People and issues
The Adler Story
The $600,000 transfer of January 2000: what the documents show.
What happened, according to the documents
R’ Avraham Ort’s mother passed away in November 1999. In January 2000, Mrs. Manya Ort moved $350,000 out of her late mother-in-law’s account at Discount Bank and wired it to an Israel account of Mrs. Ort Sr. that already held $250,000. She then gave the combined $600,000 to her cousin R’ Ira (Yitzchak) Adler of Monsey, NY, with instructions to disburse it to “a yeshiva” — which yeshiva was never named.
Two documents in the archive record this directly:
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Her handwritten authorization (January 4, 2000) to “fax $350,000” from the Discount Bank account to her Israel account at Bank Leumi. Handwritten authorization to wire $350,000 to Israel — view the letter .
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Her deposition excerpt, in which she confirms the math — $350,000 transferred plus $250,000 already in Israel makes “at least $600,000” — confirms the money is no longer there, and answers “To a Yeshiva” when asked where she donated it. Deposition excerpt: Mrs. Manya Ort on the $600,000 — view the excerpt .
The dispute around it
The account continues: R’ Avraham summoned R’ Adler to a Din Torah before three prominent rabbonim; R’ Adler declined to appear before them or any Beis Din for fourteen months, and a ksav siruv was issued and later re-affirmed. R’ Adler’s position, as reported in the correspondence, was that he had not realized the money came from Mrs. Ort or her mother-in-law’s account.
The transfer authorization is dated January 4, 2000 — one month before the February 2000 divorce filing — and presents the timing as significant. Whether the transfer was proper, and what became of the $600,000, are questions the documents above frame but do not by themselves resolve: the recipient yeshiva is unnamed in every document on hand.
R’ Adler’s own account now appears in the archive as well. In an affirmation filed in the New York action over the $600,000 (Index No. 926/03), he states that on January 30, 2000 he received $600,000 by wire transfer from Miriam Ort; that his December 2002 deposition answers — in which he repeatedly denied receiving money from Manya Ort directly or through a conduit — were truthful because, as he puts it, he had no idea the funds from Miriam Ort had come from Manya Ort first; and that he still does not know whether they did. Affirmation of Ira Adler in Estate of Regina Ort v. Amelia Manya Emily Ort and Ira Adler (Index 926/03) — view the affirmation .
Where this sits in the money picture
The $600,000 appears in the Financial Overview as “R’ Ort’s mother’s personal account” — one of the ten categories totaling $11,175,850.
The rabbinic writs
After R’ Adler declined to appear before a Beis Din for fourteen months, a ksav siruv was issued against him on February 24, 2011 and re-affirmed on June 15, 2011: Ksiv siruv against R. Yitzchok (Ira) Adler, issued Feb. 24, 2011, reaffirmed June 15, 2011 . An open letter to his friends and relatives urging him to respond to the Beis Din is also cataloged: Open letter to friends and relatives of R. Ira (Yitzchok) Adler urging him to respond to Bais Din . The full set of rabbinical rulings and writs is collected under Rabbonim Letters .
This page summarizes the Adler matter from the case correspondence. The documents are presented as cataloged.