Bais Rivkah, Back in Financial Trouble?

Just weeks after a successful charidy campaign brought in One and a Half Million Dollars, Bais Rivkah again is unable to pay its Staff. Crownheights.info has been informed that payroll checks are bouncing, and their staff was not paid.

by crownheights.info

Changes were supposed to come to Bais Rivkah. The new Board was supposed to fix the ailing schools financial woes. Yet here we are again, with no money, and no idea where it all went.

A successful Charidy campaign, run by the new Bais Rivkah Board, netted a staggering one and a half million dollars ($1,500,000). It seemed to be just what the school needed to get its finances back on track.

Now, crownheights.info has been informed that the Bais Rivkah payroll checks have bounced, and the staff has not been paid since before Chanukah.

An email request for an explanation by Crownheights.info to the school administration has yet to be answered.

Although seemingly unrelated, this comes on the heels of the firing of Benjy Stock, an administrator of Bais Rivkah for many years.

59 Comments

  • Before Chanukah?

    I think they are owed from way before Chanukah.

    I know a few staff, some received up to 8 checks all of which bounced and they were landed with the bank charges!

  • Expected

    That is what I would expect from an institution that has 2500+ children ka”h and a scholarship fund that subsidizes tuition to the tune of over one million dollars EVERY month!!!

  • only bounced checks

    I dont think you meant Chanukah, that was just last week. Some staff did not get paid from Before Rosh Hashonah, and what ever they were given all bounced. Now they only have Bank charges…..

  • Rochel

    Before Chanukah?

    There was only tw payrolls since first week.

    We are owed 3 payrolls that’s 6 weeks.

    Never mind all the bounced checks.

  • Charidy is a hoax

    Everyone knows that a successful charidy campaign does not actually mean they made all the money. There are all kinds of behind the scenes arrangements. I heard BR was only expecting to net $250,000 from the whole campaign.

    Also consider how much money they spent on it. Why did every store on Kingston need to be supplied with thousands of personalized shopping bags advertising the campaign? Why were girls sent (multiple times) to the recording studio to record a song that couldn’t even be played because of kol Isha? Just the food bills must be astronomical.

    I’m not denying that BR needs money. But it needs to find a way to have money coming in on an ongoing basis. Tuition is not enough. But until they agree to open the books and have real transperacy, real change can’t happen.

    • Shimon Steinberger

      The Charidy campaigns are a hoax.
      Without a huge amount of pressure the books will never been opened up,
      too much to hide.
      There is no comprehensive find raising going on in the wider Jewish community,
      Benjy was never a fund raise, who knows what Minkowicz got up too all the years before he was removed.

  • To # 3

    Subsidized tuition???

    The past two years no one got any discount.

    Your child was not given a pass if you owed money. Or if you did not pay FULL.

    New board zero heart.

    • to #12

      Who are you kidding, a friend of mine, who is struggling, is paying $3,500 for his daughters tuition. You think $3,500 is FULL tuition????

  • Anonymous

    Yes where did all the money go to from the charidy campaign? Paying up all the interests fron the loans they took . The rich people on the board are taking advantage of the mossad ,we need to clean it up

    • "All the money"

      How much $$ do you think they raised? $350,000, if you exclude the matches.
      What do you think the annual budget for the school is? $15,000,000.

  • truth

    the truth is teachers are owed a lot of money. the new board has 0 transparency the time for the community to wake up is now!

  • teacher

    the checks that were given out before Chanukah and bounced were for up to Oct 15 payroll which was two months ago

  • from the inside

    The payroll was given just before Chanukah, but it was for the end of October, and many of them bounced. No one has gotten a payroll since the first of November.

  • I know for a FACT

    I spoke to one of the matchers and HE WAS NEVER ASKED TO GIVE MONEY.

    He was very unhappy they keep using his name. Shame on Moshe P for this. Many of the funds charidy does is fake

    One day CHaridy needs to be investigated to see how much is real and how is fake

  • Moshe

    It’s time to take Bais Rivkah back!
    Seemingly all the money coming in from donations and the charity went to pay back loans that were taken to pay the teachers last year. For the first time in Bais Rivkah history the board took loans with interest. Loan that they gave!! Totally unacceptable!
    They brought in a new lady that has a work history that no one wants to mention for obvious reasons!
    This is our school – parents must know what’s going on not sit quietly and hope for miracles tuition will only go up. The new board has no interest in fundraising and I don’t mean fundraising from us parents

  • to #10

    that is not at all true. Families are paying 10k total for 3-4-5 kids in the school. Yes, even with the new board.

    They did crack down on old debt, but they took less than 50% from many people. (some money is better than no money).

    The reality is that our schools are not producing people who can afford to pay the tuition that would actually sustain our schools. This is the crux of the problem.

  • Interest

    Why must millionaires demanded interest for the loans they gave? I’m not even asking that they forgive the loan. Just stop taking all the charity proceeds as interest!
    That’s what was done last year. Where did the money from this year go? If not to the teachers, then where?
    Dump this new board. They already proved themselves to be incompetent.

  • Gershon Hoffman

    $100,000,000 won’t help. Problems aren’t new either. “Disconnect” between stated priorities / actions. Anyone can criticize, of course. Easy to do.

