Case of Rabbi Baruch Lanner
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| Rabbi Baruch Lanner - Convicted sex offender |
(AKA: Bernard S. Lanner, Baruch S. Lanner, Bernard Lanner, Charlie Lanner)
National Conference of Synagouge Youth (NCSY)
Currently Resides - Elizabeth, NJ
South Woods State Prison - Bridgeton, NJ
Principal, Hillel Yeshiva - Deal, N.J.
Etz Chaim NCSY Leader - Teaneck, NJ
Convicted sex offender. Baruch Lanner was released from prison on either January 8th or 12th 2008.Convicted sex offender. Baruch Lanner was released from prison on either January 8th or 12th 2008.
Some
of the teens called Rabbi Lanner "Charlie" among themselves, referring
to convicted cultist killer Charles Manson, and spoke of the female
teens the rabbi favored as "Baruch's girls."
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WARNING TO PARENTS IN BOCA RATON, FL - Rabbi Baruch Lanner
The Awareness Center - Octoer 19, 2008
The goal of this warning is to protect any more children from becoming the next victim of a convicted sex offender. If you spot any children or teenagers near Baruch Lanner call 911 immediately!
Rabbi Baruch Lanner was released from prison back in January of this year. He is currently residing in Boca Raton, FL. Please warn your children to stay away from this man (see photograph below). If you spot any children or teenagers near him call 911 immediately!
Allegations surrounded Rabbi Baruch Lanner for years. The allegations include kissing and fondling scores of teenage girls in the 1970s and '80s, repeatedly kicking boys in the groin, and reports of taking a knife to a young man in 1987, and propositioning girls in 1997 at the yeshiva high school where he was principal for 15 years. He was convicted back in 2002.
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Allegations surrounded Rabbi Baruch Lanner for years. The allegations include kissing and fondling scores of teenage girls in the 1970s and '80s, repeatedly kicking boys in the groin, and reports of taking a knife to a young man in 1987, and propositioning girls in 1997 at the yeshiva high school where he was principal for 15 years.
Rabbi Raphael Butler, who was the executive vice president of the Orthodox Union who supervised Baruch Lanner for 19 years, was accused by many of covering up for Lanner. When questioned about the allegations Butler responded to the New York Jewish Week as saying: "he has never heard any specific allegations against Rabbi Lanner, though he has heard the rumors for many years. "It's like chasing shadows," he said with frustration.". . . "our method of dealing with the rumors has been to have a bet din, as an independent entity, evaluate the charges, and we abide by all its decisions."
Rabbi Pinchas Stolper, founding director of NCSY, was also aware of the allegations and did nothing. Rabbi Stolper acknowledges there were several complaints from young women many years ago about improper behavior by Rabbi Lanner. Rabbi Stolper says he sought to deal with the allegations but found no real substance to the charges. Stopler also said he heard reports of Rabbi Lanner's improper behavior with girls or, in at least one case, kicking a boy in the groin, Rabbi Lanner has remained in a leadership role and in regular contact with young people through NCSY. "He has had such a magnificent impact" on so many young people, Rabbi Stolper says in defense of Rabbi Lanner, "despite some obvious sickness that is not sexual but has to do with needing to be in control."
1970's - First allegations of kissing and fondling teenage girls
1987 - Allegations were made of Baruch Lanner taking a knife to a young man
1989 - Bet din, or religious tribunal was created to evaluate allegations made against Baruch Lanner. The Bet din was made up of three Yeshiva University-affiliated rabbis. The three highly respected members of the bet din include: Rabbi Yosef Blau, mashgiach ruchani (or spiritual guidance counselor) at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva; Rabbi Mordechai Willig, a rosh yeshiva at the school; and Rabbi Aaron Levine, a professor of economics..
June 23, 2000 - Jewish Week reports that as principal and on his duties with the National Conference of Synagogue Youth, Rabbi Baruch Lanner allegedly sexually, physically, and emotionally harassed or abused several teens in the last three decades.
June 27, 2000 - The Orthodox Union accepts Lanner's resignation From the National Conference of Synagogue Youth. (NCSY)
July 12, 2000 - Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye says his office is conducting a wide-ranging criminal investigation based on the allegations against Lanner.
July 18, 2000 - Statement of New Jersey Orthodox Synagogues Youth Chairs and Concerned Parents
Dec. 26, 2000 - The Orthodox Union Releases a report accusing Lanner of sexually abusing women and girls and physically abusing boys and girls. The report concludes some personnel of the union and NCSY failed to respond properly to "red flags" raised during decades of complaints against Lanner.
March 21, 2000 - A Monmouth County grand jury indicts Lanner on charges that he had sexual contact with female students at Hillel Yeshiva. Lanner is charged with two counts each of aggravated criminal sexual contact, criminal sexual contact, and endangering the welfare of a child.
April 30, 2000 - Lanner surrenders to authorities and pleads not guilty. He surrenders his passport and is freed without bail. Lanner faces up to 40 years in prison and $250,000 in fines if convicted of molesting the girls.
Oct. 19, 2001 - A state Superior Court judge rejects Lanner's request to dismiss the charges. Lanner denies the allegations, and his lawyers say there is reason to question the credibility and mental stability of his two accusers.
June 12, 2002 - Trial opens. During opening arguments, prosecutors say they will prove that Lanner used his power "to isolate, intimidate them, and abuse" the female students when he was principal of Hillel Yeshiva. Defense lawyers counter that Lanner did not have privacy in his office to commit such offenses.
June 27, 2002 - A jury convicts Lanner of fondling one student. He is acquitted of fondling another of his accusers.
January 8, 2008 - Baruch Lanner is scheduled to be released from prison and placed on probation.
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Table of Contents:
2000
- Stolen Innocence (06/23/2000)
- Youth groups react to sex-abuse report (07/06/2000)
- Paper Seen as Villain in Abuse Accusations Against Rabbi (07/10/2000)
- Letters - The Lanner Episode (07/14/2000)
- Students accuse New Jersey rabbi of abuse over 20 years (07/14/2000)
- Journalistic Integrity: Jewish journalists grapple with 'doing the write thing' (07/14/2000)
- Best & Worst of Times (07/14/2000)
- Statement of New Jersey Orthodox Synagogues Youth Chairs and Concerned Parents (07/18/2000)
- Rabbis accused of coverup in sex case (07/19/2000)
- Lessons From The Lanner Case (07/20/2000)
- LETTERS - On Rabbi Lanner And The OU (07/21/2000)
- Message from Rabbi David Kaminetsky - National Director of NCSY (07/31/2000)
- Kashrus Deserves Praise Not "Guilt by Association" (08/2000)
- Summer of Shame (08/18/2000)
- Rabbi Lanner Article Wins National Award (09/29/2000)
- NCSY Special Commission Cites Rabbi Lanner's "Abusive" Behavior Toward Teens & Calls For Change In OU Governance And Operations (12/26/2000)
- Report Slams O.U.'s 'Failure' in Lanner Abuse Scandal (12/29/2000)
2001
- Lanner Indicted On Sex Abuse Charges (03/16/2001)
- Jewish Week Follow-Up (07/05/2001)
- Grappling with Sexual Abuse in the Orthodox Community - No Longer Taboo (2001)
2002
- Preventing Future Lanner Cases (03/01/2002)
- CNN - Rome: Cardinals Meet to Remedy Sex Scandal in U.S. Catholic Church (04/23/2002)
- Pressure Builds on O.U. Ahead of Rabbi's Sex Abuse Trial (04/26/2002)
- Orthodox Rabbi Issues Warning on Sexual Abuse (05/03/2002)
- OU Standing By Lanner Report (05/31/2002)
- Rabbi Baruch Lanner trial update - Jury selection under way in rabbi sex trial (06/11/2002)
- Rabbi Baruch Lanner trial update - Day 1 (Wednesday) (06/13/2002)
- Responding to sexual abuse: Catholic problems are public, but Jews can't be complacent (06/13/2002)
- Ex-student tells jurors rabbi punished her for refusing sexual advances (06/14/2002)
- Ex-student of rabbi testifies about abuse; Intimidation, fondling cited (06/14/2002)
- Sex abuse case goes to defense (06/19/2002)
- Mother's rage was pointed at rabbi (06/19/2002)
- Secretary defends rabbi (06/20/2002)
- Women Detail Abuse By Lanner - Former students testify rabbi molested them in school (06/21/2002)
- Surprise witness in rabbi sex case - Additional testimony may aid prosecution (06/21/2002)
- Accused rabbi's attorney calls charges 'fiction' (06/26/2002)
- Jury deliberating fate of rabbi in sex abuse case (06/26/2002)
- Jury weighing fate of rabbi accused of molestation (06/27/2002)
- Jury weighs groping case against rabbi (06/27/2002)
- Lanner Protégé Under Scrutiny (06/28/2002)
- Critics Call for Firing of Lanner Protégé - Orthodox Union Official Testified for Defense in Sex Abuse Trial (06/28/2002)
- Vigorous Defense In Lanner Case (06/28/2002)
- Rabbi Lanner Guilty (06/28/2002)
- N.J. Rabbi Convicted of Sexual Abuse (06/28/2002)
- Monmouth rabbi guilty in school sex case - Principal endangered welfare of two girls (06/28/2002)
- Sexual Abuse Scandal Hits Orthodox Jews (06/29/2002)
- Rabbis Trial Begins (07/12/2002)
- Looking for Lanner (2002)
- Judge is told: Rabbi's not safe in jail (10/09/2002)
- Lanner Gets 7-Year Prison Term (10/11/2002)
- Lanner Out On Bail Pending Appeal (10/11/2002)
2003
- Willig talk draws protests because of Lanner link (01/30/2003)
- Critics Charge Rabbinic Court Covered Up Lanner Abuse (01/30/2003)
- An Injustice That Still Lingers (01/30/2003)
- Group opposes lecture by rabbi (01/31/2003)
- Victims: Rabbi failed to protect children - They criticize his handling of sex scandal (01/31/2003)
- Still Waiting For Answers (02/05/2003)
- Lanner controversy surfaces at childrearing talk - Rabbi Mordechai Willig spoke to a packed room at Cong. Beth Abraham here on Sunday night (02/07/2003)
- Lanner Attorney Deplores `Guilt By Innuendo' (02/14/2003)
- Letters to the Editor - Rabbi Lanner's Attorney (02/14/2003)
- Rabbi Mordechai Willig - Statement and Sichas Mussar (02/19/2003)
- Statement and Sichas Mussar (Apology) (02/19/2003)
- Lanner Bet Din Rabbi Apologizes (02/26/2003)
- Top Rabbi Admits Errors In Handling Lanner Case (02/26/2003)
- Learning From Rabbi Willig (02/26/2003)
- Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Chief Rabbi Efrat, Israel - Letters: Sexual Abuse (04/311/2003)
- New NCSY Chief: Lanner `Behind Us' - Critics of youth group call Zale Newman `naive (07/11/2003)
2004
- Reliving The Lanner Affair (01/30/2004)
- CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (01/30/2004)
- New Jersey Department of Corrections
- Lanner Appeal Decision - By Murray L. Sragow (02/10/2004)
- Opinion Notices Released For February 2005 (02/10/2004)
- Appeals panel dismisses 1 charge against rabbi (02/11/2004)
- Convicted rabbi gets one count dropped (02/14/2004)
- Split Ruling On Lanner Appeal (02/18/2004)
- Lanner Back In Prison (02/23/2004)
2006
- Rabbis who go off the rails (07/06/2006)
2007
- Inside the eruv: Are some Orthodox discreet or closing their eyes? (01/11/2007)
- New Jersey Department of Corrections (12/31/2007)
2008
- Lanner To Be Released From Jail Next Week (01/03/2007)
- New Jersey Sex Offender Registry (01/15/2007)
- National Sex Offender Registry (02/13/2008)
- WARNING TO PARENTS IN ELIZABETH, NJ - Rabbi Baruch Lanner (06/15/2008)
- Florida Sex Offender Registry (06/15/2008)
- WARNING TO PARENTS IN BOCA RATON, FL - Rabbi Baruch Lanner (10/19/2008)
2012
Also See:
- Case of Rabbi Mordechai Wilig - Enabler of Baruch Lanner
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Stolen Innocence
by Gary Rosenblatt
New York Jewish Week - June 23, 2000
Rabbi Baruch Lanner, the charismatic magnet of NCSY, was revered in the Orthodox Union youth group, despite longtime reports of abuse of teens.
Baruch Lanner is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant, dynamic and charismatic educators in Jewish life today. As director of regions of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth, an arm of the Orthodox Union, the 50-year-old rabbi has been working with and supervising teenagers for more than three decades. He has also been a principal and teacher in yeshiva high schools in New Jersey, and for many years has led a highly successful six-week NCSY summer kollel program in Israel offering Torah study to up to 300 American boys.
But even while he is credited with bringing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of youngsters closer to Judaism, reports have continued to circulate that he has harassed, if not abused, many scores of teens sexually, physically and/or emotionally, from the early 1970s to the present.Though Rabbi Lanner's erratic behavior has long been an open secret in some Orthodox circles, for the first time more than a dozen former NCSYers and others have come forward publicly over a three-month period, telling their stories to The Jewish Week. They described in detail firsthand experiences, including Rabbi Lanner's alleged kissing and fondling scores of teenage girls in the 1970s and '80s, repeatedly kicking boys in the groin, and reports of taking a knife to a young man in 1987, and propositioning girls in 1997 at the yeshiva high school where he was principal for 15 years.
Those who have elected to tell their stories say they are motivated by anger and frustration over the refusal of the OU, the national central body of Orthodox synagogues, to act decisively on repeated complaints about Rabbi Lanner's behavior. These critics are particularly upset that he has continued to work with young people, having led a group of students on the Birthright Israel trip last winter and participating regularly in NCSY Shabbat retreats, or Shabbatons, across the country.
They are speaking out now, they say, because Rabbi Lanner's divorce from his wife of 23 years recently was finalized. There had been concern that any negative publicity before the divorce proceedings were complete may have jeopardized its resolution.
"It's long overdue that this whole story be told," said Judy Klitsner, 42, of Jerusalem, who asserted that when she was a 16-year-old active in NCSY in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Rabbi Lanner, who was director of the Etz Chaim (N.J.) region, tried to caress and kiss her one evening during a Shabbaton in New Jersey. When she rebuffed him, she recalled recently, "he began to strangle me with all his strength, and it was only when he saw that I was losing consciousness that he threw me down and walked away."
Klitsner said she was afraid to tell anyone of the incident because the rabbi had a volatile temper and she feared reprisals. When she later told Rabbi Lanner that she would inform his supervisor, she said the rabbi laughed and told her his supervisor already knew of his behavior.
"It's immoral," she said, "that this cover-up has gone on for decades and that Baruch Lanner is still working with kids."
Klitsner and several other critics of the rabbi were adamant about going on the record publicly, insisting they did not believe the OU would take action unless forced to do so by communal pressure. They also asserted that relieving Rabbi Lanner of his current duties quietly would leave his public record unblemished and allow him to take another job in the future working closely with and supervising young people.
Pressed Not To Publish
At stake, critics and defenders of Rabbi Lanner agree, is not only his own future but the credibility of the Orthodox Union and its youth arm, NCSY, which with its hundreds of chapters and 12 regions throughout the U.S. and Canada is considered the jewel of the OU. The parent organization has described NCSY in its literature as "the most effective and respected educational youth movement in the world."
But several weeks ago, at least two influential lay leaders of the OU met personally with Rabbi Raphael Butler, its executive vice president, and urged the organization to remove Rabbi Lanner from working with youngsters. The lay leaders are torn between their belief that Rabbi Lanner is a negative role model for young people and their loyalty to NCSY. These leaders say they want Rabbi Lanner removed from his present work, but do not want to cause any negative publicity for the organization. They chose not to speak on the record for this article.
By contrast, some of the alleged victims interviewed, particularly those who say their complaints about Rabbi Lanner's treatment of them were rebuffed by OU and NCSY leaders, want the facts to come out so that the organization's response, or lack of response, over more than three decades will be widely known.
"Sometimes you have to use fire to clean out impurities," said Marcie Lenk, a Judaics teacher at the Pardes and Hartman Institutes in Jerusalem and an alleged victim of Rabbi Lanner. "That's how we kasher things in Judaism."
Some point out that according to Jewish law, one is not only permitted but obligated to publicize what would otherwise be considered lashon hara, or malicious gossip, for the protection of those who would be in danger. And they believe that Rabbi Lanner working with young people poses such a danger.
Rabbi Lanner has not responded to several requests for an interview, but in recent days, a number of OU leaders and friends and colleagues of Rabbi Lanner, having learned of the preparation of this article, called on his behalf. They urged that the article be withdrawn, claiming it would be harmful to Rabbi Lanner and his family, NCSY, the OU and the Jewish community.
One rabbi, saying he was calling at Rabbi Lanner's suggestion, proposed a deal that would call for the article to be withheld in return for Rabbi Lanner's agreeing to cease working with youngsters and move into adult education work for the OU.
Others said the determination had already been made in recent days for Rabbi Lanner to end his three-decade association with NCSY, but there were conflicting reports as to whether the decision was Rabbi Lanner's or the OU's.
When pressed, Rabbi Butler said there was some truth to each of the reports regarding Rabbi Lanner's status (though the reports were inconsistent). He added that Rabbi Lanner would not take part in the NCSY kollel this summer, calling it "a devastating loss" for the program. Rabbi Butler said that after the summer, Rabbi Lanner would move into adult education, noting that his duties would include working with college students.
Rabbi Butler said he has never heard any specific allegations against Rabbi Lanner, though he has heard the rumors for many years. "It's like chasing shadows," he said with frustration.
Rabbi Butler, who has supervised Rabbi Lanner for 19 years, said "our method of dealing with the rumors has been to have a bet din, as an independent entity, evaluate the charges, and we abide by all its decisions."
When asked if he would care to examine the research gathered for this article, including allegations from more than a dozen former NCSYers, Rabbi Butler declined, saying a bet din, or religious tribunal, was the proper venue. He asserted that a specific bet din of three Yeshiva University-affiliated rabbis, which was first convened in 1989 over a dispute centering on Rabbi Lanner, subsequently has been consulted periodically and has permitted his youth work to continue.
The three highly respected members of the bet din in question are Rabbi Yosef Blau, mashgiach ruchani (or spiritual guidance counselor) at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva; Rabbi Mordechai Willig, a rosh yeshiva at the school; and Rabbi Aaron Levine, a professor of economics.
Rabbi Levine, who is the least involved in this matter, declined to speak on the record, though he indicated that Rabbi Blau was most knowledgeable on the subject and said the bet din had met only once regarding Rabbi Lanner since 1989. That was in 1997, when the bet din gave its approval for Rabbi Lanner to work full-time for NCSY after leaving his position as principal at Hillel yeshiva in Deal, N.J.
Rabbi Willig, a staunch defender of Rabbi Lanner over the years, is believed to agree with Rabbi Butler's assertion that the OU has followed the guidance of the bet din regarding Rabbi Lanner.
Rabbi Blau believes that while that may be technically correct, it does not address many missteps along the way. Bottom line, he says bluntly, Rabbi Lanner is "unfit to work in Jewish education," and Rabbi Blau has taken a leading role in seeking his dismissal.
"The pattern of protecting Baruch rather than his victims" goes back at least 25 years, Rabbi Blau says, and reflects "a broader inability within the Orthodox community to acknowledge improper behavior by rabbis."
He notes that "an unanticipated consequence of covering [Rabbi Lanner's] improprieties was to make into accomplices all those who knew" of his actions, making it more difficult to act against him.
"The number of men and women who have been hurt is incalculable," said Rabbi Blau. "The lack of action by the OU until now is a statement to the many victims that the Orthodox community condoned Baruch's actions, and that they were the problem."
Loyalty Was Everything
Some see the re-emergence of the bet din as a last-minute ploy by the OU to shift the blame for lack of action over Rabbi Lanner. Certainly none of the more than three dozen former NCSYers and others interviewed for this article seemed to know that the place for complaints was the bet din. Many said they lodged complaints with various rabbis and OU officials over the years but were rebuffed or dismissed, and they were never told to speak to a bet din.
Marcie Lenk, the Judaics teacher in Israel, said she has told her story to a number of influential rabbis, including Rabbi Pinchas Stolper, founding director of NCSY, but they either ignored her or made excuses for Rabbi Lanner as a brilliantly effective, if erratic man whose good works outweigh his problematic behavior.
