiss are trying to find a way to stop this from spiraling out of control!!! We tried to ignore the news about Singer but a bunch of no good hooligans showed up on the blurb about Kolker & Kolko and littered the comments section with 150 posts!!! Even AbsurdSpin can't stop them!!!
The shloshim for Julius Kuhl was held in the Toronto yeshiva. The whole community was invited to hear a bunch of puffy hespedim with great fanfare. How come I didn't hear any murmurings about IOUs then? Although it wouldn't surprise me if this yeshiva played dumb because Kuhl & the gang financially supported them, still no one was talking about it in the yeshiva.
So is it true that the Passaic machers bought Colmer's house at a premium?
Harvey,
When was the last time you were at a hesped and the speakers called the dead guy a scumbag!?
http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=11436
In an interview with JTA on March 16, Herbits pointed to the organization’s “extraordinary track record” and insisted that Rabbi Singer’s dismissal would not be a hindrance to the organization.
“The implication that we can’t move forward without Israel Singer is garbage,” Herbits told JTA. “His own behaviour drove him out, and over time that will become obvious to everybody, especially the more noise he makes about it.”
Rabbi Singer has been under a cloud since the revelation several years ago that he secretly transferred $1.2 million of WJC money to a Swiss bank account. The money was subsequently returned, but critics (UOJ) say the transfer was never fully explained.
A number of investigations were launched in the wake of that revelation. A 2006 report by the New York State Attorney General’s Office assailed the organization for lax record keeping and said Rabbi Singer had violated his fiduciary duties by moving money around without proper authorization.
In 2005, a report by the accounting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers sought to analyze a decade’s worth of financial documentation from WJC’s Geneva office but was unable to account for $3.8 million of WJC money. A separate Internal Revenue Service investigation into the organization’s finances is under way.
"Harvey" obviously didn't mean the speakers, but the people before and after the event. I was there and didn't hear anything either. I agree with his assessment that the yeshiva would try to cover it up if there was a problem. The yeshiva had two ways of enforcing rules. Rich kids got away with it and the rest were suspended or expelled. Your net worth also determined if the menahel would throw you down a flight of stairs when he had an angry tantrum. It's been said that whatever Rabbis Friedman & Levine knew about people's checkered pasts was not always told to the rosh yeshiva.
UOJ seems to have agents and reporters eveywhere. What's next? Someone posts that Colmer has been spotted in Australia?
“His own behaviour drove him out, and over time that will become obvious to everybody, especially the more noise he makes about it.”
It sounds like they are expecting that Singer won't go quietly.
"said Rabbi Singer had violated his fiduciary duties"
Are there any federal / state laws broken when an officer of a non-profit violates that trust in any way?
The Toronto crowd is not really into gossip like New Yorkers, even when there is a toyeless. I don't know about the Kuhls but I do know about some crooks from Rabbi Lowy's Agudah. Everyone was mechabed them and the yeshiva (Ner Yisroel) kissed their vile butts whenever they showed up. The only people complaining where a couple of guys from other shuls who were ripped off by them. They once tried conning my father, who smelled a rat and didn't get ensnared. He warned one of the other victims to be, but the numbskull wouldn't listen and wound up in litigation with them. Lowy, I'm told, also kept giving aliyos to another besserre mentch who took another mispallel to court. The defendent left when Lowy wouldn't do anything about it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/us/18cnd-legal.html
Milberg Weiss really is a cess pool. I wonder how Singer got hooked up with them?
That's interesting that WJC is kicking Singer in the pants on the way out. Most times when someone leaves under a cloud, they are allowed to say they are retiring and the like. Charlie Hynes told them to go easy on Sruli but that baal gayve Bronfman is on his own pedestal.
Oh, and I did beat Kolko to giving Charlie boy some mouth to mouth when he passed out last week. I was concerned about the Irish whiskey on his breath, but an aide assured me that it was under Belsky's hashgocho.
hey, i'm leib pinter's mechutan who took a beating for weeks last year on UOJ. lowy, me and shlomo mandel from yob are all telzers
Next time I take Reb Shmuel Berenbaum for a helicopter ride to Australia, I'll let you know on my YeshivaWorld blog if we see Colmer on the ground.
