New York’s Met Council names new CEO, will stay independent

NEW YORK (JTA) — The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, which has been on shaky ground since the 2013 arrest of longtime chief William Rapfogel for embezzlement, has hired a new leader.

Alan Schoor, the senior vice president for operations at Touro College in New York, was tapped as CEO to succeed David Frankel, the Forward reported Tuesday. Frankel, the social service agency’s executive director, will leave at the end of this year.

A Met Council spokesman said that a merger with another not-for-profit, which the agency acknowledged several months ago it was mulling, is no longer under consideration, according to the Forward.

The Met Council has experienced financial uncertainty since the arrest of Rapfogel in September 2013 for his role in a kickback scheme that yielded millions of dollars. Rapfogel is serving a prison sentence of 3 1/2 to 10 years.

A year after his appointment to succeed Rapfogel, Frankel announced last August that he would leave Met Council. Frankel, a former corporate executive and commissioner in New York City’s Department of Finance, reportedly clashed with the agency’s board and leaders of the local Jewish community councils.

Schoor, an Orthodox Jew, has worked as a senior executive at the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services and in the City of New York’s Department of General Services.

A statement released Tuesday by the Met Council quoted the UJA-Federation of New York, which provides some funding to the Met Council.

“UJA-Federation supports the decision of Met Council’s board to maintain an independent organization supporting the Jewish Community Councils,” said the federation’s president, Alisa Doctoroff. “Alan is an experienced executive and we are pleased to have him directing Met Council’s critical work of caring for the most vulnerable New Yorkers.”