Yeshiva: They're Old, They're Sick, They're Holocaust Survivors – Evict Them

Back in April of last year, I suggested we start a Haredi Hall of Shame after learning a Brooklyn yeshiva had…

…purchased a rent controlled apartment building and was forcing out its primarily poor, sick, elderly tenants to make way for dorm space.

I let the suggestion drop.

I was assured by several readers the rabbi is really a 'good guy' who would 'never' evict these people and cast them out on the street. He was making plans, I was assured, he will take care of them. He is 'compassionate.'

Now, I think it's time to bring the Haredi Hall of Shame back to the table.

Why?

The yeshiva is back to its old tricks and all those earlier promises were B.S., as the NY Post's David Seifman reports:

IN a classic case of government agencies working at odds, the Department of Finance awarded a property-tax exemption to a Brooklyn building that the Department of Buildings wants to fine as an illegal conversion.
Records show that the Mesivta and Yeshiva Gedolah of Manhattan Beach won a 75 percent property-tax reduction in 2004 after it bought an apartment house at 59 West End Ave. and converted part for religious and educational purposes.

The exemption lowered the yeshiva's most recent annual tax bill from $15,020 to $3,755.

The only problem - as building inspectors discovered on March 28 - is that the conversion was illegal. The owner did extensive construction work, even installing plumbing, to create a synagogue, office, classrooms and dorms in four of the eight apartments - all without permits.

After residents complained, it took DOB eight visits to gain entry, when they wrote two summonses returnable May 19 for work without permits.

Yeshiva principal Rabbi Joshua Zelikovitz did not return calls.

One city official said that ironically the yeshiva's troubles at Buildings wouldn't affect its tax exemption under the law.

In fact, tax assessors listed the building as a "House of Worship" after a site visit in 2004, even though DOB has classified it as an apartment house for four years.

Zelikovitz is now trying to empty a second apartment building, at 35-45 West End Ave.

A loophole in the rent law allows community facilities such as a yeshiva to evict rent-stabilized tenants.
Some of the nine tenants the rabbi is trying to force out are elderly Holocaust survivors.

"They're wreaking a wide path of destruction with the goals they're pursuing," said Jonathan Twersky of Legal Services NYC, the tenants' lawyer.

"One man called me today. He's elderly. He has no options. He was hysterical."

Many of the tenants Rabbi Zeilkovitz is trying to evict are elderly Russians. Many of them are sick and disabled. And some of them are Holocaust survivors.

More than a year after the original story on Rabbi Joshua Zelikovitz broke, there is still no evidence the rabbi has done anything to ease the suffering of these elderly people, as Walter Ruby in the Jewish Week reports:

…Zelikovitz reassured the building’s most vulnerable residents — Patskina and seven other elderly Russian immigrants with Section 8 subsidized units for which they pay an average of $100-200 a month — that he would help them locate alternative affordable housing in the neighborhood.

Yet over a year later no such apartments have been found. Residents charge that the rabbi and his real estate agents have offered them only a handful of possible apartments, all of which were either filthy and decrepit or could be attained only by paying prospective landlords a bribe of some $10,000-$20,000, which landlords in the area customarily demand before accepting Section 8 tenants, according to city housing advocates.

Meanwhile, Zelikovitz has filed eviction notices against most of the tenants of the 16 apartments that are still occupied while refusing to accept the rent payments they have sent him.

“The rabbi promised at the beginning he wouldn’t evict me, but now I have received an eviction notice,” said Patskina, who said she is unable to sleep these days out of fear of imminent eviction. She added, “I am Jewish and assumed all my life that rabbis were kind and compassionate. Never could I have imagined that a rabbi would deny me the right to live out my last years in dignity.”…

And then, we have a real estate flipping scheme that allows "nonprofits" to buy rent controlled buildings, evict the tenants and then, soon after, flip the building for significant profit gained because rent stabilized tenants are no longer there:

…Yet [the yeshiva's attorney, David Berger of the Brooklyn-based law firm of Tenenbaum and Berger] contended that Zelkovitz does have the right to sell 59 West End to developers despite the same stipulation because “the former residents of 59 West End left willingly after the Mesivta took it over. So he is free to sell the building to Donald Trump if he desires.”

Michelle Brunelle, 55, a longtime resident of 35-45 and the principal organizer within the building of resistance to Zelkovitz, has contacted several local politicians about the situation but has received little response. She attributes the lack of response to the political power of the Manhattan Beach Jewish Center (MBJC), where [Rabbi Zelkovitz is rabbi and] an influential real estate developer, Rubin Margules, is president.…

Margules sees the situation differently. “No matter what the tenants seem to think, the building belongs to the Mesivta and not to them,” Margules said. “It looks like the tenants are playing tough. They won’t take [alternative apartments] that don’t please their fancy tastes.” Margules added that Zelikovitz is “a very honorable person who has behaved toward the tenants in a menschy manner.” …

He evicts elderly, frail, sick Holocaust survivors in the name of "Torah."

No doubt about it, the Haredi Hall of Shame is now open, and Rabbi Joshua Zelikovitz is its first member.

Previous report.

In depth report from the Jewish Week.

