The Brodericks

Who they are in this story

Mrs. Soro Rochel (Sarah) Broderick, a married daughter of R’ Avrohom Ort, and her husband R’ Ranaan Broderick. Correspondence signed “the true friends of the Brodericks” lays out three financial issues and a parallel dispute over whether the family would submit to a Din Torah.

The three financial issues, as the correspondence presents them

1. Custodial accounts. Over $180,000 in cash that Mrs. Broderick acquired by taking ownership of custodial accounts her father had established in her name. A Salomon Smith Barney letter of September 2002, confirming the account history going back to December 1999, is cataloged: Salomon Smith Barney letter confirming Sarah Ort’s custodial account was changed to an individual account (Dec. 1999) — view the letter .

2. Real estate that R’ Avrohom inherited from his parents and placed in her name as a legal tax shelter, which she assumed control of.

3. Substantial income generated by the above.

The correspondence notes that R’ Avrohom only learned of the December 1999 account changes in September 2002 — which, it says, is why he gave his daughter $2,500 in April 2000 when she told him she had no money.

The Queens lawsuit

Mrs. Broderick and her sister Mrs. Chana Miriam Hirsch sued their father (and Philip Ort) in New York Supreme Court, Queens County (Index No. 5637/03), over income from the real estate — a claim the correspondence puts at one million dollars plus interest and legal fees:

• Summons and Complaint cover — view .
• Third Count: injunction against the rabbinic arbitration — view .
• Affirmation opposing the third motion to restore the action after its May 2006 dismissal — view .

The rabbinic response, as the correspondence presents it

• Rav Nota Greenblatt’s February 2003 letter denouncing the “secret heter” — the claim, attributed to Mr. Broderick, that a secret rov had permitted suing in civil court, for a secret reason: Rabbi Greenblatt’s letter denouncing the ‘secret heter’ for suing in civil court (9 Adar I, 5763) — view .
• Rav Greenblatt’s third hazmana to Mrs. Broderick (May 2013): Rabbi Greenblatt’s third hazmana to Mrs. Sarah Broderick to submit to a Din Torah (Sivan 5773) .
• A joint rabbinical letter on the Din Torah summons (April 2014): Joint rabbinical letter on the Broderick din Torah summons (Rosh Chodesh Nissan 5774) .

Mrs. Broderick’s replies

The correspondence also publishes Mrs. Broderick’s side — her April 2013 letter to Rabbi Fried rebutting her father’s letter point by point (disputing the characterization of R’ Yitzchak Abadi’s institutions and donations, the claim about Rav Hershel Shechter as dayan, and Rav Greenblatt’s account of their discussions): Sarah Ort-Broderick’s letter to Rabbi Fried rebutting her father’s letter to the Beis Din (April 10, 2013) — view .

The open responses answer each of her points in turn — on the documented donations to R’ Abadi’s institutions, on what disqualifies a dayan, and on the sequence of the siruv versus the arbitration agreement.

This page summarizes the Broderick correspondence. Allegations about theft, motives, and the validity of heterim are the correspondence’s characterizations, not findings of the archive; the documents linked above are presented as cataloged.

Open letters

The open letters on this subject, kept verbatim:

• Dear Friend/Acquaintance of R’ and Mrs. Ranaan Broderick
• An open response to R. & Mrs. Broderick
• The Brodericks’ letter revisited