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Failed Messiah
RCA’s Lack Of Transparency With Regard To Abuse Complaints Against Its Rabbis Needs To Change, JOFA Says
In the recent arrest of Rabbi Barry Freundel on voyeurisms charges related to a hidden camera placed in the women’s mikva (ritual bath) adjoining his Washington, DC synagogue, the Washington Post has an article on the Rabbinical Council of America’s lack of transparency with regard to allegations of sex abuse and similar misbehavior by its more than 1,000 member Orthodox rabbis, including Freundel.
Here are two key excerpts:
• “The system of oversight is unknown, and that’s what needs to change,” said Sharon Weiss-Greenberg, executive director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance. “Rabbinic institutions need to figure out how to relay complaints and concerns about rabbinic authority, abuse, problems with synagogues.”
The alliance, which works to expand opportunities for women within Orthodoxy, said in a statement Friday that the Freundel case should be used “as a catalyst to address those imbalances that have grown in our community.”
• [T]here is an inherent limit to the reach of the RCA. Modern Orthodoxy is an ideology, not a denomination, such as the Roman Catholic Church or the Southern Baptist Convention, with a hierarchy. Its followers, who make up the more flexible part of Orthodox Judaism, are much more likely to look to their local rabbis and other Jewish community leaders than to the RCA. There are also strong cultural norms against disrespecting or challenging one’s rabbi.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.