TJW: A state court in Brooklyn is weighing whether to require the chairman of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council to turn over financial records to his officers after two directors alleged that he has misdirected funds for personal gain.

But Rabbi Moshe Rubashkin emphatically denies the charges, insisting ‘not a dollar, not 50 cents, not a penny’ was misused. And at least one communal leader says the charges appear ‘baseless.’

Judge Francois Rivera of state Supreme Court earlier this month called on Rabbi Rubashkin to show why an order should not be issued by the court requiring him to open the books. The motion also prevented the installation of three rabbis to a bet din whose election on April 30 is in dispute.

The two board members, Hanina Sperlin and Leibish Nash, want Rabbi Rubashkin to give up financial control of the council and pay at least $18 million to the organization.

A hearing in the case was scheduled for Monday but postponed until June 19 before Judge Michael Ambrosio, at which time the rabbi will have to explain why he should not have to show the records to the plaintiffs.

The case reveals a hefty power struggle within the tangled web of secular social service and religious organizations that controls life in the Crown Heights chasidic community, whose numbers are estimated at about 10,000. Thousands more adherents who look to Crown Heights for guidance are spread across the globe.

Rabbi Rubashkin�s election to the helm of the JCC, which disburses public and private money to those eligible for social programs while also funding neighborhood projects, drew some controversy in January 2005, because he had served 15 months in a federal prison two years earlier for writing bad checks to cover expenses for his failing textiles business.

He was nevertheless elected with more than 70 percent of 1,200 votes cast, more than the others on the slate. His supporters later said he would not be directly involved in the JCC�s finances…….