The shul has a great rabbi (the learned Jonathan Rosenberg) and an overflowing membership. It’s main problem is that its building isn’t big enough to house everybody.
The right-wing breakaway a few years ago didn’t harm Shaarey Zedek. It just gave its members some breathing room.
I think the rabbi’s contract is up around Passover. I’m sure the shul will renew it. Whether he will take it, I don’t know.
The social life of Shaarey Zedek is more intense than ever. There’s a men’s club. There’s abundant Torah learning. There’s lots of stuff for kids.
A lot of Orthodox Jews in the neighborhood can’t afford to belong to Shaarey Zedek, so they daven at Chabad or the right-wing breakaway.
Rabbi Jonathan Rosenberg doesn’t need to cater to anybody. He is learned in Torah. He commands respect. He has his congregation’s allegiance.
Rabbi George Lintz of Shaarey Zedek was a protege of David Rubin, the former president of Yeshivat Yavneh who’s been charged with rigging government contracts.
In 2001, the SEC caught George Lintz with his hand in the cookie jar.
Here are some details from 2001:
On February 14, the Commission instituted and simultaneously settled a public administrative proceeding against George M. Lintz (Lintz), former CEO and president of Lintz Glover White & Co. (LGW) , a now defunct broker-dealer that was located in Sherman Oaks, California The Commission found that Lintz failed reasonably to supervise Robert I. Spruill (Spruill), who was a registered representative with LGW from July 1996 to January 1998. The Commission found that Spruill aided and abetted a kickback scheme by Alan Brian Bond (Bond), president of Bond, Procope Capital Management, Inc., a former investment adviser. On December 16, 1999, the Commission filed a complaint in federal court in the Southern District of New York charging Bond with antifraud violations for receiving over $6.9 million in commission kickbacks and charging Spruill with aiding and abetting some of Bond’s violations. The Commission found that Lintz failed to respond to red flags or suggestions of irregularity raised by Spruill’s relationship with Bond. Lintz, without admitting or denying the commission’ s findings, consented to an order that barred him from association in a supervisory capacity with any broker or dealer and ordered him to pay a $30,000 civil money penalty. (ReI. 34-43961; File No. 3-10422)
The SEC ruled that George Lintz couldn’t be a supervising broker-dealer. You should’ve known that your subordinates were scheming with illegal kickbacks.
George Lintz settled with the SEC. He didn’t go to prison.
Lintz then got into business with a scientist (a PhD from Cal-Tech) in the San Fernando Valley. Lintz became the Co-Founder, COO and CEO of QPC Lasers Inc. (QPCI) which went broke last year.
Lintz raised tens of thousands of dollars from members of Shaarey Zedek (including from one of the children of Rabbi Menachem Gottesman). The venture went bust. There’s no sign of any fraud. It probably had no chance of success unless it invented lightning in the bottle.
Orthodox synagogues are terribly vulnerable to these types of schemes. They think they’re going to make money because they’re all so smart and they trust each other with their money.
I’m thinking about Rabbi Daniel Lapin’s real estate trust that went broke in the early 1990s. Many members of the Pacific Jewish Center and the Los Angeles Orthodox community invested in it and lost everything.
George Lintz was trying to the end to keep this laser business afloat, going up to people to invest more money until he was just told to go away.
George Lintz has a bare-bones new company (Bellaire REIT) that invests in lousy properties in black parts of town.
According to BusinessWeek.com:
George M. Lintz MBA co-founded QPC Lasers Inc. in 2000 and served as its Consultant. Mr. Lintz served as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of QPC Lasers, Inc. until April 6, 2009 and also served as its Secretary and Principal Accounting Officer. Mr. Lintz started QPC after a fifteen year career in investment banking. He founded Lintz Glover White & Company, Inc. in 1987 and ran the NASD Broker-Dealer until it was acquired in December 1999. During … his tenure at Lintz Glover White, he financed a number of early stage companies from the technology and finance industries. He was a founder of G&H Financial, a commercial finance lender. He was a Co-Founder of Planning Force Inc., and served as its Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer since May 12, 2006. He serves as the Chairman of the financial advisory panel appointed by U.S. Congresswoman Diane Watson. He served as the Chairman of G&H Financial from 1989 to 1994, in which capacity he provided asset-based financing for manufacturing companies. He served as an Executive Vice Chairman and a Director of QPC Lasers, Inc. until June 2009. He served as Director of Planning Force Inc. since May 12, 2006. Mr. Lintz holds an MBA in Finance from New York University in 1984.
According to LinkedIn: “With 25 years of investment & finance experience, founded Bellaire REIT in May 2009. Accumulating a portfolio of B&C apartment buildings in Los Angeles; providing cash-flow & extraordinary upside potential. Access to off-market properties priced below market value.”
