The dramatic fallout between Rabbi Aharon Bassous and some of his erstwhile supporters was partly precipitated by a dispute over the wearing of masks in synagogue during the first months of the pandemic, it can be revealed.
An ad hoc Beth Din, convened a year ago to settle the conflict, finally released its findings this week, ruling in favour of the Golders Green rabbi against those who wanted him to go.
In a 36-page judgment, the panel of three Strictly Orthodox rabbis documented the increasing tension within Beth Hamedrash Knesset Yehezkel, a Sephardi congregation affiliated to the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregation.
In July 2020, the 117-member congregation opened its handsome new building on the Golders Green Road for which £5.8 million had been raised since 2017.
But strains became apparent between Rabbi Bassous on the one hand and a prominent donor, Elan Shasha, as well as members of the synagogue's trustee body in the month ahead of the launch.
When the trustees wanted mask-wearing to be mandatory in synagogue in June 2020, Rabbi Bassous threatened not to attend if this happened - masks were not legally required at the time.
Then when Rabbi Bassous’s wife asked Mr Shasha if the new function-hall in the building could be used for their daughter’s wedding in August free of charge, he demurred.
Feeling his authority under threat, Rabbi Bassous, who had founded the congregation in 1987, texted the trustees in August saying he was going to step down after Succot in October. A few days later, he and Mr Shasha met and made peace.
But when Mr Shasha did not turn up for the morning service on Shabbat, Rabbi Bassous then announced to the community he was going to leave.
At various points, three of the four trustees - Dean Cohen, Daniel Tamman and Mr Shasha’s son Ben - said they were resigning. The fourth trustee, Michael Yattah, who took the rabbi’s side, was removed by the other trustees after he tried to organise an extraordinary general meeting of the community.
When Rabbi Bassous declined the remaining trustees' request to sign a protocol about running the community, they argued that he had in effect given in his notice and would have to leave in February. But the rabbi argued that he had not resigned.
Rabbi Bassous’s critics told the Beth Din they had grounds for dismissing him, including public comments he had made about other rabbis which had brought the congregation “into disrepute” and claims that he had managed the charity without a proper accounting record.
But Rabbi Bassous and his supporters argued that as the founder of the community, he was entitled to run it “the way he feels right” and noted that were no allegations of dishonest use of funds.
Some of the donors also told the Beth Din that the vision of “a buzzing and dynamic Torah centre” able to attract a wider community audience to the new building could not be realised under the rabbi’s leadership.
Rabbi Bassous’s critics wanted the assets to be split between BKHY and a breakaway group that was now meeting for services and other activities in a hall rented across the road in the Jewish Learning Exchange.
However, the Beth Din rejected the request for a division of the funds.
The Beth Din also ruled that since Rabbi Bassous was the founder of the congregation, the executive committee had no power to dismiss him.
As for his resignation announcements, the rabbinic tribunal decided, “‘It seems it was understood that the rabbi had no real intention of leaving and that his statements were made in the heat of the moment”.
They said Rabbi Bassous should be given the chance to prove he could run the envisioned Torah centre and they would review the situation in six months.
The current trustees had no choice “but to let the community replace them in an orderly manner”, the Beth Din said.
But the Beth Din noted the “immense selfless financial and physical contribution” of the trustees and Elan Shasha’s “amazing self-sacrifice for the good of this community”.