Lenk and other women who complained to rabbis about Rabbi Lanner over the years said the implicit message was clear: leave it alone. In time, youngsters stopped reporting his actions.
Rabbis Butler and Stolper say they never heard specific allegations, but Rabbi Stolper acknowledges there were several complaints from young women many years ago about improper behavior by Rabbi Lanner. Rabbi Stolper says he sought to deal with the allegations but found no real substance to the charges.
At the time, he says he warned Rabbi Lanner in no uncertain terms that if he ever heard such accusations again, even if they could not be proved, he would have to dismiss him because "NCSY lives on the reputation of the community, the parents and the synagogues."
But decades after Rabbi Stolper says he heard reports of Rabbi Lanner's improper behavior with girls or, in at least one case, kicking a boy in the groin, Rabbi Lanner has remained in a leadership role and in regular contact with young people through NCSY.
"He has had such a magnificent impact" on so many young people, Rabbi Stolper says in defense of Rabbi Lanner, "despite some obvious sickness that is not sexual but has to do with needing to be in control."
Powerful Role Model
Rabbi Lanner's need for control was a dominant theme in numerous interviews and conversations. What emerges is a pattern of an extremely bright, talented and troubled man who created his own universe of adoring teens — a universe in which loyalty to him was paramount.
"Do you love me?" Rabbi Lanner would repeatedly ask teen officers of NCSY during required daily phone calls to him, either early in the morning or late at night. "Tell me you love me," he would demand. "Tell me you love me." And they did.
Dealing with boys, Rabbi Lanner reportedly would use four-letter words and tell crude jokes freely in his private conversations with them, disparage those not in his inner circle, and often greet them with a swift, hard kick in the groin. When they sometimes would crumple to the ground in pain, he would laugh, insisting he was just showing he was one of the guys.
With girls, he allegedly tended to focus his attentions on attractive, well-developed teens from nonobservant and often troubled families, showering them with praise but demanding complete devotion and secrecy. He would constantly tease them about their bodies, make lewd and suggestive comments, and sometimes try to kiss and fondle them when they were alone with him, warning them never to tell anyone.
The emotional power Rabbi Lanner had over these impressionable youngsters was formidable. "He was like a god to us," several men and women said. They basked in his praise, but if he turned on them, and he could easily, they were bereft. The price he demanded was loyalty.
"I was not allowed to criticize or question him," recalled one former NCSYer, now a rabbi. "I had to trade in my dignity and honesty for the feeling of power he gave me. And I had to give up control of my life to him."
Some of the teens called Rabbi Lanner "Charlie" among themselves, referring to convicted cultist killer Charles Manson, and spoke of the female teens the rabbi favored as "Baruch's girls."
Even today, a number of these former proteges, men and women with children of their own and successful careers — many in Orthodox Jewish education — say they still fear Rabbi Lanner, however irrational that fear may be. "When I hear his name my stomach clutches in tension," one woman wrote. "I feel flushed and cold at the same time."
Controversial Figure
One thing Rabbi Lanner's critics and defenders agree on: he is a controversial figure.
One of his self-described defenders, Dr. John Krug, a psychologist who was hired by Rabbi Lanner when he was principal of the Hillel yeshiva high school in Deal, N.J., and worked with him there for more than a dozen years, says the rabbi 'generates extremely strong feelings - you either hate his guts or love him to bits.'
'He's a combination genius and Talmud chochem [scholar]. He's very charismatic, flamboyant, given to histrionics. He's the master of the double entendre and he marches to a different drummer,' Krug said.
Krug said the rabbi was known to 'take an active interest in some kids - he always had his favorites' - and could be heavy-handed in seeking to persuade students to follow his advice, including convincing some to go on NCSY summer programs.
Krug says he heard allegations over the years of Rabbi Lanner committing acts of violence against students but noted that he was not 'personally aware of any improprieties' and 'never saw him' commit such acts. He did note, though, that Rabbi Lanner was disciplined by school authorities in the 1980s at least one time after a complaint that he had kicked a male student in the groin.
'That's the one incident I am aware of where the board sat him [Rabbi Lanner] down and intervened,' he said.
Krug also heard rumors that the rabbi had made sexual advances to two female students, whom he questioned directly and who denied to him any wrongdoing on the part of the rabbi.
'The perception was that he was cruising close to the boundary' of acceptable behavior, the psychologist said, but there was no proof that he stepped over.
Still, Krug offers: 'I believe a person in a leadership position in the Jewish community, and especially Jewish education, should be squeaky clean. Is Baruch? The answer is no.'
He adds that if asked 'to intervene' for Rabbi Lanner on a moral or ethical matter, he would decline, citing conflict of interest since he had been an employee of the rabbi's.
Others are less circumspect in describing Rabbi Lanner's behavior.
Etan Tokayer, a 31-year-old rabbi and former Judaics teacher at the Torah Academy of Bergen County, an Orthodox boys high school, says Rabbi Lanner was psychologically abusive to him from the time he was a seventh-grader in NCSY through high school.
'He was a very important role model to me during my formative years,' Rabbi Tokayer said. 'But while Baruch was so deep and spiritual in his public performances, he was cruel and crude in his private encounters. There seemed to be two Lanners, the destructive and the good, and that caused great tension in me. I wanted and needed his friendship and approval, yet he inspired great fear as well.'
He tells of times when as a youngster, he was berated by Rabbi Lanner, accused by him of lying, and hit in the groin. 'He preyed on the insecurities of young people and fostered a cult of personality,' Rabbi Tokayer said, 'using his power to manipulate and control us when we were vulnerable.'
Erica Schoonmaker Brown, 33, a Jewish educator in Boston, boarded at Rabbi Lanner's home in Paramus, N.J., when she attended the Frisch yeshiva high school, where he was her teacher. She recalled that she once drew a portrait of Rabbi Lanner's rebbe, the late Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, and presented it to Rabbi Lanner for his birthday. 'He ripped it up in front of me, threw it in the garbage and slammed the door,' she recalls.
'A few minutes later I was in my room, talking to a friend on the phone, when Baruch came in, slammed the phone down, threw me on the bed and screamed at me for telling someone else.'
She said Rabbi Lanner created a 'constant sense of fear and terror, and to this day I've never met anyone with the kind of hostile, volatile temper he has.'
Yet she and others expressed more anger with NCSY and OU officials for allowing young people to fall prey to abuse than with Rabbi Lanner himself, who they feel is unable to control his behavior. And not all NCSY leaders are supportive of the rabbi. Several adult leaders of regions in the New York area said Rabbi Lanner is not permitted to appear at any of their events or programs because of his track record.
Taking Advantage
Some of those interviewed noted with irony that despite the emotional trauma they have endured, Rabbi Lanner remains a major positive figure in their lives in terms of Jewish inspiration and education. But some of these same people assert that their loss of self-esteem was profound, and they said there is no way of knowing how many young people in NCSY, on the cusp of religious observance, gave it all up after witnessing or experiencing Rabbi Lanner's allegedly abusive behavior.
Lisa Rabinowitz Dunn, 32, of Hastings, N.Y., said when she was 13 and active in NCSY, Rabbi Lanner insisted on driving her home from a Shabbaton on a Saturday night. She alleges that he pulled over in a deserted parking lot, asked her to take off her shirt and roughly sought to kiss her.
'I didn't tell anyone at the time,' she said. 'I loved NCSY and I had become more religious because of Rabbi Lanner. I understand the love people have for him. At the time he gave me attention I didn't get at home. But his behavior was so hypocritical, singing about the wonders of Hashem and then chasing young girls. For me it closed the door for religion, and while I have no sense of revenge, I feel that he took advantage of an innocent soul, and you can never get that innocence back.'
Now the mother of two small children, Dunn has a renewed interested in Judaism and may send her 5-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son to a Conservative day school. But she looks back on her experience with Rabbi Lanner as 'only negative.'
Allegations Spill Out
Many of those interviewed said they felt a need for validation, after having their stories dismissed over the years. Invariably, by conversation's end, they would offer the names of at least three or four contemporaries with similar experiences and encourage a reporter to speak with them.
'I feel that speaking out is the right thing to do now,' said Dena Greenspan Lehrman, 34, an occupational therapist in Efrat, Israel. 'There is a sense of closure at this stage of my life, and I want to keep others from having to go through' the experiences she had with Rabbi Lanner as a teenager in the mid-'80s. His need for control was amazing. He destroys your sense of self.'
She recalls, as a high-schooler, mentioning to Rabbi Lanner a scheduling conflict between an NCSY activity and family obligation. 'He said, 'listen to me before you listen to your father,' and when I think back on that, it blows me away.'
Rosie Shyker, now a dental assistant in Ranana, Israel, says that when she was in high school and active in NCSY, she was subjected to 'verbal and physical abuse' from Rabbi Lanner, who would call her names and embarrass her in front of her friends. 'And I would come home with bruises. He would hit me or pinch me on my arms, legs and thighs,' she said.
One night, while driving her home from a Shabbaton at about 3 a.m., Rabbi Lanner allegedly became enraged with something she said. 'He stopped at a corner, and pushed me out of the car,' she recalled. 'There I was alone, in the middle of the night. I just stood there for about 20 minutes, until finally he came back for me, but he screamed and yelled at me the whole car ride.'
Still, Shyker says she has only positive memories of her NCSY experience. 'It was only good for me - the subject of Baruch is separate.'
Leah Silber, who lives in Israel, says that in the summer of 1973, when she was 19 and on an NCSY tour of Israel, Rabbi Lanner, four years her senior, told her he wanted to marry her. 'I was very drawn to religion and the Torah, and he would use his learning, citing rabbinic sources as a technique to work on me,' she said.
When Silber rebuffed him, she said, 'he smacked me in the face' and nearly broke her jaw. 'It was swollen and out of place, and I was really in pain.' She says she went to one of the rabbis affiliated with the tour to tell him what happened, but nothing came of it.
'Baruch is repulsive, and yet he has so much charisma, so much brilliance,' she said. 'I can't even explain it to myself.'
Perhaps Dr. Samuel Klagsbrun can. Although he does not know Rabbi Lanner, and was not given his name when told of some of the episodes, the well-known New York psychiatrist said the behavior described - manipulation and abuse of teens - was classic among people with severe character disorders. Klagsbrun said there was little or no chance of correcting such behavior through therapy.
He also said it was typical for victims, especially young women, to come forward and discuss their experiences only many years later, if at all, 'when they are healed from major trauma and have created their own lives.'
The larger, communal problem, Klagsbrun says, is that 'our community's concept of concern over a shanda [embarrassment] operates in such a destructive way. Regardless of how uncomfortable we are with confronting these situations, or how damaging it may be to an individual organization, if we don't uproot these problems we are damning young people to lifelong damage.'
A Disputed Letter
The only time Rabbi Lanner's disturbing behavior surfaced on a public level until now was in the summer of 1989, shortly after he was hired to become the rabbi of a fledgling Orthodox congregation in Teaneck, N.J.
That was too much for Elie Hiller, who was 24 at the time and attended the synagogue, then known as the Roemer (Avenue) shul. He had worked for seven years for NCSY as an assistant regional director, and says that at various times Rabbi Lanner had hit him in the groin and in the head, called him names and threatened to withhold pay.
But what upset Hiller most was an incident that had taken place two summers earlier, Aug. 7, 1987, after Rabbi Lanner sought to dissuade Adina Baum, a young woman who had boarded at the rabbi's house while in high school from marrying Hiller's younger brother, Jonah, because he had Hodgkin's disease.
Jonah, who was 22 at the time, drove up to Rabbi Lanner's summer bungalow to ask him not to interfere in his relationship with his fiancée. According to Elie Hiller, Jonah and Rabbi Lanner exchanged words and then the rabbi, in a rage, grabbed a kitchen knife, lunged at Jonah, and cut him in the neck and arm, and tried to choke him.
Hiller, who worked for Rabbi Lanner at the time, says that after the incident, the rabbi called to tell him that he and Jonah had just had an argument and that he had tried to calm Jonah down. 'Then he laughed and talked to me about getting me a raise,' Elie said.
Elie wasn't amused. He quit his NCSY job, and he and his family, after contacting an attorney, sought to have the OU remove Rabbi Lanner from his job, threatening to go to the police otherwise.
Eventually they reached a compromise with the organization that would have Rabbi Lanner save face by easing him from his job as director of the New Jersey region, have no contact with staff or members of the region, and have no active participation in Shabbatonim.
But the Hillers say that though Rabbi Lanner was given a new title (seemingly a promotion, director of regions), the OU soon reneged on the agreement, denying the knifing incident had taken place and allowing the rabbi to take part in several Shabbatonim.
The last straw for the Hillers was the appointment of Rabbi Lanner at the new Teaneck congregation, despite their personal appeals to local rabbis and leaders of the congregation.
Frustrated, Elie Hiller wrote a letter graphically detailing Rabbi Lanner's alleged abusive behavior to him, his brother and others, and sent it to the entire Orthodox community of Teaneck, urging that Rabbi Lanner not be allowed to lead the new congregation.
Rabbi Lanner responded by calling for a bet din, asserting that Hiller had unfairly maligned him. The three-man tribunal consisted of Rabbis Blau, Willig and Levine.
In August 1989, the bet din met in marathon session for 18 hours, with witnesses for both sides testifying as to the specific charges made in the letter and the character of Rabbi Lanner, who sought to undermine the qualities and veracity of those who spoke against him, according to witnesses.
Several witnesses say Krug, the psychologist, characterized young witnesses against the rabbi as troubled. Though he is now more cautious in defending Rabbi Lanner, Krug says he has no regrets about his testimony at the time.
The result of the hearing was never made public, but the bet din concluded that most of the charges were not proven, though some of the rabbi's actions were deemed inappropriate. Elie Hiller was told to make a public apology to Rabbi Lanner, which he did.
Rabbi Lanner did not become the rabbi of the synagogue.
Jonah Hiller and Baum were married a few months later, early in 1988. Jonah died of cancer three years later.
Self-Appointed Monitor
Though the case was closed, Rabbi Blau was troubled. After the formal proceedings ended, he received a number of letters and phone calls from individuals unwilling to testify publicly or detailing events outside the purview of the particular case.
'They described a pattern of totally unacceptable behavior that reflected a troubled individual who should not be allowed to deal with teenagers,' he says now.
In time Rabbi Blau came to regret the bet din's decision, and took it upon himself to monitor Rabbi Lanner's behavior. For more than a decade, and particularly in the last year in working toward a divorce settlement for the Lanners, he has been the point person for those with complaints about Rabbi Lanner, often counseling those with feelings of bitterness or remorse.
One of the more disturbing calls Rabbi Blau says he received came a few years after the bet din from a woman who was one of Rabbi Lanner's character witnesses. 'She admitted that she had not told the truth when testifying, and wondered how one repents for this act.
'Most shocking,' Rabbi Blau says, 'was the orchestrated campaign' used by Rabbi Lanner and his defenders 'to convince this young woman not to describe what had really transpired between Baruch and herself. She was reminded of her debt to him for his role in her becoming observant, and it became apparent that she was not the only one pressured either not to testify or to testify falsely. Those who did testify against him were ostracized in NCSY.'
One woman who testified against Rabbi Lanner at the bet din was Marcie Lenk. She said that as a teenager active in NCSY, she endured constant remarks from Rabbi Lanner about her figure, often in front of her friends.
'He would invite kids to his house for Shabbos, and say to me, 'so, are you going to sleep with me this Shabbos?' I'd say, 'I'm sleeping at your house this Shabbos.' It was a game of manipulation to him, a test to see how far he could go. He'd look at me innocently and say, 'right.' That kind of behavior was constant.'
Rabbi Lanner was also her teacher at Frisch, and sometimes, she says, he would squeeze through a classroom doorway at the moment she was walking through, rubbing against her. 'He'd say, 'ooh, that felt good,' ' she said.
But she didn't tell any adults of this behavior. 'Baruch created this situation where we needed him,' she says now. 'We were kids looking for friendship and community. But to be 'in,' this was the price we had to pay. I guess I felt it was worth it at the time.'
At the bet din, Rabbi Lanner 'made up reasons why those of us who testified against him were supposedly out to get him,' Lenk said. 'He said I wasn't religious, and that I resented that he wasn't close to me.'
Deaf Ears
The night before the bet din, Lenk, who was 23 at the time, says she received a call from Rabbi Lanner's wife, clearly at his request, tearfully urging Lenk not to testify. 'When she said, 'how could you do this to me?' I said, 'I'm not doing this to you, he did this to you.' The most disappointing part of the experience, she says, were rabbis who knew her since childhood testifying on Rabbi Lanner's behalf, asserting that he could never have done the things she alleged were done to her.
'The kids who had no one else to protect them were not being protected,' she says. 'I'm still very angry at the rabbis. They turned away from us. We thought of going to the authorities but trusted the system to take care of it. The system failed us, and it still is.'
Naomi Freistat, 41, of New York, says when she was a 15-year-old NCSYer on a summer program in Israel, Rabbi Lanner would kiss and fondle her until one evening when she insisted he stop. 'He punched me in the stomach,' she says, 'and I told him, 'you just punched the wrong girl.' But when I complained to several rabbis, no one wanted to hear of it and nothing happened.'
Shelly, 41, who now lives in Israel, and asked that her last name not be published, says that when she was a 14-year-old NCSYer, Rabbi Lanner made sexual advances to her, and she told several rabbis at the time. One, who was Rabbi Lanner's superior, told her that he had 'inherited the monster, not created him,' she recalls, and said there was nothing he could do. Others ignored her complaints. 'We've learned that it's a given that he always gets away with it,' she says.
'It bothers me that the OU has protected him all these years. What if it was one of their daughters who was treated this way? People don't realize how much damage he's done to kids,' Shelley says.
This complaint was heard from virtually every critic interviewed. Several said they believed that as a result of the 1989 bet din, the OU had agreed to remove Rabbi Lanner from direct contact with young people. While the OU did change the rabbi's title from regional director of NCSY to director of regions, its officials now dispute whether or not Rabbi Lanner was indeed banned from contact with young people.
In any event, he has continued to take an active part in Shabbatons around the country at least a few times a year, delivering divrei Torah, or sermons, as well as mingling with individual teens, according to numerous observers.
Jordan Hirsch, 37, a professional musician and teacher in Teaneck, N.J., who has known Rabbi Lanner since he was an NCSYer 25 years ago, and considers him a friend, says the rabbi has been attending NCSY Shabbatons 'all through the years,' where he is 'lauded and lionized.'
Hirsch, whose band often performs at these functions on Saturday nights, says the rabbi 'was never monitored. He had contact with the kids all along.'
At one of these events three or four years ago, he says he was sitting with Rabbi Lanner when the rabbi, in speaking to a girl who was a senior in high school, began making sexual references to her in a lighthearted way, or as Hirsch puts it, 'getting into that sexual stuff.'
Hirsch says he interrupted, warning the rabbi about his behavior, and Rabbi Lanner responded, 'I know, Hirsch, I've got to be careful.'Quiet Deal
But Rabbi Lanner's alleged inappropriate behavior apparently has not been confined to his NCSY experiences. He has been accused of harassing or abusing youngsters, physically and emotionally, in schools where he has served as teacher and/or principal.
The situation at Hillel high school in Deal came to a head in 1997. The official version is that Rabbi Lanner, who had been principal for 15 years, chose to leave at the end of the academic year, but several sources say he was forced out quietly after an internal investigation regarding his behavior with students, which reportedly included harassment, kicking boys and propositioning several female students. At least two girls are said to have confided in a faculty member, which led to the school inquiry.
Still, a number of faculty members he hired have remained loyal, crediting Rabbi Lanner with raising the pay scale for teachers at Hillel, a wealthy school, and indirectly in other area yeshivas as well. In addition, they say he was extremely supportive of his teachers and went out of his way to praise them and accommodate their schedules, and set high academic standards for the school.
Last year, Rabbi Lanner taught a Judaic class on Friday mornings at Bas Torah, a girls' yeshiva high school in Monsey, N.Y. Several students complained that he humiliated them in class and called them names disparaging their intellect, and a few refused to attend his class, saying he made inappropriate sexual comments, according to one teacher. They were excused from attendance.
The teacher, who asked not to be identified because 'I love my job,' says she feels strongly that Rabbi Lanner 'should not be in contact with kids.'
Critics of Rabbi Lanner cite these and other relatively recent examples to rebut those who say that any improper behavior on his part, if it existed at all, was a product of the distant past.
Communal Lessons
How could Rabbi Lanner remain in influential positions dealing with impressionable teens as a rabbi, educator and role model after all the allegations against him?
