CROWN HEIGHTS — Next week Tuesday, July 6th, run-off elections will be held for the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council “Vaad”. In a ruling issued by the Dayan, Rabbi Avrohom B Rosenberg stated that each resident will receive two votes; to be cast between Shea Hecht, Fishel Brownstein, and Yossi Hackner.
Dayan Rules: Three Candidate Run-Off Elections Next Week
CROWN HEIGHTS — Next week Tuesday, July 6th, run-off elections will be held for the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council “Vaad”. In a ruling issued by the Dayan, Rabbi Avrohom B Rosenberg stated that each resident will receive two votes; to be cast between Shea Hecht, Fishel Brownstein, and Yossi Hackner.
These three candidates received the most votes in the Crown Heights elections earlier this month. However they didn’t receive a majority vote, required by the Vaad Hakohol’s bylaws.
Zaki Tamir was the only candidate in the elections to receive a majority.
Rabbi Rosenberg issued his ruling in an email Monday, after consulting with various Rabonim and Dayonim.
The email reads is as follows:
בס“ד
To all involved parties:
1. Last week Tuesday and Wednesday, a recount was conducted on both the votes for CHJCC (Vaad Hakohol) and the votes for Gabboim.
2. The results in the vote for Gabboim showed that the following candidates won the election. Gerlitzky, Losh, Holzberg and Lipsker. Lipsker who won at the initial count by 2 votes, (the closeness of this vote necessitated the recount) increased his margin by a few votes.
3. The results in the vote for CHJCC (Vaad Hakohol) showed that only Zaki Tamir received the necessary majority of valid ballots to be elected. Brownstein who was short by 7 votes in the initial count gained a couple of votes but still fell short of a majority. as the bylaws require a minimum of 3 member in the CHJCC (Vaad Hakohol), a runoff election is necessary in order to elect two more members. according to the bylaws the three candidates that received the most valid votes are candidates in the run-off election. every voter has to chose two candidates in order that his ballot be valid if he picks more or less than 2 candidates his ballot is invalid and won’t be counted. the three candidates receiving the most votes are Brownstein, Hackner and Hecht. they were numbers 2, 3 and 4 respectively both in the initial count and in the recount.
4. Last week Sunday a meeting was held, where various alternative to the aforementioned run-off format were suggested by various parties, with the intent of creating a larger board. After carefully analyzing all proposals, the Bais Din denied all of those proposals, and decided that the run-off shall take place in the aforementioned format as prescribed in the
bylaws.5. in addition last week Sunday a meeting was held regarding the timing of the runoff election. Various ideas were raised at that meeting and in communications subsequent to that meeting. The major question was shall the runoff be postponed until after the summer when maximum participation can be expected, but doing so will require either that the current board shall continue to serve as per the bylaws or creating a new interim board (a move not authorized by the bylaws) consisting of the candidates running in the runoff etc., or shall the runoff election take place as soon as possible even if the turnout will be lower, (and even if the possibility exists that certain groups in the neighborhood may have a higher than average absentee rate in the summer) in order to bring closure to this election. After careful consideration of all the pro’s and con’s of each alternative, the Bais Din decided that the runoff election shall take place next week Tuesday July the 6th.
6. if any of the parties will ask that the polls shall be open for an hour or two later we may accommodate that request if we get it in a timely fashion.
7. the election board shall be the same board that took care of the initial election, with the cost to be borne by the CHJCC (Vaad Hakohol).
8. the polling place shall be the same as the initial elections. Security and monitors shall be provided as at the initial election.
9. I will be iy”h present at the polls from start to finish.
10. I would like to reiterate what the Bais Din wrote in the psak-din that campaigning shall be positive not negative. unfortunately some of the campaigning for the initial election was negative, and consisted of name-calling etc.
11. I would hope this will change and this campaign shall be waged by pointing out the virtues of the candidates, instead of the negatives of the competing candidates.
Rabbi A. B. Rosenberg
Outsider
Skip the elections, all 3 can be in, keep out the Loshon Horah in Zachus of Sholom Mordechai Ben Rivkah
10 & 11
What makes him think this will change!! To little to late Rabbi Rosenberg!!!
baali theshuka are stupid
dear rabbi rozenberg
i would just say the 4 letter work but you are older than me so i have to be polite
how can you agree to let a mosser PHILIP BROWNSTEIN be a cadidate ?
mr philip where is the camp fund ?
