Thirteen years ago, Rabbi Fishel Todd started an ambitious program through the auspices of the Pirchei Shoshanim organization. Namely a smicha program for those that did not grow up in Torah centers, as well a curriculum to learn for the Israeli Rabbinut exams for those with a more normal learning background.
To do this he brought together an impressive group of Rabbanim. Rav Don Channan, musmach of Rav Azran of the Eidah, Rabbinut, Rav Deri, Rav Messas, and Rav Ovadia Yosef. Rav Dovid Ostroff, musmach of Rav S.Z. Auerbach, Rav Halberstam, Rabbanut, Rav Goldberg, Rav Meir Shtern and Rav Shternbuch. There was Rav Ezra Bloch musmach of Rav S.Z Auerbach, Rav Shach and Rav Kotler. Rav Shalom Gold of Jerusalem, Rav Yitzchak Tzvi Oshinski ect... and the list of impressive Chareidi Rabbanim continues to go on. The program quickly received endorsement of some prominent Rabbinic figures such as Rav Ezriel Auerbach, Rav Ovadia Yosef, and Rav Lau.
Under this umbrella the program grew, expanded, spawned Kollelim in Brooklyn, Lakewood, Philadelphia, Toronto, Dallas, Las Vegas, LA, Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem. They have taught thousands of students, awarded hundreds of smichas, and sponsored dozens of chaplains to the US military. A kashrut organization was started, serving odd places in Eastern Europe that even provided chassidishe shechitah. That was all in the first ten years.
Then two years ago the first rumblings of trouble began. Accusations of fraud arose against Rabbi Fishel Todd. Moral turpitude that simply does not belong in a Rosh Yeshiva. As the accusations proved more substantial the Vaad HaRabbanim of the Yeshiva asked Rav Fishel Todd to step down. He did not. As a result many of the great Rabbanim that started with the Pirchei Shoshanim program were quietly "laid off". Now their Rabbinic staff is a shadow of its formal self.
Then last week Rav Fishel Todd plead guilty in US Federal court, as part of a plea deal that would keep him from further prosecution surrounding that particular fraud. Meanwhile accusations have arisen of another alleged fraud against Ball State University, as there are accusations arising of him allegedly giving out fake smichas.
In the midst of this there are many questions that need to be answered. What is the future of Yeshivat Pirchei Shoshanim, if any? What about the various alumni, now serving as Rabbanim around the world based on their YPS Smicha? What of the various chaplains that they have endorsed?
Unfortunately the students of Yeshivat Pirchei Shoshanim have been left in the dark. Not a single message has gone out explaining what has happened, what is happening, or what the future holds. For those who have Smicha from them this is obviously a great fear. With the accusations arising of allegedly giving fake smicha's will their own continue to have any worth? For those who are simply using their materials to augment their normal Kollel learning to prepare for the Rabbanut exams, considering the price of their progams, the question remains will they continue or has their monetary investment been lost?
It seems clear that Pirchei owes its students some answers. The Rabbinical staff, including, perhaps even especially, those that left, owe their students some answers. Leaving them in the lurch is simply not Derech Eretz, it is not the way Rabbanim with stacks of Smichas from prominent Chareidi Gedolim should act. The splash damage from this could very well be incredible.
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Asbury Park Press An Ocean County attorney Tuesday admitted his role in a scheme that defrauded investors in connection with a Facebook IPO and several real estate deals, according to Paul J. Fishman, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey.
Fred Todd, 61, of Lakewood, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano in federal court to an information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of transacting in criminal proceeds.
Todd is an attorney with offices in Seaside Heights and Los Angeles. His two co-defendants, Eliyahu Weinstein, 39, of Lakewood, and Aaron Glucksman, 41, of Brooklyn, New York, already pleaded guilty to charges related to their roles in the scheme.
Weinstein, already convicted and sentenced to 22 years in prison in a separate Ponzi scheme, pleaded guilty on Sept. 3 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of committing wire fraud while on pretrial release, and one count of money laundering. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 15. [...]
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For more background on Rabbi Todd's role in selecting military chaplains see Lakewood Scoop and as coordinator of a major semicha program see Lakewood Scoop
Additional information is found on Zoominfo
Additional information is found on Zoominfo
Rabbi Fishel Todd Esq. is a well renown international Tax Attorney a member of the California Bar and Senior Partner of Todd, Ferentz, Edelstein and Hugo with offices in California, Boston, New York, Baltimore and Florida. He is the founder and International Executive Director of Yeshiva Pirchei Shoshanim and the owner of shemayisrael.com, one of the most popular jewish websites in the world.
Rabbi Todd as well is the founder of the Shulchan Aruch Project which encompasses thousands of students from around the world. Many of these students have gone on to achieve Smicha with Yeshiva Pirchei Shoshanim. These now Rabbanim have earned positions throughout the entire planet. Encompassed in these milestone projects is the commentary on Shulchan Aruch which provides the engine that powers the Pirchei Shoshanim and the Shema Yisrael Torah Network. The commentary includes the areas of Issur V'Heter, Shabbos, Eruvin, Choshen Mishpat, Kiddushin and many more other areas too numerous to mention.
Rabbi Todd whose parents were holocaust survivors and saw to it that despite the horrors that they lived through they were insistent on sending him to a Jewish school in the then small town of Lakewood, NJ where there was one such school. From there Rabbi Todd learned and graduated from the honors program at Boston College which armed him with a formal secular learning that disciplined him to not only prepare for the hardest Bar Exam in the country but gave him the English skills to become the senior English Editor of Yeshiva Pirchei Shoshanim. That same structure provided the basis of the skeleton by which Yeshiva Pirchei Shoshanim rests today.
In 2006, the United States Department of Defense appointed Rabbi Todd an endorser of Jewish Chaplains to the United States Military. In an amazingly short span of time Rabbi Todd along with his Yeshiva Pirchei Shoshanim staff have endorsed over 25 Chaplains to all branches of the Military including the Army, Navy and Air Force. As Director of Chaplaincy services Pirchei Shoshanim's entrance to the military scene has caused a virtual revolution in how the entire Military views and treats Torah observant Chaplains today. The founding rabbinical leader of the project was HaRav HaGaon Leibel Berenbaum ZT"L. Prior to his untimely passing in 1995, R' Leibel ZT"L was able to take his prize Talmid, R' Fishel and mold him into perhaps one of the greatest of those who spread the Torah throughout the world. Rabbi Todd who divides his time between the Israel based headquarters of Pirchei Shoshanim, California and Lakewood is married to the former Einat Feld, whose father the late Shlomo Feld a''h also a holocaust survivor was of the greatest architect's in Israel. Included was his greatest project Boys Town in Jerusalem which he designed under the watchful eye of its founder HaRav Lenchner who himself was a student of the Chofetz Chaim and son in law of Shraga Feivel Mendelovitz. Rabbi Todd along with Rabbi Lankry have set their sights and creativity on spreading Shulchan Aruch to all the High School and College students in the Country.
Legal Credits Course
www.legalcredits.com, 21 Sept 2006 [cached]The senior editor of the program is Rabbi Fishel Todd who is an Ordained Rabbi and a member of the California Bar with over 20 years of legal experience.
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