And if, as some OU and NCSY officials insist, they never heard complaints, was it because they didn't want to hear them, or did alleged victims get the message it did little good to speak out?
Some rabbinical leaders seem so dazzled by Rabbi Lanner's intellect and charisma that they are willing to ignore or overlook his faults, attributing them to youthful indiscretions rather than any continuing pattern of troubled behavior. They suggest that if these disturbing incidents did indeed happen - and teens are known for exaggeration, they note - then it was a long time ago, and besides, the rabbi's good works outweigh the bad.
Marcie Lenk, the Israeli educator, cites Orthodoxy's emphasis on scholarship, suggesting that the community puts less weight on other values. She says Rabbi Lanner's colleagues are so taken with his Talmudic abilities that they resist any criticism of him.
'But I was always taught Torah knowledge was a means to an end, of good behavior,' she says, 'not an end in itself.'
Others may have little training in the seriousness and long-term effect of emotional abuse. As one yeshiva principal told a critic in defending Rabbi Lanner, 'It's not as if he raped anyone.'
There is also the fact that a number of his rabbinical defenders were beholden to him in some way. Rabbi Lanner hired many of them in his capacity as yeshiva principal or through NCSY, and there was a combination of fear of retribution and an old-boys network of protecting one's own.
Clearly a number of rabbis, OU professionals and lay leaders sought to downplay Rabbi Lanner's behavior over the years because they believed he was indispensable to the organization and out of concern for its reputation, and their own. The longer this went on, the more difficult it was to act against him, no doubt.
Most disturbing to some of the men and women interviewed was that while his colleagues and others have gone to great lengths to apologize or make excuses for Rabbi Lanner's actions over the years, he himself has shown no sense of remorse or willingness to take responsibility, at least publicly.
Rabbi Stolper says he cannot think of anyone 'who has suffered as much' as Rabbi Lanner, but the alleged victims may well be asking, what about us?
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Youth groups react to sex-abuse reportBy JULIE WIENER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency - July 6, 2000 Tammuz 3, 5760
NEW YORK - A newspaper recently reported on allegations that a high-ranking Orthodox youth professional sexually molested and harassed scores of teenagers.
This was instrumental in the largest synagogue-sponsored chapter of National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY) seceding from the youth arm of the Orthodox Union (OU).
This was a powerful message to the national leadership about how the situation was handled over the years, and indicating the crisis is not over.
In a June 23 article, the New York Jewish Week quoted sources saying that, for almost three decades, the Orthodox Union had ignored complaints of Rabbi Baruch Lanner's misconduct as a professional with the OU's National Conference of Synagogue Youth.
Rabbi Glenn Black, regional director of NCSY in Toronto, said that he was "shocked by the allegations. I found out the same time as the rest of the world, and was very saddened.
"The bottom line is that we have to stay focused and try to develop protocol should any child have concerns. They are welcome to contact us, or Jewish Family and Child Services."
The day after the newspaper article appeared, the OU announced that Rabbi Lanner had resigned, but despite his resignation, congregants at Beth Aaron Congregation in New Jersey voted to immediately withhold all monies to be paid to the OU and to national and regional NCSY.
One congregant said members were deeply concerned over what they observed to be a lack of proper adult supervision in NCSY programs in other regions and chapters.
Rabbi Lanner was known as a charismatic, talented educator who drew many teens closer to Judaism.
A widespread complaint is that Rabbi Lanner has moulded and trained a number of rabbis and youth leaders who emulate his charismatic style and sometimes eccentric behaviour, encouraging advisers to do whatever is necessary to make youngsters more observant.
Rabbi Chaim Fraser, chair of the NCSY youth committee, said that Rabbi Lanner had been unwelcome at its NCSY programs for years, and that he had been unwelcome as well in up to half of the 12 regions in the country because of his behaviour and style.
He did, however, lead a group of students on the Birthright Israel trip last winter, and participated regularly in NCSY Shabbat retreats and Shabbatons across the United States.
For the first time, more than a dozen former NCSYers and others have come forward to publicly tell their stories.
Judy Klitsner, 42, of Jerusalem, said that when she was 16, and active in NCSY in Pennsylvania, Rabbi Lanner tried to caress and kiss her. "When I rebuffed him, he tried to strangle me· I was afraid to tell anyone because he had a volatile temper and I was afraid of reprisal."
When she later told Rabbi Lanner that she would inform his supervisor, he laughed and said his supervisor already knew of his behaviour. "It is immoral, that this coverup has gone on for decades," she said.
Klitsner, and several other critics of the rabbi said they were adamant about going on the record publicly, insisting they did not believe the OU would take action unless forced to do so by communal pressure.
They also spoke publicly, they said, because relieving Rabbi Lanner of his duties quietly allowed his record to be unblemished and he could, therefore, still work with youngsters.
An NCSY statement released last week, said that Mandell Ganchrow, president of OU was forming a commission of seven to 10 men and women from inside and outside OU who will review procedures monitoring personnel, and "immediately make changes as the study may indicate."
Lay and professional leaders of OU are split, with some insisting that only the resignation of top personnel will address what many say is a crisis of credibility.
Others believe, that the issue, no matter how painful it is now, will soon abate, and they are calling for limited actions.
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| Convicted sex offender - Rabbi Baurch Lanner |
Paper Seen as Villain in Abuse Accusations Against Rabbi
By Felicity Barringer
New York Times Company - July 10, 2000
Most of a recent front page of The Jewish Week, the largest Jewish newspaper in the country, had a distinctly uplifting tone: ''Racing to Rescue the Sephardic Past.'' ''Catholic-Jewish Dialogue Reaches New Heights.'' ''The Jewish Family in 2000.''
All in all, it seemed to fit a newspaper whose subscribers are mostly regular contributors to the United Jewish Appeal philanthropy. But one headline in the June 23 issue was not like the others.
Under the words ''Stolen Innocence,'' the newspaper's editor and publisher, Gary Rosenblatt, wrote 4,000 words extensively documenting accusations that a ''brilliant, charismatic and dynamic'' rabbi in Paramus, N.J., had abused teenagers in his charge, emotionally, sexually and physically. The article also quoted his accusers' contentions that the rabbi, Baruch Lanner, had been shielded for decades by his superiors in the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, commonly known as the Orthodox Union, the most visible national organization in the Orthodox branch of Judaism.
Although Rabbi Lanner disputes many of the charges, either denying them or saying that he has no recollection of specific encounters dating back 20 or more years, his superiors announced, on the day the article appeared, that they had accepted Rabbi Lanner's resignation as director of regions of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth. The Orthodox Union, which operates the youth group, has since appointed an independent commission to investigate the assertions.
But for some of the 90,000 subscribers of The Jewish Week, most of whom live in or near New York City, the newspaper and its editors were the villains. One letter to the editor said, ''You are giving the families of teens from nonobservant homes the opportunity to completely remove their children from anything that has to do with Torah.''
Like reporters and editors at other publications devoted to religious groups or secular causes, observant Jewish journalists like Mr. Rosenblatt are dual citizens of sometimes conflicting worlds. They pledge allegiance to the imperatives of an aggressive press. They also believe in a mission -- in this case, celebrating Jewish life and abiding by Jewish law, one of whose tenets discourages ''lashon hara,'' or malicious gossip, even if the gossip is true.
''The first commandment of a journalist is to probe, uncover, explore,'' Mr. Rosenblatt said. ''The first commandment in the Jewish organizational world is pretty much the opposite: to present the united front. 'We are one.' That crystallizes the dilemma.''
Phil Jacobs, the editor of The Baltimore Jewish Times and a former protege of Mr. Rosenblatt, said: ''When I started working with Gary in 1982 we used to kid each other that there was an 11th commandment. No. 11 was Thou Shalt Not Air Thy Dirty Laundry. What we found then was that if you read the Jewish press, Jews were perfect people. They never got AIDS; they never did drugs; they never beat their wives.''
Gradually, however, Jewish newspapers became comfortable with uncomfortable information. ''I did a cover on these Orthodox teens -- how they were heavily into Ecstasy and all kinds of drugs,'' Mr. Jacobs said, recalling an article from last fall. ''I was told that if that story runs in The Baltimore Jewish Times, you will become persona non grata in the Orthodox community.'' After publication, he recalled: ''Some people canceled their subscriptions. Some people said it was sensationalist. It was lashon hara, they said.''
Mr. Jacobs's experience is not unusual. For The Detroit Jewish News, a recent flashpoint was a report on declining enrollment at a local religious day school. For The Jewish Journal, in Los Angeles, it was a mid-1990's report on the heavy staffing and overhead costs of a leading charity. For The Chicago Jewish News, there were accusations of money laundering at a kosher restaurant.
In 1996, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, a news service to which nearly 100 Jewish newspapers subscribe, ran a five-part series on sexual misconduct entitled ''When Rabbis Go Astray.''
''It ran during the High Holidays,'' Lisa Hostein, the editor of the news service, said last week. And she recalled the typical response: ''How could you, at this time, be writing about such a terrible thing?''
Such a sense of possession of the Jewish press perhaps reflects many of the newspapers' financial ties to Jewish philanthropy. Though Jewish papers in cities like Baltimore, Detroit and Atlanta are independently owned, others, including those in Los Angeles and New York, have direct ties to various regional federations of the United Jewish Appeal.
The Jewish Week charges its 30,000 direct subscribers $36 to $41 annually, depending on where they live; 60,000 more get subscriptions by giving $36 or more to the United Jewish Appeal. Still, Mr. Rosenblatt emphasizes the pledge of The Jewish Times that it is ''an independent community newspaper.''
His lean face creased with a worried frown, Mr. Rosenblatt sorted through sheaves of mail last week in his office in Times Square. Almost all dealt with the issues posed by the article about Rabbi Lanner.
Even the rabbi's detractors agree that his magnetic, eclectic intelligence drew teenagers to him, and sometimes to a closer sense of their Jewishness. Some accusers acknowledge his charisma but told Mr. Rosenblatt that the rabbi's actions had driven them from Judaism.
Mr. Rosenblatt did not succeed in persuading the rabbi to comment for the investigative article. Both Mr. Rosenblatt and Rabbi Lanner said last week that Mr. Rosenblatt called the rabbi about six days before the publication of the article and offered three dates for an interview. Rabbi Lanner, declining to be interviewed alone, said he sought to postpone the interview until a chosen witness could accompany him. Although Mr. Rosenblatt said he had explained there was a deadline, the rabbi said he had not known that by postponing the meeting he would lose his chance to comment before publication.
The article went to press quoting, by name, 10 people, most in their 30's and 40's. They said that, as teenagers, they had experienced either violence by the rabbi or sexually aggressive behavior by him.
In his interview with The New York Times, Rabbi Lanner went over each of the assertions, mostly from the 1970's and 80's. Asked about specifics of seven cases in which he was said to have propositioned or threatened young girls, including two who said he had struck them, he said: ''I have no recollection of that'' or ''I don't remember that.''
As for another incident referred to in the article, Rabbi Lanner did acknowledge that, as a high school principal, he had kneed a male student in the groin. But he said it was an inadvertent result of ''horseplay.''
The absence of action against Rabbi Lanner over the years by leaders of the Orthodox Union was perhaps the most inflammatory part of the Jewish Week article. ''What upsets me the most,'' Dr. Mel Isaacs of the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County said in a letter to the editor, ''is the lack of response by those in charge.''
Dr. Mandell Ganchrow, a retired surgeon who is president of the Orthodox Union, said last week that he could not discuss specifics until the newly appointed commission had finished its investigation.
The Jewish Week and New York's other two Jewish newspapers, The Forward and The Jewish Press, ''have a function and for the most part they perform well,'' Dr. Ganchrow said. ''Sometimes they sensationalize.'' But, he said, ''The author and editor -- they really have to weigh the harm versus the benefits.''
The Lanner article reported that as the publication date neared, Mr. Rosenblatt was approached by various community leaders arguing against printing it. Mr. Rosenblatt, who is an Orthodox Jew, said that before publishing he had consulted an expert in Jewish law to help decide if the piece would constitute lashon hara. He said he was told that sometimes the need to protect individuals can outweigh the prohibition on malicious gossip.
Though the response to the article has been largely supportive, he said, some high-profile figures have been openly critical.
Rabbi Basil Herring of the Jewish Center of Atlantic Beach, on Long Island, contends that the 100-year-old Orthodox Union -- which, aside from its other programs, officially certifies packaged and canned commercial foods as kosher -- could be damaged by the accusations, as could its active youth division.
In an interview last week, Rabbi Herring said he believed ''there are already voices being raised in synagogues to withhold support, to consider withdrawal'' from the Orthodox Union. ''I've even heard this go so far as to talk about their kosher standards,'' the rabbi added.
The proper course, Rabbi Herring suggested, would have been for Mr. Rosenblatt to present his reporting to Orthodox Union leaders and say that unless they removed Rabbi Lanner from work with young people, the article would be published. ''The fact that they did fire the man'' as the article was being printed ''indicates that they would have done so if the facts had been known beforehand,'' Rabbi Herring said.
Mr. Rosenblatt responded that the approach sounded like extortion, not journalism. ''It's part of our job to deal with real issues that are out there, even if others aren't willing to confront them,'' he said. ''We're urging the community to confront the real issues.''
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Letters - The Lanner Episode
The Jewish Week - Thursday, January 30, 2003 / 27 Shevat 5763
Your story about Rabbi Lanner's alleged misdeeds in working with children ("Stolen Innocence," June 23) important and courageous. It is also discouraging. How many times will this story have to be told before those in positions of authority in Jewish institutions start to take responsibility for stopping religious leaders who violate ethical and legal boundaries and who hurt their followers?
In our reporting in Lilith magazine on decades of alleged sexual misconduct by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, the same pattern emerged as in the Lanner case: widespread rumors, accusations and a complete refusal on the part of communities around the world to protect youth and women against a charismatic leader. In the deluge of requests pleading with us not to print the story two years ago, callers reminded us of all the good Rabbi Carlebach did, as if somehow his stature would lessen the pain he was accused of causing. On the contrary, his greatness may have worsened the pain. Their power and charisma make it that much more difficult — and that much more important — to bring such allegations to light.
In all the worry about "malicious gossip" and the hand-wringing about not making trouble for the rabbi, defensive members of these religious communities are missing the real point: If the allegations against Rabbi Lanner are proven true, he is not only in violation of ethics, he is in violation of the law.
Susan Weidman Schneider, Editor in Chief
Sarah Blustain, Associate Editor - Lilith Magazine, New York, N.Y.
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I went to high school in New Jersey, and while I was there, I was in NCSY, Etz Chaim region. I got to know Rabbi Lanner, not very well, but I observed a lot at Shabbatonim. Rabbi Lanner is a highly charismatic man, with a very forceful nature. He does have a wicked sense of humor, and it has endeared him to a lot of the kids. That doesn't make him abusive.
A joke that's taken too far is not the same as assault. There seem to be certain personalities that are simply easier to misrepresent. Rabbi Lanner is a funny and inspirational speaker. He can be crude — but not nearly as crude as the NCSYers themselves. He's someone the kids can relate to, and feel comfortable talking to.
As I read your article, all I could think of was that someone who has never met Rabbi Lanner would have a horrid perception of him. The man you described in your article is not the man I heard divrei Torah from on Shabbatonim, the man who could keep us in stitches for hours.
If you've ever seen guys talk to each other and rough each other up casually, you'd have an idea of how Rabbi Lanner interacts with kids. I can't picture what he and his family are going through right now. How can a Jewish newspaper publish an article like this and destroy a man's reputation? I know how many kids he's helped. Will we all lose out on Rabbi Lanner and what he has to give? Is it fair that we should?
Daniela Weiss
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Gary Rosenblatt's stories on Rabbi Baruch Lanner bring to readers' attention a problem that needed to be aired. I am confident that these stories will make a difference far beyond the individuals and institutions directly involved. They will alert many in the American Jewish community that we must pay careful attention to how we are raising our children religiously and communally, and that we must question and speak out when we believe our teachers and other leaders are not serving us well.
Florence Eckstein, Editor and Publisher - Jewish News of Greater Phoenix, Phoenix, Ariz.
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Students accuse New Jersey rabbi of abuse over 20 years
By AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press Writer
The Detroit News - Friday, July 14, 2000
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- For 30 years, Rabbi Baruch Lanner was known in the Orthodox Jewish community as a charismatic, dynamic educator, a founding principal of a religious school in New Jersey.
Colleagues and students say Lanner would call parents to persuade them to let their children travel to Israel with him, board students at his Paramus home so they could attend yeshiva and inspire them to become better Jews. To some, he was a substitute father.
But in recent months, more than 25 former students have come forward to say that Lanner, a leader in the Orthodox Union's National Conference of Synagogue Youth, sexually, physically and verbally abused them for decades.
The students, now in their 30s and 40s, said Lanner kissed, fondled and hit teen-age girls and kneed some boys in the groin. His accusers also say he attacked a man with a knife.
Lanner, 50, has denied breaking the law and has never faced criminal charges.
But he resigned as director of regions for the New York-based youth group last month after The Jewish Week published many of the allegations. Two New Jersey prosecutors also have begun criminal investigations and the Orthodox Union has begun a probe to determine whether it was responsible for covering up complaints about its former employee.
Rabbi Yosef Blau, a Yeshiva University counselor and one of Lanner's strongest critics, said the rabbi was largely protected by the Orthodox Union, a venerable institution with a membership of nearly 1,000 synagogues that also puts the seal of approval on kosher food.
"I think that they were so enamored with his success and accomplishments that they didn't want to hear problems," Blau said.
"There was a code of loyalty here at the same time, and also he was very scary," said Naomi Freistat, a 41-year-old doctor who said Lanner kissed and fondled her a dozen times and punched her in the stomach when she was 15. "This was a man where you didn't know what was coming next."
Lanner, who recently separated from his wife, said he has violated Orthodox Jewish law by having physical relationships with former students -- none of them teen-agers -- but hasn't broken any other laws.
"I did many things I shouldn't have done, but none of them were illegal. None of them were perverted. None of them were threatening," said Lanner, who was cleared by a religious tribunal that investigated whether he attacked a man suffering from cancer with a knife in an argument over who the man should marry.
He denied the allegations of Freistat and others printed in The Jewish Week and said he couldn't recall others.
The author of The Jewish Week's article, editor and publisher Gary Rosenblatt, said he spoke to 15 to 18 people who complained about Lanner, and has received letters from a dozen more.
"Some of them didn't know there were any others," Rosenblatt said.
Prosecutors in Bergen and Monmouth counties are investigating allegations in the article. One woman said Lanner suggestively brushed up against her while she was a student at the Frisch School in Paramus.
Lanner has said the woman, Marcie Lenk, could have misinterpreted his actions. He said Lenk was living at his home at the time and never spoke to him about feeling uncomfortable.
"If you felt threatened, idiot, why did you come?" Lanner said. "Why did your parents let you come?"
Freistat, a podiatrist in New York, said she met Lanner when she traveled from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., to retreats in New Jersey. Freistat said Lanner persuaded her mother to let her go on his six-week trip to Israel in 1974.
Lanner asked Freistat to kiss him on the cheek the first week of the trip, and on the second week summoned her outside -- "it was always outside," she said -- and kissed and fondled her. She endured the contact a dozen times, she said, fearing she would be sent home.
She said she tried to pull away the last time he approached her in a Jerusalem courtyard near her hostel.
"He said 'Don't walk away from me,"' Freistat said. "He punched me in the stomach. All I remember is just looking up at him and saying 'You just punched the wrong girl."'
Freistat said she and another girl on the youth group spoke to two rabbis about Lanner's conduct, but that he went unpunished. After the article was published, the Orthodox Union set up a commission to find out "who knew what and when did they know it," said president Mandell I. Ganchrow.
Freistat called the Union "a boys' club," while other students said the organization let Lanner's conduct go unchecked because he made a lot of money for it.
Said Freistat: "He was smart enough to pick on little kids."
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Journalistic Integrity - Jewish journalists grapple with 'doing the write thing'
By Hadas Ragolsky
Jewish Bulletin of Northern California - April 17, 2000
Jewsweek.com | Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of the New York Jewish Week, consulted a high-profile rabbi before publishing his investigative report about Rabbi Baruch Lanner's abuse of teenagers last year. His concern was whether the publicity of it would be considered lashon harah, slander according to Hebrew law.
"Jews are like everyone else but more so," said Rosenblatt, quoting an old Jewish saying.
Do Jewish journalists have more obligations than others? Are they responsible first to their communities, and do they need to represent Israel in their newspapers?
