‘Old Vaad’ Weighs in on the Current Elections

The members of the ‘old Vaad’, Rabbi Shmuel Plotkin, Moshe Rubashkin, and Dr. Zvi Lang weigh in on the current elections with a very sharp letter that was delivered to homes in the neighborhood. The letter takes issue with a number of important topics on the upcoming elections.

Dear residents of Crown Heights שיחיו

Recently a letter was distributed by Mr. Leibish Nash accusing us of being the reason that the current members of the temporary Vaad Hakohol are not implementing the Psak Din that was issued two months ago, after the six month and $150,000 Din Torah, that was ruled upon by five Dayanim, headed by Rabbi Rosenberg from Monsey, regarding the resolution of all conflict in our neighborhood, and the order to immediately withdraw a Mesira in court. Nash also lays full credit for the evolvement of the Din Torah, as if it happened thanks to the tireless efforts of the temporary four.

The same type of claim was made by Mr. Eli Poltorac (the author of a vicious Mesira against us and the Rabbonim of our neighborhood), at the “meet the candidate’s forum” last Sunday in the Lubavitcher Yeshiva on Crown street.

It is not our role to decide the Halachic status of their behavior, this belongs to Rabbonim. We will only inform you of the facts as they happened, along with the chronological timeline of events as they unfolded. And let the informed voter decide on his own, if what they claim is true or has any merit. You, the voter, is smart enough to decide on your own. Let us be clear, we are not running for any position, and we have no candidates in this race, but we feel that it is important, that you are not mislead by any misinformation, and we must add that every fact herein can be backed up by documentation.

For 2 years, Rabbis Segal, Zirkind and Reitport sent 3 hazmonos for a Din Torah to Bais Din Bais Yosef, and they were refused by the side represented by Poltorac.
In addition, last year, against the ruling of Rav Osdoba, a group of disrespectful renegade netzigim went ahead and organized an election which created strife and chaos in our community. Rav Osdoba ruled that until we have all our differences resolved at a Din Torah, there is no point to hold elections which will only intensify the Machlokes.

When Rav Osdoba’s ruling was blatantly disobeyed, the netzigim committee got a letter from Rav Osdoba on 5/18/09, telling them to go to court to get a TRO (temporary restraining order) against the illegal and fraudulent election held against his psak (hence the Psak for new elections). This was done according to Halacha, that you are allowed to take out a TRO in general, and in this case specifically, there was a letter from a Rav instructing us to go to court to implement his Psak. A TRO is a non-threatening procedure; it serves only to force one side to listen to a Psak of a Rav or to prevent them from going ahead with their illegal action. But there are no other legal consequences.

On 5/22/09, Poltorac and company went to court to overturn the TRO. This action is prohibited according to Halacha. Shulchan Aruch says that if you are summoned to court based on permission of a Rav, you may not defend yourself in court (unless you have explicit permission from a Rav, which in this case Poltorac has yet to produce such written permission). He succeeded.

After conducting the illegal election, Poltorac and company broke into the Bais Din offices in the dark of night, and they vacated Rabbi Segal’s office, confiscating all the Bais Din files and locking Rav Segal out of his office via court order.

In addition to overturning the TRO, Poltorac, Sperlin, Cadaner and Brownstein went ahead on 6/8/09 to enter a Mesira – a criminal case against Rabbi Osdoba and his 3 sons, along with Rabbis Segal, Zirkind and Reitport, claiming that they are part of a conspiracy to steal money from the Government, this claim (unlike Mr. Nash’s claim that it was a civil suit [We must also give honorable mention to Mr. Nash, who set the standard in 2006 when after a disagreement he had with us as a minority in the Vaad Hakohol, he went to court to accuse us, the majority, of damaging the JCC and to sue us for $18 million dollars. So we guess that Mr. Nash is proud of his diligent students.]), if pursued, would threaten the defendants with many years in jail, and in the best case scenario would cost millions to defend. They also included a local Gmach and local business as co-conspirators, this of course caused the Gmach to lose much of the money deposits, and it also forced the Gmach to restrict Crown Heights families from obtaining loans as freely as they used to prior to this Mesira. Creating unprecedented hardship on poor families and teachers in our community, especially during Yom Tov time and when they need to marry off a child.

Rabbi Mendel Gluckowsky, the Chabad Rav from Rechovot Israel, happened to be in New York for Shavuos, right after the election, and he saw the terrible Machlokes that was caused by this illegal election. He offered his good offices to try and arrange for a resolution to bring this war to an end. Then, when Poltorac entered his Mesira, Rabbi Gluckowsky was horrified, and he put his whole heart and soul to help bring to a Din Torah to settle this terrible fight and to prevent the Mesira from proceeding in court. Rabbi Gluckowsky is unfortunately experienced in witnessing the terrible consequences that a Mesira, as false as it may be, can cause to destroy Mosdos and communities.