Sorry! I meant to say maran, harav, hagaon, R' Stefan Colmer.
UOJ, speaking of Shlomo Mandel, is there any verification that Kolko can't proctor the tests anymore in YOB? And what's happening with the other guy tutoring off the books?
Ronnie should target the UOJ gear to WJC staff.
The Singer story is as much about the corrupt-bankrupt Agudah, and who they put on their dais as honorees, as it is about Singer!
They knew the Singer story; I hammered and taunted them before the Agudah dinner, and they chose to honor him anyway!
Eat drek Zweibel, Perlow and co...
There is a Novominsker minhag to not eat drek 30 days before Pesach (unless it's from Boro park)
The Chief of Dermatology at Westchester Hospital in Mt Kisco is Dr Zweibel. Any relation? He does seem to be a real doctor as opposed to some fake ones out there.
http://maimonidies.blogspot.com/
There are so many stories that are kept a secret and stay untold forever, either by the patient or by close family members that don't have whom to turn to with their sad stories! Please farward this in e-mail so that other people that wanna speak out can do so!
Lately, I’ve been hearing scary stories about our local hospital. I’m referring to our ‘heimishe’ hospital "Maimonidies Medical Center" who receives the highest ratings in care, etc. from all those who rate hospitals (I know they pay a lot of money for these ratings).
I also listen to MMC ads where they pride themselves on being the very best, and having the best quality care. When I hear these ads, I get mad at myself for not doing something about it! We should be just the opposite! We should have the best care in the country without paying for false ratings! People think that they're doing a sick person a favor by getting him/her into a local, top rated hospital, just because it's run by heimishe people! WRONG! Why should a heimishe person take his close relative into a hospital that is run by heimishe people, and get a phone call that he is dead, when he went into the hospital for a minor surgery? Ok, mistakes could happen, and I thought I was a single unlucky person, the time came, hashem wanted back his neshama! But I told my friend this story and he told me an even scarier story! I was horrified! Since then I'm hearing stories all the time! A close relative of mine was in maimonides for a week getting treatment for an unknown problem! After a week he was transfered to a different hospital and was out in less than 24 hours! They took an x-ray, found the problem, treated it, and he was back on his feet in no time! I guess the hospital make more money if the patient is in the hospital for a longer time! The longer the better!
Isn't somone ignoring our problems and minding his money? Aren't we being laughed at? Don't we deserve better from our own comunity? How many people could have still been alive if we had not kept our stories a secret?
Anyone out there have any ‘wonderful’ stories or anyone interested in bringing a class-action suit? If you have any stories that you think would interest the public please feel free to add a coment!! You can't keep such stories to yourself and not do anything about it!!!
P.S. Please e-mail me at shmo123@gmail.com so that I could respond to ur comment if needed.
Rabboisai,
How do we get crackin on the Klein-Krasna case. Any advice would be appreciated.
I urge people with authentic information on Nuchem Klein to go to the "Waves" site and contact the blog owner.
Thanks!
You should try this story, from today's forward. It's by the same guy who wrote the article that UOJ reposted here.
Interesting angle to the whole firing.
“I know that’s difficult to accept. It took me many weeks of crying to find out I was so badly used by a man I used to love,” Bronfman wrote in the letter to Besnainou.
“And Singer to this day owes me half a million dollars,” Bronfman said in the call. “I’ve tried everything I can do to save him. Unfortunately he was not savable.”
In the March 14 letter to Besnainou, Bronfman said Singer “helped himself to cash from the WJC office, my cash.” Bronfman also alleged that Singer “was in violation of WJC policy and proper accounting” by “playing games with his hotel bill.”
Conrad, you anti-Semitic putz! If Hilton wasn't so stingy with the welcome mints, Sruli wouldn't get Edgar upset by raiding the rip off mini bar.
Where's the SIW-Singer crew now? Are those shmucks going to say that the Forward has a conspiracy with UOJ to twist the story around at Bronfman's urging?