These questions and others were raised by the 50 participants of "Do the Write Thing," a special program for student journalists sponsored by the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization at the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities in Washington.
"There are different kinds of Jewish journalists," said Rosenblatt. "Some advocate about cause. It's difficult to say I'm objective and to show two sides, and on the other hand to be passionate about the cause."
Rosenblatt said the "role is to be as objective as possible but also understand you are part of the community."
"The truth is our most powerful tool, and we must engage young people with facts before expecting them to take up the cause," he wrote in his weekly editorial.
Rosenblatt's readers are his community, but other speakers asked for the loyalty of Jewish writers in the regular media. "In order to come to a very wide public we need a medium, a mediator," said Ephraim Lapid, the Jewish Agency spokesperson. "It's the most effective way we have to bring information to many."
Lapid was convinced of the duty of young journalists. "We need presence in the media, either by interviews or by initiative covers or letters to the editor," he said.
"... I am Zionist, but it doesn't mean you can't be critical of what happens in Israel ..." -- Deborah Meyers
He urged the audience to use Israeli consulates and Jewish Agency for Israel representatives to help the Israeli hasbarah, or public relations.
Some young journalists didn't see any problem with Lapid's offers. "On campus there is already so much anti-Israeli sentiment that we have to be careful about any additional criticism against Israel," said Marita Gringaus, who used to write for Arizona State University's newspaper. "This is our responsibility as Jews, which obviously contradicts our responsibilities as journalists." Gringaus explained her position by saying that in the campus media, "groups are set against each other rather than as objective views."
Uzi Safanov, a writer at the Seawanhaka newspaper of Long Island University in New York, agreed. "I'm a Jew before being a journalist, before someone pays me to write," he said. "If I find a negative thing about Israel, I will not print it and I will sink into why did it happen and what can I do to change it." Safanov said that even if he eventually wrote about negative incidents that happen in Israel, he would try to find the way "to shift the blame."
Others among the participants felt uncomfortable with these suggestions. "I personally don't agree with him [Lapid]," said Daniel Treiman, editor of New Voices magazine. "There is a mixture here between journalism and propaganda. Journalists have to realize the importance of unbiased reporting, the fairness of portraying both sides. They are not supposed to be agencies."
Deborah Meyers, who used to work for the Jerusalem Report, agreed. "They reinforce that, as Jews in the media, you have responsibly to help Israel. This is not reporting; this is PR," she said. "I am Zionist, but it doesn't mean you can't be critical of what happens in Israel."
Still, Meyers feels a loyalty to Jewish values. "It doesn't matter if you are a journalist or in another profession," she said. "Our Jewish values influence every aspect of our lives. Nobody can be totally objective because we all come with our own perspective, our own biases, and that is going to come through in the writing."
Leni Reiss, the American Jewish Press Association liaison to the conference, said one can never be 100 percent objective, "but (as a Jew) you can bring your unique knowledge, your unique sensitivity to the job that you do, and it's not necessarily a bad thing."
"A journalist's duty is getting the story right and meeting the deadline," said Warren Bass, director of special projects/terrorism program and a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He formerly wrote for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and others.
"Try to be a journalist and not a propagandist," he said.
{ Hadas Ragolsky is a correspondent for the Jewish Bulletin of Northern California. }
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Best & Worst of Times
As national OU officials react to abuse charges, local branch opens new center.
By Julie Gruenbaum Fax, Religion Editor
JEWISH JOURNAL of Greater Los Angeles - July 14, 2000 (11 Tammuz, 5760)
http://www.jewishjournal.com/archive/07.14.00/5760.07.14.00.html
It's been a month of extremes for the National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY) on the West Coast. As the Orthodox youth group basks in the joy of moving into its own building, it is also reeling from the shock of a scandal involving an East Coast regional director allegedly abusing teens.
Last month Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of The New York Jewish Week, published an article exposing 25 years of possible sexual harassment, assault and emotional abuse by Rabbi Baruch Lanner, who immediately resigned from his position as director of regions for the NCSY, a division of the Orthodox Union (OU). The OU - the same organization that grants kosher certification to 20,000 food products - has set up a counseling hotline and an independent commission to investigate the OU's role in the Lanner situation.
According to Rosenblatt's article, in which alleged victims from the past three decades revealed their identity to expose Lanner, the OU was long aware of the accusations but did not remove him from the organization, and only after many years did they prevent him from working directly with teens. Even according to the alleged victims - many of whom became Jewish educators - Lanner was a dynamic and magnetic leader in the movement. For years he served as regional director in New Jersey, where he was also a yeshiva high school principal.
"Our goal is to restore the public's confidence in the Orthodox Union and NCSY, and to preserve and improve the programs that have benefited tens of thousands of young men and women involved in NCSY since its inception in 1959," said Dr. Mandell Ganchrow, national president of the OU.
Dr. Larry Eisenberg, president of the West Coast region of the OU, says the incident has dealt a blow to the faith and goodwill the community has toward the organization.
But, he says, the incident has already led regions around the country to compare notes on how they ensure the safety and well-being of the NCSYers.
"The organization is being upgraded and modernized, all of the systems and procedures and policies. NCSY is an institution that has been around for a long time, and sometimes you run a certain way based on how you've been doing it for decades," Eisenberg says. "When a problem comes up, you realize you have to set things up based on the realities of today."
For businesses as well as organizations, that means policies and training regarding harassment, he says. What has always been practiced as proper decorum and sensitivity now needs to be formalized. Rabbi Alan Kalinsky, West Coast director of the OU, says the region, with its joint professional and lay leadership, parent involvement, and ongoing staff training and oversight, is a safe and inspiring environment for the roughly 3,000 teens it serves from Vancouver to El Paso.
"I am very confident that the necessary safeguards are in place," he said. "My office is always open to the kids." Eisenberg cautions that despite the sense of betrayal, the community should withhold judgment until the commission issues its final report. According to The Jewish Week, NCSY's largest synagogue-affiliated chapter pulled out of the group last week, and the sponsoring synagogue, Congregation Beth Aaron in New Jersey, voted to withhold all fees paid to the OU.
Several OU-affiliated Los Angeles synagogues said their boards would discuss the incident, but none expected any actions would be taken. "I think the process should be given a chance to run its course before we disconnect from an organization that has done a lot of good," said Marc Rohatiner, president of Beth Jacob Congregation in Beverly Hills, where he said a handful of people have brought up the notion of withholding fees form the OU.
Eva Yelloz of North Hollywood, whose three older children were enriched by their involvement as teens and later as advisors with NCSY, says her trust in the group has been shaken, but she will not keep her youngest son, 14, from getting involved if he wants to.
"I believe it was one person like this, and the administration who let it go on surely has learned its lesson," says Yelloz. "After this has come out, they will clean up their act in every way possible and do their utmost to keep a clean record and do better than their best."
Kalinsky says none of the kids withdrew from local summer programs, including a boys' camp for 60 kids. In fact, according to Sharyn Perlman, director of public relations for OU, not one of the approximately 1,000 teenagers signed up for NCSY's Israel trips or local summer programs pulled out.
NCSY, working with volunteers from Nefesh, the association of Orthodox mental health professionals, has set up a toll-free hotline (877-905-9576) for present and former NCSYers to call for counseling on religious or psychological issues.
The investigative commission is headed by Richard Joel, international director of Hillel, the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, and includes professor of psychiatry Rabbi Abraham Twerski, several lawyers, business people and philanthro-pists, and the former consumer affairs commissioner of New York City. "The Commission will explore past actions of Orthodox Union employees and lay leaders to determine what remedial action should be taken and will formulate new guidelines for our personnel to ensure that these circumstances will never be repeated," Ganchrow said.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Statement of New Jersey Orthodox Synagogues Youth Chairs and Concerned Parents
July 18, 2000
We, chairpersons of youth committees of New Jersey Orthodox synagogues and concerned parents, have assembled at Congregation Israel in Springfield, New Jersey, on Tuesday July 18, 2000. Our purpose is to recommend a course of action following reports of abuse and other improprieties by Rabbi Baruch Lanner. Lanner, a former Regional Director of the Etz Chaim New Jersey region of the National Council of Synagogue Youth and thereafter an administrator of National NCSY, has been reported to have victimized a large but unknown number of children from our communities over the span of more than twenty years.
While the reports of the incidents themselves are horrifying to any parent, what is even more frightening to us is that apparently the Orthodox Union and NCSY exposed our children to Lanner despite their prior knowledge of Lanner's behavior. Specifically, despite reports of his misbehavior, Lanner was allowed to remain as Regional Director in New Jersey until 1988. Even after the finding of a Beit Din that he should not be exposed to children, the OU and NCSY continued to invite him to events and allow him to run its programs at both Regional and National levels.
We all appreciate the work done by NCSY in our communities and for our children. But based on the OU's and NCSY's lack of action during the last twenty-plus years it is also evident to us that the administration and system failed to adequately safeguard children placed in NCSY's care and failed to provide an appropriate forum in which complaints regarding abuse can be aired and addressed. It is our obligation to protect the safety and welfare of our children. In order for this to happen within the context of NCSY, we feel that at a minimum the steps outlined below should be implemented as soon as possible:
1. Standards must be put in place and published governing:
a. Permitted and restricted interactions between staff and NCSYers, including adequate, mandatory annual staff training therein
b. Required staff and lay adult supervision of NCSY programs
c. Encouragement of child development in the context of respect for parents, and prohibiting NCSY staff actions when they promote disrespect
2. Procedures must be established and published to handle:
a. NCSYer complaints against staff
b. Discipline of offending NCSYers and staff
3. Parental oversight of NCSY is needed on issues regarding child safety. A parental review board should be established to govern the handling of NCSYer complaints and disciplining of offenders. Its members should be appointed by and responsible to the chairpersons of the local synagogue youth committees.
4. The Special Commission appointed by the OU must provide the community and youth leaders with a full accounting – including the assignment of direct responsibility and effectuation of appropriate punishment for those who knowingly failed to take action or use reasonable care to prevent harm from coming to the children hurt in the Lanner affair. The OU and NCSY must then take the appropriate actions recommended by the Commission. The lay leadership and youth chairpersons will convene to review the Commission findings and decide on further action.
We believe that our children's safety will be improved if these steps are taken, and we therefore expect no less from NCSY or from any organization entrusted with the safety of our children.
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Rabbis accused of coverup in sex case
By MITCHEL MADDUX
Bergen Record - Wednesday, July 19, 2000
After interviewing a half-dozen teenage boys in 1989 who said they had been physically abused by a local rabbi, weekly newspaper editor Susan Rosenbluth said she contacted members of the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County, expecting that the Orthodox organization would intervene.
But instead of showing concern about the alleged misdeeds of Rabbi Baruch Lanner, Rosenbluth claimed, three of the council members tried to protect him.
"One called me and said, 'If this gets into print, we will see to it that no stores under the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County can advertise in your newspaper,' " Rosenbluth charged in an interview.
"It was made clear to me by the rabbis who spoke to me that this was an RCBC decision," she said, declining to name the rabbis. "I said, 'You're kidding me. Is this real?' "
A spokesman for the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County vehemently rejected Rosenbluth's charges Tuesday. "We categorically deny that the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County made such threats to Ms. Rosenbluth. We simply do not operate in this fashion," said Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, a council member and rabbi of the Congregation Ahavath Torah in Englewood.
Over the last month, some of Lanner's former students have accused leaders of the 1,000-synagogue Orthodox Union, the largest Orthodox organization in the nation, of ignoring allegations that he had fondled and kissed a number of teenage girls and had kneed boys in the groin in the 1970s and 1980s. The Orthodox Union, where Lanner was an officer of its educational youth arm, has empaneled a tribunal to investigate the charges.
Rosenbluth's claims, however, represent the first accusations that local religious leaders engaged in an active cover-up.
Goldin declined to comment Tuesday on whether council members had spoken directly with Rosenbluth about Lanner. Rosenbluth ultimately did not publish any article about the accusations against Lanner in 1989.
"There were discussions at the time with various people concerning one specific allegation, and the matter was referred in responsible fashion to the Bet Din," Goldin said, referring to a Yeshiva University investigative tribunal that heard a dispute involving Lanner in 1989.
Meanwhile, Jewish leaders from throughout the state met behind closed doors in Springfield on Tuesday night to express their concern.
More than 10 people have accused Lanner in published reports of inappropriate behavior, including alleged incidents of fondling, making sexual remarks to teenage girls, and kneeing some boys. Most of the allegations involve Lanner's tenure as an officer of the National Council of Synagogue Youth, a respected Orthodox Union educational group.
In addition, prosecutors in Monmouth County are investigating a new complaint that Lanner behaved inappropriately with a female student when he was principal at the Hillel School in Ocean Township. Prosecutors in Bergen County have said they will review the allegations against Lanner with an eye toward a possible criminal investigation. Lanner also taught at The Frisch School in Paramus, and one former student there has told The Record that the rabbi improperly rubbed up against her on several occasions.
Lanner, who is currently living in Fair Lawn but is not working as a rabbi, has denied mistreating the teenagers, although he said he may have made inappropriate jokes when he was much younger.
"I've made plenty of errors and poor judgment in my early years, when I was in my 20s," Lanner, who is now 50, said in an interview last week. "In my younger years, I must have permitted some errors of judgment, and I must have somehow hurt people. But I never hurt anybody intentionally. And I did not fondle anyone, even before I was a rabbi."
Rosenbluth began writing and publishing The Jewish Voice and Opinion, a small weekly newspaper, in 1986 in the Englewood home she shares with her husband, Richard, who is the chief of oncology at Hackensack University Medical Center. She called herself a watchdog who occasionally clashed on issues with some members of the Bergen County Rabbinical Council.
But in 1989, she said, the issue went beyond ideological differences.
"Kids were being hurt," said Rosenbluth, 53. "There was inappropriate stuff going on, and it should have been stopped by the rabbis in charge."
"It was clear that they were not going to allow this story to come out. I think they shortchanged their congregations, and I think they shortchanged our children."
In addition to offering educational programs, the Rabbinical Council -- on which all of the county's Orthodox pulpit rabbis sit -- is responsible for certifying products in Bergen County as kosher.
Because Rosenbluth's 15,000-circulation newspaper receives roughly 90 percent of its operating revenue from advertising by Bergen County firms selling kosher products, Rosenbluth said she took the alleged threat seriously.
Rosenbluth said she believed the council could have killed her paper by cutting off its principal source of revenue. So she opted not to write the article she was preparing, which she said had been based on interviews with six teenage boys who told her they had been kneed in the groin.
She said she feels guilty about that.
"If there have been children hurt in the past 11 years, you can bring them to my doorstep, because I didn't print what I should have," Rosenbluth said.
Rosenbluth said she was also threatened with a loss of business by two high-ranking officers of the Orthodox Union. She declined to identify the two rabbis.
Mandell I. Ganchrow, president of the Orthodox Union, declined Tuesday to comment on Rosenbluth's accusations.
"All matters and allegations that are being brought to our attention will be referred to the NCSY special commission for full review," he said. "I urge all those who have information that has bearing on these issues to contact the commission as soon as possible."
Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive vice president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, a New York-based international association of 850 synagogues in North America, has written that a society that silently tolerated Lanner's alleged misconduct is responsible for the current crisis. His comments were published in The New York Jewish Week, which first reported the allegations last month.
But if religious leaders actually engaged in a cover-up, as Rosenbluth claims, it would be "unconscionable," he said in an interview.
"Society cannot permit this type of behavior to go unchecked. And that doesn't mean every allegation is true. But it certainly deserves careful checking," he said.
Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg, an Orthodox rabbi from Edison and a former officer of the National Council of Synagogue Youth, said he has recently received more than 30 calls from young people with some type of complaint against Lanner.
Rosenberg said he is concerned that there may have been a concerted effort by religious leaders to paper over the Lanner problem.
"It seems as if there was knowledge of his actions -- and that's what I'm concerned [about] -- he should have been stopped and should not have worked with teenagers."
Goldin, who served on the Rabbinical Council in 1989, insisted the Lanner issue was of great concern to the Orthodox community.
"It goes without saying that we are deeply saddened and pained by the whole series of events surrounding the allegations raised against Rabbi Lanner," Goldin said. "In retrospect, it seems clear that national and local Jewish leadership must learn to be more vigilant and responsive. We can all certainly learn from our mistakes."
___________________________________________________________________________________
Lessons from Lanner
Gary Rosenblatt - Staff Writer
The Jewish Week - July 20, 2000
 |
Rabbi Baruch Lanner
(10/01/2009 |
The
response to the recent news reports I've written, with a sense of
sadness, about Rabbi Baruch Lanner, the National Conference of Synagogue
Youth (NCSY) and the Orthodox Union (OU) has been overwhelming —
hundreds of letters, e-mails and phone calls from all over the United
States and from Israel. In light of the unprecedented interest in this
issue, I'll offer a bit of background and a few observations.
The
story came about when several individuals who described themselves as
former victims of Rabbi Lanner approached me months ago. They told me
their stories, encouraged me to talk to others, and asserted that if
NCSY did not take decisive action, the entire matter should be brought
to public attention. Their goal was to ensure maximum pressure be
brought to bear in the hopes of removing Rabbi Lanner from working with
young people.
Since
publication, the letters and calls have been almost evenly divided
between those who expressed complete shock at the allegations that Rabbi
Lanner abused teens over the last three decades and those who said, in
effect, what else is new?
More
than 90 percent of the mail and calls has been extremely supportive of
The Jewish Week's role in exposing this situation. In recent days,
communal anger has shifted from Rabbi Lanner, who immediately was forced
to resign, to NCSY and the OU for allowing the situation to go on for
so long. Most of the critical responses have been anonymous. None have
refuted the charges, but focus on the alleged violation of lashon hara,
the Jewish law prohibiting spreading embarrassing information.
At
least two Orthodox rabbis in New Jersey's Bergen County delivered
sermons on this theme, castigating Jewish newspapers for violating
lashon hara, though both rabbis announced from the pulpit they had not
read the article in question.
Prior
to publication, I consulted a prominent Orthodox rabbi, having heard
him give a cogent analysis of the issue — lashon hara and the parameters
of Jewish journalism — several years ago at a program sponsored by the
Institute for Public Affairs, a branch of the Orthodox Union. After
outlining my dilemma to him, withholding the names of the individuals
and organizations involved, I marveled at how quickly he honed in on the
crux of the matter.
He
said in the end mine was a judgment call. If there was anything I could
do to resolve the existing danger to the community and not publish the
story, I should do so. On the other hand, he continued, if I believed
that unless the story was published, the danger would continue, I was
not only permitted but obligated to publish.
That is the conclusion I reached, and subsequent events have only deepened my conviction.
Jewish
amnesia, on an institutional level, appears to be rampant these days,
with lay and professional leaders passing the buck about responsibility
for what transpired. Some of the excuses and dissembling I've heard from
Jewish leaders reminds me of a Jackie Mason routine: "I didn't know
about it. I mean, I knew about it, but I didn't believe it. And if it
happened, it didn't happen recently. And even if it happened recently, I
never actually saw it," etc.
A
number of people have called or written to confirm the events and
behavior described in the article, particularly former NCSYers and high
school students where Rabbi Lanner was principal. Several people have
said the article changed their lives, including women who said they were
victims who had never told their families and who never knew there were
others.
* Perhaps
most disturbing has been the number of people urging me to investigate
specific rabbis and Jewish educators in the Orthodox community, naming
names and offering me details. One is said to be a pedophile with a history of arrests who is a principal in a Brooklyn yeshiva; another
pedophile reportedly now works with Jewish youth in Florida; a
womanizing rabbi has changed his name and moved to Israel, I was told;
and a local rabbi is said to have an unhealthy interest in teenage boys.
The
professional dilemma this poses for me, and this newspaper, which
already has a reputation — I believe undeserved — for Orthodox bashing,
is whether we are now to become the central communal clearinghouse for
dealing with and outing Orthodox Jewish officials with various sexual
deviancies. I don't think that's our role.
But
someone or some institution of authority should be looking into these
and other serious charges that have surfaced in the last several weeks.
Clearly there are problems out there, and our community, and
particularly the Orthodox community, with its deep concern about
shandas, needs to do a far better job of policing itself.
