Synagogue grieves as officials probe former rabbi’s use of funds

by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer

Sidebar: Discretion, but with oversight

Members of Congregation Ohev Shalom at the Marlboro Jewish Center are struggling with accusations that their recently departed rabbi, Peter Light, may have misused some $100,000 of discretionary funds, and allegedly used some of that money to cover gifts and expenses, including a diamond ring, for an out-of-state girlfriend.

Members of the Jewish Center board briefed some 500 congregants at a synagogue meeting on July 31 about those and other allegations and said the matter had been referred to law enforcement officials.

“There is an investigation, and the Marlboro Jewish Center is fully supporting the Marlboro Police Department and the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office,” congregation president Jeffrey Sacks told NJ Jewish News Aug. 3. “We have gone to the Monmouth County prosecutor. That is all I can tell you. I’ve got to protect an investigation.”

County prosecutor Luis Valentin told NJJN, “I am not at liberty right now to comment on that matter. We have no comment at this time.”

The 47-year-old rabbi, who served at the Conservative synagogue for two years, resigned his post unexpectedly on June 30, citing unexplained “personal reasons,” said Sacks.

According to the Asbury Park Press, Light was not asked or forced to resign.

In the same article, which drew on interviews with those who attended the July 31 meeting but who spoke on condition of anonymity, board members reported that they had examined credit card receipts and bank statements indicating that Light had misused monies earmarked for confidential disbursements to congregants in need.

They alleged he had spent the money on trips to Israel, private school tuition for his child, and a diamond ring and moving expenses for a girlfriend who relocated from Tennessee to Mississippi. Shortly before tendering his resignation, Light had informed the congregation he was in the process of divorcing his wife.

Before moving to Marlboro, Light had served as religious leader at a Memphis synagogue from 1990 to 2004.

Even as Sacks declined to discuss the specific allegations, he said synagogue leaders were “extremely disappointed and extremely hurt. We have a grieving congregation.”

He said the board is poised to offer one-year interim appointments to a primary rabbi and an associate who will be in charge of the center’s religious school. The main concern, Sacks said, is “to get the synagogue into a healing process and move forward from where we are today.”

“Let’s move to get the clergy in place and let’s move forward as a synagogue to grow and learn from this,” added Sacks. “Let the prosecutors do their job.”

Barry Mael, executive director of the New Jersey region of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, said he was not aware of any similar cases of alleged misuse of discretionary funds during his four-year tenure.

“There should be some system in place to protect the congregation and the rabbi and to have a proper oversight so that everyone feels comfortable,” Mael said. (See sidebar.)

Reached on his cell phone, Light told NJJN, “My attorney said I can’t say anything to anybody. You have to appreciate that. I have nothing to say. Thank you.”

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Discretion, but with oversight

THE RABBI’S DISCRETIONARY fund is a staple of synagogue life, a way for a religious leader to act quickly, efficiently, and often confidentially to help people in times of need: a check for an emergency charitable fund, a few hundred dollars to help a laid-off congregant pay her bills, a book purchase for a prospective convert.

But the private nature of such a fund demands a process to prevent abuse, said Barry Mael, executive director of the New Jersey region of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

“There should be some system in place, with other individuals to check and make sure how the money is being spent,” said Mael.

Such a system should assure confidentiality for those who come to a rabbi seeking private financial assistance “so that everyone [is able] to feel there is proper oversight in place.”

The Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly provides “Discretionary Fund Guidelines” to its member rabbis. They recommend that the board of the congregation define the purpose and use of the fund, and that the rabbi be prepared for the fund to be audited by someone who is not a member of the congregation.

Both for tax and ethical reasons, the guidelines make clear that the funds should never be treated as personal income.

“So the discretionary fund cannot be used by the rabbi to take a vacation, but it can be used by the rabbi to attend an educational conference that would benefit the synagogue, or to purchase a computer for the religious school, or to contribute to a communal fund,” read the guidelines.

Jeffrey Sacks, president of the Marlboro Jewish Center, said he could not comment on what oversight mechanisms were in place over the rabbi’s discretionary fund at his synagogue or whether new safeguards would be in place after new rabbis are installed.

— ROBERT WIENER