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
Sqeek
I thought whining was frowned upon by your team.
Nonsense, Paul. Pure nonsense.
docmadison – prove me wrong.
Paul, she can question my life all she wants, I’m answering her questions and I hope she can possibly learn a thing or two before judging others she doesn’t really know. Now I’m off to bed. Way too late, don’t you ever sleep Paul?
Annie – it is earlier here than it is there. You are the one late to bed. I am going to agree with Squeeky, the Boomers are responsible for the drug problems of today and they need to face up to it. You personally, may not have had a part in it, but you are in the right generation.
@Annie
Please don’t hurt your shoulder patting yourself on the back,OK??? But what does all that stuff have to do with you foaming at the mouth over religion and normative values??? Sorry, but you can be a doctor doing heart transplants and still be an immature self-centered person. Hmmm, come to think of it, a lot of doctors are.
Just face it, you are part of, and indicative of, a generation that has raised selfishness to new heights, and has little or no regard for those of us who must inherit what you leave behind. The Boomers are such a bunch of special snowflakes they have to rewrite the words of marriage vows, smoke dope like a bunch of fiends, divorce at the drop of a hat, abort their babies by the millions, have sex in all kind of weird ways, spend money like drunk sailors on shore leave, play Freedom Rider 50 years after the fact. Half of your generation acts like the whole Circle of Life thing is really a straight line that points right to them. You guys don’t even have enough cohones to leave a normative moral code in your wake because that might keep you from having a guilt-free good time whenever you want.
Unfortunately, I am younger and part of the three generations that will have to suffer for your sins.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
And Squeeky having fun does not make one immature, you need to have some fun of your own, I suspect. You seem a bit joyless. Go volunteer at a hospital and see if they’ll let you hold some babies, it will do you good. Something seems to be lacking in your own life that mine seems to bother you SO much. My grandchildren are quite pleased with a grandma who knows how to make fun.
Squeeky, you don’t know the first thing about true sacrifice, you just talk. Now go live a life of your own and stop obsessing over mine.
I’ve been dealing with life and death longer than you’ve even been alive Squeeky, think about that. Have you saved a life? Done the Heimlich, or CPR on someone whose stomach contents came up in your mouth? Have you cared for the intimate needs of a dying human? Inserted IVs in tiny veins, bathed a burn patient after debredment? Dressed an amputees stump? Stopped bleeding with your hands? Cared for a sick child, four sick children while being sick yourself? Have you gone without so your children who depended on you had what they needed? Have you washed a newborn, breast fed one? Have you raised even one child? Have you watched your husband, the love of your life die in your arms? You are still such a child.
Annie – you are playing the victim card again.
@Annie
Sure I can judge you. You go into hysterics any time someone mentions religion, and you start swooning every time the word “values” come up. You openly admit that you have your own personal moral code and darn near dare anybody to try to impose any external values on you. Plus, since you have given your age before, you fit squarely into the Special Snowflake generation known as the Baby Boomers, which by and large is the biggest bunch of prima donna individuals to ever come down the pike.
And your response that your own personal moral code works for you and yours and to heck with everybody else, is nothing if not indicative of that same Boomer self-centeredness which has so screwed up the country. So yes, I think you are immature as all get out. Not to mention some of the other stuff you have either talked about or recently done.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky, you seem to be taking liberties with my life. What do you know about if I have grown up or not? I’ve seen suffering, pain and death, and more realities of life in my 35 years as a nurse. I’ve given birth, buried a husband, raised children on my own while working full time and paying tuition. You seriously do not know WTH you are talking about. You are in no position to judge me, my life, my maturity. You expose your shallow understanding of life and your own immaturity by assuming you know what a poster on a blog has consisted of. I suggest you take a look at your own life, it doesn’t seem to have begun in earnest yet.
@annie
Yes, Annie, how very selfish of you! And when you croak one of these days, your personal code goes in the ground with you. However, the 300 million plus people left behind in our country will still have to have something to live by. Some parents will teach their kids not to touch alcohol, and others with their personal code will think it OK. Some will teach their kids that promiscuity is harmful, and other parents won’t say a word one way or the other about it.
But there probably won’t be a normative moral code for a while. Because people like you never really grew up, and accepted that life has some rules that all of us need to follow for the whole civilization thingie to work. Some like you probably had childhood church traumas you never could get over, and others probably never forgave their mommies for telling them they couldn’t have a cookie whenever they wanted it. Whatever. Your generation will leave a world that is worse in many ways from the one your parents left you.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Paul C:
I think they may be born that way and there is some evidence to suggest pedophilia is supported by genetic/biological factors. That doesn’t rule out psycho-social but its there nonetheless.
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/14/local/la-me-pedophiles-20130115
And Dave I think it’s 2575? idk he has a Picture with a Mustache –
Raping little girls is obscene. There is no excuse for it. All humans are predisposed to deviant behavior. They just don’t admit to it.
