Connecticut Yeshiva Embroiled in Sexual Abuse Controversy Is Not Certified, State Says

Cleveland Jewish News
June 12, 2017

http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/news/national_news/connecticut-yeshiva-embroiled-in-sexual-abuse-controversy-is-not-certified/article_a5b4603d-0c3d-5f11-823d-37604ae7b96d.html

A Connecticut yeshiva whose founding rabbi was ordered to pay $20 million to a former student who claimed he was raped by the rabbi is operating without proper certification, the state said.

The school came under additional scrutiny from state regulatory agencies last month after a federal jury ordered Rabbi Daniel Greer and the Yeshiva of New Haven to pay Eliyahu Mirlis $15 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages in a civil lawsuit filed last year.

The yeshiva has not filed any paperwork with the state since 2011 and never received permission to operate as a boarding school, the New Haven Independent reported.

The newspaper reported that the school lost most of its students in 2016 when news of Greer’s alleged molestation became public. Today the students come from outside the state and the school is under new management transplanted from New Jersey. Greer, the Orthodox Jewish school’s former principal, reportedly does not play a large role in the yeshiva, but does participate in daily prayers with the students.

Mirlis claimed the sexual abuse occurred for three years when he was a student at the yeshiva from 2001 to 2005. He said it took place on school grounds and in Greer’s home.

According to the complaint, the abuse began when Mirlis was 15 and Greer was in his 60s. Mirlis is now 29.

Greer has denied the accusation and is appealing the judgment. He has not been criminally charged, though Mirlis has also filed a criminal complaint, according to The Associated Press.

The case can be criminally prosecuted through 2020 under the state’s statute of limitations.