Elwood, Yesodei settle dispute

YESODEI HaTorah Synagogue will lease its Elwood Talmud Torah Synagogue property for another 10 years with a further five-year option, following an out-of-court settlement.

The mediated settlement follows an extensive dispute between the shul and the school that landed them in the Supreme Court of Victoria’s commercial division and is believed to have cost Elwood Synagogue a six-figure sum in legal fees and other expenses.

But the two organisations will now report back to Supreme Court Justice Clyde Croft that there will be no need for further arbitration, one of the options open to the parties.

Croft found earlier that a 2010 arbitration, conducted by Alan Goldberg QC, had not complied fully with Victorian arbitration law. That arbitration found the college had no lease and rented the property as a “tenant at will”, and owed the synagogue $219,745 in costs over unpaid rent issues.

The new deal includes a settlement of the rent dispute “to our satisfaction”, Elwood shul president Zev Degen told The AJN, but said he was not at liberty to disclose details of the package. “However, each party had to bear their own costs, which is very unsatisfactory,” he added.

In a letter sent to parents, the Yesodei HaTorah board wrote, “We are very hopeful that this settlement and the process leading to it will become the catalyst for a new and trasnparently positive direction and harmonious direction in the relationship between the school and Elwood shul for the ongoing benefit of both institutions.”

PETER KOHN