A friend of mine - who is a well respected talmid chachom who is known world-wide and has direct connection to major figures in this scandal - wrote me the following:
According to a communication sent by a parent from Chicago, parents of the 25 girls from Chicago who registered their children in the various Meisels seminaries - and withdrew their registration upon the recommendation of the local BD - were called to a meeting by Rav Feurst, also attended by Reb Shlomo Gottesman. The parents were told what was referred to as a "Psak Din"; they should sue the seminaries in secular court, in order to get back their deposits. A draft of a lawsuit (now the RICO claim), which I understand was prepared by Rav Feurst and S. Gottesman, was presented to them. In it, instead of focusing on the deposits, Meisels and the seminaries are viciously attacked for misrepresenting Jewish education.
19 of the parents opted to lose their deposits rather than resort to such tactics. Six of them took up the offer. Despite the vicious charges, none of the six ever had any children in any of the seminaries, and thus never "suffered" in any way from them other than losing their deposits for this year. This can easily be confirmed by anyone who knows any of the 25 families from Chicago who cancelled their registration.
I am uneasy with this. If Rav Feurst sees it Halachically necessary to return the deposits, he can either arrange a Beis Din that will deal with the monetary issue, or at worst give the parents a Heter Arka'os to deal with it in secular courts (if they have a case at all). If he instead feels the seminaries are so unsafe that they should be dismantled, why involve the parents from Chicago who recanted their registration, instead of having the claimants who testified before them against Meisels bring the case to the courts (if it is impossible to find a responsible Beis Din capable of dealing with it)?
It seems to have become, at a certain point, a holy mission of CBD to bury the seminaries by hook or by crook. Is this reconcilable l'Halachah? After all, it was not in the jurisdiction of CBD to produce a Halachic Psak Din (according to the CBD's letter of July 10), and it was in the jurisdiction of the well-respected Dayanim, with experience in harassment cases, whom CBD chose to deal with it.
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