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
@docmad
Well, the last time I looked, 20% of heteros weren’t HIV positive. Then again, their rates of promiscuity aren’t as high as gay men.This is where you need to chunk your theories and preconceived notions and walk on the wild side of reality a little. Think about it. The gay male life style has resulted in 20% of them getting a fatal, contagious infection. The drugs they have to take are no cake walk either. Even right wing Christian outfits like the CDC are recommending abstinence or actual real live monogamy, and not the special gay snowflake variety of it.
Sooo, you and the other gay enablers have a choice. You can priss about and act like nothing is wrong.and only old evil reprobate people like me think there is something screwed up with the gay lifestyle. And you can pretend that your collective stances ain’t got nothing to do with those 30,000 gays getting HIV each year. Or, you can face reality and start giving them hell for their behavior just like I do.
My GUESS is, you’ll take the easy way out so that nobody calls you homophobic.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Small potatoes. Enter Peru’s Jurassic Park in the Manau territory. If you want to go on a human safari, this is the place to go. The Mashco Piro Tribe settle disputes out of court.
Nomadic, skilled worriers, hunters and will plow through other Indian villages with no fuss. I’ve been drilling into this. Is it the 21st century?
http://www.aidesep.org.pe/
Squeeky,
All sexual partners, no matter their gender, pass on, or contract, STDs. Transmission of disease is not limited to homosexuals.
docmadison wrote: “All sexual partners, no matter their gender, pass on, or contract, STDs. Transmission of disease is not limited to homosexuals.”
This is not entirely true. Monogamous partners who do not engage in anal sex do none of these things.
The real issue is sexual morality, and homosexuality is simply on the extreme end, so they have much higher rates of transmitting STD’s and other diseases, and suffering early deaths.
Is promiscuity dangerous sexual behavior for heterosexuals? Absolutely. Government policy should discourage heterosexual promiscuity, just like it should discourage homosexual behavior. This is one of many reasons that government originally became involved in marriage, but it has now lost its way because of the homosexual agenda.
david – I have got to admit as a practicing heterosexual; that in all of my long lifetime I have neither contracted or spread an STD.
Squeeky sexually transmitted diseases aren’t exclusive to gay people. You don’t have to agree with their sexual preferences or practices, but it would be wrong to try to legislate it, don’t you agree? I’m not sure what you want to do regarding homosexuals. Are you just concerned that it’s being “normalized”? The are children of these homosexuals unions tjat shouldn’t have to hear in school that their two moms or two dads are ‘abnormal’.There are many loving monogamous marriages among homosexuals. Isn’t it a good thing to promote family values and monogamy?
@Annie
That anal sex “nonsense” has resulted in about 20% of gay men, and men who have sex with men getting HIV. Goodness knows how many urinary tract infections and other funky diseases it has resulted in. Currently, about 30,000 gay guys get HIV each year. Sooo, I guess you can stay in denial and call it “nonsense.” That is a lot easier course of action than having to think about your premises, and admit that you are wrong. Plus, nobody will call you homophobic!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
@mespo
I think a lot of these people, and gays too, are born screwed up. Heck, one degree of temperature difference in the nest, and alligators come out of the egg female instead of male. Most of this stuff we simply do not understand.
But it is nothing but common sense to see that there is a huge difference between tolerating a behavior like homosexuality, and celebrating it as normal. We tolerate autistic and retarded people because they were born that way and they are what they are through no fault of their own. But, we do not celebrate either. We do not go into schools and suggest that parents not hug their children, because there are some autistic children who can not stand to be touched, and seeing kids being hugged might upset them.
Yet, there are those who advocate just such nonsense for the gender screwed-up. Like the “purple penquin” nonsense.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky, I don’t think that pedophilia will ever be seen as the norm. same tthing with incest, because here are huge HARMS that happen with these forms of sexual practice. What harm do homosexuals engage in? Please don’t get into that anal sex is harmful nonsense. Heterosexual couples engage in it too. As for a higher rate of suicide and alcoholism ( if that is even true) perhaps it’s out of frustration at being discriminated against on a daily basis and societal and family ostracism. So why is it a good thing to keep repeating that homosexuality is abberant? It’s not abberant for homosexuals.
Annie wrote: “I don’t think that pedophilia will ever be seen as the norm. … , because here are huge HARMS that happen with these forms of sexual practice.”
