The lawsuit between Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn and The New Reform Temple has been terminated. On Wednesday, Feb. 29, Johnson County District Court Judge David W. Hauber granted NRT’s motion to compel arbitration.
“With that, the next step is for the plaintiff (Rabbi Cukierkorn) to submit a demand for arbitration, if he intends to proceed, which we assume he does,” stated NRT President Michael Grossman in a statement to The Chronicle.
Rabbi Cukiekorn said he does expect to move forward with arbitration.
Rabbi Cukierkorn filed the lawsuit in late September, claiming NRT breached the separation agreement the two parties mutually agreed to in March 2011. That was precipitated by a decision made in December 2010 by NRT’s board of directors not to renew the rabbi’s contract, which was to last through June of this year. Payments, as agreed to in the separation agreement, began April 1, 2011, and were to continue through June 14, 2012.
According to court documents obtained by The Chronicle, NRT stopped making the agreed upon payments in mid-June of last year. At that time NRT sent Rabbi Cukierkorn a letter stating that unless he could provide documentation relating to monetary transfers from NRT’s discretionary fund, the congregation would cease payments agreed to under the separation agreement.
Rabbi Cukierkorn’s lawsuit asked the court to enter judgment against NRT, requiring it to comply with the terms of the separation agreement and provide full payment, as well as interest.
Rabbi Cukierkorn is now the rabbi of Temple Israel of Greater Kansas City, which recently celebrated hitting the 100-family member milestone.
NRT hired Rabbi Alan Londy to serve as interim rabbi last summer and offered him a three-year full-time contract earlier this month.