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2096650

14 June 2 • 2016

Torah Center Wins — After 4 Years

Chabad of Michigan’s final appeal rejected by U.S. Supreme Court.

David Sachs | Senior Copy Editor

C

habad-Lubavitch of Michigan’s
four-year secular court case
against the Bais Chabad Torah
Center has ended.
On May 23, the U.S. Supreme Court
declined to take up Chabad of Michigan’s
appeal, thus granting victory to the Torah
Center.
Elimelech
Silberberg, rabbi of
the Torah Center
congregation in West
Bloomfield, was
relieved that the case
was finally over.
“We’re thrilled we
Rabbi
can now devote all our
Elimelech
efforts and resources
Silberberg
to studying Torah and
doing mitzvos, and
carrying our message to the Jewish world of
Detroit,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about.
“What happened before, we have to put
behind us and just focus our attention on
what we’re here for. Our goal now is to
draw attention to the future and to our
mission. Our goal is to look forward.”
Todd Mendel,
attorney for the Torah
Center, said, “The shul,
the congregation and
the people really stuck
behind the rabbi. It
shows a strong, solid
community of good
Todd Mendel
Jews who had to put up
with the frustration, the
cost and the difficulties.
“It also shows a lot about their character,
the quality of the people and congregants.
It’s fully a credit to Rabbi Silberberg for
having built it up.”
An interesting aspect of the lawsuit is
that it was dismissed just months after it
was filed four years ago because the judge
ruled Chabad began it too late — beyond
the time limits mandated by Michigan’s
statutes of limitations.
The next three-and-a-half years, how-
ever, were spent in the appellate courts,as
the parties argued whether the quick dis-
missal of the case was correct.

LONG LEGAL BATTLE
The litigation began on April 17,
2012, when Oak Park-based Chabad
of Michigan, which oversees Chabad-
affiliated congregations in the state and is
led by Rabbi Berel Shemtov, filed suit in
Oakland County Circuit Court in Pontiac.
It sought the deed to the Torah Center,

claiming it had hierarchal control over the
Torah Center — which Chabad alleged was
an uncooperative subordinate congregation.
Chabad was seeking to enforce the judg-
ment of a bet din (rabbincal court) against
Rabbi Silberberg. The Torah Center board
refused to turn over its deed, and Chabad
sought relief in the civil courts.
Mendel, of the Detroit law firm Barris
Sott Denn & Driker, argued in defense of
the Torah Center that the bet din’s ruling
was against only the rabbi, an employee
of the synagogue — so Chabad had no
legal basis to enforce the ruling against
the synagogue itself, which holds the deed
to the property, nor its board of directors,
who run the synagogue.
Mendel sought to throw the case out of
court, claiming Chabad waited too long
to file suit, and he prevailed in Oakland
County Circuit Court.
Chabad, however, led by Detroit attor-
ney Norman Ankers of Honigman Miller
Schwartz & Cohen, and assisted by spe-
cialized constitutional law attorneys from
Washington, D.C., and Colorado, won
reversal of the decision in the Michigan
Court of Appeals. Chabad argued, among
other points, that the lawsuit was filed on
time because the statutes of limitations
were suspended pending the outcome of
years of proceedings in religious tribunals.
On May 22, 2014, the state Court of
Appeals agreed with Chabad and ordered
the case to be sent back to Oakland
County to be litigated. But the Torah
Center appealed that decision to the
Michigan Supreme Court and, on May 20,
2015, won, reinstating the dismissal of the
case. In its short ruling, the court did not
explain the reasoning for its reversal.
Then, on Nov. 24, 2015, Chabad asked
the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule the
Michigan high court, claiming a First
Amendment issue. Chabad argued that to
enforce civil statutes of limitations while
religious proceedings were unfinished vio-
lated the constitutional right of freedom
of religion. In support of this argument,
three friend of the court briefs were sub-
mitted by several religious organizations,
Christian and Jewish.
The U.S. Supreme Court, without expla-
nation, simply “denied” Chabad’s request
to consider the case.

CHABAD REACTION
Norman Ankers, attorney for Chabad,
said, “Obviously, Chabad is disappointed
in the result, not only for itself but also
for anyone who participates in the man-
datory bet din procedures and, there-
fore, exposes itself to having its claim

barred by the secular
statutes of limitations.
“The legal result
does not change what
Chabad of Michigan
views as the continuing
and clear moral obliga-
Norman Ankers tion of the congregation
and the rabbi to honor
the clear directives of the bet dins, and
Chabad continues to hope and expect that
the rabbi and congregation will do so.”
When asked if his client will pursue
any further legal action against the Torah
Center, Ankers said, “This legal action is
clearly over.”
When asked if there were other legal
avenues to consider, Ankers said, “We
believe there is a moral obligation — an
obligation that we hope the rabbi and the
congregation take seriously. I haven’t really
thought through whether there might be
other legal avenues of relief.”

TORAH CENTER LOOKS AHEAD
“I am glad this is over,” said Neil Craft,
the Torah Center president who was also
named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
“I really want our
shul to be able to con-
centrate on its mission
of serving its congrega-
tion and the commu-
nity at large through
our many outreach
programs — whether
Neil Craft
they are community-
wide events like our
Chanukah Wonderland and Matzah
Factory or one-on-one interactions such as
when Rabbi Shneur Silberberg meets with
young kids on campus.
“We very much hope that Rabbi
Shemtov will cease his pursuits that have
been a distraction to our efforts and a
drain on our resources,” Craft said. “This
lawsuit has created a negative perception
in the community that we will continue
to have to work very hard to overcome.
People have heard our shul has been
involved in controversy, and many don’t
know the details.
“At our annual dinner on May 26, we
paid tribute to the Holocaust survivors that
were among our initial founders,” Craft
said. “They were the ones, along with oth-
ers in West Bloomfield, who donated their
time, talent and treasure to building our
shul and bringing Orthodox Judaism to
West Bloomfield. The dinner highlighted
the continuing support by our congregants
and friends to keep this shul running.”

*