  • Chanoch

    The firing of the two administrators is only one move in the right direction, but to their credit, no checks have been returned unpaid in the last 30-40 years. Teachers weren’t paid for 4-6 months due to their mismanagement, but once they paid, the checks were covered

    • interesting

      why was it a move in the “right” direction??? I Hurd that these board memebers are way more fishier. never Hurd one bad thing about the old administrators

  • Teacher working in br for many years

    This has never happened before all my years teaching !!
    I am owed money and now it bounced !! They need to be more responsible !

  • Uncle Mendel

    I think the “Fund Raising” board should give an accounting of what they have raised. Oh, wait! They don’t have any full time fund raisers! Boro Park and Williamsburg Yeshivas do!

  • Hello

    They only findraaie from us.
    A charidy , a raffle. Why are we paying two people to ask uS for more money??

  • Mendy w

    The money they got back from the people at 50% discount was not for everyone. Some people had real reasons why their debt was erased. However, if you were friends with the board or you some how have influence on how the crown heights community thinks they gave you a better deal. They gave these deals out to people so they would look good and righteous and hide the truth from the rest of the community.
    It is the time the community has an election for people to be on the school board, or perhaps term limits.

    To those complaining about open books, the books have been examined multiple times and nothing has been missing.

  • ^5 @ # 15 & # 11

    I read a story of how a Jewish family needed $250,000 to get a home. The campaign was run by Charidy. I cared.

    What wasn’t disclosed was how the money collected was going for renovations for a 3 year rental home, not for a purchase. I gave money anyway.

    I then asked a friend of mine if I just gave money to renovate someone’s house? Why spend charity money to renovate a 3 year rental that may not have their lease renewed ? My friend’s response was laughter and to tell me I got scammed.

    • this has been going on a while

      they have been bothering him for a while now. probably affected this SITUATION

  • Why are you so surprised?

    If I see Charidy, I see SCAM.

    As for teachers not being paid, it was like that for months at a time, 35 years ago. I know because before I got smart & quit, I was one of those unpaid teachers back then, and they STILL owe me money!

    Honestly, the worst thing they could do is a Charidy campaign. Something never feels right there.

    Teachers, you need to vote with your feet, ALL of you. That was our mistake 35 years ago, which is why we weren’t paid for almost 6 months. Don’t be naive, walk out. And consider legal action (because CHBD will never find in your favor & BR won’t ever go to an unbiased Din Torah.) Good luck, ladies.

    PS – BRING BACK BENJY!

  • Ahavasyisroel

    Don’t blame charidy for bais rivka’s mismanagement. There are plenty of worthy campaigns such as the one for Lamplighters just the other week and the one that helped out Simi after she lost Shua

  • G-D bless

    the ones living out of town this is good entertainment. listen you can’t blame people for wanting to be a somebody everybody wants to be a somebody question is at what cost.You can’t fight to take over something that is way over your head you’re not in camp anymore.

  • To: I know for a FACT

    I’m very Disturbed by your comment.
    If someone’s name was used without his permission, and he was never asked to participate in the match then why….
    WHY DIDN’T HE INSIST HIS NAME BE REMOVED?
    Did he want the kavod, that everyone would say how wonderful he is?

    If he knew there was no 4x match, because without him it was only 3x, why didn’t he open his mouth? He is an accomplice in the deception. Without his name as a matcher, many people would have refrained from paying into this scam.
    If you have an honest way to condone his behavior, then please states do publicly, because if what you said isn’t true, you have besmirched his character.

    • It wasn't only one

      Everyone “in the know” knows that BR only expected to get about $250,000 of actual money from this campaign.

  • To all BR parents

    Please pay your tuition in full, and on time, with 1 caveat.
    Instead of writing Bais Rivka on the check, make the check(s) out to your child(ren)s’ teachers, and write on the memo “Bais Rivka tuition, Teves 5779”.
    Send a photocopy to the school in your tuition envelope.
    Your child’s teacher will thank you, and the school will not lose out because they can deduct the check amount from the next FUNDED payroll.

    • this

      teachers “in the know” with relatives paying tuition (relatives who are amenable) already do this.

  • tuition

    modern orthodox schools school fees cover 80% of budget
    yeshivas such as torah vdaas school fees cover about 70% of the budget
    Bes Rivkah school fees cover about 30% of the budget

    There is the problem

  • C’mon!

    Same ole, same ole…

    The school needs to give an honest accounting of the recent Charidy campaign, which at the very least, always appears so suspicious (ridiculous amount, matchers, multiple donor entries), as well as address the high/interest loans allegations. At the very least.

  • Michael

    Parents and community members who have supported the school by sending their childten or by donations are the true boss of Beis Rivka. The Attorney General will confirm this.
    Join together and remove THIS CORRUPT BOARD now!

  • drp

    there were some good aspects to BR, but if they would have been more careful about the teachers, policies with children, being more organized with policies etc, they might have more parents who would like to donate. You can’t expect people to want to donate unless they feel its worth it

  • Boruch S Wolf

    Prior disclosure; Idon’t have any children enrolled in BR, and I’m also related to a member of the board.

    Coming from a family of school admins, and an observant person with common sense, here is what I know. In very frum neighborhoods that aren’t primarily wealthy, private [parochial] schools are a major hole in the pocket. The overhead is incredibly higher than tuition brings in. When a moisod is empty in funds, it doesn’t mean that a scam has been perpetrated on the teachers. It also doesn’t mean that the school is working at max efficiency and effort.

    So if you wish to speculate or share positive steps forward, great, but please spare us of the hysterics.