After months of shuttling and arm-twisting, Rabbi Gluckowsky succeeded to organize the formation of a Bais Din and to get the process of a Din Torah on track, thanks to a mistake that Poltorac made.

In the process of fighting the TRO and this Mesira, Poltorac perjured himself in court; he realized that he goofed, and that as an attorney he may be disbarred if this case goes ahead. So when Rabbi Gluckowsky got involved to organize the Din Torah, Poltorac realized that keeping it in court is to his disadvantage. So the Din Torah proceeded. However, he still refused to withdraw his Mesira from court, perhaps thinking that he will have an upper-hand over us, by the threat of his Mesira.

After the hearings at the Din Torah ended on December 24, 2009 (long before the Psak), our faction immediately withdrew our harmless TRO from court “without prejudice”. We gave instruction to the attorneys to follow procedure and that they should contact Poltoracs attorneys and remove everything from court immediately, and so it was done on 12/30/2009. Poltorac & company still refused to withdraw their vicious Mesira, regardless of the complete withdrawal of our action. So our TRO is out of court, but Poltorac’s vicious Mesira is still in court.

The Psak was issued on 4/13/10 one week after Pesach. In the Psak it states that both sides must remove all proceedings from court immediately. Obviously our faction had nothing in court to withdraw, so the burden of withdrawing from court lies flatly on the authors of the vicious Mesira; Poltorac, Sperlin, Cadaner & Brownstein.

A week went by and nobody heard a word from Poltorac or his attorneys. An email went out to Rabbi Rosenberg on 4/21/10 12:23 am, hinting to him, who is watching that the sides follow the Psak? Rabbi Rosenberg responded with an email on 4/21/10 7:08 pm, 9 days after his original Psak, stating, that per the Psak, there are 3 things that must be done immediately, namely: 1) Withdraw all actions from court. 2) Return Rabbi Segal to his office. 3) Give Rabbi Segal his back pay and his due paycheck.

Poltorac realized that he messed up by not doing anything that the psak ordered, so he immediately sent an email to Rabbi Rosenberg on 4/21/10 9:17 pm, with a cc to our toain, saying that there are 2 ways to withdraw from court: 1) Issue a motion for discontinuance (which only means that next day he can go back to court). 2) Translate the psak and enter a motion to the court, closing the case forever, since a ruling has been made by arbitration of a Bais Din, and in this way this case can never go back to court again. Poltorac wrote that they are ready to do it either way, and that he will act according to the decision of the other side (our side).
Poltorac also included in this email a draft for a stipulation for discontinuance (option one), backdated to 4/14/10, the day of the Psak, so if we accept option one, it will give the impression that he complied with the Psak to withdraw from court immediately, even though that in actuality a full week passed by since the psak, and he prepared the stipulation a week later grudgingly, only after a rebuke from Rabbi Rosenberg, nevertheless, this way he can mislead the public into thinking that he followed the Psak to the ‘T’ with due diligence. What he failed to do, was to contact our attorneys and to follow proper procedure to withdraw a legal case from court, as Poltorac the attorney surely knows. This was just a show without any substance.

Obviously we opted for option two, because we were not going to risk the possibility of Poltorac & company deciding to go back to court with this Mesira. We needed that this case be declared ruled upon and closed by an arbitration of a Bais Din and therefore it is considered case-closed forever.

Poltorac went on to demand that we should pay for the translation, even though that it was his side that entered the Mesira, he insisted that we pay for the costs of withdrawal! Rabbi Rosenberg suggested that we pay half, just so that these few hundred dollars for the translation doesn’t become an obstacle for closure. Upon which the lines just went dead. We were sure that the document is being translated and we’re still waiting for the legal translation. We never heard from them again.
A full month went by, we heard nothing. Then the deadline for candidate applications came on 5/12/10, and Poltorac & company decided to ask the committee to disqualify some candidates whom they feared may win enough votes and possibly oust them from office, so we responded by asking to disqualify Poltorac and his 3 friends, on grounds of them not fulfilling any of the items enumerated by Rabbi Rosenberg in his email, namely: 1) Withdraw from court. 2) Give Rabbi Segal his office. 3) Give Rabbi Segal his due paycheck.

In truth we would have been happier not to have them disqualified, and to let the people speak. If the community likes them, let them have them, but at least let the community knows what’s happening and let them vote like informed citizens. And we made it clear to the Rabbonim that we’d rather not have the Bais Din disqualify them, so that later people will not be able to complain that they weren’t given a fair chance.

Apparently Poltorac and company started feeling the heat, but for some reason they started communicating with Rabbi Rosenberg instead of communicating with our lawyers, as legal procedure requires. And when our lawyers sent emails to their lawyers on 5/12/10, requesting the motion for closing the case, nobody responded. Another 2 weeks went by and on 5/26/10, our attorneys once again asked for the stipulation, but they got no response.

