R' Efryim Dovid Gruskin

Who he is in this story

R’ Efryim Dovid Gruskin, Mrs. Manya Ort’s brother-in-law, described in the correspondence as a former Rosh Yeshiva. Two open letters address him — asking him to reflect on the counsel he has given his sister-in-law, and challenging his reported description of her as “penniless” and “starving.”

The first letter: a call to reflect

The letter grants that his advice was surely given with her best interests in mind, then asks him to look at where the road traveled under that advice has led — “Can you honestly say that it has led in the direction of peace, closure and resolution of the conflicts that have been tearing this family apart?”

Its core request is the correspondence’s constant one: that Mrs. Ort bring the case before a Beis Din, as halacha requires — citing the public psak of the Gedolim that there is no heter for using the secular courts, naming Rav Nissim Karelitz, Rav Moshe Sternbuch, Rav Dovid Feinstein, Rav Moshe Heinemann, Rav Yaakov Hopfer, Rav Nota Greenblatt, and Rav Tuvia Goldstein.

The second letter: the documentation

The second letter takes up the “penniless” claim directly and lists four documents for his review:

1. Mrs. Ort’s handwritten instructions to her banker in Switzerland to “fax $350,000 from my account… to my account in Israel” (dated January 5, 2000) — Handwritten authorization to wire $350,000 to Israel .
2. Mrs. Ort’s deposition acknowledging that “when I made that transfer of $350,000, $250,000 was in that Israel acct” — Deposition excerpt: Mrs. Manya Ort on the $600,000 .
3. The Smith Barney letter verifying that in December 1999, Sarah Ort-Broderick drew on funds R’ Avrohom had put in her name, in the amount of $182,619.28 — Salomon Smith Barney letter confirming Sarah Ort’s custodial account was changed to an individual account (Dec. 1999) .
4. Miriam Ort-Hirsch’s letter doing the same in excess of $95,186.12 (dated December 3, 2001).

The letter totals these at $877,805.40, and adds the further claim — documented elsewhere in the archive — of over five million dollars Mrs. Ort subsequently obtained through the courts.

The letter also invokes the Lakewood Roshei Yeshiva: Harav Malkiel Kotler’s letter to the judge stating the dispute “could and should be resolved in a bais din,” and the appearance of Harav Dovid Shustal and Harav Yisroel Neuman at the Ocean County courthouse — “our own Roshei Yeshiva in Lakewood, and the documents cannot be denied.”

It closes as the other letters do: an invitation to admit the mistake and call on Mrs. Ort to come to a Beis Din — “We will post it for all to see.”

The rabbinic letters cited

• The five-signature letter of Rav Moshe Sternbuch and fellow Gedolei HaDor on arkaos: Rav Moshe Sternbuch letter with five rabbinic signatures on arkaos — view .
• Rav Dovid Feinstein’s handwritten letter: Handwritten letter of Rabbi Dovid Feinstein .
• Rav Nota Greenblatt’s letter: Second letter of Rabbi Nota Greenblatt .

This page summarizes the open letters addressed to R’ Gruskin. The characterizations of his role and motives are the letters’, not findings of the archive; the documents linked above are presented as cataloged.

Open letters

The open letters on this subject, kept verbatim:

• An Open Letter to R’ Efryim Dovid Gruskin
• R’ Efryim Dovid Gruskin: the documents