The Principal without Principle

On the rise and rise of Chaim Pinter

Reb Yossel Padwa resigns “with great pain” from the rabbinical leadership of the Be’er Miriam seminary after they refuse to abide by a Beth Din ruling. The reason is reportedly related to admissions. Who would have guessed?

Be’er Miriam is located - rent free - on the site of the publicly funded Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School (YHS) and was established for the specific purpose of dealing with the “problem” of YHS’s “overcapacity”. Translated into plain English, the less physical space YHS has for the school itself, the more it can reduce its admission numbers to the detriment of many local girls. Those girls, however, whom they want in they’ll get in.

YHS is effectively under the total control of Chaim Pinter, 3rd gen of the Pinter dynasty, who has slithered his way to the top after effectively appointing himself to the top job of Principal and taken full control of the areas of the school that matter including admissions. Chaim Pinter was also until recently a trustee of the Be’er Miriam Seminary (see above) and his mother in law heads the seminary.

This (not entirely) new Pinter on the block is a disaster in waiting and the sooner he is stopped the better for the sake of the many local girls who are regularly rejected from YHS. He was already in his position when the police busted the school in 2021, numerous girls have been rejected with the usual trick of labelling them non-Charedi, he has tried hard to reduce admission numbers even further despite the school’s abundance of space and now he’s fallen foul of the Beth Din too.

Chaim Pinter is not a member of the Stamford Hill community and does not live locally. He has no experience in Charedi girls’ education, no relevant experience in heading a boys’ school and no experience at all in local Stamford Hill Schools. But a surname can make a difference and for that alone he was parachuted into the top job, with no prior advertising of the vacancy, and then handed the crown jewels.

His father, who was the former Principal of YHS died in 2020 and while we were mourning his premature passing during covid, Chaim had other ideas. A day after the shloshim (30 days of mourning) of his father’s death, Chaim became a trustee of Yesodey Hatorah Trust. It so happens that Yesodey Hatorah Trust appoints the majority of governors of YHS’s governing body. Coincidence? Perhaps, but those governors then went on within a few short months to “appoint” Chaim to the top job of Principal. He was in his new position in the first school year immediately after his father’s passing and has been consolidating his position ever since with the supposedly “independent” governors handing him everything on a platter.

The sooner Chaim Pinter is stopped the better for all of us but with most of the governors beholden to him don’t hold your breath.