The Washington Jewish community has been rocked by allegations against leading Rabbi Barry Freundel of the Kesher Israel Congregation in Georgetown. Freundel is accused of using a secret camera to film Jewish woman engaged in the ritual bath known as a Mikva.
Freundel (shown above from a YouTube clip), is now criminally charged. He is viewed as one of the leading experts on Jewish law and ethics and “an intellectual giant” in the Jewish intellectual circles. Freundel heads the conversion committee of the Rabbinical Council of America and is vice president of the region’s Vaad, overseeing kosher dietary laws at Jewish institutions. He has a law degree and a doctorate and is affiliated with several area universities, including Georgetown University’s law school, the University of Maryland and Towson University, north of the Baltimore.
Ironically, the synagogue is part of Judaism’s modern Orthodox movement that has tried to accommodate the rise of women in leadership. His wife, Sharon Freundel is the leader of Kesher’s monthly women’s study and prayer group as well as the director of Hebrew and Judaic studies at the Jewish Primary Day School. She was in the courtroom with one of their three children for the arraignment.
His congregation includes U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and longtime U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman.
One alleged victim, Emma Shulevitz, 27, said that she was warned by Freundel not to move the digital clock setting on a sink — a curious concern but she said that Freundel was worried that it would be moved in any way. She said that Freundel said that Shulevitz should not hesitate to “take as many practice dunks as I needed.” However, a convert to Judaism, Shulevitz was not concerned until she read that congregants had accused Shulevitz of having a hidden camera in the clock.
The Mikva requires women to be naked and fully submerge under the water while reciting a blessing: “…asher kideshanu bemitzvotav vetzivanu al hatevilah, ….who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us on immersion.” Only one attending woman can be present who by Jewish law is charged with making sure that the woman is totally submerged.
Prosecutors say that a witness contacted police when Freundel was seen plugging in the clock in the shower area of the ritual bath. The witness said that Freundel said it was for ventilation. They identify the clock radio as the “Dream Machine” with a motion activated camera as well as a storage component. It is described as a “self-contained surveillance device.”
Freundel is charged with six counts of voyeurism and faces up to six years in prison. My guess is that we will see a superseding indictment with more charges to try to force a plea deal, which would seem likely. The greatest risk for his defense is that the prosecutors are still looking into whether some of the pictures showed girls. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sharon Marcus Kurn stressed that “He violated the laws up in the heavens and down.”
The synagogue posted the following statement:
This is a painful moment for Kesher Israel Congregation and the entire Jewish community. At this challenging time, we draw strength from our faith, our tradition, and our fellow congregants.
Upon receiving information regarding potentially inappropriate activity, the Board of Directors quickly alerted the appropriate officials.
Throughout the investigation, we cooperated fully with law enforcement and will continue to do so.
After today’s arrest of Rabbi Dr. Barry Freundel, the Board of Directors suspended him without pay. As always, Kesher Israel will remain open as a place of learning, prayer, and community, including throughout the remainder of the Sukkot holiday.
This is a very difficult time for all of us. We respectfully request that our community be granted privacy. Any further questions should be directed to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Source: Washington Post
Darren:
“A thought or belief is not a threat unless it is acted upon and nefarious. … but not all things disagreeable rise to the degree of the David Koresh’s in the world. The vast majority of individuals are not like this person.”
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A threat is by definition not an act. It’s an idea communicated in such a way as to reasonably induce fear of harm. “I will hit you” is a threat. When I swing it’s an act. A belief constitutes a threat when its plain meaning gives rise to a reasonable expectation of harm or danger. For example thinking a sky god will protect you or whisk you away when the nuclear bomb falls and thus you have no reason to try to work to prevent a nuclear holocaust is a belief system that is every bit as dangerous as the paranoid beliefs of Jones or Koresh.
And not every belief is as dangerous as Koresh or the jihadists or the sky god but some are and for some reason you discount the threats posed by ideologies you deem benign because you know them better.
You know all this, Darren.
Mark, the utterance of the threat to another person is the act, not the belief or intent.
again, even if david Koresh or some of the strange or deranged individuals have certain beliefs they are not threatening if they do not engage in actions that are threatening. A book containing evil directives does not in itself threaten anyone. so is the same among people. Having knowledge of evil does not promote evil. It is illegality and actions that cause beliefs to become threatening.
working back to what originally started this, with our David’s comment, I have read nothing that he has said in the time that he has contributed to this website that leads me to believe he is a threat to anyone. He expresses his beliefs here. Some agree and some do not. One of the reasons that some who object to his or others having differing opinions or beliefs is that they perceive a strong difference of opinion as a threat because they do not want persons of that belief to succeed in establishing that belief in their country. So, they often lash out against those who subscribe to beliefs contrary to theirs. But the truth of the matter is that someone having this contrary beliefs is no threat in of itself. The perception of threat is often disproportionate because the fear emotion is present.