C'ete une vrai honte!
Was it UOJ who reported Sruly to my office before my arrival in 2004?
Yoshke,
Are you sure that Sruly isn't Muslim? He wants to fight to the finish with Bronfman. I could swear the guy's got Arab pride.
And I hope UOJ doesn't notice I'm here. Pedophiles from the 6th century are just as bad as Kolko in his book.
I didn't know that Jews are still stuck in money lending. Is there any chance in hell that Bronfman is getting his half mill back?
Jesse, go back to shaking down companies for your family and friends. How's that Anhauser-Busch distributorship your sons got after you threatened AB? And what about your own investments, like the company you own with ex football star auto dealer Mell Farr that shuts off people's cars if they don't make their car payment. What'd Mell do with that $57 million you helped him hustle that disappeared as Mell's dealership empire was collapsing?
Jesse could teach Singer a trick or two.
Ivanhoe said...
I didn't know that Jews are still stuck in money lending. Is there any chance in hell that Bronfman is getting his half mill back?
Well, why should he? The money seems to have been used to pay costs for singer's defense. As a WJC employee, those costs should have been paid by the WJC. Guilty or innocent, if Bronfman stuck up for him back then, it really doesn't matter if he has second thoughts now.
ALL I HEAR IS COLMER THIS AND COLMER THAT. COLMER MOVED HERE, AND COLMER MOVED THERE. COLMER IN PASSAIC, COLMER IN ISRAEL, COLMER CHANGED HIS NAME, COLMER COLMER COLMER. ALL TALK AND NOTHING DONE ABOUT COLMER.
WHEN IS EVERYONE GOING TO LEARN?
COLMER MUST BE STOPPED NOW !
SHAME ON THE RABBIS OF BROOKLYN WHO PREVENTED THE VICTIMS FROM TURNING HIM IN. SHAME ON THE CITIZENS OF BROOKLYN FOR RUNNING HIM OUT OF TOWN.
SHAME ON THE RABBIS OF PASSAIC WHO DECIDED NOT TO ACT AND RAN HIM OUT OF TOWN. SHAME ON THE CITIZENS OF PASSAIC WHO PURCHASED HIS HOUSE.
SHAME ON THE CITIZENS AND RABBIS OF KIYRAT SEFER WHO AGAIN RAN HIM OUT OF TOWN.
AT SOME POINT, THERE WILL BE A TOWN THAT WILL NO KNOW BETTER AND THE MOLESTATION WILL BEGIN ONCE AGAIN.
THOSE WHO CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE HAVE THE OBLIGATION TO DO SOMETHING. THIS PROBLEM MUST BE DEALT WITH AND NOT PUSHED ASIDE AGAIN AND AGAIN.
WHOEVER KNOWS WHAT COLMERS ALIAS IS, YOU MUST POST IT.
WHOEVER HAS COLMERS PICTURE MUST POST IT.
SOMEONE SHOULD PLACE AN ADD IN ALL THE JEWISH NEWSPAPERS IDENTIFYING COLMER AND HIS ENABLERS.
THIS MUST BE DEALT WITH NOW.
I've got some bad news to tell you. Unless an actual Colmer victim files a criminal complaint, NOTHING can be done to Colmer.
Let's be fair. There is nothing a "community" or "the rabbis" can do to Colmer. Not in Brooklyn, not in Passaic, not in Kiryat Sefer. Communities don't prosecute, victims do.
America and Israel are free countries, and unless he is arrested by the police, acting on a criminal complaint filed by a victim, Colmer can pick himself up and move from town-to-town, village-to-village every day of the week, and there is nothing anyone can do. You're spitting into the wind by shrieking about the rabbis of Brooklyn, Passaic, etc.
The Jews of Passaic were perfectly justified in doing what they did. They have a right to protect their families by buying Colmer's house, so as to assure his exit. The Jews of the next town he moves to can do the same thing, and Colmer's life will be continuously disrupted.
