Sign up for Weekday J and get the latest on what's happening in the Jewish Bay Area.

A Peninsula rabbi who donated a car 13 months ago to the S.F.-based Jewish Educational Center is publicly chastising the group for how it handled his gift.

Rabbi Evan Goodman of San Mateo's Peninsula Temple Beth El wrote a letter last week to several Bay Area newspapers, including the Jewish Bulletin, after receiving notice on Feb. 4 that "his" car had been towed and impounded.

In the Feb. 11 letter, Goodman charged that the JEC left him open to liability because it didn't follow through with required paperwork. Goodman tried to call the JEC for assistance but, he said, found them uncooperative until after he contacted the media.

"The JEC…no longer will receive my recommendation when I am asked about worthy charities to assist," he wrote.

Goodman is among a small number of Bay Area Jewish leaders or groups that have publicly distanced themselves from the JEC in the past year.

Rabbi Bentzion and Mattie Pil, the JEC's founders and top officials, would not comment directly on Goodman's complaint. They referred all questions to a San Francisco public relations firm, Kamer-Singer & Associates.

Sam Singer, co-owner of the firm, said Goodman "doesn't have a reason to be concerned" as long as he filed a release of liability with the state Department of Motor Vehicles. David Deasy, a hearing officer with the San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic, concurred.

But Goodman said in an interview that the JEC had promised to file "all" the paperwork.

The JEC collects thousands of used cars annually, mostly for auction, though a small number are donated to Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

Goodman said he discovered his former 1986 Hyundai Excel was still registered in his name after receiving a Feb. 4 letter from the San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic. The letter stated that the car had been towed and impounded. It has since been accruing storage fees.

Goodman called the DMV, which told him the car was registered in his name.

"I feel fortunate that the only problem I know of is that it's been towed," Goodman said.

Before he contacted the media, he said, several attempts to reach JEC officials produced no results.

But Singer said Goodman should have kept trying. "If the rabbi feels dissatisfied, he should call us again rather than run to the news media," Singer said.

However, Deasy said Goodman's car registration problem with the JEC is not unusual.

In fact, Deasy's office "constantly" comes across cases of people who have donated their cars to a charity and later find the car is still registered in their name.

Many of these cases involve the JEC, he added.

The parking department sends out notices, such as the one Goodman received, to whomever is on record with the state DMV as a car's registered or legal owner, or both.

When a charity takes possession of the car, Deasy said, it doesn't change the registration. The new owner, "who may or may not be [a responsible person]," is the one who must re-register the car with the DMV, Deasy said.

Goodman is the latest Jewish leader or organization in the Bay Area to criticize the JEC since a Wall Street Journal article came out last spring scrutinizing the nonprofit group's fund-raising.

In May, S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children's Services' executive director, Anita Friedman, publicly disassociated her agency from the JEC. JFCS also collects used cars. Unlike the JEC, the JFCS hands over nearly every car it receives to immigrants.

In June, the Jewish Education Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater San Jose declared that it had no affiliation with the Pils' organization.

Unlike the majority of Jewish charitable groups in San Francisco, the JEC has no connection to the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation.

Goodman has concerns about the possible effect of JEC's reputation on other Jewish charities.

"They're showing an arrogance that is not right for a Jewish organization," he said.

"I think what they've done is make people more skeptical of where donations go in the Jewish community — for all Jewish organizations. It gives all of the Jewish philanthropic organizations a bad name."

But Singer said Goodman's criticisms were unjustified.

"Those are awfully harsh words for something that can be quickly and easily solved," he said. "We just want to please him and all people who donate to the JEC."