BY GABE HERMAN | Holy suit!
A Chelsea rabbi is being sued by some synagogue members for allegedly holding an illegal board election to try to wrest control of the organization. The same rabbi was sued by some synagogue members last year for allegedly damaging the house of worship, cutting off its heat and cursing out board members.
Congregation Emunath Israel, at 236 W. 23rd St., between Seventh and Eighth Aves., has been a synagogue in Chelsea for nearly 100 years. Ira N. Glauber, who has been vice president at the synagogue and a member of its board of trustees for the past 10 years, and three other members are suing Rabbi Yechezekel Wolff and other members over a board election that was held on Dec. 4, 2018.
The suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on April 3, alleges that nonmembers with no connection to the congregation were allowed to vote. It also says that longtime members were barred from voting, and that proxy votes were illegally used.
“As a result of the illegal vote,” the suit says, “petitioners were voted out from their positions as officers and members of the Board of Trustees of the Congregation. The instigator and driving force behind the illegal vote was Respondent Yechezekel Wolff, the Rabbi of the Congregation, whose conduct was designed to take over the synagogue building for the Chabad Organization, which is well-known for taking over synagogue buildings against the wishes of their congregation.”
Wolff became the congregation’s rabbi in 2010. His lawyer, Christopher Milito, of Morrison Cohen LLP, told this paper that the proxy voting was legal. He said a New York Consolidated Law, concerning voting in Jewish congregations, allows for proxy voting in cities with populations of more than 1 million people.
“It’s especially sad that Mr. Glauber has expanded his attacks to include even more of the volunteer board members who devote their time and energy to improving the shul,” Milito also told this paper. “There’s no question that the synagogue is a far different place then it was before Rabbi Wolff. Membership is up, with neighborhood families holding their ceremonies and events here. The building is in the final phases of an extensive renovation that will better serve the community. The synagogue is on the rise — no lawsuit can stop that.”
Bruce Kirschner, the current board president, told the New York Post that Wolff and the synagogue’s current leadership have the support of the full board and most community members. Kirschner, who is also a defendant in the suit, said that Glauber only received three votes for president in the election.
A lawsuit last year, also brought by Glauber and other members against Wolff and others, including Kirschner, accused the rabbi of various infractions. The suit said Wolff cursed out board members, refused to heat the synagogue in the winter, removed all of the historic benches in the building, and took down wall plaques that honored deceased members. The suit also claimed Wolff failed to pay the congregation tens of thousands of dollars owed from money he earned through use of the building. That lawsuit is still pending.
