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
Joshua 6 19-21
19But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Lord: they shall come into the treasury of the Lord. 20So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. 21And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword
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I would say you’ll have to explain to me the moral of this story, but I’d really prefer you didn’t.
There’s another one about killing every first born son in a country and I don’t care about the moral behind that one either.
Po, I too thought David was religious, he denies being religious, I thought he was a Christian, he denies being a Christian, he has stated he doesn’t believe Jesus to be holy, (correct me if I’m mistaken, but I believe you stated that once David), he wants a Constitutional Amendment recognizing God. He wants creation taught in school, so he believes in the Bible’s teachings?
Annie wrote: “he has stated he doesn’t believe Jesus to be holy, (correct me if I’m mistaken, but I believe you stated that once David),”
You are mistaken.
po:
David has consistently said he’s not religious. He just advocates almost all of its positions likely because he admires the hierarchical, conservative platform it derives from.
mespo wrote: “… he admires the hierarchical, conservative platform it derives from.”
Actually, I object to the common hierarchical platform, but I do agree with conservative values.
I certainly agree with principles taught in many religions. Like Thomas Jefferson, I think the teachings of Jesus are among the best man has ever produced. But for the most part, I have never found a religion that was actually about God. It is about money, building programs, building the empire and ego of the person leading the flock, and social interactions. I guess I see the religions of today pretty much the same way that Jesus saw the religions of his day.
squeeky:
“Face it, messpo, you are just as rigid in your orthodoxy as a snake handling preacher from Bugwump, West Virginia. ”
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Wrong. Present contrary evidence and I’m all ears. Saying you don’t know why is not contrary evidence. It’s just sowing doubt.
davidm:
If he radical right doesn’t believe in pure free will they have no business demanding complete accountability (death penalty, mandatory minimum sentences, three-strikes, etc.) for one’s actions unless they seek domination in the criminal justice system rather than justice.
mespo wrote: “If he radical right doesn’t believe in pure free will they have no business demanding complete accountability…”
There is a way of thinking that is very foreign to your way of thinking about these things. I reject Calvinism and Reformed theology for the most part and am much closer to the way Jacobus Arminius thought. Nevertheless, you should read Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion if you want to understand that tradition of Christianity that denies free will. Jonathan Edwards “On Free Will” is also a very interesting read. Very intelligent men making a case that right now on the surface sounds ridiculous to you, but upon reading them, you would gain an understanding that you did not have before. As I said, I am not a Calvinist, so I am not trying to convert you, but only point out some interesting reading of the other side so you can reject based upon knowledge rather than prejudice.
Accountability for them is not based upon ability to comply. It is an interesting point to consider.
leaving morally/living morally
David, that’s news to me that you are not religious. You have consistently and relentlessly advocated for Christianity, to the point where I was certain you are religious.
I do not know what your intent was when you used homosexual agenda, all I know is that generally, people who do not agree with that lifestyle use those words in a manner that reflects their disagreement.
po wrote: “You have consistently and relentlessly advocated for Christianity, to the point where I was certain you are religious.”
I’m not sure where you think I advocated for Christianity. I am a theist, but I see the religions of men as corrupt, including Christianity. I think most religions, including Christianity, would consider me a heretic. If we lived in different times, I would have been burned at the stake already for my beliefs and way of thinking.
“I know you are talking to po, but I would like to remind you that I am not religious. I do not like religion and will not join one. Yet I see value in teaching morality, even when people fail to be moral.”
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But davidm, po and I just established that the presence or absence of religion was irrelevant to teaching or practicing morality. Religion doesn’t teach morality as any reader of the “Good Book” knows. It teaches obedience. It mouths morality or some perverse form of it. Slavery, human sexual abuse, genocide are all specifically prescribed in the Christian Bible and many other “holy books.”
This is what happens when you come into a conversation in the middle or in your case when you don’t read the entire comment.
@messpo
You said, ” they want us to belief things on incomplete, flawed or absent evidence because someone claiming higher knowledge tells us to do so.”
Hmmm. You mean like the Gay Propaganda stuff, for example, that one can not convert from homosexuality back to heterosexuality??? Which is based on “incomplete, flawed, or absent evidence” because no one even know why 2% or so of people turn out gay int he first place. But, the Gaystapo possesses “higher knowledge” and they tell us it is so. Even though people like Blasio’s wife underwent some kind of conversion and large numbers of lesbians turn into hasbians.
Face it, messpo, you are just as rigid in your orthodoxy as a snake handling preacher from Bugwump, West Virginia. Just with more education, and therefore, less reason to be so.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Not a Christian. Not religious. Is a theist. Wants a Constitutinal Amendment to recognize God. Why?
mespo727272
po:
” If we agree that one can be moral while irreligious, shouldn’t it be possible one be immoral while religious?”
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That’s the crux of it. The utter uselessness of a philosophy that simply is irrelevant to morality. As such, its utility must lie in the power it accords to its shamen who seek to bend the will of its followers to their liking. What other purpose can it have? Making its adherents feel good? If so, it is mere intoxicant and an artificial developer of false happiness. The fact is you like religion because you like it.
