Chabad missionary in Vilnius, mother of 11 children, could go to prison - and here's why

January 18, 2023   

Stormy Lithuania: Chabad emissary in Vilnius, Nechama Dina Krinsky - mother of 11 and three more in foster care - is facing a prison sentence for the offenses of tax evasion and concealment of information. Business owners? Grow on it: You too deserve to grow to number one A decision in the trial is scheduled for the final hearing, scheduled for the upcoming Eighth of Shevat, in a little over two weeks. According to a report by Daniel Adelson on Ynet, Her husband, Rabbi Shalom Ber Krinsky, accuses the local court of corruption. The Krinskys, American citizens, arrived on a Chabad mission to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, 28 years ago. Rebbetzin Nechama Dina managed the local Chabad school, which went into debt to the point of bankruptcy. A district court judge ruled that the Rebbetzin caused the school to go bankrupt due to deliberate mismanagement, which led to accumulated debts of 250,000 euros to the state (almost a million shekels). The judge ruled that the conviction cannot be appealed, and therefore the Rebbetzin faces the threat of a prison sentence. According to Rabbi Krinsky, the school went into debt after it did not receive the money that was supposed to be received from the Lithuanian government's World War II reparations payments. This involves public funds totaling millions of euros, which are transferred to the Good Will Fund, a joint fund for the state and Jewish charities, led by the American Jewish Coalition (AJC). According to the agreement, instead of the Lithuanian government returning religious properties looted during the Holocaust to the Jewish community, it transfers the compensation amount for active religious buildings in Lithuania every year. "The problem is that the money does not really reach its destination," Chabad emissary Rabbi Krinsky tells the COL website. "Is there a more Jewish goal than a Jewish school that teaches and educates Jewish boys and girls?" he asks painfully.

According to him, "One of the directors of the foundation, in collaboration with one of the community leaders, is transferring the money to purposes other than the real purposes for which it was intended - nurturing the life of the Jewish community. We have been working 24 hours a day and have been for 28 years to build Judaism, from covenants to bar mitzvahs, marriages, schools, summer camps. Instead, the money is going to other entities. We are being done a huge injustice here.".

""The same elements have continuously ignored our repeated requests for emergency funding to ensure the future of our school," accuses the Chabad emissary. "We also feel a bias in the trial. Behind the scenes, they are working against us so that the Chabad school will close and so that they will not be able to claim the funds that are truly intended for the benefit of the community.".

He said, "They are the ones to blame for the criminal case being filed against my wife. There is no doubt that their funding would have prevented the bankruptcy, thus preventing the criminal case." A member of the Jewish community accused the prosecutor's office in a conversation with Ynet: "Continued to conduct the trial despite all the evidence given to the court that she and her husband tried as hard as they could to raise the necessary funds to prevent the bankruptcy." Another community member, Miriam Denisov, says she is having a hard time digesting the news: "I have met many Jews and various Jewish organizations, but I have never met people as dedicated as Rabbi and Rebbetzin Krinsky, who dedicated their entire lives to one goal only – to revive Jewish life in Lithuania. Even in difficult times, they never thought of leaving Lithuania for the United States." Another community member, Alexandra Rachel, said that she was adopted by the Krinskys when she was 5 years old, after her parents divorced and her mother struggled with alcohol and drug problems. "The Krinsky family took care of me and raised me," she said. "When I had problems, they solved everything immediately, paid and accompanied me to the right authorities. Thanks to them, I survived. Later, when I already had children of my own and we had nowhere to live because of debts, the Krinskys did not remain indifferent, and helped me get out of this situation. "They found a sponsor who paid the debt, and that way we could continue living in the apartment, without worrying about being evicted.".