Oh baloney Squeeky. Go write a silly poem. Call it “Mao Knows Best”.
Sqeeky:
“Gee, imagine that! Even Chairman Mao realized that some ideas tend to gut civilizations!”
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Well, great minds you know ….
po:
” Anyone who refutes the divinity of other revealed religions doesn’t know enough about its own.”
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Funny, the Qu’ran and the Hadith disagree with you.
Surah 3:85, “If anyone desires a religion other than Islam, never will it be accepted of him.”
2:6-7 “As for the Disbelievers, Whether thou warn them or thou warn them not it is all one for them; they believe not. Allah hath sealed their hearing and their hearts, and on their eyes there is a covering. Theirs will be an awful doom.”
2:286, 3:147 “Give us victory over the disbelieving folk.”
3:28 “Let not the believers take disbelievers for their friends in preference to believers.”
3:32 “Allah loveth not the disbelievers.”
3:56 “As for those who disbelieve I shall chastise them with a heavy chastisement in the world and the Hereafter; and they will have no helpers.”
3:85 “Whoso seeketh as religion other than the Surrender (to Allah) it will not be accepted from him, and he will be a loser in the Hereafter.”
4:91 “Take them and kill them wherever ye find them. Against such We have given you clear warrant.”
4:101 “The disbelievers are an open enemy to you.”
4:144 “Choose not disbelievers for (your) friends in place of believers. Would ye give Allah a clear warrant against you?”
5:51 “Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. … He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them.”
8:39 “Fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is all for Allah.”
9:5 “Slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush.”
9:29 “Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah.”
9:73 “Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites! Be harsh with them. Their ultimate abode is hell, a hapless journey’s end.”
9:113 “It is not for the Prophet, and those who believe, to pray for the forgiveness of idolaters even though they may be near of kin (to them) after it hath become clear that they are people of hell-fire.”
9:123 “Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you.”
22:15 “Whoso is wont to think (through envy) that Allah will not give him (Muhammad) victory in the world and the Hereafter (and is enraged at the thought of his victory), let him stretch a rope up to the roof (of his dwelling), and let him hang himself.”
28:86 “Never be a helper to the disbelievers.”
30:45 “He loveth not the disbelievers.”
58:22 “Thou wilt not find folk who believe in Allah and the Last Day loving those who oppose Allah and His messenger, even though they be their fathers or their sons or their brethren.”
60:1 “Choose not My enemy and your enemy for allies. Do ye give them friendship when they disbelieve?”
60:13 “Be not friendly with a folk with whom Allah is wroth, (a folk) who have despaired of the Hereafter.”
66:9 “Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be stern with them. Hell will be their home, a hapless journey’s end.”
So does the Bible:
John 3:16-18 ESV:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Galatians 1:8-9 ESV :
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
Deuteronomy 13:6-10 ESV :
“If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known, some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Po, maybe you need that comparative religion class.
mespo – having taught comparative religions it can get pretty hot and heavy debate wise.
@Messpo
Gee, imagine that! Even Chairman Mao realized that some ideas tend to gut civilizations! Now, if we can only convince you, Annie, and some of the others around here.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
@Chestercat
No, actually I am not surprised at all. The rules set down in the Bible were set down because they had to be for there to be a civilization. Every semi-developed civilization had to have the same basic set of rules for large numbers of people to be able to live together in groups.
That is why I find it sooo hilarious when certain people act like the Bible and the basic Christian rules are just from outer space or something. No they aren’t. They’re pretty much the same rules any non-Christian society has to have. But mention “values” and most folks start spinning like Tasmanian Devils and foaming at the mouth even though “values” are built into every frigging law we have on the books.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
chestercat1″
“mespo, as you say, the 911 hijackers, Jim Jones, and David Koresh believed they were acting in the spirit of the Lord. They were not.”
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That’s only true if you assume that we have an other worldly being that protects us and that that being is beneficent. Other possibilities exist that are just as likely given the lack of proof on either topic.
A thought or belief is not a threat unless it is acted upon and nefarious. An example is found in the criminal law. Just having intent to commit a crime or threaten another is not illegal until it is acted upon (or an omission of course) sure, it can be indicative after the act or used to help predict a pattern of future behavior, but not all things disagreeable rise to the degree of the David Koresh’s in the world. The vast majority of individuals are not like this person.
“You just can’t stand the idea of an objective set of rules that applies to everybody. Sorry, but civilizations don’t work that way, and you and others who insistence on doing their own thing are the downfall of civilizations. Your gross immaturity will help leave your children a world that is worse than what your parents left you.”
