Bank Seizes Sifrei Torah as Foreclosure Assets

5
>>Follow Matzav On Whatsapp!<<

torahMembers of a Florida Orthodox Jewish congregation said they feel a bank’s action to foreclose on a loan and seize Sifrei Torah as assets is unconscionable.  Howard Dubosar, a lawyer for Congregation Chabad-Lubavitch near Boynton Beach, said the threat by the Stonegate Bank to seize Torahs is “a desecration. This bank is playing hardball,” the Palm Beach Post reported Thursday.

Dubosar said the bank’s foreclosure motion was “calculated to harm the psyche of this religious institution. This is the holiest time of the year. It’s like foreclosing on a church on Christmas Eve.”

David Seleski, the bank’s president, said it isn’t trying to attack the synagogue through its religion. “We just want to get paid.”

The Chabad filed Chapter 11 in July, which usually puts a halt to all litigation, but Seleski said the filing was made in bad faith to stall for time, the Post reported.

Chabad members say the bank could have instituted proceedings in July, but instead it waited until September to coincide with the holiest days of the Jewish year and cause consternation to the group of observant Jews.

The bank’s motion was filed Sept. 10, which is Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, and the date for hearing the bank’s motion is Sept. 24, which is the Jewish holy day of Sukkot.

“The Torah is the most sacred object in Judaism. I don’t think it should be treated like a commodity. It is the soul of a congregation, and you can’t repossess a soul,” said Rabbi Moshe Scheiner of the Palm Beach Congregation in Palm Beach.

“We will be sensitive to the issues surrounding any religious artifact. We’re not going to go in there and burn them,” Seleski said of the five Torah scrolls.

Many institutions are having a hard time in this economy and the bank should try to work out something with Chabad, Scheiner said.

{UPI/Matzav.com}


5 COMMENTS

  1. “The Torah is the most sacred object in Judaism. I don’t think it should be treated like a commodity.”
    Who put them up as collateral?

  2. The caption on this article is deceptive. The bank hasn’t “seized” any sefrei torah. The bank is just trying to attach any and all assets of the shul to get back more than $4 million it is owed. It’s the shul people who bring up the sefrei torah (which would return only peanuts compared to what they owe) in order to get sympathy. The issue isn’t sefrei torah; the issue is adjacent land that the shul bought for big money (borrowed) which is just sitting there unused.

  3. to #2, thank you for posting your two cents, it made us all much happier as a nation who loves one another, please keep posting your genius for all to see.

Leave a Reply to straitforward Cancel reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here