This is life, there's nothing more that can be done other than publicizing his crimes, and disrupting his life in every legal way possible.
joe Says:
March 19th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
UOJ: Anyone that helps themselves to public funds is a thief and should never again be allowed to be an official in any organization. How else do you determine a person’s credibility if not in a case like Singer’s? I happen to believe you had a hand in this, although it’s obvious a lot of people were after him.
You never claimed to be the only person chasing Singer, and I saw nowhere your claim that you were responsible solely, other than what you said that you put people together as in other well known cases. Kudos to you and your bravery, every thief in Jewish public life is wary of you as well as the Agudah’s Mafia, and every sick putz that would like to put his grubby hands on Jewish kids and their enablers. You obviously are fearless. G-d protect you from your many enemies. You are a true Jewish hero world-over!
joe Says:
March 20th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
It’s just amazing how many guys who are nobodys and have never done anything for anyone but themselves, are making jackasses out of themselves here and probably everywhere. That’s how they feel important. UOJ is a Jewish hero, period. Like it or lump it, the guy is a one man wrecking-crew who destroyed the notion that a guy in a hat and kapote is automatically a tzaddik. That’s the way it is. Your kids are forever safer and the Jewish world, particularly, the Orthodox world will have to change the way they do business or there goes all the snake-oil salesmen forever along with the Indian hair wigs.
“That’s the way it is”
joe Says:
March 20th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Oh yes, one more thing, Rabbi Schachter said “UOJ is not perfect, but nobody is”
To Anon 9:59PM:
Very well said. I'm wondering why the guy who was yelling has nothing to say in response.
Anon 959,
The one thing you’re missing is that in the ultra orthodox world, most if not all people only do things with the permission or direction of their Rav. Psak if you will.
In the Colmer case, there are countless victims whose parents will not consider coming forward because their Rav has directed them not to.
The Rabbi's are in fact to blame for taking these matters, which they have no expertise on, into their own hands, and for deciding how and when to apply the law. This in-turn puts the lives of the victims further at risk and opens the doors for there to be mroe victims.
The only people equipped to deal with Sexual Predators are the police and the judicial system, and even they are ill-equipped at best.
Who says WJC should pay for Singer's legal fees if Singer is the target of a criminal probe into misappropriating WJC money? The AG then forced Sruli out of any position where he could even look at the org's money.
UOJ has requested that on the way to the Sean Bell protest at the court on Queens Blvd, we make a detour to protest in front of Sruly's house in Forest Hills.
Ronnie is right that Jesse is a bum but only because he wouldn't cut me in for some of the spoils.
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/Werdyger_Yeedle.html
Pruzansky is advertising in the Jewish Press that Yeedle Werdyger is a featured entertainer at the Friar Tuck Inn for Pesach.
That's right rabboysay. A mehadrin event of only shmura matza, non-gebrukts and sex fiends trying to get into your daughters' skirts.
Dayan Westheim from Manchester has poskened that no one should attend Yeedle events.
UOJ, you have to put Pruzansky on notice and Rabbi Yissocher Frand who is the rov in residence.
We are very interested to know if Pruzansky is bring a pedophile to our property.
And wasn't Pruzansky somehow involved in the Leib Pinter program fraud? What was his role exactly?
The Friar Tuck Resort, Spa and Convention Center
1-800-832-7600
4858 Route 32
Catskill, New York 12414
Email: fti@albany.net
I never knew my ad on page 80 of this week's Jewish Press would stir up such a hornets nest.
Pruzansky Family Events
5521 15th Ave
Brooklyn, NY
718-436-4405
877-7-PESACH (from out of state only)
mpruzansky@aol.com
I'm the rav hamachshir for Friar Tuck. Heh, "Friar", get it?
How come no one told me about Yeedle?
Home Phone:
845-364-5376
Cell:
845-304-7506
Fax:
845-364-5381
E-mail:
Consulting@kosherf oodproduction.com
Home Address:
30 Mariner Way
Monsey, NY
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0222,barrett,35200,5.html
What does UOJ say about this?
The upcoming 88th annual dinner for Torah Vodaas is in memory of Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, but lo and behold, one of the honorees was convicted of bilking Medicaid.
