A spokesman for Rabbi Mordecai Tendler stated today that the allegations made in the Marmelstein complaint are without any basis in fact, fabrications and have always been vehemently denied both in court filings and in the public forum.
The statements made before the Court of Appeals by counsel for both parties are in the context of a motion to dismiss the complaint. Procedurally the court must entertain such allegations as true solely for the purposes of determining the legal sufficiency of the Marmelstein allegations as set forth in her complaint. The unfortunate press reports which imply any concession by Rabbi Tendler’s attorney are recklessly taken out of context and a distortion of the record.
A motion to dismiss was filed in January,2006, seeking the summary dismissal of a case brought in Supreme Court, New York County entitled Adina Marmelstein v. Rabbi Mordecai Tendler. The case was previously reported under the headline “RABBI IN SEX-GOD SCANDAL” written by David Hafetz of The New York Post, owned by News Corporation.
Widely reported in The Jewish Press, America’s largest independent Jewish weekly newspaper, The Rabbinical Council of America, Mark Dratch, Yosef Blau, Hershel Billet and Basil Herring, were summoned to appear before the Chief Rabbinical Court of the State of Israel by Rabbi Tendler on his claim that the organization dismissed him without due process and his related claim that he was the victim of a conspiracy by the codefendants in the case, of malicious and libelous leaks, made by Rabbis Yosef Blau, Mark Dratch, Herschel Billet, and Basil Herring to Gary Rosenblatt, Editor of The Jewish Week. It will be claimed at the trial of the case before the Rabbinical Court that leaks were utilized and calculated to mislead and pressure others on the Rabbinical Council of America to dismiss Rabbi Tendler from the organization.
The motion to dismiss the complaint denied the allegations and called the charges “scurrilous,” “outrageous” and “calculated to be sensational and damaging to Rabbi Tendler’s reputation in his community.” The motion charged that the filing of the suit was a violation of the New York State Civil Rights Law.
Rabbi Tendler had noted that “The complaint was not even sworn to for truthfulness by the Plaintiff, Adina Marmelstein.” Instead her attorney filed the Complaint and the attorney attested to the allegations “on her information and belief” in place of Marmelstein.
Rabbi Mordecai Tendler had called for the resignation of Rabbi Basil Herring as Executive Vice President of the Rabbinical Council of America. He also called for the resignation of Rabbi Mark Dratch, Rabbi Hershel Billet, and Rabbi Yosef Blau.
Rabbi Tendler will contend at trial of the issues which are before the Chief Rabbinical Court of the State of Israel, that Dratch, Billet, and Blau, while working in concert with a website called The Awareness Center, vetted the claims against him, and published them on the Internet to give them credence and then took the claims to the Rabbinical Council of America and pressured the venerable organization into expelling him by using their considerable contacts with The Jewish Week and The Forward and by leaking scandalous information to these newspapers. It is charged by Rabbi Tendler that the Defendants are still libeling Rabbi Tendler through associates on various Internet websites and blogs frequented by Blau and his associates.
Despite almost weekly scandal, as reported by The Jewish Press and other publications, Herring, Blau, Billet, Dratch and the Rabbinical Council of America had failed to appear for trial before the Chief Rabbinical Court of the State of Israel to answer the charges. Rabbi Yosef Blau is also the President of the Religious Zionists of America.
