Nrp in Turmoil over Charges Against Rabbi Bernard Bergman

The National Religious Party was reported to be in turmoil today over charges of fraud and other illegal activities levelled against the network of nursing and old aged homes in New York owned by Rabbi Bernard Bergman, a leader of both the world and American Mizrachi organizations. The NRP leadership met in stormy sessions here today and Friday. The party’s young guard has demanded Bergman’s suspension from the Mizrachi Presidium pending the outcome of joint American Federal-State hearings into the charges which are scheduled to open in New York City on Jan. 21.

Rabbi Bergman came to Israel earlier this month after the New York State Temporary Commission on Living Costs opened an investigation of his nursing homes amid allegations of fraud in the use of Medicaid funds which reportedly were contributed to synagogues and charities, to key Republican and Democratic officials and to the Mizrachi organization. Bergman left Israel last week and reportedly is in Vienna. Some sources said he was returning to the U.S. for the Jan. 21 hearings;

Rabbi Bergman, a former president of the Religious Zionist Organization of America, heads the, Mizrachi’s Religious Education Committee in the U.S. He is also one of three members of the World Mizrachi Presidium which is closely connected to the NRP. Another member and associate of Rabbi Bergman is Swiss-Jewish financier Tibor Rosenbaum whose financial troubles involving millions, of dollars in investments by leading Israeli firms has created, a major scandal here.

Rabbi Bergman reportedly became a multimillionaire through the operations of nursing homes in New York City and State and in New Jersey which receive large sums of money from Medicaid. The alleged misuse of these funds and deplorable conditions in many of the homes were exposed in recent articles in the New York Times and the Village Voice. The first reaction of Orthodox circles here and in New York was to denounce the Times reporter, John Hess, as anti-Semitic. But that allegation has been rejected.

SUBPOENAS ISSUED BY SENATE COMMITTEE

Last week two major American Jewish Organizations–the American Jewish Congress and the Federation of Reform Synagogues–urged New York Governor-elect Hugh Carey to launch a state-wide probe of the Bergman homes. Subsequently, a subcommittee of the Senate Special Committee on the Aging, announced that it was joining the investigation in New York City.

Sen. Frank Moss (D.Utah) chairman of the subcommittee, issued subpoenas calling on 35 nursing home operators and suppliers to produce records for the hearing. Rabbi Bergman and his wife were among those for whom subpoenas were issued. Meanwhile, the State Temporary Commission on Living Costs, headed by State Assemblyman Andrew Stein, has started criminal contempt proceedings against Rabbi Bergman for failing to respond to its subpoenas.