Isn't it odd that a haymishe Pesach resort is named after a Catholic monk like Friar Tuck?
They named the resort after me because I remind YTT parents of Margo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friar_Tuck
Friar Tuck is a companion to Robin Hood in the legends about that character.
Tuck is depicted as a fat, bald and jovial monk with a great love of ale.
Two royal writs in 1417 refer to Robert Stafford, a Sussex chaplain who had assumed the alias of Frere Tuk. This "Friar Tuck" was still at large in 1429. These are the earliest surviving references to a character by that name.
I'm Sruly Singer's lawyer who NY Magazine has described as a "pit bull litigator."
Someone wrote on UOJ in May 2006 that Leib Pinter & Sruly Singer are friends since being together in Pirchei. Is this true? It might help explain some things.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3379603,00.html
World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Edgar Bronfman last week sacked his former policy council chairman, Rabbi Israel Singer, because "Singer helped himself to cash from the WJC office, my cash," Bronfman wrote in a letter obtained by Ynetnews.
"Israel never once spoke with me about the fact that he felt he was underpaid. Instead he helped himself to cash from the WJC office, my cash. This has gone on for a very long time," Bronfman claimed.
"I am sure that at this point in time he thinks he was entitled to the money, and so he didn't do anything wrong. He never paid any taxes on the money he took for his own use. We thought we had that all cleared up, and then we discovered that he was playing the same game in Israel," the letter said.
"It took me many weeks of crying to find out I was so badly used by a man I used to love. That decision will stand," Bronfman added.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1173879142732&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
In his letter, Bronfman accused Singer of failing to pay tax on money he took for his own use, and then "playing the same game" when he came to Jerusalem, "taking cash from the office and never accounting for it," and having the Jerusalem office of the organization pay for some of his hotel bills "in violation of WJC policy and proper accounting practices."
"It took me many weeks of crying to discover I was so badly used by a man I used to love," Bronfman wrote.
He added that "no threats" would make him change his decision, calling Singer's financial moves "a sickness."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/840583.html
World Jewish Congress President Edgar Bronfman fired Israel Singer after becoming convinced the secretary general was embezzling funds, according to a letter publicized yesterday.
In his first public response since his dismissal last Wednesday, Singer said Bronfman was "receiving bad advice" and warned him he would "regret having stained my good name."
"The final blow came when we discovered that he was playing games with his hotel bills in Jerusalem," Bronfman wrote.
Referring to his long friendship with Singer, Bronfman wrote that he went through "many weeks of crying to find out that I was so badly used by a man I used to love."
Commenting on news of his upcoming retirement, Bronfman wrote, "I am determined to leave only when this whole mess is cleaned up."
Singer described Bronfman's accusations as slanderous and said he had plenty of supporters and good friends.
I don't care what anyone says about Sruly. I stand by my man.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=13825
Responding to charges made by WJC President Edgar Bronfman that Singer, his longtime chief lieutenant and confidante, “helped himself to cash from the WJC office — my cash,” Julius Berman, chairman of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, asserted that as president, Singer has never been involved in the financial decisions of the Claims Conference, and said he sees no reason to take action at this time.
Privately, several Jewish leaders have said it is unseemly for Singer, who was found by a New York State Attorney General’s report last year to have violated fiduciary responsibilities at the WJC, to be representing the Jewish community in negotiations with world leaders and heading the Claims Conference.
One critic who has spoken publicly is Menachem Rosensaft, an attorney and former chairman of the executive committee of the American branch of the WJC, who told The Jewish Week last month: “The same criteria that compelled Alan Hevesi’s resignation [as comptroller of New York] should be applied to the leaders of humanitarian and not-for-profit organizations generally.”
He added that “Jewish leaders who seek to exercise moral authority should be free of even the appearance of impropriety.”
Attempts to reach Singer were unsuccessful.
Isi Leibler, the primary whistleblower in calling for independent investigations into the financial workings of the charity, said this week that the “positive outcome” proved that “people power has triumphed.”