Suddenly Poltorac came up with a new story; the translation that he made is not good enough, and that he needs more time, but he still demanded that he should be considered a good obedient boy who listens to the Psak, regardless of the fact that he fulfilled nothing that the Psak required from him. 1) The Mesira is still in court. 2) Rabbi Segal is still out of an office (all they need to do is give him a key to an office, and return the confiscated documents). 3) Rabbi Segal still has not received a single paycheck.

Then, on 5/28/10, Poltorac had a change of heart, and he decided that he no longer agrees to translate the Psak in order to make sure that the case is closed forever (option two), but he demanded that we comply with his demand to sign the stipulation for discontinuance only (option one), which keeps us and the community in limbo on the chance that he may return this case to court in the future.

They claim that they sent us the stipulation and that we are refusing to sign. The fact is that they did not send the stipulation as agreed upon (option two), they sent the wrong stipulation (option one), and they sent it to Rabbi Rosenberg and to our Toian, but they didn’t send it to the attorneys, which is standard operating procedure as required by law, as Poltorac the attorney should know. So for Poltorac to claim that he sent the stipulation (although the wrong one) to parties that have no connection to this case, instead of sending it to the lawyers of the parties in litigation, is as if he put it out on a table in 770, it has no bearing on the court or the process to close a case in court.

In summary: Poltorac & company had no intention to follow anything that the Psak ordered. They prayed that nobody will notice, and that they will run around town claiming that they brought peace to the neighborhood, and that they are responsible for making the Din Torah happen, when in truth they did everything in their power to stop it from happening (case in point, when they discovered who gave us part of the money to pay for the Din Torah, a staggering $75,000, half of the entire bill, they went to that person and screamed at him and they rewarded him by causing him some damage). The Din Torah happened as a result of smart maneuvering by Rabbi Gluckowsky, and some outmaneuvering by us of Poltorac’s ploys, still they have the Chutzpa and the gall to scream that they caused the Din Torah to happen.
Even now, two full months after the issuance of the Psak, they haven’t done one thing to follow the Psak. They’re running 0/3, they had 3 jobs to do and they didn’t manage even one.

1) The Mesira is still active!

2) Rabbi Segal still hasn’t gotten his office back!

3) Rabbi Segal didn’t get a single check!

We’ll let your imagination draw parallels.

What’s amazing is the fact that Poltorac & company couldn’t manage to do even one thing that the Psak obligated them to do. We can consider understanding them if they managed 2/3 or even 1/3, but not to manage 3/3 that is very telling. Imagine what will happen if we reward them by electing them to be running the Vaad Hakohol for the next 3 years, could you imagine that they will fulfill anything that is required by the Psak? Do you imagine that they will respect Rabbi Osdoba? Can you fathom the suffering of Rabbi Segal under their rule? Can you envision a chance that a normal person will throw himself at their mercy and give up his job elsewhere to become the third Rav in Crown Heights?

Do you really believe that if they are elected Vaad Hakohol, that they will respect Rabbi Osdoba, or that they will give Rabbi Reitport and Rabbi Segal their due as Motzim (judges) in our Bais Din? Do you think that under their rule, the Bais Din will ever be able to reestablish and function properly? Their actions speak louder than their words. If while campaigning for their election they show such contempt for the Bais Din and the Psak, imagine what they will do if elected and they have no voter to fear for the next three years.

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Another claim that we hear from these 4 candidates, is about the camp scholarships that they so generously distribute. For anybody to take credit for a program that has been part of the JCC program provided by the MET council is preposterous. This scholarship fund has been radically increased during our administration by private funds that we raised, and we distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars indiscriminately, without regard to which camp you sent your child to. To our regret, since we left, this program has been drastically reduced, and funds have been distributed very discriminately, depending on which camp you sent your child to. This is not called helping children; this is called supporting my favorite camp.

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Citizens of Crown Heights, these people, namely, Fishel Brownstein, Chanina Sperlin, Zev Cadaner and Eli Poltorac have demonstrated that if they feel that you disagree with them, regardless if you are a Rav, a member of the Vaad Hakohol or just an average citizen, they will go to any length to make sure that you get out of their way, and if it requires Mesira to accuse you of criminal activity in court, so be it, even if that means taking a father away from his family for years by locking him up in jail. They have demonstrated by their actions, that they believe that their cause justify the means.

Is this who we want as our leaders?

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Please come out and vote this Sunday, June 13, 2010. The Rebbe said before the first Vaad Hakohol election in 5746, that he put all his activities on hold, just to make sure that the elections for Vaad Hakohol take place, we should all do the same and find 15 minutes to go and vote for a peaceful Crown Heights, free of intimidation and full of kindness and friendship, the shining city on the hill, that makes the Rebbe proud.

Vote responsibly!

May Hashem bless us all with peace,
Rabbi Shmuel Plotkin
Moshe Rubashkin
Dr. Zvi Lang