B’nai B’rith Canada Plans To Sell Headquarters

By JTA July 9, 2015

Cash-strapped B’nai Brith Canada is selling two of its landmark buildings in Toronto, including its national headquarters.

The headquarters carries two mortgages totaling nearly $4 million, the Canadian Jewish News reported, and in 2012 the market value assessment was set at slightly more than $3 million.

The difference leaves “open the question of how much B’nai Brith can net from the sale,” the newspaper reported.

Also up for sale is a cutting-edge facility for those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease opened by B’nai Brith Canada just 18 months ago. The Alzheimer Centre for Excellence has 45 beds but only 20 residents, and has been bleeding money since it opened last December, the CJN also reported, citing court documents.

A front-page Toronto Star story published Thursday said the facility is under insolvency protection. As of two weeks ago, the home had $65,000 in reserves and was spending $50,000 a month. It owes $11 million to creditors, according to the Star.

The building received $5.4 million in funding from the federal government.

B’nai Brith Canada’s new CEO, Michael Mostyn, who took over the organization last September, said he hopes to boost charitable donations, which have lapsed in recent years.

His predecessor, Frank Dimant, who retired after 36 years at the helm and is now CEO of Christians United For Israel Canada, a pro-Zionist evangelical group, has demanded a retirement payout that the current management of B’nai Brith “believes is too lucrative.”

Last week, Dimant, 69, informed the new management that he is owed annual retirement payments of $175,000, or 75 percent of his former salary.

Dimant said the arrangement was approved by the board, the Star reported. A source familiar with the deal told the Star that it was arranged with little oversight while Dimant was still the CEO.

In a cost-cutting move, Mostyn folded publication of B’nai Brith Canada’s weekly newspaper, the Jewish Tribune.

Next: Argentine president rapped for ‘Merchant of Venice’ link to nation’s money woes >

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re in the middle of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 22.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO