Dispute over Shulamith School sale in RCA beit din

A Google Maps satellite image of Prospect Street off Doughty Boulevard in Inwood, where Bnot Shulamith of Long Island has entered into an agreement to purchase a campus.

By Mayer Fertig

Next stop is the Beth Din of America for the dispute over the planned purchase of a campus in Inwood for Bnot Shulamith, which the school hopes to finance from the proceeds of a sale of the existing Shulamith School for Girls campus in Midwood, Brooklyn. The beit din, part of the Rabbinical Council of America, sent a summons to appear, or hazmanah, to Rabbi Moshe Zwick, the executive director of Shulamith; Mr. Sheldon Fliegelman, the chairman of the board, and to Mr. Sam Gross, the president. As of Tuesday afternoon, Rabbi Zwick and Mr. Fliegelman said they had not yet received the document and declined to comment. A group of more than 100 parents of students in the Brooklyn school hope to block that sale. They are attempting to cast doubt on the validity of the Shulamith School board of directors, which they claim was never properly elected. The parents are pursuing a parallel legal fight in civil court, hoping an injunction will block the sale at least temporarily. An attorney for the parents, Robert Tolchin, offered Tuesday to suspend the civil court effort, “if Rabbi Zwick and the members of the board we are challenging will agree to be bound by the Beth Din of America’s ruling.” Should the rabbinical court uphold the validity of the Shulamith board, the parents also seek a ruling on the validity of the proposed sale itself, as well as “what rights the parents of children in the Brooklyn school have, and how the profits of the sale should be applied.” The school intends to use most of the proceeds of the Brooklyn campus — believed to be more than $20 million — to purchase a five building facility on Prospect Street in Inwood, which the Brooklyn parents fear will leave the original school without enough money for a proper building. Additionally, a number of the Brooklyn parents don’t believe the school intends to remain in Brooklyn, at all. In a May 15 letter received by some Shulamith parents, Rabbi Zwick cited the changing demographics of Brooklyn as responsible for the board’s “painful, if inevitable, conclusion that the school’s primary future efforts need to be focused on Long Island in order for the school to survive.” Citing discussions about shared resources with Yeshiva Derech Hatorah, which he described as “a school that shares the ideals and hashkafot of Shulamith,” Rabbi Zwick wrote that, “doing so may allow Shulamith to operate at a level of efficiency that will allow it to continue its tradition of service to the Flatbush community.”