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Friday September 7, 2001

Pil in court again; jury awards ex-employee $65,000

JOE ESKENAZI
Bulletin Staff

The after-effects of the Jewish Educational Center's financial meltdown continued to reverberate last week when a San Francisco jury decided Rabbi Bentzion Pil owes a former employee more than $42,270 in unpaid wages and an additional $23,000 for firing him when he complained about not being paid.

Ariel "Janos" Rosenbluth, who worked two years for the now-defunct San Francisco JEC in the mid-1990s, originally filed the suit in December 1996. Yet ongoing investigations surrounding both former director and founder Pil and the JEC, as well as JEC's bankruptcy case and a criminal case against Pil, kept Rosenbluth's suit from being heard in district court until last Tuesday through Thursday.

Rosenbluth, a Hungarian immigrant came to the United States from Israel in 1983, said he "didn't feel comfortable taking a fellow Jew to court" but "there was no other way."

Rosenbluth said he and Pil had discussed bringing their grievances before a beit din, a rabbinic court, but Rosenbluth felt that as a "non-observant Jew with Orthodox leanings," he would not receive a fair shake against Pil, who identifies with the Lubavitch movement. Rosenbluth said he suggested they take the matter before a beit din staffed by rabbis from the Satmar Chassidic sect, but Pil refused.

"I feel bad about all those gentiles watching two Jews fight in court; I would have found other channels if it were possible," he said of the Aug. 29 judgment. "I'm disgusted with the whole thing. I just want to get on with my life."

When and if Rosenbluth will receive any of the $65,275 that the jury decided Pil owes him remains uncertain. Pil claims he is impoverished; saying he could not afford an attorney, he represented himself during the trial. Pil's wife, Mattie claims she is currently feeding their 10 children with food stamps.

Rosenbluth's lawyer, William Flynn, said, "Either [Pil] will pay the judgment or we'll pursue whatever avenues are available. [Pil] might appeal too, so who knows."

In 1999, Pil pleaded guilty to illegally structuring $1,718,501 in bank deposits to intentionally evade federal reporting laws on coin or currency transactions exceeding $10,000. He was sentenced in January of this year, and is halfway through a 10-month term in a halfway house. He was also fined $10,000 and placed on three years probation.

Saying it would violate the terms of his probation, Pil -- who emigrated from Uzbekistan in the 1970s -- declined to speak with the Bulletin and directed all questions to his wife.

She refused to disclose if the $10,000 fine had been paid.

"If he had a lawyer, he probably wouldn't have lost so easily," said Mattie Pil, the JEC's former executive director. "This is basically the first time my husband has ever been to a trial, and he had no clue as to what to expect and didn't know anything about juries."

However, Flynn said Rosenbluth's W-2 forms and other documents clearly showed that his client had been shortchanged. Flynn pointed out that the jury found Pil had willfully failed to pay Rosenbluth's back wages after his termination, additionally awarding Rosenbluth the maximum amount allowable under law -- 30 days pay. Flynn added that the court has yet to decide whether Pil is liable for Rosenbluth's attorney fees.

Rosenbluth answered phones for the JEC for two years, saying he took calls from potential used car donors during early morning hours, often requiring him to sleep in the office to field the calls. Mattie Pil, however, said Rosenbluth only slept in the office because he had a problem getting up in the morning, and late calls were handled by an automated system.

"That's not true, that's ridiculous," countered Rosenbluth. "They wanted someone there to guard the premises and take calls and not let the callers sit and wait because then they might change their minds."

Mattie Pil also claimed Rosenbluth was fired by manager Patrick Feigelson, for "many reasons." Flynn, however, counters, that Rosenbluth "claimed he was fired because he made a claim for his overtime, and the jury believed him."

Mattie Pil said her husband would not appeal unless he found a lawyer willing to take the case pro bono, because when it comes to courtroom proceedings, Pil "doesn't know exactly what he's doing, to tell the truth."

Rosenbluth, meanwhile, hopes his reputation within the local Orthodox community hasn't been ruined.

"You know how some people in the Jewish community look at you when you take a fellow Jew to court," he said. "But I had no choice, no choice."

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