Unfortunately,
in this case going to one's rabbi was not enough, nor was the bet din
system, both of which are prone to an old-boy network where rabbis tend
to cover for colleagues. We need a kind of bill of rights for the
protection of our young people. A new monitoring system is required, and
based on suggestions from several readers, perhaps the Board of Jewish
Education and/or the various boards of rabbis should create and maintain
a personnel data bank, including confidential lists of problematic
potential employees. This information could be shared with schools,
camps and youth groups in screening applicants. In addition, personnel
codes should be drawn up describing acceptable and unacceptable behavior
for interacting with young people. Anyone found to transgress the rules
should be dismissed, and his or her name kept on the database.
All
too few youth workers today, from camp counselors to organizational
advisers, are professionally trained in any meaningful way for their
important work. Many of our finest summer camps and youth organizations
have only the briefest of preparations for staff in these sensitive
areas of interpersonal relationships.
This
is not to say that they don't do good, important, and even wonderful
work, but the potential for serious problems in the future must be
averted now.
The
OU, with its long and proud list of accomplishments, from kosher food
certification to Torah education to inspirational youth work through
NCSY, should not be forever tainted by this episode. The charges of a
long-term cover-up by top leadership, lay and professional, are serious,
and must be addressed. But an investigation is already under way and
hopefully it will be thorough and objective, recognizing the critical
imperative of restoring confidence in the OU.
In
the meantime, it is clear the instinct to ignore, dismiss or cover up
potentially embarrassing problems in our community must be sublimated to
the need to address and confront them. They won't go away on their own,
and by pretending they don't exist, we only erode our values and
endanger our children.
___________________________________________________________________________________
LETTERS - On Rabbi Lanner And The OU
The Jewish Week - July 21, 2000
We commend Gary Rosenblatt for his research and the time he took to hear our stories and publish them in his article "Stolen Innocence" (June 23) about Baruch Lanner.
It is unfortunate that these incidents and so many others have been circulating for years and that the Orthodox Union and administration of NCSY chose to ignore them for so long. Rather than conduct their own investigation of the "allegations," they denied the pain and anguish of numerous victims and protected the perpetrator.
Far from "chasing shadows," the upper echelons of the organization were aware of Lanner's misdemeanors. They dismissed them, denied them or defended him on so many occasions that victims soon realized that there was little point in bringing individual cases to their attention.
Although Lanner himself has resigned, it is also the responsibility of the Orthodox Union to reconsider the leadership of national NCSY who protected him and failed to protect innocent teenagers. NCSY is an organization that has helped thousands of Jewish youngsters to experience Judaism in a meaningful way. To continue its important work as a religious organization, OU cannot defend the malfeasance of its leadership but should strive to be free of all suspicion. The onus is now on Lanner's defenders to explain themselves.
Erica (Schoonmaker) Brown and Marcie Lenk
Three emotions dominate after reading your groundbreaking special report, "Stolen Innocence."
Guilt. Like most of Teaneck, we were aware of Rabbi Lanner's reputation. As a veteran clinician, I should have discussed it with the principal at Frisch, and my husband and I considered it. But in the end, we just made sure our children would have no contact with him, and did nothing more.
Sadness. I can feel for the many young people victimized by Rabbi Lanner, so many of whom came forward through your investigative work. Again as a clinician, I am saddened by the others too fearful or ashamed to speak out. My hope is that more will speak out now that it's a matter of public record.
Outrage. Our greatest ire is directed at the organized Jewish establishment, the rabbis and institutions that knew the facts (or at least some of them) and chose to cover them up. They even broke a promise that Rabbi Lanner would no longer be handling Shabbatonim. Even at this late date, some appear to be continuing to minimize or make excuses for the abuse. Can it be that Rabbi Lanner's mind control extended beyond his students to his superiors?
Shirley Feldstein - Teaneck, N.J.
Your article on Rabbi Lanner is horrific. There is nothing positive that can or will result from what you have done.
You stated, "Some point out that according to Jewish law, one is not only permitted but obligated to publicize what would otherwise be considered lashon hara, or malicious gossip, for the protection of those who would be in danger. And they believe that Rabbi Lanner working with young people poses such a danger."
Apparently you were not overly concerned about lashon hara, or protecting anyone for that matter. Did you consider the ramifications that can now, God forbid, result? Did you stop and think for a second of what you are doing to the Lanner children?
Do you know how many teenagers you are damaging? In addition, you are giving the families of teens from nonobservant homes the opportunity to completely remove their children from anything that has to do with Torah. Do you realize how many decades and future generations you are affecting?
No matter what the truth may be, this was certainly not the way to handle it. I pray that Hashem will have mercy on us.
M. Horowitz
Gary Rosenblatt is a hero: It took real courage and integrity to write and publish "Stolen Innocence." We are appalled and upset that Rabbi Lanner has continued to work with young people for so many years and that the Orthodox Union did nothing about it. Our hearts go out to the women and men who endured emotional, physical and sexual abuse and were brave enough to go on the record with their stories. Several of these women were our children's teachers in Israel. They taught with distinction, warmth and excellence.
Not only has Rabbi Lanner stolen the innocence of those people but he has stolen the innocence of all of us who have been in NCSY; have had our children in NCSY; and have been strong supporters of NCSY and the OU. In fact, he has stolen the innocence of everyone who has put their trust in Jewish organizations to do good.
Even graver is the role of the Orthodox Union and the rabbis who heard the stories of these women and chose to dismiss them. How is it that reputable rabbis to this day can say they feel for the suffering of Rabbi Lanner but have nothing to say about the incalculable harm that he caused these young people? How is it that an organization that prides itself on Torah Judaism can turn a blind eye to the suffering of its own children?
This goes beyond the abuse by one rabbi. This story causes the whole union to be suspect. It opens doors to question the sometimes less than forthright approaches of many NCSY leaders to kiruv and the attitude that the end justifies the means. It is so hard to look the painful truth in the eye. Sometimes it is the only way to be redeemed.
Lynnie and David Mirvis - Memphis, Tenn.
It is painfully apparent from your childlike article that this is part of a personal vendetta against Rabbi Lanner, the Orthodox Union and NCSY. It is deplorable to think that a Jew would slander wonderful organizations that have done more for Jewry than your paper ever will. How can you write such an article, one that obviously was written in such haste? It is an embarrassment to publishers and journalists alike.
As chairman and member of the board of many companies that advertise in your paper, I will only say this once: If the article on your Web site is not removed, you will lose at least 15 ads per week, forever. Not only that, I will rally all the advertisers to discontinue advertising in your trashy tabloid. I will personally subsidize their ads in other publications.
A man must suffer for his actions, but you are also not guilt-free. How can you cause young, innocent children to lose their ability to learn about their heritage because of your innate hatred for Jews and Judaism? You are now guilty of a worse crime than Rabbi Lanner, as you will be denying many thousands of youth from the heritage they so crave. All because of your ego and lack of sensitivity.
Robert A. Safra
I commend you for having the courage to write the article about Baruch Lanner. As an educator for the past 42 years, in work that included sleepaway camp, public school and Talmud Torah, and presently as the general studies principal of a day school, I am well aware of the profound influence adults have on the lives of impressionable young children and teenagers.
What upsets me the most about the article is the lack of response by those in charge at the OU and within NCSY itself. Why is it that we often want to look the other way or sweep the issue under the carpet? The problem will still remain unless rectified.
Dr. Mel Isaacs - Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, Plainview Campus
OU, Rabbi Lanner And Trust
Gary Rosenblatt's careful and explicit expose of Rabbi Baruch Lanner ("Stolen Innocence," June 23) makes us realize that it is crucial not to dismiss this case as an aberration. This behavior was only possible because of a community colluding in the cover-up of the repeated acts. We believe this behavior is an exaggerated version of ordinary, everyday patterns of domination.
Rabbi Lanner clearly exhibits grandiose-paranoid behavior, but more than that, what of the behavior of those who received the information from terrified teenagers and dismissed it as hysteria? Indirectly, a community of evil was created.
Rabbi Lanner is described in the article as having a "classic severe character disorder." What are the diagnoses of those who suppress incriminating information, who look away from the bruises and say, "He hasn't raped anyone"?
This is journalism at its most ethical and probing. Will the community take responsibility?
Barbara S. Kane, Psychoanalyst; Profs. E.M. Broner and Robert Broner - New York, N.Y
I was most impressed with your courageous article about Rabbi Lanner. I am sure his victims are pleased that you have finally given them a voice and the credibility that as a group they evidently deserve. I hope our future leaders take heed by the messages in this article — protecting our children comes first in the eyes of our community, not protecting reputations by hiding allegations. The candor of the article made me all the more grateful that we live in a country where freedom of the press, and eventually truth, prevails.
Michele Reisner - Plainview, N.Y.
It's unimaginable that rabbis would permit an emotionally unpredictable, unstable Ish HaTorah (man of Torah) to remain in a leadership role for even a day, let alone years and years. As a mother of two daughters and a son, I ask, Where were the parents? Where were the teachers? Where were the rabbis?
Keep up your investigative reporting for the sake of klal Yisrael.
Ruth Riemer - School Psychologist, New York, N.Y.
Observant Jews and Jewish leaders too often hide behind the concept of lashon hara, instead of considering the effects on the victims or the potential harm to future victims or the community. I wonder how Rabbi Butler or Rabbi Stolper would react if it was their daughter that Rabbi Lanner fondled, or their son who he kicked in the groin.
I admire your courage in publishing this article and the thoroughness of your investigation. I would be surprised if additional corroboration in the form of other testimonies does not surface in the near future now that you have brought this situation to the entire community's attention. In speaking to my friends, we all are outraged not only at Rabbi Lanner, but also at those whose silence in effect condoned his conduct and allowed him to continue to harm other teenagers long after they became aware of his problem conduct. They, too, have a lot to answer for.
Kalman Feinberg - Teaneck, N.J.
I am writing to express dismay, shock and outrage in regard to the Rabbi Lanner expose. At what point did The Jewish Week assume the role of criminal investigator, district attorney, judge and jury? Why and how is it appropriate to report unsupported allegations that serve not only to damage irreparably the reputation of a devoted servant to the Jewish cause but at the same time cause unnecessary public embarrassment to the family members of the accused. They of course no longer have the opportunity to respond because the general public has predetermined the guilt of the target of the smear campaign carried out by The Jewish Week.
The allegations could certainly have justified a report by the alleged victims to one or more law enforcement agencies. The issue is not why was the alleged lengthy course of conduct either overlooked or not acted upon by the parent organization but rather, if the victims' complaints did not receive appropriate action, why were the alleged crimes not reported to the civil authorities? Does The Jewish Week feel that public ostracism, slander and communal disgrace is a more appropriate type of unilateral sentencing? If so, the mission has certainly been accomplished.
I fear for the future of our community if our rabbinic leaders do not condemn The Jewish Week and its editor for this type of unbridled slander, which at its core exceeds in gravity the very worst allegation ascribed to the target of the extraordinarily lengthy diatribe.
Justin Wright - White Plains, N.Y.
I was thrilled to see the Lanner issue exposed. I graduated from Hillel High School in 1997, and after seeing his atrocious actions consistently and willfully ignored, I had lost hope in Modern Orthodoxy and then in any contemporary understanding of justice. Your article restores some of my faith. I as well as many of my classmates and friends are greatly indebted to you.
Joanna Slusky
Several aspects of the Lanner case are shocking:
That this could happen inside of Modern Orthodoxy, a community sufficiently infused with Torah values of sexual restraint and modesty, a community not so insular as to be uninformed that sexual abuse leaves long-lasting scars and that sexual harassment is a crime;
That respected rabbis and leaders — and so many of them — were involved in a cover-up;
That as the story has broken there are still some who ask whether Gary Rosenblatt should have exposed the OU, and the victims should have spoken so candidly, as if the messenger is to blame and the victims at fault;
And perhaps most of all, that there was simply no compassion for the girls and boys, young men and women, who suffered at Rabbi Lanner's hands.
This time for breast beating is long since past. This is what should be done:
Those involved in the cover-up should resign from any position in which they make decisions about the lives of young men and women, and should recuse themselves from any work that directly involves Jewish youth.
An explicit list of rules and regulations regarding these matters should be circulated among the charismatic leaders and others who work closely with Jewish youth.
Women should be added to the process over oversight, in the upper echelons of the OU, the NCSY and the batei din. Regrettably, rabbis of the batei din in America will not permit toanot, female advisers, to serve as they are so permitted in Israel, but at the very least there should be a female ombudsman sitting on the bet din.
We should collectively affirm the courage of Gary Rosenblatt, who will come under increasing censure, as whistle blowers inevitably do. He chose justice — the highest Torah ethic — over protective cover-up.
We should express our collective gratitude to the men and women who spoke out. It was an act of bravery on their part, and they did this for all of our children.
Blu Greenberg, President - Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance - New York, N.Y.
The Lanner Episode
Your story about Rabbi Lanner's alleged misdeeds in working with children ("Stolen Innocence," June 23) important and courageous. It is also discouraging. How many times will this story have to be told before those in positions of authority in Jewish institutions start to take responsibility for stopping religious leaders who violate ethical and legal boundaries and who hurt their followers?
In our reporting in Lilith magazine on decades of alleged sexual misconduct by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, the same pattern emerged as in the Lanner case: widespread rumors, accusations and a complete refusal on the part of communities around the world to protect youth and women against a charismatic leader. In the deluge of requests pleading with us not to print the story two years ago, callers reminded us of all the good Rabbi Carlebach did, as if somehow his stature would lessen the pain he was accused of causing. On the contrary, his greatness may have worsened the pain. Their power and charisma make it that much more difficult — and that much more important — to bring such allegations to light.
In all the worry about "malicious gossip" and the hand-wringing about not making trouble for the rabbi, defensive members of these religious communities are missing the real point: If the allegations against Rabbi Lanner are proven true, he is not only in violation of ethics, he is in violation of the law.
Susan Weidman Schneider, Editor in Chief
Sarah Blustain, Associate Editor
Lilith Magazine - New York, N.Y.
I went to high school in New Jersey, and while I was there, I was in NCSY, Etz Chaim region. I got to know Rabbi Lanner, not very well, but I observed a lot at Shabbatonim. Rabbi Lanner is a highly charismatic man, with a very forceful nature. He does have a wicked sense of humor, and it has endeared him to a lot of the kids. That doesn't make him abusive.
A joke that's taken too far is not the same as assault. There seem to be certain personalities that are simply easier to misrepresent. Rabbi Lanner is a funny and inspirational speaker. He can be crude — but not nearly as crude as the NCSYers themselves. He's someone the kids can relate to, and feel comfortable talking to.
As I read your article, all I could think of was that someone who has never met Rabbi Lanner would have a horrid perception of him. The man you described in your article is not the man I heard divrei Torah from on Shabbatonim, the man who could keep us in stitches for hours.
If you've ever seen guys talk to each other and rough each other up casually, you'd have an idea of how Rabbi Lanner interacts with kids. I can't picture what he and his family are going through right now. How can a Jewish newspaper publish an article like this and destroy a man's reputation? I know how many kids he's helped. Will we all lose out on Rabbi Lanner and what he has to give? Is it fair that we should?
Daniela Weiss
Gary Rosenblatt's stories on Rabbi Baruch Lanner bring to readers' attention a problem that needed to be aired. I am confident that these stories will make a difference far beyond the individuals and institutions directly involved. They will alert many in the American Jewish community that we must pay careful attention to how we are raising our children religiously and communally, and that we must question and speak out when we believe our teachers and other leaders are not serving us well.
Florence Eckstein, Editor and Publisher - Jewish News of Greater Phoenix - Phoenix, Ariz.
The Lanner Case
As a 32-year-old former New Jersey NCSY-er and Frisch School student, I want to thank Gary Rosenblatt and everyone at the paper for having the courage to report this story and the integrity to research it as well as it so obviously has been.
In the wake of the article, I've been talking to friends from that era in my life and comparing notes. While our experiences with Baruch Lanner fall along a spectrum of his inappropriate behavior — and I feel very lucky to have experienced only the mildest version — it is outrageous that the OU has been willing to sacrifice the lives and futures of its young people for the sake of protecting one of its brethren.
I've read most of the coverage on-line in your paper, and in the Jerusalem Post, and was struck by a comment from a woman interviewed for one of the Post articles. "For everyone he made frum [religiously observant]," she said, "he may have driven away another two people." Having had several conversations about this, I can confirm at least two instances of people turning away from Orthodoxy in large part because of such behavior.
I am hopeful that this whole experience will lead to positive changes in the institutions that serve young Jews, and an increased awareness within the community of the costs of ignoring and covering up this kind of behavior. I also hope that those who are critical of the decision to publicize this will acknowledge that they are essentially saying that it is better to let the abuse of children continue rather than risk embarrassment for the perpetrators and those who failed to stop it.
Diane Purvin
I strongly disagree with Rabbi Basil Herring's criticism of Gary Rosenblatt, suggesting Rosenblatt did needless harm to the Orthodox Union ("OU Names 8 to Probe Lanner Case" July 7).
The rabbi suggested in his sermon that The Jewish Week should have shown the OU its findings and insisted it "clean house." I believe the public expose was important and necessary. The expose not only achieved a desired outcome of threatening the responsible authorities who ignored the many pleas for help, it also was essential in reaching others who may have been hurt by Baruch Lanner or other educators. Without the knowledge of consequences and an acknowledgement of these complaints, other victims of such abuse may never feel comfortable discussing their pain.
In addition to reaching possible victims of such abuse, your article may also influence other educators to think twice before ignoring someone's call for help in the future, and to consider who they are really working for.
Barbara Sopher - Riverdale, N.Y.
All people of good will within the Jewish community will surely support the highly respected men and women of the commission set up by the OU to investigate the scandal and tragedy of the Lanner affair and NCSY, as they undertake their very difficult task.
At the same time, it is disappointing that representatives of three critical constituencies that should be part of the investigative, evaluative and recommendation phase are absent from the eight-member body: formal Jewish educators, pulpit rabbis, and young and future community leaders.
They would add another important dimension to the investigation, the deliberations and the perspectives that need to be brought to bear to deal with systemic change in an organization that is, has been and will, with God's help, continue to be so important for the dissemination of Torah and well being of the Jewish people throughout the world.
Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot - New York, N.Y.
As a 20-year-old girl who grew up in the New York area, I have never met Rabbi Baruch Lanner, nor was I ever involved in NCSY, but the problem extends beyond these instances. Physical, emotional and sexual abuse of adolescents is something that deserves punishment. Simply having Rabbi Lanner resign from his position and hoping (though certainly not ensuring) that he'll stay away from children, is not enough.
The title "rabbi" connotes and demands many things — knowledge, leadership, respect, support of community. Those who do not live up to the standards and expectations of a rabbi should not bear that title. In Orthodoxy, a man who transgresses halacha as well as moral law does not deserve the respect associated with being a rabbi and should have his smicha (ordination) revoked.
If a lawyer can be disbarred and a doctor can have his license revoked, surely there is something the Jewish community can do.
Amanda Sussman - New York, N.Y.
Gary Rosenblatt writes that it's not the role of The Jewish Week to be the "central communal clearinghouse for dealing with and outing Orthodox Jewish officials with various sexual deviancies" ("Lessons From The Lanner Case," July 7), but I have no confidence in his solutions: bill of rights, monitoring system, database, personnel codes, training. No way, no how, will any Jewish organization share this type of confidential information with strangers (and I don't blame them), and the perpetrators don't need codes and training to tell them they are doing wrong.
The job can be done only by the organization itself. Administrators on every level must observe and listen, and put the welfare of their charges ahead of the reputation of their organization. But the natural instincts of Jewish schools, camps, synagogues, etc., are not to conduct serious investigations but to judge l'kaf zchus (benefit of the doubt) for as long as possible. After all, in many cases it is their friend or neighbor who has been accused.
If the evidence does indeed become overwhelming, they try to cover up the problem by giving the accused numerous warnings or dismissing him without prejudice. That in effect keeps the problem where it is or transfers it to another organization. After all, there are funds, livelihoods and reputations at stake; forget about the kids.
So how are we going to get the organizations to whom we entrust our children to behave responsibly? As much as I respect Mr. Rosenblatt, I disagree with him about the role of The Jewish Week or any other Jewish newspaper. Just as the general press reports on secular corruption in City Hall and the Board of Education, the Jewish newspaper must report on Jewish corruption wherever it might be found — Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, secular, wherever.
Failing to act because of fear that you may be labeled anti-Orthodox is a capitulation unbecoming of the great newspaper you have become. If the Orthodox are indeed overly represented, so be it. That's also news, and not acknowledging it won't make the problem go away. On the contrary, exposing them publicly yet sensitively, and backing up the allegations with the same type of evidence you had in the Lanner article, is the only way this scourge can be eliminated.
