School For Disabled Sues Two Chabad Schools In Alleged Kohl's Contest Fraud

In the race to win a grant, officials at Abi's Place, a school for 10 moderately to severely disabled children, say they were betrayed by their counterparts at two Chabad schools, Hebrew Academy Community School in Margate and the Rohr Bais Chaya Academy in Tamarac.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Facebook competition has local school suing other schools
Former allies in $500,000 contest now locked in litigation
By Jon Burstein • Sun Sentinel

A Facebook contest has turned into a $500,000 lawsuit pitting a Coral Springs private school for the disabled against two religious schools in Broward County.

In the race to win a grant, officials at Abi's Place, a school for 10 moderately to severely disabled children, say they were betrayed by their counterparts at Hebrew Academy Community School in Margate and the Rohr Bais Chaya Academy in Tamarac.

Abi's Place is accusing the other schools of violating Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act in the heat of the Kohl's Cares Facebook contest for non-profit schools.

The competition—sponsored by Kohl's Department Stores—promised $500,000 grants to each of the 20 schools nationwide that received the most votes through Facebook.

Abi's Place founder Danielle Zimmerman said that in the contest's waning days, the other two schools broke their alliance to gather votes together and left her school out in the cold. Hebrew Academy Community School and Rohr Bais Chaya Academy ended up finishing in the top 20 and each getting $500,000, while Abi's Place finished 21st and got no money.

The Broward Circuit Court lawsuit filed by Abi's Place demands the other two schools pay it the lost grant money.

"I want the community to know that what was done was very shady," Zimmerman said.

An attorney for Hebrew Academy Community School and Rohr Bais Chaya Academy said there was never any contract between the schools and the two Jewish schools were helping Abi's Place as a mitzvah—a good deed.

Throughout the contest, there were constantly shifting alliances with schools across the country, said Dan Kaskel, the attorney for the two academies.

"It's unfortunate because it was a favor extended," Kaskel said.

The Kohl's Cares contest allowed each person on Facebook to vote 20 times for schools to win one of the $500,000 grants. A maximum of five of those 20 votes could go to a single school. That prompted schools to build alliances to gather votes for each other.

Zimmerman said one of her school's co-directors was going around a Coral Springs coffee shop with a laptop last summer trying to get votes when she encountered a rabbi from one of the Jewish academies. He proposed an alliance, Zimmerman said.

She said that for the next two months, Abi's Place staff and parents worked tirelessly to get votes--setting up at malls, sporting events, movie theaters and college campuses.

"It was emotionally, physically, mentally draining and we all worked together," Zimmerman said. "We (the schools) didn't make a move without each other and we called each other every night…We had schedules, plans of actions and (coordinated) how many computers we have."

But less than three days before the contest ended and with Abi's Place at 20th, Zimmerman said the other two schools announced they were through working with her school. Zimmerman's attorney, Scott Topolski, said Abi's Place was left with no options.

"If the other schools did it a month and a half or two months earlier, it would have given my client the ability to form alliances with other schools," Topolski said. "It was way too late at that point."

Kaskel said Hebrew Academy Community School and Rohr Bais Chaya Academy worked with about 10 other schools across the country to get votes. While Abi's Place has 10 students and has only been open for three years, the two Jewish schools have about 400 students combined, he said. Hebrew Academy opened its doors in 1984, and Rohr Bais Chaya was founded in 2003.

"All along my clients were giving (Abi's Place) a hand," he said.

The academies were always honest with Abi's Place, telling Zimmerman and her staff that they needed to step up in getting signatures, Kaskel said. When that didn't happen, Hebrew Academy and Rohr Bais Chaya Academy had no choice but to part ways with Abi's Place, Kaskel said.

Kaskel said the Kohl's grants provided much-needed infusions of money to the Jewish academies as well as "new energy and enthusiasm."

More than 11 million votes were cast in the Kohl's Cares contest with Hebrew Academy finishing 14th and Rohr Bais Chaya coming in 15th.

Kohl's media relations people did not respond to questions regarding the contest.

Both the Hebrew Academy Community School of Margate and the Rohr Bais Chaya Academy are Chabad schools.

But this isn't the only controvery involving Chabad schools and the Kohl's contest. Two Chabad schools were thrown out of the contest when Kohl's caught them in voting irregularities – allegedly using vote brokers to generate and buy votes for a fee.

Related Post.

[Hat Tip: Mikal Grass.]

