Rivky Stein and Yoel Weiss Divorce: What is the beis din she claims she used?

 Guest post from RaP:

Documents from Beis Din of Marine Park and Mill Basin

Questions for the rabbis of the Chabad houses in and around Georgetown-Mill Basin, Brooklyn concerning the use of a Chabad house and address to convene a bais din.

Much of the discussion on this blog in the last day has rightly begun to focus on something that needs to be clarified. To debate the names of streets in Brooklyn and New York while not being there can and is usually confusing (even people in Manhattan get confused about street names in Brooklyn and Queens and the other way around) because streets often start with the prefixes of "West" (abbreviated as "W") or "East" (abbreviated as "E") or sometimes without those and it can and does get confusing. But that is to miss the point since now we know that the reputed bais din and supposed rabbis that Rivky Stein-Weiss is relying upon can be traced back to an address at the (taken from their own website at http://www.chabadofgeorgetown.com/): "Chabad of Georgetown • 1278 East 72 Street • Brooklyn, NY 11234 • 718-444-3770" and one needs to move on from that point to the next points.

Now the next questions to ask, is does a bais din ever convene at "Chabad of Georgetown • 1278 East 72 Street • Brooklyn, NY 11234" or has a bais din ever convened there for the purposes of arranging a get?

If so, it would be very strange because presumably a Chabad house located in BROOKLYN would not do such a thing since it can and should easily rely on the main Chabad bais din known as the "Bais Din of Crown Heights" that is a recognized bais din. See http://www.chkosher.com/BeisDinHours.htm,

390A Kingston Avenue, 718-604-8000 and headed by Rabbis Y. Osdoba, Schwei, Segal (718 360-7110), A. Osdoba (718-771-8737, also call if urgent) and if urgent call Rabbi Y. Heller (718-756-4632).

So did the ad hoc bais din that supposedly worked out of the "Chabad of Georgetown • 1278 East 72 Street • Brooklyn, NY 11234" have the authority from its presumed higher authorities in Crown Heights to do so? And if so who authorized it? This should be easy to establish with a few phone calls.

It seems that the Chabad house in question can also be found at http://www.millbasinjewishcommunity.org/shul-directory/ and is listed in the Shull Directory of the "Orthodox Jewish Community of Mill Basin, Georgetown, Flatlands" that lists at least thirteen Orthodox shulls in that area, including "Chabad of Georgetown" and two other local Chabad houses "Chabad House of Mill Basin" at 2111 E65th Street, Brooklyn, NY headed by Rabbi Yehuda Friedman, (718) 209-0707, (718) 241-8899 Email: chabadmillbasin@gmail.com ; and "Chabad of Mill Basin & Georgetown" at 1228 E. 69th Street, Brooklyn, NY headed by  Rabbi Ahrele Sheinberger, 718-241-8899; 718-473-5937; 347-729-6558, and of course the one in question here: "Chabad of Georgetown" at 1278 E 72nd Street, Brooklyn, NY headed by Rabbi Avrohom Holtzberg, 718 444-3770, Email chabadofgeorgetown@gmail.com
www.chabadofgeorgetown.com

Now while the above Chabad of Georgetown does not seem to list its rabbi, another search of Chabad.org at http://www.chabad.org/centers/default_cdo/aid/118629/jewish/Chabad-of-Georgetown.htm confirms " Chabad of Georgetown, 1278 East 72 Street, Brooklyn, NY 11234 USA, 718-444-3770, Fax: 718-251-8552" with "Rabbi Avrohom Holtzberg, Director" so now at least we have a name to contact, that is,  Rabbi Avrohom Holtzberg, Director of Chabad of Georgetown who, together with his two other local Chabad rabbis, should be asked the following questions:

1) Are you aware that the address of your Chabad house at  1278 East 72 Street, Brooklyn, NY 11234 is now at the center of a serious divorce and get dispute that has the potential to become a great Chillul Hashem?

2) Have you or anyone you know ever convened a bais din on the premises of the Chabad House at 1278 East 72 Street, Brooklyn, NY 11234 on behalf of Rivky Stein aka Rivky Weiss? If so who was on that bais din?

3) Do you all have the type of required semicha (yadin, yadin) to qualify undertaking such a din Torah, or any Din Torah for that matter, as a duly constituted bais din, issuing "pesakim" "seruvim" and other things normally undertaken and adjudicated by established batei din?

4) Did you ever seek or were you ever authorized by the main Chabad bais din known as the Bais Din of Crown Heights to undertake a process of gittin or any other dinei Torah?

5) Did you ever receive any renumeration for your services and if so who paid you and how much for the use of your supposed bais din, the use of your premises and its address? If you don't know about any of this why have you not protested or can you please provide an official letter stating that you and your Chabad house/s have nothing to do with this entire divorce saga initiated by Rivky Stein-Weiss against her husband Yoel Weiss?

6) Since Chabad of Georgetown shares the name of "Georgetown" with another one nearby (namely, Chabad of Mill Basin & Georgetown) so presumably you are all colleagues and that Rabbis Avrohom Holtzberg (of Chabad of Georgetown) and Ahrele Sheinberger (Chabad of Mill Basin & Georgetown) cooperate so is there any chance that any of you, with Rabbi Yehuda Friedman (of Chabad House of Mill Basin) formed the disputed bais din in question? If none of you know anything about this matter then please accept a sincere and unqualified apology but please understand that this question only arises because the address of Chabad of Georgetown is at the center of a serious get dispute that has the potential of erupting into something much bigger.

7) Do Rabbis Y. Osdoba, Schwei, Segal, A. Osdoba, Y. Heller of the established main Chabad bais din in Crown Heights known as the Bais Din of Crown Heights know that  a bais din was reported to have convened at the Chabad house of Georgetown and do they agree or disagree that the Chabad of Georgetown location and address were and are being used at the center of major dispute? Do they approve that any rabbis in that area such as Rabbis Avrohom Holtzberg, Yehuda Friedman, Ahrele Sheinberger should lend any of their Chabad houses or their addresses to be used on get documents and letters containing arguments that show them to be housed in Chabad houses?

8) Since as a result of the Chabad house of Georgetown in Brooklyn having its address and location dragged into a serious Halachic discussion it behooves them to clarify why such immature and UN-Halachic letters etc are coming out from their location and how it could be that any rabbi serious and knowledgeable about the Halachic process involved in gittin (Jewish divorces), piskei halacha (Halachic rulings), and other such documents appear to be not up to standard and not befitting the name of any serious bais din thereby degrading the accepted Halachic practices and processes used and required in such complicated situations?

Since this is a matter of great urgency, anyone with access or familiarity with any, or with some, or with all of the above-mentioned Chabad rabbis contact them and get something in writing in response to the above questions ASAP and notify the blog owner.

To repeat, if anything in this post is found to be untrue and unjustified a unqualified apology is hereby given that none of these rabbis or the parties are known to me personally and that the only reason for this post is to clearly establish if, or not, the above rabbis and Chabad house/s are in way familiar with this dispute that on documents filed by Rivky Stein-Weiss has pointed to the address of the Chabad house of Georgetown located at 1278 East 72 Street, Brooklyn, NY 11234.

Thank you!
RaP