~Squeeky (2014)
Liberalism is extremely harmful in a revolutionary collective. It is a corrosive which eats away unity, undermines cohesion, causes apathy and creates dissension. It robs the revolutionary ranks of compact organization and strict discipline, prevents policies from being carried through and alienates the Party organizations from the masses which the Party leads. It is an extremely bad tendency.
~Chairman Mao Zedong (1937)
I like the genealogy of ideas.
Linda L –
Yes, in some versions of the OT, Lilith is mentioned. It made it more handy for the questions of Adam and Eve being husband and wife, and then Eve being left to be the mother of her sons’ children as well, creating incest straight off the bat.
Wasn’t Adams first wife named Lilith? What happened to Seth? Wasn’t the first murder mentioned in the bible about Cain and Able?
his own
chestercat1
Annie and Linda (and mespo)
There is good done of secularism and evil done of religion. Same is true in reverse, but you will NEVER get a person of faith to believe that. More than that, you will never get a person of ONE faith to truly believe a being of another faith.
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Chester, agree fully with your initial premise but disagree with the second.
Have you watched religious debates on youtube? You’d be surprised to see that most of what people hold against religion characterizes only that little real estate of it they know.
Again, Islam says that one is not a Muslim unless one believes in the continuation of the original message that came through Noah, Moses and Jesus. Anyone who refutes the divinity of other revealed religions doesn’t know enough about its own.
po –
I know that Islam is based on Noah, Moses and Jesus, but ask a Muslim in the Middle East if he/she accepts or reveres the religion of Abraham or of Jesus. They will tell you that while they are great prophets, there is “no God but God” and his truth comes from the word of Mohammed. As a Jew might revere the words of Jesus yet not find him the Messiah, I believe it works in reverse as well. I don’t necessarily claim that the Koran refutes the divinity of the prophets, just that ordinary Muslims do. That, again, is the problem with beliefs…one generally begins to believe that his or her religion is supreme to the detriment of all others. I’m not doubting the tenets of the faiths, although I disagree with their conclusions, I’m questioning their believers.
@Annie
Gee, it is nice to know that you have your own personal set of rules. However, that isn’t the same thing as a moral code at all. But I guess you like those football games where every player makes up their own set of personal rules.
Frankly, you have admitted what I said earlier. You just can’t stand the idea of an objective set of rules that applies to everybody. Sorry, but civilizations don’t work that way, and you and others who insistence on doing their own thing are the downfall of civilizations. Your gross immaturity will help leave your children a world that is worse than what your parents left you.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky –
You might be very surprised to learn that non-believers tend to follow the same moral and ethical codes as believers. They tend to follow in line in all major religions back to the Code of Hammurabi. The major difference is that some people follow the codes through some belief/fear of religion, and some follow them believing that they have “evolved” through our anthropological progression into groups of hunter/gatherers as an enlightened way of survival. Neither way is inherently “good” or “bad”. Secularists, at least some, feel that they actually have the edge because their “good deeds” don’t arise from some fear of the hereafter.
maxcat – oddly enough, those who practice a religion find more satisfaction in their life than secular humanists. Hmmm. Wonder how that is?
DAvid:
“I guess I see the religions of today pretty much the same way that Jesus saw the religions of his day.”
That is a rich, funny, richly funny sentence. I am still trying to frame it, I can anywhere with it.
I suggest you look into Islam, David. It has the right combination of everything, including independence.
on 1, October 17, 2014 at 9:32 pmNick Spinelli
“To each their own. It is the core of the libertarian lifestyle and the words uttered by my mother regularly. Libertarianism is MUCH more than a political philosophy, it is a wonderful way to live ones life. David is a libertarian. We want no one to tell us what we should believe, what we can say, how we live our lives.”
Nick, based on everything of David that I read on these pages, libertarian is miles away from defining him. He is actually rather dogmatic and conservative, especially on social issues, to the point that he wants the government to intercede on moral issues! For every issue we have discussed here, he has sided with the common, overwhelming republican view.
I make the claim that I am closer to the libertarian ideals, especially regarding social issues (although i voted for the green party candidate)
Beliefs have consequences.
Everyone here has to defend their beliefs from morning ’til night.
Nothing is so sacred that it can’t be questioned.
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That is going to be my next counted cross stitch project. and I’m going to make one for all four of my kids.
Annie:
You want to predict a kid’s future look to their same-sex role model; you want to judge a parent see how their children treat their own offspring.
Nothing is so sacred that it can’t be questioned.
Annie – if nothing is so sacred it cannot be questioned, does that mean your life?
mespo
now you’re talking a really interesting school day!
doc”
“Everyone here has to defend their beliefs from morning ’til night.”
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In a strong nation, that goes over the school door, too, and just below the first rule.
Linda L.
“I just have a question for Mespo. If David is concerned about secularism, then why is he talking to us charlatans?”
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Evangelizing the heathen, I suppose.