Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy‘s Financial Problems Over the past eight years, enrollment at Hillel has fallen from 700 to 600 according to my sources (850 to 750 students according to the 11/11/02 Jewish Journal). "A lot of parents who signed petitions got bullied and they decided to go somewhere more peaceful," says a parent critical of the current regime. While enrollment has fallen, Hillel’s budget has increased steadily. In the school year 2002-2003, Hillel’s expenses were $5.488 million for 712 students (it was Rabbi Gottesman’s last year). In 2003-2004, expenses ran $5.821 million for 680 students. For 2004-2005, $5.546 million for 695 students. As Morey Levovitz became president of the Hillel board in 2004, he made many changes at the school. The 2005-2006 budget was never approved by Hillel’s board. The 2006-2007 budget is at $7.575 million for 680-700 students. On Sept. 26, 2005, Meg Chan Feltelberg (who reports to the Hillel board on the school’s financial situation) emails Rabbi Boruch Sufrin (Hillel’s dean of religious education):
Shalom Rabbi, I got a long email from Aviva [Ebner, the Hillel comptroller at the time who was paid about $150,000 per annum] so this is my response to explain to her my concerns. I was very bluent with her because I need her to understand that the budget is very tight and I am very worried. She also has to understand that I can take the heat when we run over. Her email to me only gave me an hourly rate of $85 per hour which is not cheap and I still do not know how much time the consultant is going to take in total. I assume she is working on that but still the question lies, why is she unable to do what the consultant is doing?
Feltelberg emails Aviva Ebner:
…I think I am a bit confused as to your job description. I understood from speaking to Morey [Levovitz, Hillel board president] last year that we were hiring someone to run the operations of the schoola nd this person would also manage the business office day to day. I do understand that the smooth running of the business office is quite critical. To this end, I did ask to interview you prior to your being hired but Morey forgot about my request. I work full-time and as a volunteer could not have spent the amount of time it would take to correctly set up the business office. I could only meet with Carmelit and Leah about 1-2 hours per week and it was not enough. I was not being paid to do that job. I understood that you were coming with the expertise to make the necessary changes to the business office that were much needed. I was quite relieved. Now, it has become apparent to me that you need to go outside to get help on this matter. The school is running on a very tight budget. We raised tuition by 10% last year and after many years, eliminated the lunch program. Many parents are already quite upset but we felt we were doing this for the good of the school. These monies have been diverted to pay administrators like yourself and others. Now, even with the tuition increase, we have to raise about $600k extra… It will be difficult for me as finance secretary to justify your salaries and to tell the Board that you also had to hire an outside consultant in order to accomplish the job that you were hired for. I really need to ask you to curtail any unbudgeted expenses. I had expected Morey to hire someone who could take over most of the volunteer work that I had to do last year, including managing and fixing the running of the business office, issuing finacials each month, creating the school budget, etc. I did not expect to do much of this except review and approve year. I really need to understand what areas of the school you were hired to work on. I guess I am a bit confused. My job is oversight and I have to ask these tough questions. I am the one who has to answer to budget overruns to the Board. …I plan to be even tougher on the administration. I will expect monthly financials and explanations for any budget overruns.I have a fiduciary responsibility to the parents and I have had one year to learn that I cannot just accept decisions made by the administration and Morey. I have to be firma nd I will. It will not be easy for this school to raise $600k – we could not do it last year either and we survived the summer because parents prepaid their tuition. …[T]he school’s reputation is at stake and has already been ruined by not planning how to pay down payables. Your consultant at 8 hours a day at $85 per hour can easily run up a large bill… Money that we do not have at this time to spend. Please explain to me why you cannot spend the time or do not have the expertise to fix the business office so that I can understand this.
A source writes:
Morey hired Aviva as controller. He handed out to-do lists on. He likes to micromanage. everyone by handing out to-do lists. When Nancy Fields (head of secular education at Hillel) was given her list she told him where to stick the list and that she answers to the parents and to the board and not to Morey. Because of that, Morey did not want to renew her and made her miserable by sicking Rabbi Sufrin who sent Florette to make her life miserable. He sent Joe Englanoff and Joel Kessler on 12/7/2005 at 5PM and on 12/19/2005 at 10AM (witnesses saw the two going to her office). Their ultimatum to her was sign a resignation letter saying she could not get along with R. Sufrin or they would not write her a letter of reccomendation. She told them no and they fell back to plan two of Sufrin lying to the board saying he could not get along with Nancy Fields and it was either Nancy or him who would leave. Mind you Nancy was not at the board meeting to be questioned. Normally administrators were required to be at board meetings so members could ask questions but Morey told them they are no longer needed at the meetings. It happened during the meeting when they said Tom Avert never embezzled the 5k from the kids trip fund. Sufrin had Aviva, Tom’s friend, lead the investigation and conclude it was one of Tom’s staff who recently left to Dallas who took the money but Tom felt bad and was going to reimburse the funds. Legally police are supposed to be called in to investigate but they would not allow. When the Beverly Hills PD heard Hillel hired Aviva, they said don’t you guys do background checks on your new employees? She was fired in mid year from El Rodeo Elementary School. Also Aviva was Tom’s regular lunch date on a regular basis hardly the unbiased person you want leading an investigation into embezzlement. Aviva’s only qualification for her job was she was classmates with englanoffs wife. But she did fulfill Morey’s wishes by following his to-do lists and wasting school money (tens of thousands of dollars).