Jewish Week Exposé in PDF

[Hat Tip: Dr. Rofeh-Filosof.]

Comments

[yidandahalf]

Zeilkowitz will die alone, sick, impoverished, and miserable. Beyond that I have nothing to say. I am sickened by this latest shanda. These parasites are making anti-semites of everyone.

[yidandahalf]

"A menschy manner", that's a new one. Do you think maybe the tenants acquired their fancy tastes in the camps?
Religion is nothing but a racket. An end to religous tax exemptions and all the other favored considerations it enjoys. No matter what religion, AN END TO IT.

[steve]

http://www.wnbc.com/news/16159628/detail.html?dl=headlineclick

NEW YORK -- A Brooklyn man who was helping two teenagers with their religious studies has been accused of molesting the boys.

Yona Weinberg, 29, was arrested at around 9 p.m. Sunday night on charges of sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

Weinberg is a paid employee at a synagogue and was working at a place that offered religious studies, police said.

The victims, 13- and 14-year-old brothers, said Weinberg touched their private parts on more than one occasion during their study sessions, police said.

Police released limited information due to the nature of the charges. They said Weinberg was arrested in front of his home.

[shmuel]

Just another sickening display of frummies doing whatever they want, to whomever they want, with absolutely no coemuppance from the government, the frum community, nothing. Will Manhattan Beach frummies protest this disgrace? Will they stand up to their "rabbi" who feels some sort of weird calling to teach "Torah"? Will he give shiurim about the psukim which teach that you have to have mercy on the poor, the widow, the orphan? No, no, no.

You know what the real problem is? Those concepts of rachmanus and love toward a fellow Jew are just not taught in yeshivas. If they are, they're laughed at by these real estate hustler rabbis smelling a quick buck. The prophet Isaiah himself could go to this crook and speak for an hour about this guy's perverted ethics and morals and it wouldn't budge him.

Another problem: Judaism is just a hefker velt. Any clown calling himself a "rabbi" can open his own "yeshiva" where he will teach "Torah" to children. Though we all may be better off if he sold shoes or vegetables for a living, he prefers the prestige and his own little fiefdom.

[steve]

Another case of eminent domain:

Borough Park, NY - At last Friday’s meeting with Maimonides Medical Center (MMC), a shocked delegation from the Boro-Park West Community Association (BPW) heard President Pamela S. Brier admit that she had a “mandate” from the Hospital’s Board of Trustees to purchase every available property in the vicinity of the Hospital.

Attending the meeting were a local delegation of Rabbonim: Satmar Dayan Rav Moshe Friedman, Rav Meir Simcha Bick, and Rabbi Gershon Tennenbaum.

Also, political leaders Assemblyman Dov Hikind, City Council Majority Leader Bill De Blasio, and City Council (Boro Park) candidate Joe Lazar.

A surprise guest was Mayoral candidate Tony Avella of Queens, who is currently Chairman of the New York City Council Committee on Zoning, Buildings, and Franchises.

Rabbi William Handler gave a ten-minute briefing, in which he explained that MMC acquired its high-quality brick two-family houses on 48th and 49th streets by hiring a real estate broker who used racial intimidation to terrorize residents into selling their homes to MMC. The Hospital expelled about 200 Orthodox Jewish families from the neighborhood.

President Brier apologized for the “unfortunate” tactics used to acquire these homes: “We’ve been a bad neighbor. But that was in the past. We cannot afford to give up these houses. We need to move on.”

Councilman Avello was surprised to hear President Brier state that the Hospital had no Master Plan for development: “In all of New York City, I have never seen a hospital that has no Master Plan. This is incredible.”

Dov Hikind and Bill De Blasio suggested that MMC make an inventory of all its existing real estate holdings in BPW, together with the purpose of each building, and meet with leaders in June to discuss how the Hospital could work harmoniously with the community to be a “Good Neighbor.”

President Brier closed the meeting by stating that she would not do any construction on the Hospital’s newly-acquired buildings prior to the forthcoming meeting in June.

[Yochanan Lavie]

Legislation should be enacted to stop eminent domain abuse. It used to be that a man's home is his castle, and can only be confiscated for the public good (i.e. a highway), and with just compensation. Thanks to Kelo vs. New London, connected private special interest groups can have your home and/or business taken away from you, even if you don't want to sell.

In the past, Macy's, Rockefeller Ctr., etc., used to simply build around those who didn't want to sell. Now, thanks to New London, Bloomberg the billionaire socialist, and others, muncipalities can pander to poltically connected private interest groups. Or, towns want to be able to raise higher taxes to pay for bloated budgets by doing "slum clearence" to non-blighted middle class areas (in favor of the rich).

Columbia University is doing this in Harlem,just as Bloomberg pal Ratner is doing this in B'klyn. But I expect more from a religious institution. Shows how naive I am.

[formely frum]

“No matter what the tenants seem to think, the building
belongs to the Mesivta and not to them,” Margules said. “It
looks like the tenants are playing tough. They won’t take
[alternative apartments] that don’t please their fancy tastes.”

