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Rabbi charged with voyeurism hid camera ...
By Peter Hermann And Michelle Boorstein
Rabbi charged with voyeurism hid camera in clock-radio in ritual bath, police report says A prominent modern Orthodox rabbi at a Georgetown synagogue who was arrested Tuesday on a charge of voyeurism had a camera inside a clock-radio in the showers of a ritual bath, according to a D.C. police report made public on Wednesday. A woman saw the 62-year-old rabbi, Barry Freundel of Kesher Israel Congregation, plugging the radio in, the report says, and police were notified. The synagogue’s board said in a statement that they informed authorities of the alleged impropriety. It is not immediately clear whether anyone was filmed or photographed. Police were called to the synagogue on N Street NW on Sept. 28. Police arrested Freundel on Tuesday after a search of his home on O Street NW, also in Georgetown. Freundel was charged with one count of voyeurism and is expected to make an initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court Wednesday afternoon. More information about the case will most likely be available then when police affidavits are unsealed. If images were not distributed, the charge is a misdemeanor carrying up to a year in jail; if images were shown to others, the charge can be a felony carrying a prison term of up to five years. No one at Freundel’s home has answered telephone calls seeking comment. The synagogue released a statement Tuesday night saying the rabbi has been suspended without pay, and noting that “this is a painful moment for Kesher Israel Congregation and the entire Jewish community.” On Wednesday, the board of the National Capital Mikvah, which is adjacent to the synagogue that Freundel was instrumental in building in 2005, released a separate statement saying that the rabbi has also been suspended as the Rav Hamachshir, supervisor of the ritual bath. A mikvah is used primarily for people converting to Judaism and by observant Jewish women at very intimate times, as a way of purifying themselves. The brief police report says that after the witness allegedly saw Freundel plugging in the clock, he “stated he was using it for ventilation in the shower area.” The report identifies the clock as a “Dream Machine radio/clock.” It is a small digital clock with a radio and retails for under $30. Freundel is one of the region’s most respected rabbis. Kesher Israel is a modern Orthodox synagogue, part of a denomination that emphasizes Jewish law and tradition while trying to accommodate modern trends such as the rise of women in leadership. According to Kesher’s Web site, Freundel heads the conversion committee of the Rabbinical Council of America and is vice president of the region’s Vaad, which oversees kosher dietary laws at Jewish institutions. Kesher removed references to Freundel on its Internet site on Wednesday, along with links to his biography and sermons. Freundel spoke just a few weeks ago to the Washington Jewish Week about the challenges of being virtuous. “The lack of sexual morality that pervades this society is all over the place, and the Orthodox community, no matter how traditional, is not immune from this, and it creates terrible problems,” the rabbi said. “Pornography and its accessibility is wrecking marriages. … It’s two keystrokes away. You get on the computer, you hit the button twice and you’re there. I have not counseled a couple in any level of relationship in the last five years where pornography hasn’t been an issue.” Members of the Kesher community seemed stunned by the news and were strikingly quiet. Some said people were barely e-mailing or calling even one another because they felt disjointed and didn’t know what to say. In interviews, people seemed to stammer, speak haltingly about his many accomplishments and good works for the community and then circle back. People spoke on condition their names not be used because they didn’t want to be seen as causing hurt to Freundel’s family or the synagogue. They talked about how he came and knew how to boost the city’s Orthodox community with things like the mikvah and an eruv – a ritual enclosure common in very observant neighborhoods. But at the same time he was known to spend a good deal of his energy on his national and international work. “The truth is, Barry Freundel is a complex individual,” said one woman who has known the rabbi for many years. “He’s very sure he’s right.” She paused. “It’s a hard way for someone to fall.” The woman and others said members were chuckling sadly to themselves a bit as they tried to imagine that the arrest had been a misunderstanding. “Someone else said: ‘Maybe he was putting up a security camera?’ It’s just that he has so many strong points. We are struggling with making sense of this. We don’t want to lose our faith but what do we say to our kids? You just want to know that you can have faith. You put your trust in these people,” she said. “This is someone we have grown to admire and love over the years. God asks us to be slow to judgment.” Congregants and conversion students of Freundel described him on Wednesday as a towering — sometimes intimidating — figure, as much for his resume and spiritual role as for his personality, which they called formal. Freundel holds top leadership positions in the regional and national bodies of Orthodox rabbis, and is considered one of the national arbiters on conversion issues between modern Orthodox rabbis in the United States and religious leaders in Israel. This is a major issue as Israeli rabbis have long questioned outside conversions, which can affect whether someone can emigrate to Israel and, if the convert is a woman, whether their children are considered Jewish under Israeli law. Freundel’s stature made him a key advocate for converts. “To be honest, straight up – I don’t think I’ll ever go to a mikvah again,” said a District woman who converted to Judaism under the tutelage of Freundel and who uses the mikvah at Kesher each month, as is traditional Jewish practice. “And that’s a big part of my family life. How can you trust? Now I feel not only was my privacy violated, but now my conversion could be challenged. ... He was my connection to Judaism. For me this is extremely complex because he was how I found my way into Judaism. Now I don’t know what my place is.” Freundel was a leader in pushing for the creation in 2005 of the National Capital Mikvah, which sits in the basement of a building next to the synagogue. A mikvah is used primarily for people converting to Judaism and by women at very intimate times. Observant Jewish women go to the mikvah after they bleed – including if they have a miscarriage or after each menstrual cycle as a way of renewing or purifying themselves before they can, according to Jewish law, have sex again. While Orthodox synagogues, including some in the Maryland suburbs where there are more Orthodox Jews, have mikvahs, Freundel pushed for the construction of one more in the heart of Washington to encourage people to embrace this core Jewish ritual. Because of its holiness and the fact that using it can signal details about a woman’s sex life, the mikveh is considered incredibly private. Many have unobvious entrances so women won’t be seen entering. Women are required to be naked, to fully submerge under the water and to recite a blessing. The only other person present is a female attendant who by Jewish law is charged with making sure the woman is totally submerged. The mikvah has very specific rules. Its pool must include hundreds of gallons of rainwater, and before submerging, women go through a detailed cleaning to make sure there is nothing coming between their body and the water. The routine includes everything from cutting their nails and flossing their teeth to cleaning out lint from their bellybuttons and making sure there are no stray hairs. As you emerge, you say a blessing. “I’ll never be able to trust. It makes this thing something dirty,” the woman said. “It’s extremely private. To think even my husband was watching! I’m devastated to think someone might have been watching me. It’s the rhythm of modern Orthodox Jewish life. It’s part of your connection with God, with your husband, your family.” The woman said Freundel was very formal and traditional in their dynamic when she was studying with him. “It was a very old-school kind of teacher-pupil thing. He was the alpha dog and I was there to learn,” she said. I was very intimated by him and thought of him as an intellectual giant.” Freundel has taught at Baltimore Hebrew University, the University of Maryland, Towson University in Maryland and Georgetown University School of Law. He also has served as a consultant to the National Institutes of Health on ethical issues. He has a doctorate and a law degree. A student taking one of Freundel’s classes at Towson University, Jenna Taylor, said students have not heard anything about the professsor from school officials. The 22-year-old majoring in health care management, said she and classmates sat in Freundel’s classroom for 30 minutes Tuesday and finally left when he didn’t show. “Now we all know why,” she said in an interview by e-mail. Taylor, who lives in Harford County, north of Baltimore, said she is taking Freundel’s Religion 305 class — Faith Perspectives in medical history. She described him as a “great” teacher well versed in different religions. “The university has said nothing about it to us yet,” Taylor said of the arrest. “I hope they will tell us what is going to happen to the class and what they are going to do about him. To be honest, I am a little nervous now. In the religion studies, it is mostly females.” Taylor said that she will not take his class again if the university lets him continue teaching. “I doubt he will have a lot of people joining his classes if he comes back,” she said. Taylor said her next class with Freundel is scheduled for Thursday, but was previously canceled for a Jewish holiday. Gay Pinder, director of media relations for Towson University, referred all questions to the school’s lawyer, who did not return calls Wednesday morning. Pinder said he did not know if the university would make a public statement or tell students about what happened.
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