The Lander Institute of Jerusalem, which grants academic degrees primarily to ultra-Orthodox students, filed a request with the Jerusalem District Court on Thursday for a stay of proceedings due to debts of 22.5 million shekels. The website reports News1.
The Lander Institute (formerly Touro College) has 1,200 students, many of them ultra-Orthodox, studying business administration, Judaism, education and society, and the Land of Israel and Jerusalem.
According to the report in New1, the request claimed that the institute had reached the brink of collapse due to the mismanagement of its previous management, which relied mainly on donations from abroad and did not match expenses with income. Management was replaced in 2013, and the new management took over a cumulative deficit of 15 million shekels and a current deficit of 6 million shekels per year.
The reason for the acute crisis lies in misunderstandings with a group of donors. According to the institute, until last week its directors were certain that it would receive a donation of millions of shekels from a body that would also assume responsibility for a significant portion of the debts. This body had already transferred $1 million to a trust account, but at the last minute unexpectedly announced that it could not sign the agreement at this stage. However, the same body also said that there was a high probability that it would be able to assist the institute after all.
The urgency of the request for a moratorium stems from the fact that the school year is still in full swing and that there are still five weeks left until it ends. The institute hopes that by the beginning of the next school year it will be possible to formulate a creditors' arrangement and find sources to continue the institute's activities. If the request is not granted, the institute warns, it could collapse at once, its employees will be laid off and the students will lose the entire school year.
The Lander Institute owes the Tax Authority 3.2 million shekels; it did not pay April salaries of 1.2 million shekels and owes its employees another 1.7 million shekels; its debts for rent amount to 2 million shekels; the institute owes Mizrahi Bank 4 million shekels; Otsar HaHayal Bank - 1.6 million shekels, which were made payable immediately; National Insurance - 1.3 million shekels; and suppliers - 3.7 million shekels. The institute's only asset, the request states, is the licenses issued by the Council for Higher Education, and these will be lost if it collapses financially.
Attorneys Yitzhak Junger and Vishay Meyersdorf, who submitted the request, are requesting, with the consent of the Tax Authority, to appoint CPA Tamir Saar as trustee for the freeze period, and he estimates that 350,000 shekels will be required to operate it during this period.
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