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  Rabbi Mordecai Tendler Demands Resignation of Rabbis Basil Herring, Mark Dratch, Hershel Billet and Yosef Blau from the Rabbinical Council of America As His Lawyers Move to Dismiss Lawsuit

PRNewswire
January 22, 2006

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-18-2006/0004263260&EDATE=

Allegations are described in the motion to dismiss as not cognizable under the law, 'scurrilous,' 'outrageous' and 'calculated to be sensational and damaging to Rabbi Tendler's reputation in his community.' The motion asserts that the lawsuit violates New York State Civil Rights Law SPRING VALLEY, N.Y., Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- A motion to dismiss was filed last week seeking the summary dismissal of a case brought recently 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 (case number: 900008858-35-1) 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 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 called today 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 have 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.

 
 

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