NORTH CAROLINA
Forward
Ari Feldman
May 16, 2018
he Reform movement’s rabbinical association censured the rabbi of a Durham, North Carolina synagogue after receiving a complaint that was “sexual in nature,” but didn’t tell his congregation, spurring a watchdog group to demand that the movement be more forthcoming about accusations of sexual wrongdoing against its clergy.
“It’s kind of shocking,” said Shulamit Magnus, a professor of Jewish history at Oberlin College who helps lead the Committee on Ethics in Jewish Leadership, a group that has advocated for a standard set of professional ethical guidelines across Jewish organizations. “After all the awareness that’s been raised in the #MeToo era, this is not something that we should be hearing about at this stage.”
The committee’s call for more transparency comes almost a year after the Reform movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis admitted it had not widely disclosed that another rabbi had been expelled for violating “sexual boundaries” and for “financial misconduct.” The Conference subsequently released a list of expelled rabbis.
Now activists like Magnus are saying the lack of transparency on the part of the CCAR toward Durham’s Judea Reform Congregation shows that the list is not enough. The CCAR needs to tell congregations about any sexual complaints they receive against their rabbis, she said.
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