Stanley Kaplan - Brooklyn, N.Y.
Maybe you should change the name of your newspaper to The Anti-Orthodox Jewish Week. It seems you take every opportunity to bash them. Maybe, God forbid, you can find some good that they do. And by the way, what's the intermarriage rate among the Reform lately?
Jack Cohen - Brooklyn, N.Y.
Last Shabbat was the longest of the year for me, not because of when it ended, but in how it started: reading your expose on Rabbi Baruch Lanner.
As a former New Jersey NCSYer, I attended countless Shabbatons with Rabbi Lanner, went to Israel with this group and listened to quite a few of his speeches on Torah values. Today, I am both saddened and shocked by his outrageous behavior. However, my true anger is toward those in the Orthodox Union who knew what was going on but had the unmitigated temerity to look the other way, year after year.
These rabbis who purport to be religious leaders ought to maintain the same standard for moral conduct that they do for food. I find their responsiveness to the situation totally treif and hardly worthy of an OU stamp. Unfortunately we are reminded, once again, that you can't judge a religion by the people who practice it.
Jeffrey Korbman - Highland Park, N.J.
I commend you on having the courage to publish the expose on Rabbi Baruch Lanner. While neither I nor my children ever had any personal involvement with him, we heard reports for many years of incidents involving him. As reprehensible as his personal behavior appears to have been, the members of the Orthodox establishment who swept such incidents under the rug for years are, in my opinion, equally as culpable.
Their "sha still" attitude, even assuming it was motivated by a good-faith desire to help Rabbi Lanner, wound up causing incalculable, lasting pain to numerous young people. Hopefully, the lesson that will have been learned from this saga is that we, like every other ethnic group, have members who engage in antisocial behavior. Our rabbis and lay leaders must be especially vigilant in actively identifying, and permanently removing, its sources.
Aaron Shmulewitz
Gary Rosenblatt deserves much credit and the support of the entire Jewish community. As a parent of two children who have participated in NCSY events, the lack of oversight and decisive action is very disturbing.
I am not surprised that The Jewish Week and the victims are again being made to feel responsible for this outrage while your critics urge tolerance and patience for the OU.
This issue may never have seen the light of day without your paper. The relief it has given the victims is immeasurable but, more important, it has prevented many more of our children from being victimized.
Michael Harris
Bravo to The Jewish Week for exposing Rabbi Lanner's abuse of young people. Shame on the NCSY leaders and Orthodox rabbis who looked the other way, had their heads in the sand and refused to deal with a horrendous situation.
It appears that ethical behavior, concern for and value of the health of young people, and derech eretz are not as important to some as ritual observance. It is time for the self-righteous among us to look into themselves and clean house.
Marion and Paul Silberman - Somers, N.Y.
I feel it is my responsibility as a Jew, and as a young man who has had the privilege of meeting with and learning from Rabbi Baruch Lanner, to relate to you what a special person you have defamed in your publication. I believe with all my heart that you have no idea what a chacham (learned man) you have defamed.
I first met this charismatic man at the Kotel, along with all the participants on an NCSY trip he led two years ago. Rabbi Lanner knew how to reach every individual on his level, and would make us all feel as if we belonged to a very special family — his family. It is because of his care and understanding that many of the participants were elevated in Torah and spirituality in Israel. It is this kind of leadership and guidance that klal Yisrael needs.
What angers me, and I know I am not alone, is that Rabbi Lanner is a man who brought thousands of lost Jewish souls back to Judaism and Yiddishkeit. His method is not traditional, and that's what makes him so unique and special to all who really know him. It is a sad fact but a truism that newspapers won't emphasize the good because it doesn't sell. I thought that The Jewish Week was above the average newspaper, but after reading your article, I became very disappointed and horrified at how you dragged Rabbi Lanner through the mud.
We cannot defame those who keep the light of Judaism burning brightly. People make mistakes; even the great King David sinned the unthinkable. Rabbi Lanner made it his life to educate and teach the values of Torah to children all over the world. I hope that you further consider your actions no matter how justified you think you are. Destroying a person as you have is not merely distasteful but against Torah teachings.
Abe Kopolovich - Student, Long Island University
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Message from Rabbi David Kaminetsky - National Director of NCSY
National Conference of Synagogue Youth
Orthodox Union - July 31, 2000
As I am sure you all know, NCSY is going through a period of soul searching at this time. The circumstances and the publicity surrounding the resignation of Rabbi Baruch Lanner from his position of Director of Regions have been the topic of conversations on everybody's tongue, in newspapers and on Internet chat rooms, etc. While I will not go into any of the details of this matter, I do want to address the issue.
In Sefer VaYikra, Chapter 22 Verse 32, Hashem tells us, "Thou shall not profane My Holy Name and I shall become Holy among the children of Israel; I am your G-d Who sanctifies you." What is clear from this verse is that when the name of G-d is profaned publicly, the antidote is to sanctify His name publicly. No matter what one's thoughts are on the situation surrounding the resignation of Rabbi Lanner, we can all agree that there has been a public desecration of the name of G-d. I would like to share with you some thoughts that I presented to the participants of the NCSY Summer Kollel in Efrat on the first Friday night of the program. Hopefully this will inspire all of us to engage in activities that will result in the public sanctification of the name of G-d.
The Torah uses the word "VeNikdashti," I will become Holy. The implication of this form of the word is that the name of G-d will become sanctified almost automatically if we act in a manner that brings glory to His name. We must act in a way that will result in a public sanctification of His name. One of the ways to do this is for individual people to create spirituality and holiness in their lives. I recently came across three ideas in the writings of Rav Eliyahu Dessler in his sefer Michtav M'Eliyahu as to how one can create spirituality in one's life.
The first way, writes Rav Dessler, is to engage in "Emet – Truth": to conduct one's life and to act on the highest level of integrity at all times; to train oneself to be truthful in one's actions and to set a standard of always acting in a truthful manner and to refuse to accept anything which is false. This, says Rav Dessler was one of the attributes of Avraham Avinu. By pursuing the path of truthfulness, one will create spirituality.
The second way is to train oneself to avoid that which is forbidden. The commentary given by Rashi on the words, "Kedoshim Tiheyu" is "to separate oneself from that which is forbidden." This is something which is perhaps easier said than done, but which is very important and will clearly result in greater spirituality.
The final point made by Rav Dessler is to engage in the performance of mizvot and the study of Torah with excitement and deep emotion. Here is a translation of a section of Rav Dessler's words: "Even matters which are in reality holy will penetrate a person's heart only if he engages in them with excitement and deep emotion. Therefore, we must always strive to sense the newness of such experiences, since only when a person happens suddenly upon something new does he truly react with such excitement and feeling."
The implications for our daily lives are quite clear. There is nothing that stands in the way of Emet. If one is truthful and honest in everything that one does, this leads to success. The three Hebrew letters for the word "Emet"are Aleph, Mem and Taf. If you look at the way these letters are written in the Torah you will see that each of the letters rest on two legs. Each stands strong and firm. The letters of "Sheker – Falsehood" on the other hand, the Shin, Kuf and Reish all rest on one leg and are thus not on very solid footing. If you follow "Emet" you are always on solid footing and you can be secure in everything you do. If you follow "Sheker" you must be very careful, because falsehood has a very insecure foundation.
The Medrash tells us that one whose dealings with his fellow man are proper and respectful sanctifies the name of G-d. About such a person it will be said "Praised is the one who bore him." However, when someone is dishonest and deceitful, the opposite is true. It is truly a beautiful sanctification of HaShem's name when young men wearing kippot or young women act in a way that will cause people to say, "Look at how respectful those young people are in the way that they are acting." Unfortunately we hear about the opposite situation all too often. We all must learn to be honest with one another at all times and follow a path of integrity in our lives.
To avoid that which is forbidden is rather self-explanatory. In the book of Psalms we are told, "Sur M'Ra Va'asei Tov - Avoid that which is bad and do good." Some interpret this to mean that the way to avoid wrongdoing is to engage is doing the right thing at all times. So often in life we are faced with decisions about what direction to take. David HaMelech's words ring loud and clear: "Stay away from that which is forbidden" – choose the Derech HaYashar – the right path – this will help you create spirituality in your life.
Rav Dessler's final point is perhaps the main goal of NCSY. Let us do mitzvot with deep emotion and excitement. So often we fall in the trap of just going through the motions. We put ourselves on autopilot and do things, even good things, without emotion or feeling. We are told that one of the positive attributes of Aharon HaKohein was that he did not deviate from the path, "Lo Shinah – He didn't change." Everyone wonders why was it so special that he didn't deviate. Would we anticipate that someone as great as Aharon would make changes in the way things are done? The answer is that the verse "Lo Shinah" does not only mean he didn't change. It also means that he didn't lose his enthusiasm.
Let us commit ourselves to publicly sanctifying the name of G-d. Let us conduct our lives with the highest level of integrity at all times. Let us be honest with our parents, teachers and our peers. Let us always be honest with ourselves. Let us stay away from doing those things that will not make us proud of ourselves and let us do mitzvot and study Torah with deep emotion and excitement. Let us always act with kindness, gentleness, considerateness, helpfulness and understanding. Let us demonstrate to the world that one who follows in the ways of Torah will make the world a better place for us all. Following the suggestions of Rav Eliyahu Dessler will help us all move forward and will help us turn a Chillul HaShem into a Kiddush HaShem.
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Kashrus Deserves Praise Not "Guilt by Association"
By Menachem Lubinsky - President
Kosher Today Newspaper Archives - Integrated Marketing Communications
The case of Rabbi Baruch Lanner is a good illustration of just how far sensational journalism can go. This was the story of a rabbi who headed a key youth program for the Orthodox Union and is alleged to have been involved in the abuse of his charges including sexual abuse. The story first broke in an unprecedented front-page story in The Jewish Week in late June and was subsequently picked up by major media throughout the country including two stories in The New York Times, one on the front page of the Business Section.
Even if the allegations that the leadership of the Orthodox Union was aware of the alleged actions of the rabbi and did nothing about it were true, the sheer size of the story (I and others cannot remember when The Jewish Week gave such coverage to one front-page story) would make it appear to a journalist that this was the biggest Jewish story of the year, even bigger than the incarcerated Iranian Jews or Mideast peace. That explains the broad coverage in the media that might otherwise not have carried allegations against a rabbi, most of which is alleged to have taken place more than two decades ago.
But the story doesn't end there. Dr. Mandell Ganchrow, the OU president immediately appointed an independent commission to get at the truth and seemingly the century-old organization had handled a clear aberration in its ranks properly. The fact is that the National Conference of Synagogue Youth, known as NCSY, is one of the most effective Jewish youth organizations in the world. It is also true that Rabbi Lanner was a charismatic and effective leader.
But to even remotely attempt to throw in the mix questions about the OU's standards on kosher is the ultimate absurdity of a story that got out of hand. As the nation's largest kosher certifying organization, it has set the standards for the entire industry. It is responsible for certifying more than 70% of kosher products. Any quality control person, plant manager, or marketing executive responsible for kosher knows just how tough the OU's standards are.
There is no question that the Lanner incident was painful to the OU as an organization, but fair-minded and levelheaded people should be able to put such stories in their proper perspective. They should understand that organizations are made up humans, that man is far from perfect and that entire organizations should not be tainted because of the failures of one individual.
Those of us who are familiar with the OU's accomplishments in kashrus can only use this opportunity to congratulate them on a job extremely well done. The biggest proof is the overwhelming confidence of the consumer in their symbol. KAT
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Summer of Shame
The Orthodox Union pledges to find out how a rabbi working with youth could mistreat boys and girls for three decades.
By Julie Gruenbaum Fax, Religion Editor
JEWISH JOURNAL of Greater Los Angeles - August 18, 2000 (17 Av, 5760)
A lot of people have a lot of questions about the scandal involving the Orthodox Union and Rabbi Baruch Lanner.
Who knew what when, what did they do with the information, and how did the whole thing go on for so long? How is it possible that it took three decades and the public embarrassment of a newspaper article to out Lanner, who allegedly manhandled boys and sexually harassed and molested girls who were in his charge at the National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY), the OU's hugely successful youth movement?
No one wants these questions answered more than OU president Dr. Mandell Ganchrow, who has set up a commission to investigate the charges and come up with recommendations. "I don't know what the answers are," says Ganchrow, now in the final six months of a six-year run as president. "People are entitled to know. I'm entitled to know."
Ganchrow says he was as shocked as anybody by the allegations published in a June 23 article by Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of the New York Jewish Week.
"I didn't know anything about this," says Ganchrow, a retired colon and rectal surgeon. "I like to believe that had I known, I would have acted. I'm not afraid to act. It's just sad that I didn't know." In fact, Ganchrow admits that just a few years ago he had recommended Lanner - widely acclaimed even by his victims as a powerful and charismatic leader - for the job of national director of NCSY. "Now I know why I was talked out of it," Ganchrow says.
Rosenblatt's report and several weeks of follow-up articles detail victims' accounts of being emotionally, sexually and physically abused by Lanner over a period from the 1970s to today. Lanner, 50, was director of the New Jersey region for many years, then was made NCSY's director of regions. In addition, he was principal of Hillel, a yeshiva in Deal, N.J., for 15 years.
Named victims accuse Lanner of kicking boys in the groin and fondling and kissing girls, and in one case he is accused of having pulled a knife on a teenaged boy.
His emotional manipulation extended further, and to more people. He is said to have demanded declarations of love and loyalty from his teens, and in one case, where the victim has filed charges in a New Jersey court, he is said to have proposed marriage to a Hillel student.
In his three decades of NCSY leadership, Lanner has trained dozens of advisors and regional directors. Many of the rumors about Lanner have been circulating for years; it was an open secret among many NCSYers to steer clear of Lanner. Several New Jersey chapters had banned him from coming to events. Rosenblatt traced several instances where reports to highers-up in OU and NCSY went nowhere, seemingly halted by a wall of protection around Lanner.
Ganchrow says all of these allegations are being investigated by the commission he appointed just after the article came out. The report is expected to come out in September, before the start of the High Holidays. "The charge that I gave to the commission is when did the OU know, what did it know, who knew it, what did they do with the information, how did it go up the chain of leadership, what did they do with the information?" Ganchrow says.
The OU has retained the Manhattan law firm Debevoise and Plimpton to conduct the hundreds of interviews - from employees to lay leaders to current and former NCSYers - and to produce thousands of pages of documentation.
"The bottom line is I'm determined to let the chips fall as they may," Ganchrow says. "There is no one - not a lay person, not a senior employee - who is going to be protected."
The 10-member commission, made up of traditional and observant Jews, four of whom are OU board members, is headed by Richard Joel, an attorney who is president and international director of Hillel, the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. It includes several lawyers, philanthropists and politicians, a pediatrician who specializes in victims of molestation, psychiatrist Rabbi Abraham Twerski, and Jacob Yellin, a lawyer who is in charge of Disney's worldwide ethics compliance program.
Ganchrow bristles at accusations that the commission's report will be anything less than honest and thorough.
The commission members, all of them volunteers, all of them putting in hundreds of hours into a thankless task, "are people of stature," Ganchrow says. "They are not going to allow their reputations to be sullied by the OU, me or anyone else," he says.
Ganchrow says he expects the OU to act swiftly on the recommendations, or he and the chairman of the board have publicly stated that they will resign.
Plus, he adds, "the light of the publicity is not going to allow anyone to fudge it." Ganchrow says he first heard about the extent of the article about 12 hours before it hit the stands, when he was in Washington meeting with the king of Morocco.
Ganchrow, who says he has a good relationship with Rosenblatt, first read the allegations the same day as everyone else.
"I would have been happy if Gary Rosenblatt had picked up the phone and called me a few weeks before and said, 'I have this story, I'd like to meet with you.'"
He wasn't interviewed about the charges until two weeks later.
But Ganchrow wants his voice heard now. He was in Los Angeles recently for face to face meetings with supporters, rabbis and lay leaders, giving the facts on what the OU is doing to respond.
"I think it's very important for people to look me in the eye and see. Body language tells a lot," says Ganchrow. "People can see that we're very serious, we're deeply distressed about what's going on." Ganchrow offers a more sympathetic image than has come across in the press thus far. He seems sincerely pained, acutely aware of the gravity of the scandal and willing to approach it with a candor that is both practical and compassionate.
Ganchrow is, of course, somewhat constrained in his comments because of the looming possibility of lawsuits. He also remains completely dedicated to the OU and the good work it does.
"NCSY and the Orthodox Union are not Baruch Lanner," he said. Rather, he asks people to recognize the many positive programs, such as NCSY's work with mentally and physically disabled kids; summer programs in the U.S., Israel and Ukraine; successful outreach to thousands of unaffiliated teens; and OU's public affairs program, synagogue services and kosher certification of 220,000 products.
He says the incident has opened up discussions on every aspect of NCSY. All of the leaders of summer programs, he said, had extra training on harassment and emotional abuse of teens, and the union is working to come up with permanent guidelines to ensure the safety of the 40,000 kids who are involved with NCSY every year.
"I'm a parent, I'm a grandparent," Ganchrow says. "There is no way I would knowingly, willingly put someone that is a sex molester in contact with children, no matter how good he makes Havdalah."
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Rabbi Lanner Article Wins National Award
Staff Writer - Staff Writer
The Jewish Week - September 29, 2000
Gary Rosenblatt's article, "Stolen Innocence" (June 23), on the alleged long-term abuse of teens by Rabbi Baruch Lanner of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth, has been named first-place winner of the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism, which honors distinguished coverage of disadvantaged and at-risk children and families in the United States.
The medals are awarded in 10 categories by the Casey Journalism Center for Children and Families, an independent national resource center affiliated with the University of Maryland College of Journalism. Rosenblatt won in the non-daily newspaper category.
The judges, who praised his "great resourcefulness," wrote, in part: "Rosenblatt showed astonishing fortitude in the face of powerful institutional pressure to keep the story out of the paper. The story illuminated not just the pattern of abuse in this specific case, but also the enormous difficulty ordinary people face when they try to make a case against a powerful and shielded individual.
"We are reminded that disadvantaged youth include children who are not protected by their parents and the larger community from abusive leaders whom they have been taught to trust."
Other first-place winners include "Nightline," the ABC-TV program, in the national television category, for "Crime and Punishment: Kids in Court," a five-night series; and New York's Newsday, in the daily newspaper category, for a nine-day series on day-care oversight.
First-place winners will be honored at an awards luncheon on Oct. 27, where they will receive framed medals and a $1,000 award.
Rosenblatt said he was grateful for the recognition from peers, and credited as "the real heroes the men and women who came forward and went on the record with their painful stories."
He said he plans to donate the award to charity.
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NCSY Special Commission Cites Rabbi Lanner's "Abusive" Behavior Toward Teens & Calls For Change In OU Governance And Operations
Department of Public Relations
Orthodox Union (OU) - December 26, 2000
NEW YORK – The NCSY Special Commission, comprised of prominent members of the Orthodox Jewish community that was convened by the Orthodox Union (OU) several months ago, has found that Rabbi Baruch Lanner, who recently resigned as an executive of its youth division, engaged in "abusive" behavior with teenagers during his years with the organization.
The Commission also found that some members of the lay and professional leadership of the OU and NCSY "made profound errors of judgment in their handling of Lanner throughout his career with NCSY." As a result of the Commission's findings, the organization has begun a review of its leadership in order to implement any changes that may be necessary.
The 331-page Report, which took nearly four months to complete, also addressed what it termed serious weaknesses in the OU's overall management structure, including: procedures for staff selection, development, training, supervision and evaluation; procedures for financial accountability; and internal audit and lay oversight.
Since the allegations surrounding Rabbi Lanner were raised this past summer, the OU Officers and Board of Directors have instituted a number of new management programs and policies in NCSY. These include: establishing a comprehensive sexual harassment policy for staff; an ongoing sensitivity training program for staff that was launched during a two-day seminar at which attendance was mandatory; and stricter hiring policies and training programs for NCSY advisors. An NCSY ombudsman will be appointed shortly who will investigate any allegations brought to his or her attention. NCSY is also creating a professional standards committee — comprised of mental health professionals, educators, rabbis and parents — to address issues that confront those who work with children and teenagers.
NCSY has also initiated a program with a leading New York medical institution to refer mental health professionals to work with current and former members of NCSY who feel they could benefit from counseling as a result of Rabbi Lanner's actions. For further information on this program, please call the NCSY national office at 212.613.8380.
Additionally, new policies and procedures for all OU programs and staff will be developed – including overall management and governance of the organization.
