Washington – Kesher Israel Fires Rabbi Freundel After Voyeurism Charges

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    Washington – The Board of Directors at Kesher Israel synagogue fired Rabbi Barry Freundel after his charges of voyeurism surfaced in October.

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    In a letter posted on Kesher Israel’s website (http://bit.ly/1FHY69n) the board stated that Freundel’s “relationship with Kesher Israel has permanently ended. As he is required to do under his contract, Rabbi Freundel has been asked to vacate the rabbinic residence by January 1, 2015.”

    Freundel, 62, was arrested in October on charges of six counts of voyeurism for spying on women in the mikvah via secret cameras (http://bit.ly/1yaje7O).

    “The decision by the Board of Directors was made under extraordinarily difficult and unfortunate circumstances. The alleged acts leading to this step were a gross violation of law, privacy, halakha, and trust. They breached the high moral and ethical standards we set for ourselves and for our leadership. Our collective heart breaks for the consequences, both seen and unseen, of these alleged acts to all the potential victims and our entire community,” the statement continued.

    A status hearing is set for Jan. 16.

     Information taken from Kesher Israel

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    14 Comments
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    chicagomaven
    chicagomaven
    11 years ago

    They gave him a month to leave because he needed time to collect all of his cameras.

    Mazal1
    Mazal1
    11 years ago

    He has not been convicted this a rush to judgement he will do teshuva and could help there Shul steig. But they chose no, terrible.

    thegreatone
    thegreatone
    11 years ago

    Poor wife. We should never judge anyone he definitely is doing Tsehuva.

    Hopefully the modern orthodox world will stop pointing fingers at the ultra-orthodox how they don’t follow Dina D’malchuta dina (which is an obvious lie),how they are obsessed with separations of and women as this case proves that it should be so.

    TexasJew
    TexasJew
    11 years ago

    What was the “difficult” decision? He deserved what was coming to him. Hope he sits in jail.
    As for #1 -I hope he becomes your rabbi and checks out your mikvah. What a crazy statement you said. You need to do the teshuva.

    bobgrant
    bobgrant
    11 years ago

    it’s so painful to read the story. When you know there is a wife and kids involved.

    we the Jewish nation.have to learn to forgive and forget because this is our core values.