Shulamith executive director apparently ignores second beit din summons

Issue of August 29, 2008

A lawyer for a group of Shulamith School parents, Robert Tolchin, said Tuesday there has been no response from the school to a second summons to the RCA beit din. The Beth Din of America declined to comment.

In a letter earlier this month Rabbi Shlomo Weissman, the director of the rabbinical court, directed Rabbi Moshe Zwick, Shulamith’s executive director, to respond by August 15, and to consider the letter to be a second summons.

“It is surprising that a religious school, its purported board, and the rabbi in charge all have disregarded a hazmanah to a respected beit din,” Tolchin said in an e-mail sent from the Israeli-Syrian border. “But it is downright chutzpah that at the same time those individuals have publicly criticized the parents for not bringing the dispute to beit din. The truth is that they are the ones who for the past three months have studiously avoided going to beit din.”

Tolchin said it was his understanding that a third summons would be sent followed, if necessary, by a Siruv — a declaration of contempt of court.

An e-mail sent to Ed Rubin, an attorney for Shulamith, was not returned before deadline Tuesday afternoon.

The parents in Brooklyn are trying to block Zwick’s apparent plan to shut down the Brooklyn school, which is attended by over 500 girls, and transfer its financial assets to Bnot Shulamith in the Five Towns. He apparently intends to pay cash for a new campus he has contracted to purchase in Inwood. The deal appears to be frozen by the beit din impasse.

The new campus would fulfill a need that has been growing since the Long Island branch of Shulamith was founded almost eight years ago. But conversations with a number of Shulamith parents in the Five Towns in recent days indicate a growing dissatisfaction with how the school is handling the apparent standoff with the parents who are trying to save the Brooklyn school.

Litigation is also continuing in civil court though Tolchin pledged to put that on hold if a beit din is allowed to hear the case.

In a May interview with The Jewish Star Rabbi Zwick pledged to respond to any summons to beit din. “The bottom line is I would go,” he said. “I’m a Jewish man. If they call me, I’m going.”