Thank You Rabbi Rosenberg
Thanks for a great job!
Easier election method
I think Shea should take this run-off election literally and runoff and leave the two remaining men to be elected.
chaim moshe pinchas
good job good fair psak!!!!!!!!!!!
Lets Go Crown Heights!
We’ve come sooooooo far!
This election is at least as important as any other matter which could come up, and you’d put everything else aside to take care of it! It’s our community, our kids, our future and the future of Lubavitch! The Rebbe works so hard for us, lets show the Rebbe we care about making Crown Heights everything he dreamed it could be. And if the Rebbe were standing in front of you and telling you to vote, you would turn over the world to be here and vote in the election, so why is this any different!
baloney
all of a suddden the bylaws are holy make no mistake you should go by the bylaws but he was the one that broke them now they are worth nothing including himself and all the garbage that made him change it good luck we will not get anywhere mark my words nothing will stop
Outsider II
I TOTALLY agree with #1. ALL three runner ups should be IN. Skip the run off election. What a waste of time and money.
Sholom v-shlom v-ain Sholom.
Rabbi Rosenberg won’t agree. He makes $400.00 an hour. If the voting and counting and recounting takes 15 hours that’s another $6,000. When he wants to change the by-laws he changes them.
MaDDinBklyn
Aww the mosrim didn’t get anything they wanted and now they’re crying in the comments
Mosrim go out!
Vote Shea/Hackner
chosid
“The run-off shall take place in the aforementioned format as prescribed in the bylaws.”
Indeed, after the travesty that this supposed ‘Zablo“ Beis Din has perpetrated on us, they want to have the runoff according to the ”by-laws“!!!
It’s a sham, a charade a parody of justice. First Rosenberg mevateled all relevence of abiding by the bylaws; 1. that the n’tzigim conduct the election.
(he did not call for a democratic and fair election of each shul’s n’tzigim, instead he appointed an ‘election committee’ at his discretion. 2. He first disallowed the candidacy of Hecht – then allowed it – once he was pressured by Katzman, Rabbi Segal, and Rabbi Osdoba. (this is against the bylaws) 3. The candidacy of Yossi Hackner is not according to the bylaws since he is under 30. There was never an electin when the age requirement was waived. Rabbi Rosenberg, sad to see, picks and chooses when he will ”opt for strict adherence to the bylaws” and when not. He will decide who is going to rule this community, not us. How sad. He will have to answer on Yom Kippur for this.
To # 1 and 9
Sorry it wont work they need a majority vote with 4 they will have too many tie votes.
Kolel Yungerman
Vote got Hecht and Hacker!
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
vote NO to conflict of interest
vote NO to Shea Hecht
vote HAKNER/BROWNSTEIN
Vote for Zabla
I agree with # 12. Let’s first have a vote on who shall be Zabla. It a travesty of justice to have an outsider change all the by-laws because of pressure from certain factions. Cancel all prior elections and lets get first things done first. The elections for Zabla can be held on July 4 when no one is here.
Inda Know
Several years ago there was a question on the ballot. “If the required number of candidates fail to get a majority vote, may the highest vote getter short of the majority be placed on the board to complete the board without a runoff?” The community voted a clear “no”. Thus, unless reversed by a new ballot question, the community has spoken. No one shall serve on the board without having received a majority vote in a community wide vote and thus “Merutza L’Rov HaKahol”
Attention Rabbi Rosenberg !!!
It seems that osdaba is hand-choosing a third rav that he can control- like segal. He has put a lot of pressure on Rabbi Bell a Dayan in Montreal- not to run as a rav in Crown Heights. He wants segal to be the rav so he can say Yes! Yes! Yes! to all his shtusim and he can control the Kashrus business all by himself. Any rav that may have his own opinion is possul with Osdaba. Therefor he could not get along with Harav Schvei. A bais-din should have 3 rabbonim not 1 rav and 2 puppets.
woman on the side
WOMEN SHOULD BE ABLE TO VOTE!!! if the community does not wake up and start including women in communal affairs the women will not care for whatever the community stands for and they will seek acceptance in the modern world and dress that way too…
by-laws
I think Bocherim should vote too. During the political elections in November they are all encouraged to vote by the vaad hakohol and by the rabbonim. If a bal-habos could vote for a rav, a Ben Torah should certainly be able to decide and vote. Rabbi Rosenberg could change the By-Laws again as he sees fit, as he has done so time and time again whenever his people puts pressure on him.