Pinchus pitches for Strathfield’s millions
The Sydney Talmudic College Association (STCA), of which Rabbi Pinchus Feldman is the dean and spiritual leader, could be in for a multi-million dollar windfall.
THE Sydney Talmudic College Association (STCA), of which Rabbi Pinchus Feldman is the dean and spiritual leader, could be in for a multi-million dollar windfall.
According to Rabbi Feldman, in 1973-74 Yeshiva provided and procured the required capital and operating funds to invest in a property for the Strathfield & District Hebrew Congregation (SDHC) and establish and operate a kindergarten at the site.
The property was sold last year for $6 million, with all proceeds to go to a likeminded institution.
At the time of the sale, a SDHC board member said the proceeds from the sale would be spent on the youth of the community.
“We’re open to funding proposals from Jewish day schools. It’s going to a worthy cause,” the board member said.
But The AJN can reveal that Rabbi Feldman has written to the SDHC asking for the proceeds of the sale to be transferred to STCA.
“Under our original partnership agreement, 50 per cent of the profit was payable to Yeshiva, but Yeshiva was aware that the whole of the profit was required to maintain the property and fund the Strathfield Synagogue and acquiesced in all the profits being applied for this purpose.”
Rabbi Feldman wrote that Yeshiva “did not abandon the project or partnership at any point” and only gave up those profits to ensure that the synagogue remained viable.
“On behalf of Yeshiva, I formally seek the transfer of the sale proceeds to us.
“Yeshiva’s claim is founded on the simple basis that if Yeshiva did not invest its funds for the establishment and subsequent operation and maintenance expenses of the kindergarten, economic factors would have necessitated the sale of the land decades ago for a fraction of the price actually obtained.”
The AJN understands that a majority of SDHC’s board members do not want the money to go to STCA and contest the letter from Rabbi Feldman.
SDHC president Eddy Neumann, who also acts as a lawyer for Rabbi Feldman’s Yeshiva Synagogue, did not return calls to The AJN.
JOSHUA LEVI
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