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That’s the problem again, Mespo ,you have yet to make the case that religion is irrelevant to morality. It is actually mind-blogging to hear/read that.
You may say that religion is irrelevant to your morality, and I can agree with that. Add to it that morality is irrelevant to religion, and I can second that too. That is however a far jog to religion is irrelevant to morality. Whether shamen or an absent divinity or … whatever it is you want to call it, but as long as there is one person leaving morally because his religion says so, religion is NOT irrelevant to morality.
You have made the case before against the religious that they need the threat of hell and the promise of heaven to live morally, which implies that they do indeed live morally, even if they do need to be threatened into it, and yet now, in order to make the case that religion is irrelevant to morality, you are even denying them that?
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mespo: And we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of the evil it does in the name of divine inspiration. Sure there are varying degrees of religious mischief but they all share the same flaw: they want us to belief things on incomplete, flawed or absent evidence because someone claiming higher knowledge tells us to do so. That’s a recipe for serfdom and disaster as much of human history has shown.
This is further showing your bias, and your tendency towards religious intolerance/ fundamentalism, not unlike Sam Harris. “They want us to believe things on incomplete, flawed or absent evidence…”, well, that is humanity in a nutshell! That is your president, your teacher, your boss, .that is science, that is the human brain, that is society…that is you and Sam Harris telling us that there is no God…only if you could prove evidence of His non-existence!
Until then, my affirmation and your refutation belong on the same plane of “incomplete, flawed or absent evidence”.
davidm:
“The presence of biological factors does not justify people yielding their will to unhealthy impulses of their body.”
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You admonish me like I said that it did. I said no such thing but of course that’s never stopped you before. I simply pointed out the facts. No one suggested a pass for the rabbi or the pedophile. I simply suggested — contrary to what the radical right contends — that people’s so-called free will may not be as free as they think.
mespo wrote: “I simply suggested — contrary to what the radical right contends — that people’s so-called free will may not be as free as they think.”
I thought you knew more about religion than to say something like this. I don’t actually know the numbers, but there are probably more on the radical right who do NOT believe in free will than those who do. The Calvinists and Reformed traditions teach man has no free will.
Too much People Magazine, Paul. It’s just marginally better than The Daily Mail.
docmadison – since he is part of a power couple he was covered by the major press.
po:
” If we agree that one can be moral while irreligious, shouldn’t it be possible one be immoral while religious?”
***************
That’s the crux of it. The utter uselessness of a philosophy that simply is irrelevant to morality. As such, its utility must lie in the power it accords to its shamen who seek to bend the will of its followers to their liking. What other purpose can it have? Making its adherents feel good? If so, it is mere intoxicant and an artificial developer of false happiness. The fact is you like religion because you like it.
And we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of the evil it does in the name of divine inspiration. Sure there are varying degrees of religious mischief but they all share the same flaw: they want us to belief things on incomplete, flawed or absent evidence because someone claiming higher knowledge tells us to do so. That’s a recipe for serfdom and disaster as much of human history has shown.
mespo wrote: “The utter uselessness of a philosophy that simply is irrelevant to morality.”
That’s like saying that the law is useless and irrelevant to morality because some people break it and are in prison right now.
mespo wrote: “The fact is you like religion because you like it.”
I know you are talking to po, but I would like to remind you that I am not religious. I do not like religion and will not join one. Yet I see value in teaching morality, even when people fail to be moral.
Clever of you to uncover my real aim – let’s make sex deadly! (The warts deal didn’t work.) Sounds like something you should be ascribing to Obama.
Sqeek
You’re not sounding so very ‘innovative’ these days. Do your scores need revising?
@DocMad
Sooo, you want to replace all those childbirth deaths with STD deaths??? What are you, one of the Four Horsemen or something???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
This thread can be confusing.
Is the rabbi preacher man a homo, lesbian, pedophile, or holy snooper?
Reminds me of when Peter Pan went to Whatever Land.
Ken
…. The Mashco Piro Tribe [are] skilled worriers … and will plow through … Indian villages with no fuss …
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Well, they are civilized you know.
@PaulCS
Wakey. Wakey. It was Mike Douglas, and the link is in my post above at 7:46 pm.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky – my bad. Was having a low blood sugar or something. Whizzed by it. I think they finally decided the Mike Douglas did not get his throat cancer that way. Maybe they talked to his wife?
Sqeeky
Where have you been? Sex has always been dangerous. It’s also been fun. It will be less so once we hand things over to the bedroom police.
BTW Remember childbirth? Killed lots of women. And we’re on the road to see those numbers rise again once we outlaw abortions and then move on to contraception.
@DocMad
Actually, it’s more like no more thinking that sex is a risk free sporting activity that one can engage in with any number of partners in any number of positions. The rise in promiscuity has resulted in about a third of the country having some sort of STD or another. It’s even worse among gay men. Now, things that you read about in the Kama Kalpa are best done monogamously.
Or, you can just risk getting sick and dying. Whatever.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter