Rabbi Accused of Voyeurism Won't Leave Synagogue-owned Home

DCist
January 29, 2015

http://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/documents/redress/r_csa_redress_final-v2.pdf


More drama boiling over in the incident involving Barry Freundel, the Georgetown rabbi accused of voyeurism. The Post reports that Freundel is refusing to vacate his house, which is owned by the synagogue that terminated his employment after allegations surfaced.

Kesher Israel fired Freundel in early December after he was arrested and charged with voyeurism. Freundel is currently facing up to six years in prison for allegedly videotaping women in a showering area and in the synagogue's mikvah—a bath used for conversion and cleansing.

As part of Freundel's termination, he was required to leave the Georgetown house he and his family have lived in since the '80s, which is owned by Kesher Israel. Freundel was instructed to leave the house by January 1, but he asked the synagogue for more time. From the Post:

The synagogue demanded Freundel move out of the Georgetown house, where he and his family have lived since the late 1980s, by Jan. 1, but he did not, the e-mail said. “We were informed in late December that Rabbi Freundel did not have plans to leave the house,” it said.

Freundel isn't due in court on the criminal charges of his allegations until February 19, but he's deep in legal negotiations with Kesher Israel in a religious court for Orthodox Jews called a beit din. Kesher Israel have reportedly opened up a case against Freundel over the house situation with the Beit Din of America.