UNITED STATES
Haaretz
By The Forward and Josh Nathan-Kazis | Oct. 20, 2014
The leading Modern Orthodox rabbinical association says that it knew in 2012 that Rabbi Barry Freundel acted inappropriately in his role overseeing conversions, but that it chose not to bar him from working with converts and did not inform his synagogue.
Freundel pled not guilty on October 15 to charges that he secretly recorded six women showering at the mikveh at his synagogue.
The Rabbinical Council of America said in an October 20 press release that it discovered in 2012 that Freundel had coerced conversion candidates to do clerical work at his home and make financial donations to his rabbinic court. He was also found to share a checking account with a conversion candidate.
Freundel at the time was the rabbi of Kesher Israel, a leading Washington, D.C. synagogue, and the head of the Washington, D.C. rabbinical court that oversaw conversions.
“[Freundel] made assurances that these behaviors would discontinue,” the RCA said in its statement. “A committee of rabbis and lay leaders determined that while Rabbi Freundel’s actions were inappropriate (and were a violation of his position) they did not rise to a level that required him to be suspended from the RCA or to be removed from his work with converts, as long as they did not continue.”
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