Minding their money

Following the June 29 arrest of Isaac Zucker, the treasurer of Congregation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere who police said transferred $600,000 from congregation bank accounts into his own accounts, at least two synagogues in the Five Towns are confident that their current financial practices would make it virtually impossible for something similar to happen to them.

Michael Pinter, a treasurer at Congregation Beth Sholom in Lawrence, was surprised to learn about Zucker, and said his congregation closely monitors financial activity. “For any financial transactions, two [board members’] signatures are needed,” Pinter explained. “As treasurer, I monitor the financial responsibilities, sign checks and recommend any changes the synagogue should make.”

Pinter added that he is confident that Beth Sholom’s financial policies would prevent anyone from stealing money from the congregation. “There isn’t one dollar in the synagogue that can be moved without two signatures,” he said. “The controls we have in place will make sure one person can’t move any money.”

At Temple Israel in Lawrence, President James Rotenberg said he could not believe the news of Zucker’s arrest. (Zucker was released from jail after posting $150,000 bail, and his next court date is Sept. 23.) “First of all, I couldn’t believe a respected member of the congregation would do that, and second, the fact that he was able to do that, since it was not a small amount of money,” Rotenberg said. “There were no appropriate controls in place.”

Rotenberg added that when his congregants heard about Zucker, some came into the Temple Israel office, asking how temple leaders would know if something similar were happening in their own temple. “This situation explained to people why we have checks and balances in place,” he said. “We need to have them in place and take them seriously. There can be no shortcuts.”