Towson Indefinitely Suspends Rabbi Professor for Voyeurism

In The Capital
October 21, 2014

http://inthecapital.streetwise.co/2014/10/21/towson-suspends-rabbi-barry-freundel-for-voyeurism/

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Towson University has indefinitely suspended associate professor Rabbi Barry Freundel, who was arrested October 14 after being charged by D.C. police with six counts of voyeurism. He was allegedly using a camera under the guise of a clock radio to record women in a ritual bath. An affidavit filed in D.C. Superior Court seems to suggest that Freundel has been "engaging in the criminal act of voyeurism in several locations and with the use of several devices and over a period of time.”

While there's no information that has been made public about whether students were recorded, law enforcement authorities say that they're just at the beginning of their investigation. Towson officials do remain concerned that students could be among the victims, which explains Freundel's suspension.

“Dr. Freundel has been suspended from any and all faculty duties and responsibilities, pending the outcome of that investigation and associated criminal proceedings," Director of Communication Ray Feldmann said in a statement Wednesday. "At this time there is no indication that these activities occurred on the Towson University campus. We are concerned about the serious nature of this matter, and we are providing support and counseling resources to members of the campus community."

At Towson, the university president has the right to fire or suspend a faculty member "for moral turpitude, professional or scholarly misconduct, incompetence, or willful neglect of duty."

Freundel teaches classes in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, and has been a member of the university faculty since 1989. The school is aware that Freundel took students from his classes on unauthorized field trips to tour his Georgetown synagogue, but is unclear about whether the tours included students partaking in the ritual bath known as the mikvah.

Senior mass communication major Nicole Coniglio told the student newspaper, The Towerlight, that she was among the students who toured Freundel's synagogue last fall for a religious studies class she was taking at the time. While there, Coniglio and the rest of the students on her tour were asked to shower in the mikvah, she said. Coniglio decided not to shower in the mikvah, but two of her classmates did accept the invitation.

“He basically said that not all Orthodox synagogues have [a mikvah], so it was kind of a rarity,” Coniglio explained to The Towerlight. “He told us he was instrumental in getting it to his synagogue, he was proud of it. He proposed it as a special opportunity, something that you wouldn’t be able to participate in every day.”

At this time, Towson is asking students who went on the field trips to contact Towson University Police at 410-704-2134. The school's police force is assisting D.C. law enforcement in their investigation.

This isn't the first time Freundel has been investigated for misconduct. According to The Washington Post, the man recognized as one of the country's best-known advocates for converts to Judaism has been investigated since 2012 by the national rabbinical board due to complaints from women converts about inappropriate behavior.

Freundel has taught at many local universities in addition to Towson, including American University, Baltimore Hebrew University, Georgetown University and University of Maryland.