Civil Action against D.c.’s Voyeur Rabbi Opens Old Wounds

By Allison Kaplan
The Haaretz
August 19, 2016

http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/americas/.premium-1.737661

Renewed attention on a $100 million class-action suit against Rabbi Barry Freundel, who was imprisoned for installing cameras in ritual baths to ogle naked women as they showered and prepared for immersion, has reopened old wounds.

Nearly two years after his arrest and more than a year after Freundel was sentenced to six and a half years behind bars, the civil action against the rabbi and the religious institutions that allegedly enabled his crimes is only gearing up now.

The lawsuit, which consolidates three separate civil actions filed back in 2014 after Freundel’s arrest, has expanded the number of institutions it is targeting. In addition to suing Freundel personally, the list of targets includes the National Capital Mikvah where the crimes took place, Freundel’s synagogue of 25 years Kesher Israel, and the Rabbinical Council of America, the umbrella organization for Orthodox rabbis. Another target has been newly announced – the Beth Din of America, the religious court.

All these organizations “flagrantly broke their promises, egregiously breached their duties to the women who used the mikveh, and let Rabbi Freundel’s crimes go unchecked for years,” said David Sanford, lead counsel in the class-action suit. “We will ask a D.C. jury to hold all defendants liable and impose punitive damages in order to send a strong message that even institutions draped in the cloak of spirituality won’t escape punishment when they violate their legal obligations.”