CALIFORNIA
Forward
Josh Nathan-Kazis
January 14, 2016
Marc Gafni, the onetime Jewish spiritual leader against whom allegations of sexual improprieties have resurfaced in recent weeks, has pulled out of teaching a long-planned workshop in February at Esalen Institute, the influential New Age retreat center in California.
“The teachers have chosen to withdraw,” said Gordon Wheeler, Esalen’s president, of the February 5 workshop on “Evolutionary Relationships.”
Gafni was scheduled to co-teach the workshop with Sally Kempton, a spiritual teacher with whom he has collaborated on other projects. Wheeler said that Gafni and Kempton had not been asked by Esalen to cancel the workshop.
On January 12, the Forward published an essay by a woman, Sara Kabakov, who alleged that Gafni molested her repeatedly, beginning when she was 13.
While allegations against Gafni have been the subject of multiple press reports since 2004, new attention was brought to the claims in a December New York Times column. The New York Jewish Week reported on January 5 that Esalen was considering cancelling Gafni’s February workshop.
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