Mespo – I don’t understand why you have such a problem with the idea of a divine creator. Who cares about the book and so forth. You are an educated person and you have to know that there are so many other gods that had to have gotten mixed up in that Bible that Jesus was probably even confused and wasn’t supposed to be crucified. He probably was a Charismatic Healer though with a great message like Prince Siddhartha – who became the Buddha or Krishna. Idk. Any of these disciplines have a great deal of wisdom in them. I go to Church because my Husband is Disabled and he enjoys the Ritual. I enjoy the Choir. I feel uplifted. I don’t know why and don’t question it. Something is there. It is peaceful. I go through the motions when we do the communion because it’s supposed to be with the Holy Spirit. I just am not happy with how it got there. Not resolved with it. And I can admit it. But that is how a true Believer is. They argue with God. Otherwise I could care less how anyone conducts their love lives. Just leave the little boys and girls out of it. That is heinous. 🙂
@Darren
Oh, I love haikus!!! That was a great one! Here is one in the Bathsheba motif.
Risings
A Haiku by Squeeky Fromm
Summer Moon alone
Shimmering waters cascade
A lyre awakens
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Po:
I see: if the plain meaning of scores of passages disputes your easily refutable point, it’s out of context. If you can find a solitary passage to support your position in the face of scores of others that is the only one to be believed. It’s the classic, “I understand but you can’t possibly do so fallacy.” In other words, my interpretation is better than yours because it’s mine.
Words are words and meanings are meanings. The are not infinitely malleable in service to your ideology. You can squirm all you want but any belief system that claims exclusive knowledge is by definition in conflict with all the others that do the same.
Squeeky,
The only person who needs to know my code is me. The only person who follows my code is me. If my life would be a huge fu@kup, which it isn’t and if my kids were to be fu@kups which they’re not, I’d say my code stunk. As it is my code serves me and mine well. Perhaps you should mind your own code and get on with your own life. I have what is most important to me, a life I love, people I love and people who love me back. I’m sorry if that is not the way you want to see me. Sorry I can’t give you a sordid tale of woe, lol.
Annie – if only you know your code, only you know if you have violated your code. Sounds too convenient to me.
@Annie
A silly poem??? OK, just for you!
Code Blew???
An Irish Poem by Squeeky Fromm
There once was a chick with a code
And, just what it was no one knowed.
But it was so airy
And sooo arbitrary,
You’d see it quite often implode.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
On an unrelated Haiku:
End of the Party
Pitcher, Shots, lonely,
She walks to him a beauty
Coyote at dawn
Mespo
I am sure you have read my previous urging that one not take any Quranic surah out of context, and to also quote the preceding surah and the following one too, for the preceding one lays out the reason, and the following one offers an alternative?
So let’s do it again, where you source those quotes you found on an islamophobic website, which abound, and open the book itself, and place them in context.
Why did you not quote the ayat that promises divine rewards to the christians, and the sabians, and those who believe in God and do well, and care for the widows and the orphans…?
Also, do you know who those disbelievers being referred to are? The pagan arabs who were the worst enemy of the burgeoning muslim community. My words you quote specifically said” revealed religion” which commonly include Islam, Judaism and Christianity.
The hadith are unanimous on how the care with which the Prophet treated Jews and Christians, according to the Quranic edict to talk to them gently…
LOL, Mespo! Squeeky you gotta be quicker, Mespo churned one out before you did.
Annie –
Good poetry comes from amazing places!!!
Annie – mespo was faster, but his rhyme scheme is off a little, it is forced.
Annie:
Mao and Squeeky Sittin’ In a tree;
Thinking of ways to control you and me;
it’s oh so good for civilization you see;
but darn unpleasant for us petite bourgeoisie.
mespo
Deuteronomy, eh? I gotta keep the kids away from that crap.
Yes, Chester, the essence of each faith is to believe in its supremacy…which is not a problem per se. My spiriual guide, for example, has a man’s servant who is a Catholic, who has been with him for decades and knows his most guarded secrets. This guy even named his own son after my guide, and once wanted to convert to Islam. My spiritual guide told him not to, for his religion is just as valid.
The quran refutes the divinity of everyone but God himself, which makes sense intellectually, BUT that needs not negate the divine origins of other religions.
I think one of the main issues that trips atheists, is their tendency to throw the baby out with the bath water… Any perceived discrepancy or contradiction to them is ground for rejecting the whole lot.
If one thinks about the fact that each revealed religion came at a different era and was directed to a specific people, one would understand that contradictions and discrepancies are the normal characteristics of anything relating to humanity, and are, therefore, the rule, not the exception.
If God does exist, and He has one message He wants to tell humanity, it makes sense that such message is consistent and that such message be repeated by the many envoys. It also makes sense that such message would know many iterations based on the number of people on earth, but also based on the complexity of societies as time moves forward.
The Torah is a more developed version of previous messages, and the Bible is more developed Torah, and the Quran is a more developed Bible. The Torah was directed at a smaller community of those who escaped Egypt, while the Bible spoke to that community when it spread and grew tremendously, and the Quran speaks to not only that community, but to the whole of humanity.
Any change is supposed to address and correct current behavior, because that behavior is thought to be no longer properly addressed by the previous message or because the community is no longer receptive. The core principles however must remain the same, because those core principles do not address society, rather they address the individual, for that is what morality is. The moral society, therefore, is the gathering of moral individuals, and if everyone, believers as well as non-believers, worried more about the core moral message directed at the individual (which is identical and constant) and less about the societal morality (which is inherently shifting and contradictory), we would all be better off.
The core moral message across all religions is care for yours, His and his, anything beyond that is societal and peripheral. It is therefore extremely important that we do not dismiss what is important, the core, for what is less so, the periphery.