Leibler, who was ousted as vice president of the group several years ago, said he regretted that it took “three years of ongoing scandal” before Singer was removed.
“To avoid a total meltdown,” he said, “and ensure that democracy prevails, elections must be held as soon as possible to elect new leaders not tainted by the recent scandals.”
http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/21053/Transparency_In_Public_Service.html
As usual, the lead editorial at my Jewish Press has some kind of shifty agenda. We won't tell you who wants us to shift the blame away from Sruly Singer, but we managed to make someone else look like the villain in the WJC scandal. That would be the law professor Burt Neuborne. Of course no one ever heard of this guy, but who cares?
It's a good thing Steven I Weiss was canned by the Forward. He might have tried to kill the Singer stories, like on his blog.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/top/editorials.php3
Even Singer’s toughest critics would acknowledge that he is brilliant and achieved great success in championing Jewish causes; even his most loyal supporters would admit that his arrogance and hardball negotiating tactics left scars on those with whom he clashed, in the Jewish community as well as among European powerbrokers.
One lesson from this tragic saga is that of the consequences of unrestrained hubris. The WJC, though it claims to represent Jewish communities in more than 80 countries and receives donations from hundreds of thousands of contributors in the U.S., essentially had become the fiefdom of two men: Singer the mastermind and Bronfman the philanthropist and source of entrée to world leaders. Together they accomplished a great deal, but somewhere along the way the rules of boundaries and transparency were set aside, as the Spitzer report details.
Singer employed an ends-justifies-the-means philosophy in his tough restitution negotiations to gain funds for Holocaust survivors, but that same style appeared to carry over to his other dealings, prompting the Spitzer report to call for removing him from any position of financial responsibility with the WJC. His secret transfer of $1.2 million to a Swiss bank account, which led to calls for an investigation into the financial workings of the WJC in 2004, has never been explained fully.
Attention now turns to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, both of which Singer heads. Now that he has become a liability found to have violated his fiduciary obligations to the WJC, can these two groups allow him to stay on as a leader, championing morality and righteousness? The glare of publicity may force them to move more quickly than they would prefer.
For now, though, our thoughts are on Israel Singer, whose accomplishments were many and whose goals no doubt were noble, but who failed to recognize when it was time to leave the scene with a measure of dignity. In the end, Singer got what he gave.
The bilker / YTV man of honor dumped his daughter who couldn't have kids on a poor, unsuspecting yungerman.
The Jewish Board of Family Services was fined $5000 and is due to appear in criminal court on May 21st. How can they be entrusted with protecting children if they don't even care about their own safety?
Charge Detail
Unclassified Misdemeanor, 1 count, Arrest charge, Arraignment charge
Description: FAIL TO COMPLY W/ORDER TO REMOVE A VIOLATION
Summons/Ticket Number: 4126165599
Issuing Officer Info
Agency: NYFD - BUR. FIRE INVESTIGATION
Pruzansky is obviously having trouble filling up the rooms. A week before Pesach he has lowered the price to about 5 grand for a family of four, including tax & tips. That's peanuts even for a dump like Friar Tuck.
Yeedle was part of the garbage strewn around yeshiva. (Leib Pinter still needs to get shoveled out too) I don't know why they didn't tell him to take a hike. Maybe they didn't want to start up with tatty MBD. He was never accepted into yeshiva but would just hang out and sometimes sit in on shiurim so he and his simliar chassidsh lowlives could tell everyone they learn in the Mir. R' Shmuel told bochurim to stay away from him and completely ignored him and the group that were fressing the yeshiva's food from the dining room. I wonder if any these guys asked reshus or were also grubbe ganovim.
Sorry for going on a break.
Lipa Schmeltzer and Rabbi Yitzy Erps are also part of the "all-star" line up at Friar Tuck.