"On behalf of the Orthodox Union, I want to personally thank each of the Commission members and their counsel for presenting us with a very comprehensive Report that provides a thorough road map of ways we can improve the management and operations of our organization," said OU President Mandell I. Ganchrow, M.D. "We view the findings and recommendations of the Report with great seriousness. Now we will begin the process of how we set our house in order. The Commission has taken several months to do its work and write the Report. There is no doubt that it will also take the OU several months to consider and implement the changes that are necessary to improve our operations.
"We are distressed that behavior like this could ever have occurred within our organization," Dr. Ganchrow added. "We sincerely apologize for the pain and suffering these young people experienced as a result of Rabbi Lanner's actions. We also wish to apologize to the families of these young people who entrusted their children to us. We promise to use this sad event as an opportunity to assure that behavior such as this will never again occur within our organization."
Harvey Blitz, who will assume the presidency of the OU later this week at the group's biennial convention, added, "I am grateful to the members of the Commission for their thoughtful Report. The new administration will promptly and carefully study the Commission's recommendations and adopt and implement them appropriately to ensure that the Orthodox Union becomes a more responsible and responsive organization. We believe this will greatly enhance our ability to serve the community in the future."
A copy of the NCSY Special Commission's 54-page executive summary is available on the OU's web site at www.ou.org.
The Orthodox Union, now in its second century of service to the Jewish community of America and beyond, is the world leader in youth work, advocacy for the disabled, synagogue services, adult education and political action. Its kosher supervision label, the OU, is the world's most recognized kosher symbol and can be found on over 250,000 products in 68 countries around the globe.
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Report Slams O.U.'s 'Failure' in Lanner Abuse Scandal
By AMY KLEIN
FORWARD - December 29, 2000
A scathing, 54-page document released this week confirmed many of the allegations of physical, sexual and emotional abuse made public in June against Rabbi Baruch Lanner, the former director of regions at the Orthodox Union's National Council of Synagogue Youth.
Absent from the document, however, are specifics about who was responsible for allowing Rabbi Lanner to continue to work at the O.U. despite knowledge of his inappropriate behavior. Although the summary makes wide-ranging recommendations on financial and organizational restructuring of the O.U. and NCSY, victims'. families, concerned parents and other O.U.-watchers are expected to be disappointed that the summary does not suggest specific staff changes.
"The failure of certain members of the O.U. and NCSY leadership to take [effective] action allowed Lanner's conduct to continue unchecked for many years," the document states.
The document states that Rabbi Lanner sexually abused women and teenage girls, physically abused boys and girls, attempted to control the lives of NCSY students, initiated sexual discussions with girls and engaged in other inappropriate conduct, such as operating an unauthorized bank account, soliciting donations for NCSY programs and probably depositing them in his own bank accounts.
The eagerly awaited document summarizes a longer, 331-page report prepared during a four-month period by an NSCY special commission appointed to investigate the O.U.'s role in the Lanner affair. The law firm Debevoise & Plimpton conducted the investigation in coordination with the nine-member commission, interviewing more than 175 witnesses in some 6,000 hours.
Only 13 members of the O.U. board have reviewed the longer report, and they will be responsible for presenting their proposals to 167 members of the full executive board. The executive board meeting, which was postponed from December 25 because of Chanukah, is likely to convene sometime after New Year's weekend when the national conference takes place at the Rye Town Hilton in Westchester County, N.Y.
The longer report provides a chronological narrative describing events from 1972 to the present and includes "disturbing, graphic evidence" of Rabbi Lanner's conduct and details about what the O.U. professional and lay leadership knew or should have known about Rabbi Lanner over the years. The summary report — which can be viewed online at the O.U.'s web site, www.ou.org — does not include the chronology, nor does it include many of the details set forth in the comprehensive report.
The commission has recommended restructuring the O.U. like a corporation, with a chief operating officer and a chief financial officer, financial controls, performance-based compensation, standards for reporting breaches of conduct, as well as a reorganization of NCSY to train and educate all staff members.
The summary report points out that "Lanner's improper conduct, while committed directly by him alone, was made possible by the inaction of various individuals in the lay and professional leadership of the O.U. and NSCY and a lack of effective management controls in those organizations. Certain members of the O.U. and NCSY professional and lay leadership, although not directly aware of some of the most serious elements of Lanner's abuse, were aware of his overtly inappropriate behaviors and frequently abusive personality traits. This knowledge alone should have led them to take effective action against Lanner at any one of many points in his career. The failure of certain members of the O.U. and NCSY to leadership to take such action allowed Lanner's conduct to continue unchecked for many years·. The commission believes that many of these failures reflect the exercise of extremely poor judgment by otherwise well-intentioned people."
The report details four specific instances — in 1972, 1977, 1984 and 2000 — when leaders of both organizations were notified of Rabbi Lanner's sexual misconduct, but did not remove him from his position. Leaders denied receiving some of these reports, the summary states, and the commission did not receive evidence that "actual, detailed knowledge of abuse by Lanner was widespread" aside from those four incidents. The report lists examples of 12 "red flags" — from 1977-2000 — that should have alerted the leadership that something was wrong, the commission found.
Rabbi Lanner — who is repeatedly referred to in the report as "Lanner," without his title — originally refused to testify before the commission because it would be "inappropriate" to provide testimony since he is still under investigation by the Monmouth County, N.J., police department, his lawyers wrote to the commission. Rabbi Lanner's lawyers later sent a 10-page document stating that their client denied having committed any crime, but acknowledging that "in the past, his conduct on occasion was inappropriate. He did or said things in the past that, in hindsight, should not have occurred."
He also acknowledged that his behavior "was unbefitting for anyone, particularly one in his own position." According to the summary report, Rabbi Lanner's statement denied many — but not all — of the allegations of physical and sexual abuse lodged in The Jewish Week's June 24 article that first made the story public, and it was silent on many of the allegations the commission received that were not contained in the article. Rabbi Lanner also claimed in the statement that some of the actions were consensual, a claim dismissed by the commission because of the young age of the girls and the position of authority that Rabbi Lanner held over them.
A former NCSY officer and a critic of the O.U.'s handling of the Lanner case, Murray Sragow, said he felt vindicated by the commission's summary but warned that unless the report becomes public, or is released to the entire board, there will be "trouble," including a possible lawsuit to release the full report. Mr. Sragow, a youth committee chairman at Rinat Yisrael Synagogue in Teaneck, N.J., who heads an email list of 150 people concerned about the Lanner affair, said, "The victims and their families deserve the answer to who is it that failed to take care of the kids. This report fails to do that."
Other highlights of the report include:
- Ten women testified that Lanner engaged in sexually abusive behavior during his NCSY career.
- "Credible" witnesses provided testimony describing abusive sexual conduct by Rabbi Lanner toward 16 additional girls.
- Some 30 witnesses testified to having suffered or witnessed Rabbi Lanner kneeing the boys in the groin.
- Witnesses testified to several occasions during which Rabbi Lanner punched, hit or otherwise physically assaulted them, in addition to those described in The Jewish Week.
Rabbi Lanner repeatedly targeted and engaged in "intense and abusive emotional manipulations" of students who were having emotional or family problems.
The chairman of the special commission, Richard Joel, the president of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, announced on Tuesday that the commission hopes that the summary will "lead to accountability for actions, reform of the organization under study, and ultimately a healing of wounds."
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Lanner Indicted On Sex Abuse Charges
Two former students at Deal, N.J., yeshiva provided key testimony.
Gary Rosenblatt
The Jewish Week - March 16, 2001
Nine
months after The Jewish Week reported on allegations that Rabbi Baruch
Lanner had abused teenagers in his charge for three decades, a Monmouth
County, N.J., grand jury indicted him Wednesday on six criminal charges.
The
rabbi faces two counts each of aggravated criminal sexual conduct,
criminal sexual conduct and endangering the welfare of a child. The
crimes are second-, third- and fourth-degree offenses. A second-degree
offense carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
An
arraignment will be scheduled in the next six weeks, according to Mark
Fliedner, assistant prosecutor in Monmouth County. Rabbi Lanner will be
required to appear and bail will be set.
Fliedner told The Jewish
Week the investigation, conducted by the prosecutor's office and the
Ocean Township, N.J., Police Department, was "lengthy and exhaustive,"
and originated with The Jewish Week report of last June. Two women, now
adults, who were minors at the time of the alleged abuse by Rabbi
Lanner, came forward to the authorities, who convened a grand jury that
met over a period of several weeks.
The focus of attention in the
Lanner case has been on the National Conference of Synagogue Youth and
its parent group, the Orthodox Union, where the rabbi served in a
leadership capacity for 30 years. But the indictments stem from his
contact with the two women when they were students at the Hillel Yeshiva
High School in Deal, N.J., where Rabbi Lanner served as principal for
15 years, leaving amid a cloud of suspicion in 1997.
He is charged with engaging in sexual conduct with the students in his private office.
School officials did not return phone calls from The Jewish Week on Wednesday morning.
The
first woman approached officials after reading the initial news report,
and the second woman came forward as a result of the police
investigation, Fliedner said.
The assistant prosecutor explained
that aggravated criminal sexual conduct stems from the fact that the
victims were under 16 at the time and that the rabbi had a supervisory
or disciplinary role. Criminal sexual conduct means that force or
coercion was used, and the endangerment charge applies to someone who
has the legal duty of care for a minor and engages in sexual conduct.
The
first woman, now 19, alleged that Rabbi Lanner sexually abused her
almost daily in his office at the yeshiva when she was a 14-year-old
ninth-grader there in 1995 and 1996. She described the mistreatment in
detail to The Jewish Week last July, though she was not named in the
article, at her request. She noted then that Rabbi Lanner would call her
into his office over a period of eight months, touching her and
professing his love for her.
She testified about this treatment
before the grand jury, as did her mother, who asserted that she
overheard Rabbi Lanner on the phone with her daughter, telling her he
loved her and wanted to marry her.
The rabbi, who has refused
past efforts by The Jewish Week to be interviewed, denied the
allegations to a New York Times reporter last July. He was quoted as
saying, "Emphatically, emphatically, emphatically it did not happen.
This is a kid that came from a troubled background. I took her in and
raised the tuition money for her to attend that school, and bus money,
and this is the payback I receive?"
The time frame of the alleged
misconduct with the second student took place between Sept. 1, 1992 and
June 30, 1994, according to the indictments.
The veracity of the
first woman was questioned by some who knew her at the time of The
Jewish Week report last July. She later became involved in substance
abuse and criminal behavior.
But Fliedner said the witnesses who
came forward were credible to the grand jury. He also noted that the
police and prosecutor's investigation was conducted independent of the
special OU commission report, released in December, alleging sexual
misconduct by Rabbi Lanner.
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Jewish Week Follow-Up
By Editorial Board
Jewish Press - July 5, 2001
Last
week in this space we took the New York Jewish Week to task over its
giving front page placement to a rehashing of a year-old story about a
concededly serious abuse problem at the Orthodox Union's NCSY, and to a
hazy report about a religious discrimination lawsuit filed against
Yeshiva University by a Conservative Jewish woman. We saw this as fresh
evidence of an Orthodox-bashing bent at The Jewish Week manifested by
that tabloid's artificial pumping up of negative pieces about two crown
jewels of Orthodox Judaism.
In fact, with respect to the lawsuit,
we have since learned that although it was provided the documentation,
The Jewish Week failed to include in its story that a federal agency had
dismissed the charges prior to the filing of the lawsuit!
In
addition, in last week's issue of The Jewish Week, a letter was
published commenting on its NCSY article which turned up the volume even
higher and went so far as to question the integrity of the OU's
universally accepted kashruth operation!
It is fair to wonder
about what needs to be done to stop these kinds of spurious efforts
against Orthodox organizations by a publication that depends on the
Jewish public's largesse as provided by the UJA/Federation. It is well
known that absent that lifeline, The Jewish Week would be a bankrupt
organization. The time has come for the UJA/Federation to rein in its
dependent lest the UJA/Federation be adjudged as complicit in its
outrageous enterprise. It is plainly out of control.
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Grappling with Sexual Abuse in the Orthodox Community - No Longer Taboo
For
years, the Orthodox community has hidden it. Now, a confluence of
factors is making their sexual abuse problem come out of the closet.By Julie Wiener
Jewish Telegraphic Agency - 2001
The Borough Park section of Brooklyn is one of America's most visibly Jewish neighborhoods.
On
several residential blocks of one- and two-family brick homes, almost
every front door has a mezuzah. Modestly dressed women push strollers,
while girls in dresses and boys in tzitzit and yarmulkes play on the
sidewalks. More on this story
Sixteenth Avenue, one of the main
drags, is lined with religious study centers and yeshivot, a Jewish
high school for girls, small synagogues and Judaica stores.
And in the middle of it all is an agency that runs a treatment program for Orthodox Jewish pedophiles.
Orthodox pedophiles?
For
years, most people in the Orthodox world assumed their religious way of
life and tight-knit communities insulated them from problems rocking
the larger world, like sexual abuse.
There is still a great deal
of resistance to discussing the issue, and a lingering feeling among
many victims and advocates that Orthodox institutions are more concerned
with protecting the reputations of men accused of sexual abuse than
with believing or helping victims.
But fueled by a combination of
factors — recent scandals, a growing cadre of Orthodox psychotherapists
in whom Orthodox Jews feel comfortable confiding, and American
society's growing openness about sensitive social problems — that sense
of insularity is eroding both among the fervently and centrist Orthodox
communities.
Just as it has begun to acknowledge that there are
Orthodox child abusers and Orthodox drug addicts, the community is
gradually coming to grips with the fact that it, too, has sexual abusers
in its midst.
Through Jewish agencies like Borough Park's Ohel
Children's Home and Family Services — whose sex offender program is
believed to be the only Orthodox program of its kind — it is starting to
confront the problem.
Among the indicators of change:
- In
the wake of public allegations last year that a high-ranking
professional in the Orthodox Union's National Conference of Synagogue
Youth had sexually abused more than 20 teen-age girls, sexual abuse has
become a household world among centrist Orthodox Jews. The O.U., which
had been accused of protecting Rabbi Baruch Lanner, the alleged abuser,
underwent an investigation by an independent commission, made some key
staff changes and has vowed to implement policies to prevent future
abuse.
- Four
years ago, at the request of the Brooklyn District Attorney, Ohel —
which already treated Jewish survivors of sexual abuse — created the
first- ever treatment program specifically for Orthodox sex offenders.
More than 30 people, half referred through the criminal justice system
and half through rabbis and Jewish communal leaders, have received
evaluation or treatment through the program; more are on a waiting list.
- At
its convention this year, the Rabbinical Council of America, which
represents 1,100 mainstream Orthodox rabbis, held an open and detailed
discussion about sexual abuse led by Dr. Susan Shulman, a pediatrician
who served on the O.U.'s commission investigating the Lanner scandal and
lectures frequently about sexual abuse.
- According
to the RCA's immediate past president, Rabbi Kenneth Hain, the rabbinic
group is in the "embryonic stages" of creating a system for dealing
with members accused of sexual misconduct.
- In
the aftermath of two publicized cases of pedophilia — one concerning a
rabbi teaching at a day school and another concerning a kosher butcher —
the Chicago Rabbinical Council recently created a special Beit Din, or
rabbinical court, to address sexual abuse. The court, which has four
rabbis from different sectors of the local Orthodox community, consults
with a team of psychologists, social workers and lawyers. It is believed
to be the only permanent North American Beit Din focusing on this
issue.
- According
to David Mandel, chief executive officer of Ohel, Orthodox schools and
other institutions increasingly are hosting workshops educating parents
and teachers on how to prevent abuse against children and identify the
symptoms indicating that a child may have been abused. In the past year,
Ohel participated in more than 12 seminars or conference sessions on
the topic, about twice as many as in previous years.
Sexual
abuse is hardly unique to the Orthodox community, and many who work in
the field say there appear to be far fewer incidents in the Jewish
community than in American society as a whole.
Problems like
victims' reluctance to come forward, difficulty proving cases, and a
tendency of people not to want to believe accusations are vexing issues
in any community. Even when caught, sexual abusers are difficult to
treat, and many experts say they must be watched vigilantly because they
never fully recover.
But there are certain aspects of Orthodox life that make such problems uniquely challenging.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle is the wall of silence and denial.
"We're
a community that would like to believe that our religious lives prevent
these problems," said Rabbi Yosef Blau, a spiritual guidance counselor
at Yeshiva University's rabbinic seminary and someone known as an
advocate for victims of sexual abuse.
Samuel Heilman, a professor
of Jewish studies and sociology at the City University of New York,
said the presence of sexual abuse "calls into question some of the
deeply held values of Orthodoxy — mainly that if you maintain a strict
attachment to Jewish tradition and values, somehow that would insulate
you from all that is evil in society."
In addition, there is a
historic Jewish tendency, particularly acute in the Orthodox world, to
keep quiet about sensitive issues for fear of publicly scandalizing the
community.
Many Orthodox Jews also fear that embarrassing
information could jeopardize future wedding matches for individuals and
their families.
Another obstacle is that the many demands of an
Orthodox lifestyle — and the fact that Orthodox Jews must live within
walking distance of synagogue — make Orthodox communities tight-knit.
That can make it hard for a victim to come forward, particularly if the
abuser is prominent or well-liked.
When the perpetrator is a
rabbi or other respected member of the community, victims have an even
greater difficulty, given Orthodox Judaism's reverence for rabbinical
authority figures.
"... That's no good because if he goes to another community he will do the same thing ..." -- Rabbi Gedalia Schwartz
"If
a kid goes to a parent and says, My rebbe did something to me, the
parents tend to believe the rabbi, not the child," Blau said.
Perhaps the greatest challenge is that most Orthodox institutions lack a formal system for preventing or reporting abuse.
Exacerbating
the situation is the fact that Orthodox Jews generally are more
reluctant than liberal Jews to go to the police for crimes committed
within the community.
Instead, Orthodox Jews tend to rely on
rabbinical courts. But most such courts are ill-equipped to handle
sexual abuse cases, and many — according to victims' advocates and
Shulman — refuse to hear such cases.
Chicago's Beit Din is one of
the few actively dealing with sexual abuse. So far, it has found three
people guilty of abuse, alerting community leaders so they can keep an
eye on the offenders and not hire them for jobs where they will be alone
with children.
Rabbi Gedalia Schwartz, chief presiding rabbi of
the Chicago Rabbinical Council and the Beit Din of America, a national
rabbinical court under RCA auspices, urges victims to go to the police
as well.
"Some might say, send" the abuser "to another
community," Schwartz said. "That's no good because if he goes to another
community he will do the same thing."
However, some communities do just that.
In
her RCA speech, Shulman told of an anonymous rabbi who impregnated a
student while he was principal of a school for Jewish girls with
learning disabilities. When he was fired, he moved to another community
where he is "still a prominent rabbi."
Despite the remaining
challenges, some in the Orthodox world find solace in the fact that the
topic is now on the table and that some treatment programs are out
there.
Because of the Lanner case, "people who in the past
would've said, `I'm sure he couldn't have done that and Just let it go
are now saying, I heard about this and we can't let this happen again,' "
Blau said.
According to Mandell and others, the changes are deeper than a mere reaction to Lanner.
In
fact, sex abuse is being discussed and addressed not just in centrist
Orthodox circles but in fervently Orthodox communities where many people
— who do not read secular or even mainstream Jewish newspapers — have
not heard of the Lanner scandal.
David Pelcovitz, director of
psychology at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., and a
clinical professor of psychology at the New York University School of
Medicine, said he increasingly hears rabbis frame the issue by talking
about the concept of ha'alamah, the biblical injunction not to look the
other way.
Mandel, Pelcovitz and Shulman all say that invitations
are increasing to speak on the topic at conferences and to lead
training workshops.
Pelcovitz, who teaches a pastoral psychology
course at Yeshiva University's rabbinical school on dealing with sexual
abuse complaints, said Orthodox rabbinical groups such as the RCA and
the National Council of Young Israel also are starting to offer
continuing education on sexual abuse.
Mandel noted that after
almost every speech he and his staff give on sexual abuse, at least one
adult privately comes forward to say he or she, too, was victimized but
never before felt comfortable telling anyone.
"People are discussing a topic that truly wasn't discussed," he said.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Preventing Future Lanner CasesBy Judy Klitsner
The Jewish Week - March 1, 2002
I
was a victim of Baruch Lanner in 1974, when I was 16. Next month he is
due to stand trial for his actions — not those against me and many of my
contemporaries, but against much younger women, who like me reportedly
were victim to Lanner's mix of sexual, psychological and physical abuse.