I guess you did not read any of the articles at the Nambla site. They have many who talk about how they were not harmed by having sex with an older man as a child. One article talks about how his child was labeled a sexual predator because of his having oral sex at the age of 10, and how the real criminals are the politicians who made this law to criminalize something very natural. He argues that had his child been 18, no such legal problems would have befallen him. Many gay men talk about how they did not become pedophiles just because they were the victim of a pedophile. They present their experience of being molested by a pedophile as one of the best things that ever happened to them. Many talk about how they wanted sex with the adult as a child, and they sought it out.
Annie wrote: “It’s not abberant for homosexuals.”
That’s like saying getting drunk is not aberrant for an alcoholic. It has a ring of truth to it, but it misses the point.
Imagine if those Pentecostals you hung around with in your early days were actually right about something. What if they were right about the idea that humans are born male and female with organs designed to complement one another, and a sexual drive and attraction that has the purpose of bringing male and female together for the purpose of having children and creating a family structure. Now imagine IF these conditions were true, and someone instead used sex for titillation and pleasure, looking for new ways to create new sensations, such as having sex with the same gender. And suppose as you give yourself to these inclinations, it has a negative effect upon your internal psyche. Suppose it is actually the homosexual behavior itself that leads to depression and suicide because the internal biology and psyche does not find actual fulfillment and happiness through same sex behavior. The fulfillment sense comes only through opposite sex union.
Something that is not talked about much is masturbation. Do you know what most men say they feel, especially the first time they do it? A strong sense of guilt and shame. And this is not just from religious people. It is from liberal and gay people. Now people can rationalize those feeling away, or pretend they did not feel them, or do all kinds of things that are dismissive of those feelings. But I think if most are honest about their first masturgation experience, perhaps as a teenager, they had a rush of pleasure followed by a sense of guilt and shame. Could it be that the reason with this has to do with some disharmony with a person’s inner psyche about what sex is really for?
Consider this liberal person’s honest account of masturbation:
“I’m liberal about all of such stuff as well – sex, sexuality, nudity, the whole bit – I’m an occasional drag queen too. When I masturbate, it’s covert ~ not necessarily because I think it’s wrong, or that I will someone will find me or find out…I couldn’t really tell you why. When I’m finished, I immediately close all windows. Sometimes I close them even before the rush of orgasm has had time to fully fade. After I orgasm, the porn seems to become so ugly, the act seems to be so ugly, the bit of time seems so wasted and gross. But I’ve been doing it just about every week for about 10 years now…so you’re not alone…”
“Something relevant I just thought about: the first time I masturbated, it was on accident ~ well, I was rubbing myself and watching scrambled porn, so really I was on the path without knowing it. When I came, I panicked. I tried to wash my underwear in the sink. I prayed to God, even, for forgiveness, swore to never do it again. As time went, I quickly stopped feeling ashamed before God, but I’ve never shook the feeling that I was letting ‘someone’ ~ some part of myself, maybe ~ down, in some indescribable way.”
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
mespo, there are genetic and biological factors not only for homosexuality and pedophilia, but also for alcoholism and schizophrenia. The presence of biological factors does not justify people yielding their will to unhealthy impulses of their body.
David,
After what you’ve stated about mesotheliomas comment above, I suspect its best I don’t engage in a lengthy conversation with you. I am still trying to grasp how you got Homosexual Agenda out of what he said.
Linda L wrote: ” I am still trying to grasp how you got Homosexual Agenda out of what he said.”
I am not surprised because you indicated that you had never heard of the Homosexual Agenda and had to look it up.
Some of the editors at Wikipedia have recommended that conservative users go use Conservapedia if they disagree with the liberally biased presentation at Wikipedia. Consider the definition of homosexual agenda from that site:
“The Homosexual Agenda is a self-centered set of beliefs and objectives designed to promote and even mandate approval of homosexuality and homosexual ideology, along with the strategies used to implement such. The goals and means of this movement include indoctrinating students in public school, restricting the free speech of opposition, obtaining special treatment for homosexuals, distorting Biblical teaching and science, and interfering with freedom of association. Advocates of the homosexual agenda seek special rights for homosexuals that other people don’t have, such as immunity from criticism (see hate speech, hate crimes). Such special rights will necessarily come at the expense of the rights of broader society. The homosexual agenda is the biggest threat to the right of free speech today.”
http://www.conservapedia.com/Homosexual_Agenda
When Mespo wrote, “The real issue is how those dogmatically repressed sexual feelings manifest themselves in real life,” this is readily recognizable as the mantra of homosexual activists. The homosexual agenda often attacks religion as repressing sexual feelings in people. Their agenda blames the suppression of a person’s sexuality as the source for all their societal problems. They blame it for their higher rate of depression, suicide, and mental illness problems. Although more of a stretch, they even blame it for their higher rate of sexually transmitted diseases and their shorter life span. According to them, if society openly embraced homosexuality and approved of it, then they would have a happy life just like everybody else.
