Chapter 8: Criminal Acts

“…what is yours is mine, and what is mine is mine, this is a wicked person” (Pirkei Avos 5:10)

We need not go far to find examples of the destructive power of jealousy. Yosef HaTzadik (ע”ה) was hated by his brothers for his multicolored coat. They could not accept that he was more loved by their father Yaakov (ע”ה) than they were and that he would be ruler over them. The Torah shows us how their jealousy became an obsession causing them to go to any extreme possible to do damage to their brother. Rabbi Fischer had the “multicolored coat” so-to-speak that his enemies wanted. Their jealousy of him caused them to go to any extreme necessary to steal it from him.

After the Vaad HaShechunah instigated and supported the first two lawsuits against Rabbi Fischer he was forced to go to court to defend himself.

The first case concerning building A, as was explained, was the case for which Rabbi Fischer had already attended their Beis Din. This was the case from their ‘fixed trial’ (see Chapter 5) from which no psak was ever given before he was dragged into a civil court.

The Vaad then instigated several individuals to take Rabbi Fischer to court without ever even calling him to a Beis Din. This was for building B where Rabbi Fischer was clearly again the defendant.

One day Rabbi Fischer received a letter stating that a new shareholder’s meeting was going to be called regarding appointment of a new president of the corporation for building C. The letter said that the new president would automatically become the new owner. This was a method of stealing Rabbi Fischer’s building from him legally! Rabbi Fischer had no choice but to go to court to stop them from appointing a new owner to his building. They then counter-sued Rabbi Fischer on building C and on another two buildings as well!

Can anyone even imagine such chutzpah? First the Vaad shleps Rabbi Fischer into civil court without ever issuing a psak din from the Beis Din that was held on this building. He is then taken into court on some buildings for which a Din Torah was never even called. Then they try to steal one of his buildings from right under his nose by simply assigning a new corporate president to the building. Then when Rabbi Fischer goes to court to try to stop this theft, they countersue him on building C and on another two buildings as well!!

Later on they took Rabbi Fischer, his wife, and some of his associates to court again. The public record proves that Rabbi Fischer was the defendant in all of these cases and the Vaad was the plaintiff. All the time that the Vaad was telling the community that they were shlepped into court because Rabbi Fischer mosered on them they were lying! All the time that the Vaad was telling the community that Rabbi Fischer was draining their time, money, and energy, by dragging them into court they were lying!

In 1987 Rabbi Fischer found out that Mr. K., the landlord who became a hero by pretending to have donated a building to the community (see Chapter 2) assigned a false deed of one of Rabbi Fischer’s buildings to the Community Council. Remember, it was mentioned that one of the reasons his enemies thought they could get away with these outrageous criminal acts was because Rabbi Fischer was trusting in his business dealings and did not commit several agreements to writing. Mr. K. wrote his own deed on a building owned by Rabbi Fischer, transferring ownership to the Vaad when he was not the owner. Imagine yourself buying a deed in a stationery store writing on it ‘Twin Towers’ and claiming ownership of it!

The seriousness of such an action must be understood. Under normal circumstances, in the outside world where people do not have the prohibition against mesirah, Rabbi Fischer could as the owner have gone to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office and had Mr. K. arrested for this criminal act! Rabbi Fischer consulted with several Rabbis who did not seem to think that they could talk to the parties involved to get his building back. In the Shulchan Aruch it says (Chapter 183:4) “It is forbidden to inform on an evildoer to a heathen who has transgressed the law, and thus cause him to suffer either in his person or in his property, and even if he constantly vexes him with words. If however, the informer had informed on him and he cannot save himself without informing on the informer, he is permitted to do so.” Rabbi Fischer had no choice but to go to court to void the false deed. Rabbi Fischer, however, pressed no charges whatsoever against Mr. K. and was happy to have gotten his building back.

The Vaad then immediately counter-sued Rabbi Fischer for one million dollars. They made the preposterous claim that Mr. K. donated the building to the Vaad and that Rabbi Fischer stole it from them! The judge ruled against them and ordered the deed back to Rabbi Fischer. However, the trial of the countersuit became an issue for another court case.

They then spread another rumor, as part of their scapegoating of Rabbi Fischer, that he took them to court to steal the building from them!