Comments

[the usual chaim]

rohr bais chana is a chabad school but technically the margate hebrew academy is a community school. it used to be a chabad school. it happens to be heavily chabad, but it is not officially part of the system. the official school for chabad of south florida is the in north miami beach - the lubavitch education center.

[Shmarya]

Not true.

Chabad.org still lists it as an official Chabad organization – http://www.chabad.org/centers/default_cdo/aid/117592/jewish/Chabad-Hebrew-Academy.htm – and Google's search result for it shows the meta text for the site, which identifies it as a Chabad school.

[itchiemayer]

They were doing it as a mitzva the lawyer said. I doubt that.

[WoolSilkCotton]

Kohl's set up a stupid system with high stakes, rife with opportunities for opportunists.
In was a competition that encouraged ignoble behavior, it brought out the Machiavellian in people who were already ethically challenged.

If they were serious about their desire to help those truly deserving, they could have set up a blue ribbon panel of education experts who would review the portfolios submitted by schools, with follow-up site visits and interviews with the schools' leaders, teachers and students.

[sam]

This lawsuit is a non-starter. Unless there is binding contract, how can such "cooperation" (and I tend to believe it was indeed mutual, and not simply one-sided charity) be enforced? Also, it was obvious (or should have been) that all such cooperation was designed to do was to get to the finishing line. Once there, the former partner became a competitor for the few coveted winning spots and further cooperation didn't make any sense.

Btw, Kohl's has made it very clear they are not just going to hand out moneys to the winning schools - they said they would want to see proposals with real budgets for real projects (example: build a new science lab, a building, etc). They specifically said they do not want the money to go to payroll and such things. So I do not see how anyone can just "pocket" this money.

I feel bad for Worcester (and it was started and is still operated by Rabbi Fogelman, not by Hecht), they did deserve / need the money far more than Rohr's school in Florida.

[Onionsoupmix]

Depending on the facts, an oral contract can be binding. There needs to be an offer, an agreement and consideration and that's about it. If both parties gained from their original deal, it's not easily dismissed as non-binding. Contracts have been found to be valid on much flimsier facts.

The problem is going to be demonstrating who breached first.

[harold]

The main thing is that the lawyers get a (BIG) piece of the action! The monies, of course, being paid for by the children.

[A E ANDERSON]

This tawdry money grab has been a חילול השם and חילול ליובאוויטש. In June or July, I went into the Apple store on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach only to be accosted at the entrance by two observant schoolchildren (one with a "Yechi" yarmulke). As I verbally chastised the little Habad pickaninnies -- I thought they were evangelising the Rebbe as Messiah -- they told me they were soliciting support for some kind of half million dollar funding from Kohls for their school, which was, if I am not mistaken, somewhere in Broward County.

I told the little miscreants that their rabbi should be ashamed of himself for sending out junior high schoolers (if they were that old) to schnoor. Later, I phoned the son of the Florida regional Merkos director and gave him a piece of my mind. He told me that the kleine schnorralach weren't his, but were from another school keen on getting this pot of Kohl's gelt at the end of the rainbow.

The duly appointed leadership of Chabad in Florida owes it to the public to police its ranks to prevent this kind of tawdry, money grubbing behaviour on the part of Chabad's branches and schools. The idea of filing a lawsuit to pursue reparations over their own failure to win this contest fair and square speaks volumes about the lack of common sense and decency on the part of these so-called community leaders (not to mention the vapidity and moral emptiness of the Ohelei Torah shluchim factory that "educates" them).

In general, the presence of so many Jewish schools -- far out of proportion to the Jewish community's population relative to the gentile population -- makes Jews look greedy, like stereotypical money grubbers out of a Der Shturmer caricature.

That Lubavitch Jews, among the overall haredi cohort, refuse to utilise the system of public instruction already paid for with tax dollars is their concern and their absolute right... but only to the extent that they do not bring the larger Jewish community into disrepute.

The Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch/Friends of Lubavitch of Florida should take immediate action to remove the offending rabbis, activists and school officials from their posts forthwith! The Florida Jewish Federations should also review their funding levels to ensure that Jewish schools in their respective geographical areas receive sufficient private funding so as not to embarrass the larger Jewish community with outbreaks of tragicomedy as in the ongoing Kohl's money grub.

[Harold]

I think Kohls should be fined for setting up this type of contest. They should have done internal research as to who they should give money to and give it out. What they did was akin to bringing a group of homeless hungry people to a table filled with food and say that they should wrestle among themselves and the top 20 winners will get to eat from the food.