When one understands that a primary goal of homosexuality is broadening the definition of proper sexual behavior by attacking standards of sexual morality, it becomes very easy to see the tentacles of the homosexual agenda touching us through ideologies expressed by someone who is probably not even thinking about homosexuality at the time he speaks their propaganda.
There’s more of it, because it has been portrayed as kewl and acceptable.
http://nymag.com/nymetro/nightlife/sex/columns/nakedcity/n_8301/
Which makes sense. The more something is portrayed as normal, the more normal it will become. It will happen with pedophilia. The “some people are just born that way” crap has already become a societal trope. Next, you will see a push to decriminalize molesting children. Then, you will see “but kids have the right to say who they will have sex with, and when.” Then, anybody who objects will be “pedophobic.”
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky Fromm wrote: “Next, you will see a push to decriminalize molesting children. Then, you will see “but kids have the right to say who they will have sex with, and when.” Then, anybody who objects will be “pedophobic.””
Yup. Such has already been underway. Here is a link promoting the pedophilia agenda:
http://www.nambla.org/
Paul, it’s nice of you to ‘translate’ for David, but I bet he can speak for himself.
I guess we should just watch Springer and we too may get that “skeptical eye”. Because everything that happens on trashy TV shows like Springer are based in reality.
As a Delt every frat boy I met had an agenda.
All college males have an agenda apart from graduating.
Don’t misunderstand me: I enjoy apps like Grindr (gay dating apps that supply you with a photo and precise distance of your nearest shag) as much as the next man. I admit to recreational drugs use in my distant past.
But am I the only one to notice that the gay scene today seems obsessed with drugs? Obsessed with sex. Unable to take responsibility for its part in the spread of HIV. Inhabiting a soulless and empty world of hedonism.
In fact, as many thousands prepare to descend on central London this weekend, I am finding it difficult to be proud.
http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/ivan-massow-this-new-gay-hedonism-is-not-what-i-fought-for-8678761.html
Paul:
They were just like my college fraternity houses but no one said we had an agenda for hedonism.
mespo – no one in your fraternity admitted that it was hedonism. 😉
@DavidM
Like in My Cousin Vinny, the laws of physics break down when it comes to homosexuals. For every other issue in the Universe, education and promotion get trumpeted as ways to change people’s behavior. For example, educating the hoi polloi about being tolerant of gays. Then, they are all for it. It will change the ways people behave.
But, if you suggest that constant promotion of the gay lifestyle also educates people to think it’s OK doing homosexual acts, then those same laws of physics break down and it’s not a quantum universe anymore. Oh no, then Schroedinger’s cat is either gay or straight, and there is no deviation from what they were hard-wired at birth. And to say differently makes you homophobic.
Nice work, if you can get it. Not very smart work. But nice.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Linda L:
I knew it. I knew it. We broke it first here.
Wait, now Jerry Springer is a lesbian? I did not know.
Linda, Jerry Springer produces television shows and has had at times a girlfriend who leaves her boyfriend or husband over a sexual relationship with a girl. In some of those cases, the girl said she had come to the realization through having sex with a girl that she would be more happy being a lesbian for the rest of her life.
It works the other way too, where a girl thought she was a lesbian in high school because of what she was taught there about sexuality, but later met a man who she wanted to marry and decided to give up the lesbian lifestyle.
The studies are pretty consistent that now that there is a gradual shift toward higher rates of lesbianism, and the rate of lesbianism is higher for younger ages. From my perspective, this makes sense because of the increasing hedonistic culture and propaganda that makes being gay or lesbian in school cool.
david – I had two students on Geraldo Rivera’s Show when he was a Jerry Springer wanna-be. Both lied their heads off to get on the show. And they lied their heads off on the show. They did it to get a trip to NYC, on the show and an overnight in NYC. Don’t believe anything you see or hear on those shows. 🙂
Paul, thanks for the warning about liars.
“That is why the people who support all this gay crap are sooo demonic and anti-civilization.” Squeeky. Very uncool statement by the blog’s poet laureate and not very civil, either, but I guess it is acceptable to demean gay people and their supporters here.
swarthmoremom,
Yes, exactly. I am sorry, I did not know there was a Baker that worked for a president. These things get confusing here. Thank you.