Will Boca Raton’s Shaarei Kodesh Synagogue Get $3M From Disputed Will?

By JTA January 15, 2014

A South Carolina court will decide the fate of a $3 million bequest to Shaarei Kodesh, a synagogue which merged with Congregation Beth Tikvah in Boca Raton, Fla.

A judge in South Carolina this week set the trial for June, according to the Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale.

Hadassah, ORT, Americans for Peace Now and the Blumenthal Home for the Aged in North Carolina are challenging the estate of Nathaniel Rosenfeld, who lived in South Carolina and died in 1997.

Rosenfeld instructed his two sisters to name the charities to benefit from his estate, which would receive the bequests after his wife died. She passed away in 2012.

The sisters directed 89 percent of the estate to Congregation Beth Tikvah, which they helped found. They also agreed to allocate 7 percent for ORT, 2 percent for the Blumenthal Home for the Aged, and 1 percent each for Americans for Peace Now and Hadassah. Both the sisters have died.

Beth Tikvah merged with Congregation Shaarei Kodesh in 2007, and the combined Conservative congregation took on the name Shaarei Kodesh, according to the Sun Sentinel. The congregations neglected, however, to file articles of merger with the state, and the Rosenfeld trust said the Jewish organizations chosen by his sisters had to exist in compliance with IRS charity codes at the time of his death, otherwise Blumenthal, Hadassah and ORT were to receive equal shares.

Shaarei Kodesh says it is the legitimate successor to Beth Tikvah and should receive the Rosenfeld bequest.

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