[Mike]

Why are you all so outraged? It was just an advertising promotion for Kohl's and little kids at the Apple store did not hurt anyone - in fact that is what Kohls wanted, publicity!

They were not "schnorring" - Mr Anderson from New Zealand you sound like an Anti-Semite or self hating Jew. So a lot of Jewish schools in Florida makes Jews look greedy? Money grubbers? And shame on you for berating small children who were trying to do something good. If you don't like yechi yarmulkas don't take it out on them they don't know any better.

And Harold, comparing all the contestants to a group of homeless people - just because they entered a contest? Who are you to judge them? Anyone was welcome to enter the contest, and you can see from the article that they worked very hard to win - they didn't just draw a sign on a piece of cardboard and stand outside Kohls demanding to win.

[harold]

If you disagree with that, you never attended the Postville Shul

And Harold, comparing all the contestants to a group of homeless people - just because they entered a contest? Who are you to judge them?

Mike, you obviously have not followed my posts here. I many times use sarcasm to bring out a point and this was such a post.

When I was young, a loooong time ago, I would spend many hours of my free time collecting for organizations, like Peylim, not for the mitzvah of it (although I understood the good that it did) but for the prizes that one received based on the amount collected. To berate children because of their enthusiasm for collecting is the sign of a cold, cruel, heart of which there are, unfortunately, many such that infest this unholy site.

[harold]

Mike - Strike the first line, cut-n-paste error of prior post.

[Althelion]

"An attorney for Hebrew Academy Community School and Rohr Bais Chaya Academy said there was never any contract between the schools and the two Jewish schools were helping Abi's Place as a mitzvah—a good deed."

I guess that when the two Jewish schools stopped helping Abi's Place they ceased to perform a mitzvah.

I wonder: Did God give the Hebrew Academy Community School and Rohr Bais Chaya Academy a partial mitzvah credit for "almost" helping Abi's Place? Or maybe God became unhappy when the Hebrew Academy Community School and Rohr Bais Chaya Academy made the calculation that an alliance with Abi's Place was holding them back from winning the money. Those damn small schools for disabled children - Always holding everybody back. Why can't they just go away and disappear.

Have you ever seen some of the provocative clothing sold at Kohls? Nothing tzinius about those short shorts and mini-skirts.

Ah well, just take the money and look the other way.

[Mike]

OK Harold I understand now - you're right I haven't followed your previous posts and thought you were being serious - sorry

[Mike]

Here's an interesting snippet I found - looks like non Jews must have voted for a Chabad school out of regional pride. Doesn't sound very sinister to me...

"For the Charlotte Jewish Day School, a relatively small K-5 institution, placing in the top 20 is a major triumph after being forced to close its middle school due to insufficient funds, said Rabbi Bentzion Groner. Although the school initially received enthusiastic support from its home base, which included the local Jewish Federation and other elements of the Jewish community, it took to regional newspapers and television stations after it cemented its position as the only school from either North or South Carolina to have a shot at winning. As a result of the campaign, untold tens of thousands of people who had never heard of the school before voted for it out of regional pride."

[Mike]

Here's a comment from a local Broward county source - there are always two sides to a story :-)

"I think it's disgusting that a school would sue another school over this. The article certainly doesn't mention the shady practices Abi's Place employed to try to get votes. Abi's Place charges $25,000 a year for tuition and has 10 students. There are many more deserving schools out there serving many more students that provide a free education and have parents who can't even afford to feed or cloth their children. Abi's Place should really be ashamed."

[Neo-Conservaguy]

Kohl's set up a stupid system with high stakes, rife with opportunities for opportunists.
In was a competition that encouraged ignoble behavior, it brought out the Machiavellian in people who were already ethically challenged.

That is a stunningly accurate summary of the madness.

[WoolSilkCotton]

Thanks, Neo-Con!

A Happy and Sizzling Chanukah to all!

[chabadhousedavener]

to a e anderson (new zealand)

you sound as a (nazea)

[The Real Joe]

I was involved in this contest although not for the schools mentioned in the article and deals where being made and broken by all of the top 50 schools as the contest started getting tighter in the last days and for all of those complaining how so many chabad schools won its simple Chabad does good in online competitions and for the person who wrote that this whole contest was done in a flawed way I kind of agree with you

[Jessica]

I have taught at both the Hebrew Academy Community School and Rohr Bais Chaya. The kids there are wonderful: kind, friendly, and polite--and I'm not Jewish. Please don't judge the kids by what some of the adults around them have done.