1. Let Margules prove his
   statement by giving addresses and apartments of said apartments

   
   

This is truly a sad story since this is
only a few blocks from the Brooklyn Holocaust Memorial

The frum
community again proves that they have nothing to do with Torah
Judaism. They are truly light years away from Torah Judaism.

I had a
thought for a minute but dismissed it right away. I was think of
maybe informing the parents about the yeshivas actions hoping they
would do something about it. But then I remembered Torah
Teminah is still packed with students even after the Kolko affair.
They just follow their leaders, like any other cult.

Hope, Help I live in the
area maybe with some help from this board we can arrange for some
protest or rally in front of the Yeshiva to bring some pressure on
the yeshiva or more media attention. Let me know.

[yidandahalf]

I live very far away or I would be there with you and any others up for it. We need to take some of our issues into the physical world beyond the blog. I believe many of us are ready, willing, and able.

[Hotspur]

I live in Manhattan Beach and I'm disgusted with what happened. I wish someone would stand up to the rabbi and tell him he's wrong. He is a nice guy, but I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of his business dealings.

[Hotspur]

I live in Manhattan Beach and I'm disgusted with what happened. I wish someone would stand up to the rabbi and tell him he's wrong. He is a nice guy, but I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of his business dealings.

[Acher acher]

If you're frum and just can't seem to endure the scum who ostensibly represent your beliefs, you're not alone. Read Tanach. If you can tolerate this kind of crap and remain true to Torah, it will be in your merit that future generations will survive to bring the world into an era that is the antithesis of the shit we're in. Wishing us all luck; see you on the other side...

[formely frum]

“I live in Manhattan Beach and I'm disgusted with whathappened. I wish someone would stand up to the rabbi and tell him he's wrong. He is a nice guy, but I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of his business dealings.”
I really don't understand “I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of his business dealings.” implies that he is a not a nice guy, and maybe much worse.

if you want contact me maybe we can do something

[Yochanan Lavie]

I endorse what Acher Acher wrote.

[yidandahalf]

The above comments bring something once again to mind I have often thought about. These shady characters; do they stoop to mafioso tactics and commit bodily harm to their adversaries or would they?

[yidandahalf]

I should have added, and/or would they allow/encourage their non-Jewish cohorts who may not have scruples holding them back to do so?

[shmuel]

A better question, Yid, is whether those of us who are fed up with this craziness and BS should just hire a bunch of goons to beat the rabbi and his chevra to a bloody pulp. Maybe, if, as he continues to harass these elderly Jews, he gets soundly beaten, regularly, every day he steps out on the street, he might just lay off. I vote for a thorough beating.
And yes, Acher, we must read our Tanach and see the horrible leadership we've had. There is nothing new under the sun. The prophets are great examples of real men who saw the depravity all around them, the horrible treatment of the most vulnerable of Jewish society, and lambasted the leadership (I guess they were rabbis. Who else? Zionists?) for their incredible apathy (at best) and/or their repulsive immorality and indecency. Now we know why they don't teach the Prophets in yeshiviz. Too painful and humiliating. And very, very relevant.

[formely frum]

I am trying to get a little more info on the situation and will report back when i have some.

What I did learn (or has been reported to me) is that there are very little in any students in the yeshiva and they did use scare tactics to empty the first building and when investigated they was no classrooms at all in the building they cleared.

Sounds very fishy to me

also it has been rumored and ONLY RUMORED
that Zeilkowitz might have done the same thing in Queens.

Any info woukld be helpfull

[Conversion Van]

The only problem - as building inspectors discovered on March 28 - is that the conversion was illegal.

All this big ruckus going after Rabbi Druckman . . . and it turns out the Charedim are the ones doing illegal conversions.

[Hotspur]

Formerly frum,

I wish I could help, but I live at home and Rabbi Z is my dad's friend. I really can't offer you guys much, but I can keep an eye on the situation and report back to you guys.

[formely frum]

I will give Shmarya my contact info if you want to email me.

I called the lawyer involved and he did not get back to me. I am trying to get a hold of the tenant.

I will also email Zelikovitz and see if he will give me his side of the story. for example nice apartment same cost within a few blocks.

[avraham rosenblum]

While it is important to critise i still think that it can border on Lashon Hara on occasion. In the Gemara Bava Metzia 101B we find a owner can evict people. This has happened to me on many many occasions and I never thought they did not have the right. The Mishna says in the Spring and Summer the owner can evict after a warning of thirty days. In the Winter and Fall he can't evict unless he gave warning thirty days before Sukot. (That is how Rashi explains the Gemara.)
(The Gemara at first thought he cant evict in the Winter and Fall at all.)
This conclution of the Gemara is how the Rambam and Shulchan Aruch poskin.

[Shmarya]

Always good to know classic Jewish sources support flipping, evicting elderly and handicapped people, and related crimes.

Unless, maybe, just maybe, you really have no idea how to learn.

Could that be?

I think so.

As a hint for you, try to think deeply and answer this simple question – What do the Mishna and Gemara say about rent stabilization law?

When you can answer this question, you should be able to see why what you wrote is wrong.

[kelly]

If evicted the surviviors can come live with me
kellyjanedarling@gmail.com
Let me know.