What really catches my eye though is Pruzansky is trumpeting that all baking is being done by Weiss Bakery. Weiss was issued multiple summons by the DOH because the ingredient bins were completely swarming with bugs like a scene out of a horror movie. When Weiss ignored the City, they padlocked the store. This was a major chutzpa that the Satmar and Vien mashgichim didn't catch this. Weiss was running around Viener beis medrash farentfering like a little lemmella that he was "nebich an onuss." Not long after, a suspicious fire burned down the main location at 13th Ave which was rebuilt with insurance money. The other Weiss Bakery locations on Ave M and northeast Philadelphia get the stuff shipped to them from Boro Park.
How can anyone trust a lowlife bum that was knowingly machshil the rabim? Finkel's treif was only one issur per episode. Each bug is five!
Julius Berman,
That was a pretty quick and arbitrary decision you made on Singer. Maybe if you go through the pile of papers on your desk that hasn't been cleared in 30 years, you will have more information to work with.
I'm Pruzansky's program director. I remember when the Weiss Bakery scandal was on the front page of the NY Daily News. Everything we do is Mehadrin. Other guys might have bugs but Weiss does it bigger and better than anyone else!
I am the person who was asked by rabbonim to contact the City and the Daily News reporter to get more information on Weiss. This was in the days before the Health Dept stats were posted online. The reporter was good enough to tell us how to get a disk that contained tens of thousands of reams of microfiche. There was just a big hodgepodge of info on all eateries in the 5 Boros that would be a full time job to go through. The News just had the mazal of picking out some real bad ones they saw that included Weiss.
UOJ should ask Eddy Bronfman for a copy of the IOU from Sruly. It must be a big shtar to write out FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS.
http://media.www.yucommentator.com/media/storage/paper652/news/2006/04/03/Opinion/The-Evolution.Of.Riets.An.Interview.With.Julius.Berman.Riets.Board.Chairman-1716962.shtml
UOJ really does know everything. How does he know about Julius Berman's stack of papers? That's hilarious!
Julie Berman and Sruly are shecheinim in Forest Hills.
I don't like what Berman had to say to the YU newspaper. Especially this part:
"The modern-day rabbi must be equipped to deal with many new contemporary problems. While rabbis are not receiving calls to check shechita knives, they are getting calls that begin: "My son is gay" or "My son is an alcoholic." These are real problems which rabbis today will confront, and we must prepare our students for these issues. The *** current climate *** in the Orthodox community, even in the right-wing community, is shifting. There is a need for a new musmakh, one who can go out to the world and conquer it. Why should rabbis need to wait until they are in the rabbinate to take speech classes and classes in ethical issues? These issues, and others, should be tackled while studying for semikha."
Hatzolah just brought in two disturbed souls in straight jackets. It looks like it's Steven I Weiss and his friend "AbsurdSpin". They're struggling and muttering something unintelligible about UOJ being behind every major newspaper writing about Sruli Singer.
UOJ, I tried finding the contact info for Neuhoff employer SAFE but strangely they aren't listed anywhere. I found an ad from a SAFE division called Gamblers Treatment Center of Brooklyn. Tel.# 866-569-SAFE
In the special Jewish Press magazine on Mental health in Feb., Ohel is running an ad for their help hotline. They suggest calling for every problem imaginable - EXCEPT sex abuse.
Are they still taking directions from Margo or is it that David Mandel is too busy to think of it while at his 330k a year job?
It was Aron Twerski that told the Jewish Press to blame me instead of Singer. The tort putz thought I was encroaching on his turf but he's in error. My specialty is evidence & procedure.
What a scene outside Srulie Singer's house today. There was the Sharpton news conference and all but then the natives started getting restless. There was apparently some confusion that led the crowd to believe that Srulie was somehow involved in 3 distinct scandals. The money on Ed Bronfman's desk, the 50 shots fired at Sean Bell and even the beating of Rodney King.
I was doing some research on Elie Singer, and the FOUNDATION FOR HOLOCAUST AWARENESS after a friend on Facebook touted it. As far as I can see, it appears to be a fake. Established in 9/2005, yet never filed a form 990 for income greater than $25,000. Despite the title of the foundation, they are listed on their 501 (c) (3) as Disaster Preparedness and Relief Services. Sounds fishy to me. They seem to be getting donations from the idiots on Facebook though.
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