Court orders attorney to turn over Shulamith school bylaws

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By Mayer Fertig

Issue of August 8, 2008

Parents of Shulamith's Brooklyn school won a small court victory at a hearing July 30, after a judge ordered the institution's 1937 bylaws to be produced by an attorney, Avram Schreiber, who said he had them in his possession.

The document proves a point the parents have been trying to make by stating that, "Any and all parents of students in the school and dues paying congregants are deemed members of the corporation."

Both sides now await the judge's ruling on the parents' request for access to the school's financial books and other documents.

The handing over of the bylaws was not without drama. Two of the document's nine pages were missing, including one that described the requirements of membership. Robert Tolchin, the parents' attorney, complained to New York State Supreme Court Justice James G. Starkey before receiving the missing pages from Schreiber the next day.

"They are obviously suppressing much,” Tolchin said Tuesday. “Schreiber wasn't supposed to give us this. [Shulamith attorney Ed] Rubin stood in court and said, 'I've seen the bylaws, Judge, and they're not going to tell you who a member is.' Yeah. Because they were missing two pages."

In a letter to the judge on Monday, Rubin denied the omission was intentional. “The version of the bylaws sent to your honor by Mr. Tolchin did come as a surprise to us,” he wrote. In any event, “for the past 50 years, at least, these bylaws have been ignored.”

Not so, Robert Tolchin responded Tuesday. In a letter he cited documents that show the school's 1987 mortgage was voted on by the board, and by 78 parents — members of the Shulamith corporation.

Calls to Schreiber and the school's executive director, Rabbi Moshe Zwick, on Tuesday were not returned. Ed Rubin did not respond to an e-mail request for comment.

The Brooklyn parents hope to prevent Shulamith from going through with a plan to sell the school's Brooklyn campus and use virtually all of the proceeds to buy and renovate a new campus in Inwood for Bnot Shulamith, which would leave more than 500 girls in Brooklyn without a school.

In an interview Tuesday, Tolchin reiterated that his clients are willing to share the proceeds of the Brooklyn campus with Bnot Shulamith.

"We've said from day one that if there is a realistic plan to allow the school to continue in Brooklyn, of course everyone will agree to that. There needs to be a budget, a real assessment of what the costs of a new building are."