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A receiver has been appointed to oversee the Jewish Educational Center's assets while directors Rabbi Bentzion Pil and his wife, Mattie, defend themselves against charges that include diverting thousands of dollars in charitable funds.

The pair allegedly used $70,000 to purchase a home, and $30,000 to finance their son's bar mitzvah.

That purported misdirection of funds is but one of the charges leveled at the San Francisco nonprofit Friday of last week by local and state authorities.

In civil suits, those officials allege misdeeds that include fraud and false advertising.

The accusations have led to a temporary freeze of the JEC's bank accounts. And Superior Court Judge Thomas Cahill has appointed receiver David Bradlow of San Francisco to temporarily oversee the JEC's assets and staff.

A hearing was scheduled for today before Cahill to determine whether the receiver will continue to oversee the center until the charges are adjudicated.

Also confronting the Sunset District organization, which is known for its ubiquitous radio spots soliciting used cars to help needy immigrants, is an Internal Revenue Service probe.

The IRS's criminal investigation division has been given authorization to search the JEC's office at 2131-19th Ave. and seize evidence of possible mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

A spokeswoman for the JEC says any mistakes made by the organization result from its rapid growth from a mom-and-pop operation to a multipurpose center serving hundreds.

"Did the JEC make mistakes? Yes. Everybody makes mistakes," says Carol Ruth Silver, chair of the JEC's board. "Did the JEC make deliberate, false and criminal mistakes? No.

"In the end, we are sure that the accusations will be found false, and the charitable works of the JEC will be examined and found worthwhile."

But the Pils, who have declined to speak to the media on the advice of an attorney, must defend themselves against the various charges before they can regain control of their organization.

The triple-pronged federal-state-local assault marks the latest in a string of problems for the JEC, which runs the Schneerson Hebrew Day School, a summer day camp, holiday and Shabbat celebrations, a Russian-language magazine for Jewish emigres, and English and computer-training programs.

In addition to ongoing scrutiny of its fund-raising and spending practices by both the government and media, the JEC sustained financial damage when on Nov. 26 a four-alarm fire swept through Pier 48 buildings holding used cars collected by the JEC.

An 18-page civil action filed by District Attorney Terence Hallinan last week includes an accusation that the fire was sparked by illegal automotive repair work performed by a JEC employee. The fire destroyed 300 cars and caused more than a million dollars in property damage to the Port of San Francisco. The city's action seeks to retrieve that money.

The district attorney's complaint goes on to allege that a variety of the JEC's advertising has included false and misleading statements. As one example, the document cites the JEC's representation that donations to its Kids Overcoming Katastrophe program would be used to provide needed medical care to 12 children brought from Chernobyl to San Francisco.

According to the action, although numerous children have actually been diagnosed with thyroid cancer that was probably caused by the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl site, not one of the 12 youngsters brought to San Francisco by the JEC suffered from serious illness.

What's more, the complaint alleges, while its advertising said the Kids Overcoming Katastrophe program aids young victims of war and oppression from around the world, the program has done nothing of the kind.

"The Kids Overcoming Katastrophe program has not provided assistance of any kind to any child from Bosnia, Rwanda, Lebanon, Sarajevo or any other location plagued by war or famine," the lawsuit reads.

"In addition, the Kids Overcoming Katastrophe program has not provided a `safe alternative' for any child, nor has it done anything to help save the life of any child."

Furthermore, the district attorney's action cites as false the JEC's representation that 100 percent of the donations received are used for charitable purposes.

"Our investigation shows it's more likely under 20 percent," says John Shanley, public information officer at the district attorney's office.

The complaint also rebuts the JEC's claim that donated automobiles would be provided to needy families for transportation.

"Only a small percentage of the thousands of vehicles donated to the JEC have been given to immigrant or needy families, and numerous requests for vehicles by such families have been denied by the JEC," the action alleges.

Bruce Tessler, who donated a car to the JEC in January 1996, is not surprised by that accusation.

Several months after donating his 1982 Ford Escort Wagon, he was frustrated to learn that the vehicle had been abandoned. As the organization had not followed through with the required paperwork, the car was still in Tessler's name.

"When you donate to an organization like that, you think it's going to do somebody some good," says Tessler, executive director of the San Francisco School of Art. "The fact that they gave cars to refugees pulled my strings. My family was immigrants at one time."

Meanwhile, State Attorney General Dan Lungren's office, which is charged with the general supervision of all California charitable organizations, is focusing on what has happened to the organization's revenues.

The attorney general's suit alleges, among other things, diversion of charitable money, asking that improperly channeled funds be reallocated to the programs for which they were donated.

Among the alleged diversions named in the action are the funds used by the Pils to purchase a home on 26th Avenue in San Francisco, and the money to finance their son Schneur Zalman's bar mitzvah. The couple has eight children, including a newborn.

Silver defended some of the family's personal expenses — such as their commercial stove and half-time cooking and cleaning helper — stressing that they hold weekly community Shabbat services and dinners at their home for up to 50 guests at a time.

Those dinners, as well as most other JEC programs, are continuing — under the auspices of the receiver — despite the legal troubles.

In addition to naming the couple as defendants, the complaints also name United Business Management Enterprises and ChariSource, wholly owned subsidiaries of JEC that operate the used-vehicle business for the organization.

In the meantime, other Jewish organizations that accept donations of used cars firmly distanced themselves from the JEC this week.

"We're concerned it will reflect on all Jewish charities for people who don't understand the difference between them," says Benita Kline, planning director at the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay.

In the East Bay alone, the federation and Berkeley Richmond and Contra Costa Jewish community centers accept donated used cars, which then are distributed by Volunteers of America, a community service agency that aids the needy. VOA gets a percentage of the profit for its charitable enterprises while the Jewish organizations get the rest.

Some have found the venture profitable. The BRJCC, for example, has raised $15,000 since June 1996.

The JEC, which, according to state documents, pulled in $8.5 million in the last fiscal year by auctioning used cars, now ranks among the top for-profit used-car enterprises nationwide.

That high profile worries other Jewish organizations that solicit used cars. They fear the JEC's tarnished image will rub off on them. Among organizations dealing in used cars are Jewish Family and Children's Services of the Greater East Bay, the JFCS in San Francisco, and the city's Hebrew Academy.

"People see `Jewish' and `car donations'" and immediately think of the JEC, says George Clark, assistant director of the BRJCC. "We get phone calls saying, `Are you that group?' I keep explaining not."

Pil, the son of a school principal-cum-boxer, emigrated 21 years ago from Uzbekistan in the former Soviet Union to New York, where he studied to become a rabbi.

He and his wife, a Brooklyn native, moved to San Francisco in 1983, Pil has said, because he thought the city needed a Russian-speaking rabbi to assist the thousands of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union who have settled here.

With the money they received in wedding gifts, they opened the JEC, quickly establishing the day school and a handful of programs for emigres. The center has expanded its offerings over the years.

Even despite its recent problems, the JEC has its share of ardent supporters who say the organization does much to help emigres rediscover a Judaism they barely knew back home.

"This investigation has the potential of destroying all that Reb Pil and the JEC have worked so hard to build," says Silver, an attorney and former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Earlier this week, she notes, some parents hesitated to send their kids to class.

"Some of these parents come from a Russian background where they equate the IRS with the KGB," Silver says. "They were afraid to send their kids to school. This is really tragic."