ISRAEL
Haaretz
By Rabbi Eliyahu Fink | Oct. 16, 2014
The digital era has given society many gifts. Near the top of the list of those gifts is easy access to information and the rapid speed at which information can be shared. Perhaps this explains why it feels like scandals are reported in media at an alarming rate. Today it is nearly impossible to limit the reach of any given story: The Internet has created a global community in which we know and care more about people and events from every corner of the globe. As a result, we learn more about people behaving badly more often and more quickly than at any other time in history – including rabbis.
In recent days, Kesher Israel, a prominent Modern Orthodox synagogue in Washington D.C. and its community has been reeling from a terrible scandal. Their rabbi, Barry Freundel, was arrested on charges of voyeurism and it is alleged that he installed a camera in the equivalent of a women’s locker room where he filmed potential converts in varying degrees of undress before their ritual bath. Indeed, the shockwaves in the aftermath of this scandal reverberate well beyond the District and are being felt across the entire Jewish world.
Generally, rabbinic ‘scandals’ come in one of two varieties. Some scandals merely involve flawed human behavior that is only considered scandalous because of the stature of the rabbinic figure. If a non-rabbi would commit the same acts there would be no story. In my opinion, these are not scandals. Human beings behaving in a manner consistent with other human beings are not news. After all, rabbis are people too.
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