I
shudder to do the math: If in my day I knew about a dozen of his
victims, how many were there in the intervening 28 years? If in my day
hundreds of people knew on some level that Baruch Lanner was a dangerous
man, how many must have known over all these years?
The
questions everyone asks: How could this have happened? If so many knew,
why didn't anyone do anything? Why did only public expose and scandal
stop him? Not an internal audit, not a public uproar, but an article in
The Jewish Week. Why?
The "normal" channels — colleagues and
superiors — failed utterly to slow Rabbi Lanner's alleged predatory
progress. They were buttressed by any combination of the following
automatic responses to reports of abuse:
Doubt the reporter of the abuse, assuming she has an ulterior motive.
"Why are you telling me this?" one esteemed rabbi asked me. "What's in it for you?"
Rabbi
Lanner enthusiastically encouraged this form of questioning by
attributing nefarious motives to all the women that accused or
confronted him, asserting they were sick, provocative or hated rabbis.
These arguments were accepted and the accusers dismissed.
If the
report was of abuse in the distant past, Rabbi Lanner was assumed to
have been rehabilitated, or to have "done teshuvah" since then. "What
proof do you have that he's still doing these things?" was asked of me
more times than I care to recall. In other words, you, the victim, must
prove to me, the ranking rabbi, that his abusive pattern has not been
broken.
A cost-benefit analysis in human souls. He may have
problems, but they are outweighed by the benefits he brings to the
Jewish people. "Yes, I've heard the rumors," said Rabbi Lanner's
superior in 1974, "but Baruch does so much good."
Of course, all
these reactions are deflections, for reasons that range from
collegiality to outright self-interest. But the result is the same:
inaction that leaves the abuser in place.
What about recent
complaints? Wouldn't the rabbinate have been forced to consider them
seriously? They might have, but there were next to none (with the
notable exception of the two brave young women bringing suit today),
because younger women tend not to complain about sexual abuse by their
rabbi while it is going on, nor in the years immediately following. It
takes time to come to terms with what has happened, and to have the
confidence to come forward.
In sum, that's how this happened, and
that's why these tragedies will happen again. If complaints are made,
no one wants to hear them. At best, when there are enough victims and
they are disgusted enough with the inaction and the stonewalling, they
go to the press. Then there's expose and scandal. And then one abuser is
stopped.
The problem is there are other rabbis to whom suspicion
and accusation cling tenaciously. As with Rabbi Lanner, "everyone
knows" about their past actions. And tragically, as with Rabbi Lanner,
the automatic responses are in place. The rabbis speak with legalistic
insistence: prove it or I will not take your complaint seriously. The
number of complaints fails to impress, the similarity of abusive detail
is seen as unremarkable.
Have we abdicated all responsibility for
the moral standards of our teachers and decided to rely on the press to
safeguard our children?
Allow me to suggest an alternative: a
monitoring committee comprised of religious leaders who are above moral
reproach and professionals in psychological services. The committee
would provide the following:
- A
list of clear norms and guidelines for the behavior of clergymen.
Non-Orthodox rabbinical groups have drawn up such rules, so should the
Orthodox. Standards must be stricter than in normal male-female
situations due to the inherent inequality in the clergy-student and
clergy-congregant relationship.
- A
safe address for victims to report abuse in a setting that offers
complete confidentiality and support, and which does not compromise
their dignity.
- A
mechanism to investigate reports of abuse. Where there are persistent
allegations of misconduct, there is probably a problem. (And of course,
if a rabbi is accused unfairly, a search will allow his name to be
cleared.) Instead of expecting the victim to "prove" allegations, the
committee would hire professionals to thoroughly investigate the
situation.
- More
flexible standards for "conviction." If there are strong indications of
abuse but no ironclad proof, the victims and potential victims, not the
accused, must be given the benefit of the doubt. Many victims never
speak out. Some are loath to revisit the trauma they have experienced,
while others are dogged by an unremitting sense of fear. For these
reasons, second-hand testimony should be taken very seriously in the
decision-making process.
- Decisive
action. If found guilty, the rabbi must be barred permanently from
Jewish education. There has been a persistent refusal to take such
action from a sense of compassion and concern for the offending rabbi.
Also, the revocation of rabbinic ordination of abusive rabbis should be
given serious consideration.
- Education of our children to identify and respond to warning signs.
- Education
of new rabbis. Those granting ordination must be sure their students
are not just intellectually prepared to be spiritual leaders but are
psychologically and emotionally up to the task as well. If problems are
spotted, counseling should be offered. If problems are not correctable,
these candidates must not be granted ordination.
While
I am grateful and relieved that Baruch Lanner has finally been exposed,
I feel the need to sound the alarm: The manner in which he was
dismissed does not bode well for our future. Public expose and scandal
are symptoms of a breakdown of all forms of prevention and correction
within our community. The responsibility is ours to work with vigilance,
sensitivity and integrity in preventing — and if that fails, in rooting
out — abusers in rabbinical positions.
There are many innocent
souls counting on us to protect them. Let us make sure that the
three-decade long, now infamous Lanner affair will prove to be the last
time we have failed our children. n
Judy Klitsner teaches Bible at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies and lives in Jerusalem.
___________________________________________________________________________________
CNN - Rome: Cardinals Meet to Remedy Sex Scandal in U.S. Catholic Church
CNN Transcript - Aired April 23, 2002
SAVIDGE:
But the suspect in no priest. Rabbi Baruk Lanner, by just about all
accounts, was an extremely charismatic and effective teacher/motivator
credited with drawing teens to Judaism like no one else could. For over
30 years, he was a national youth group leader for the Orthodox Union.
GARY
ROSENBLATT, EDITOR, JEWISH WEEK: But the alleged darker side was that
he was a very controlling person and abusive in many ways.
SAVIDGE:
Despite numerous complaints from students and parents of the Rabbi's
sexual impropriety, dating back to the '70s, leaders of the Orthodox
Union chose to ignore or simply disbelieve, leading an eventual
investigative commission to report: "It was a widely held view that the
good being done by Lanner for the organization outweighed the negative
effects of his bad behavior."
Editor Gary Rosenblatt finally
broke the story in the Jewish Week newspaper of New York, after talking
with Jews claiming to be the rabbi's victims.
ROSENBLATT: I spoke
to dozens who each would tell me that they know of many others. So I
think it's fair to say that in some way or another, he had an abusive
relationship or effect on hundreds of teenagers.
SAVIDGE: Marcy
Lenk says she was one of those teens. She's angriest most, not with the
Rabbi, but with the leaders in the Orthodox Union.
LENK: If they
had stopped him, first of all, many, many more students would not have
been hurt by him, but also they would have stood up for real Jewish
values.
SAVIDGE: Lanner resigned the day after the story went
public, and now faces trial in New Jersey. His attorney declined to go
on camera, but did say: "Rabbi Lanner strenuously denies violating any
criminal code or committing any act of sexual abuse." The Orthodox Union
has implemented major changes and apologized.
RABBI HERSH
WEINREB, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, ORTHODOX UNION: We should have
responded much sooner than we did and much more firmly than we did.
SAVIDGE: Experts say no faith is immune to sex scandals.
PROFESSOR
THOMAS PLANTE, SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY: Approximately two to five
percent of clergy, regardless of religious tradition, has had a sexual
experience with a minor.
SAVIDGE (on camera): Despite their
suffering, victims often say that they never lost their religious faith.
What was lost was their faith in religious leaders. Martin Savidge,
CNN, New York.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Pressure Builds on O.U. Ahead of Rabbi's Sex Abuse Trial
By NACHA CATTAN
FORWARD - APRIL 26, 2002
With
the sex abuse trial of former Orthodox Union youth group leader Rabbi
Baruch Lanner set to start June 3, alleged victims are claiming that the
organization has not done enough to address the scandal.
Several
of Lanner's alleged victims say the O.U. has yet to apologize
officially or accept blame for failing to remove Lanner, who allegedly
abused dozens of young people over a 30-year period as the director of
regions of the union's National Conference of Synagogue Youth.
They
are also calling on the O.U. to announce publicly that it will,
regardless of the outcome of Lanner's legal trial, stand by the
conclusions of a special commission appointed by the organization which
determined that Lanner had been sexually, physically and emotionally
"abusive."
The union was generally praised for the recent
appointment of Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb as the its top professional and
for several recent reorganizational steps. But with the national media
often invoking the Lanner case in their reports on the spreading sexual
abuse and cover-up scandal in the Catholic Church, several critics claim
that the organization still seems more worried about protecting its
reputation than in making redress to current youth group members and
Lanner's alleged victims.
"The O.U. is more concerned with being
sued than with any sense of justice or decency or caring about the
victims," said Marcie Lenk, a doctoral candidate in religion at Harvard
University. Lenk alleges that when she was a teenager active in NCSY in
New Jersey, Lanner constantly made lewd comments to her, and would rub
up against her while they passed through doorways.
"The O.U.
should be saying, 'The trial is irrelevant,'" said Rabbi Yosef Blau,
spiritual counselor to students at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological
Seminary at Yeshiva University. "They should say, 'We accept the report.
We recognize all these people are victims and whatever happens in this
trial will not change the fact that this man will have nothing to do
with Jewish children.'"
In response to the complaints, O.U.
President Harvey Blitz said, "I have apologized on behalf of myself and
the organization many times. Maybe I haven't captured the right words,
but I've tried to convey a deep felt sorrow and regret over what
happened. We should have responded to what we knew quicker and more
firmly as an organization. We have organizational responsibility for
what happened."
Richard Joel, chair of the special commission and
an outspoken critic of the way the O.U. initially handled the scandal,
came to the organization's defense.
"The O.U. is really en route
to taking serious steps to see that [such abuses] do not recur. I don't
think there should be any fear that Baruch Lanner will be back at work
at the O.U. or anywhere else," said Joel, who is also president and
international director of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.
"I made a statement a few months ago that I'm impatient, but I know
what it takes to evolve a culture of an organization, and I think they
should be given an opportunity to move to their next step."
Lanner,
who resigned from NCSY in 2001, has pleaded innocent to charges that he
fondled two female students while principal of Hillel Yeshiva in
Monmouth County, N.J.
Several alleged victims and their
supporters worry that if Lanner is acquitted in the trial, which focuses
only on the charges brought by the two girls, he will challenge the
findings of the O.U. commission, which stated that Lanner "engaged in a
pattern of inappropriate and abusive behavior (emotional, physical, and
sexual) towards a number of NCSY students." Critics want the O.U. to
state publicly that it will stand by the commission's report even if
Lanner is found not guilty.
Asked whether the O.U. should make
such a statement, Joel said, "Frankly, I think it's important to
distance the way the Jewish community deals with the issue of Jewish
education from the particulars of the trial involving Baruch Lanner."
Critics
of the O.U. say that fears of potential lawsuits have prevented the
organization from issuing an adequate apology and accepting
responsibility for the scandal.
"Their general apologies are very
carefully worded so as not to presume any guilt on their part," Lenk
said. "Many people are still in power in the O.U. who were vehicles
through whom Lanner was able to hurt people."
"There may be lawsuits to force them to take responsibility," Lenk said. Asked if she plans to sue, Lenk said, "We'll see."
Weinreb,
the O.U.'s executive vice president, told the Forward that his
organization is committed to following the commission's recommendation
regardless of the court's verdict. "The Lanner trial, whatever its
outcome, will not affect our commitment to zero tolerance of any kind of
abuse," Weinreb said. "We stand by the commission report."
But
another of Lanner's alleged victims, Elie Hiller, from the northern New
Jersey township of Teaneck, is not impressed with the steps taken by the
O.U.
"There are a lot of apologetic words but no accountability
for their actions and inactions," Hiller said, referring to public
apologies from Blitz.
In one letter sent by O.U. to complainants
who spoke with the special commission, the organization stated, "We
apologize from the depths of our hearts and souls. And as an expression
of this regret, we pledge to attempt to learn from the past."
Hiller
derided the apology as insufficient. "That's like me hitting you over
the head with a baseball bat and saying I'm sorry you're hurt instead of
I'm sorry I harmed you," Hiller said.
Several of the commission
recommendations have already been implemented, including the appointment
of a neutral ombudsman and ombudswoman to receive complaints of abuse.
Local commissions are being established to give parents a greater say in
how the youth group is run and group leaders have been receiving
training in a variety of areas related to abuse prevention.
But
Blau has already called into question the neutrality of the newly
appointed ombudswoman. Blau complained that she previously worked as a
school psychologist at Manhattan Day School under Rabbi David
Kaminetsky, who was the principal at the time and is now the national
director of NCSY.
Kaminetsky responded: "She's absolutely
independent. There's no relationship now. I have 30 years of experience
in the field and contact with many other people. We chose her because we
knew she could do the job."
___________________________________________________________________________________
Orthodox Rabbi Issues Warning on Sexual Abuse
Says Community Needs To Learn From Catholic Church Scandal
By AMI EDEN
FORWARD - MAY 3, 2002
The
rabbi of a prominent Manhattan synagogue is using the occasion of the
Catholic Church's sex scandal to warn that Orthodox institutions are
often "dismissive" of abuse complaints.
Rabbi Ari Berman, the
religious leader of the Jewish Center, a well-heeled Modern Orthodox
congregation on the Upper West Side, issued the warning last weekend
during a Saturday morning sermon. Berman said the Orthodox community
needs to learn from the sex abuse scandal racking the Catholic Church.
While asserting that sexual abuse cases are far more common in the
Catholic community than in Orthodox circles, Berman criticized Orthodox
institutions for dismissing many of the claims that do arise in their
own backyard.
"Perhaps in the outside world there might be an
exaggerated tendency to launch a witch hunt, to fire people and
prosecute immediately," said Berman, whose predecessors at the Jewish
Center include Rabbi Norman Lamm, president of Yeshiva University, and
Rabbi J.J. Schachter, dean of a Modern Orthodox think tank in Brookline,
Mass. "But in the Orthodox world we have the opposite tendency: to
circle the wagons and deny wrongdoing. The concern for the reputation of
the teacher or school is given greater weight than the child's words."
Berman's
sermon comes as American Jews are struggling to understand the
ramifications of the church's sex scandal for their own religious
institutions. It also comes as the most prominent Orthodox organization
in America, the Orthodox Union, attempts to recover from its own sex
scandal involving Rabbi Baruch Lanner, a popular leader of its youth
group, the National Council of Synagogue Youth.
An independent
commission set up by the O.U. determined that the organization had
failed to act on complaints about Lanner, who allegedly abused dozens of
students over 30 years. In his sermon, Berman said that allegations of
sex abuse were not limited to Lanner and had not disappeared in the wake
of the O.U. scandal.
"Just a short time ago, a much publicized
case of abuse and negligence in the Modern Orthodox world raised this
issue in the public consciousness," Berman said, in an apparent
reference to the Lanner scandal. "I wish I could say that these were the
only cases that I have heard in our community, but they are not. There
are others, and some with tragic endings."
To hammer home his
point, Berman told the story of a pre-teen child who claimed he had been
molested by a rabbi at summer camp. According to Berman, even though
the rabbi had been the subject of previous complaints, the camp rejected
the allegation, and a teacher at the child's school told the student
"to stop making up stories, to forget about it and to move on." The
family was ostracized, Berman said, and had trouble enrolling the child
in another school.
Rabbi Steven Dworken, executive vice president
of the Modern Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America, argued that
Orthodox sensitivity to sex abuse has greatly improved since the Lanner
scandal became public almost two years ago. He cited one Orthodox school
that, when faced with a credible complaint just a few months ago,
immediately fired the teacher, contacted law enforcement authorities and
supplied the student in question with psychological counseling.
"The
Lanner incident really awoke and sensitized the community," said
Dworken, whose group represents more than 1,000 Orthodox rabbis. "We are
surely more sensitized now than five years ago. You don't think that
the entire world is more sensitized since the Catholic Church scandal?
Unfortunately it takes such a scandal to sensitize people."
Meanwhile,
Rabbi Avi Shafran, spokesman for Agudath Israel of America, a leading
ultra-Orthodox group, said leaders of his community have no tolerance
for sex abuse, and that those who commit such acts are blackballed from
holding educational positions.
But Rabbi Yosef Blau, a religious
adviser to students at Yeshiva University and harsh critic of the O.U.'s
handling of the complaints against Lanner, argued that in both the
Modern Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox worlds, organizations still do not
adequately respond to sex abuse complaints. He acknowledged, however,
that some progress has been made, with several prominent rabbis,
including the O.U.'s new professional head, Rabbi Zvi Hersh Weinreb,
instructing followers to bring sex abuse complaints to law enforcement
agencies.
Many rabbis, especially older ones, simply find it hard
to believe that any of their colleagues would sexually abuse children,
said Blau, who sat on a three-person rabbinical court that decided not
to take severe action against Lanner in 1989. But, Blau said, after
hearing additional complaints and learning more about sexual abuse, he
realized that he had made a mistake in not pushing for Lanner to be
barred from working with young people.
Blau said that even when
rabbis are dismissed or leave their job under suspicion, they often
manage to find educational work in another city. Blau said he is
strongly in favor of Berman's call for the creation of a "national
registry" for schools, camps and youth groups to check before hiring
staffers.
___________________________________________________________________________________
OU Standing By Lanner Report
On eve of sexual abuse trial, group says outcome doesn't change his `horrific behavior.'
By Gary Rosenblatt
The Jewish Week - Thursday, January 30, 2003 / 27 Shevat 5763
Whether
or not Rabbi Baruch Lanner is convicted of sexually assaulting two
former female students, leaders of the Orthodox Union — his employer for
three decades — assert the rabbi has a long history as an abuser of
teens and is not qualified to work with young people.
His trial
is set to start this week in Monmouth County, N.J., and could last
several weeks. Rabbi Lanner faces up to 33 years in jail if convicted on
all six counts — two each for aggravated criminal sexual assault,
criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Rabbi Baruch Lanner trial update - Jury selection under way in rabbi sex trial
Newsday - June 11, 2002
FREEHOLD, N.J. -- Jury selection got under way Tuesday in the sex abuse trial of a Bergen County rabbi.
Baruch
Lanner, 52, of Fair Lawn, faces two counts each of aggravated criminal
sexual contact, criminal sexual contact and child endangerment. The
alleged assaults occurred while he was a principal at Hillel High School
in Ocean Township.
The charges were filed last year after two
former female students claimed Lanner had assaulted them when they were
younger than 16. He claims they fabricated the charges because they had
conflicts with him while he ran the school in Monmouth County.
Lanner
faces up to 40 years in prison and $250,000 in fines if he's convicted
of molesting the girls. Prosecutors said he used "physical force or
coercion" to molest one girl between September 1992 and June 1994 and
the other between October 1996 and May 1997.
Jury selection will continue Wednesday. The trial is expected to last about two weeks.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Rabbi Baruch Lanner trial update - Day 1
Testimony to begin in trial of rabbi accused of molestation
Newsday - June 13 2002
June
13, 2002, 8:35 AM EDT FREEHOLD, N.J. -- Jury selection was completed in
the sex abuse trial of a Bergen County rabbi and testimony was to begin
Thursday. Baruch Lanner, 52, of Fair Lawn, faces two counts each of
aggravated criminal sexual contact, criminal sexual contact and child
endangerment. The alleged assaults occurred while he was a principal at
Hillel High School in Ocean Township. The charges were filed last year
after two former female students claimed Lanner had assaulted them when
they were younger than 16. He claims they fabricated the charges because
they had conflicts with him while he ran the school in Monmouth County.
"(Lanner) ruled the school as principal, and he essentially ruled with
authority that was unchallenged," Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor
Peter Boser told jurors on Wednesday. "With respect to these two young
women, he used that authority and he used that power to isolate,
intimidate them and abuse them." Defense attorney Tama Beth Kudman
countered that Lanner, 52, of Fair Lawn, did not have the privacy in his
office to commit such offenses. "Baruch Lanner did not do this," Kudman
told jurors. "The fact that there is an accusation is meaningless.
These girls were not touched." She said that Lanner's office, where the
inappropriate touching allegedly happened, had three windows and no
blinds. His secretary could look directly into the office from her desk
and doors could not be locked from inside, said Kudman. Lanner faces up
to 40 years in prison and $250,000 in fines if he's convicted of
molesting the girls.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Responding to sexual abuse: Catholic problems are public, but Jews can't be complacent
Chicago Jewish Star - June 13, 2002
V.XII; N.262 p. 4 Word Count: 393
DURING
THE PAST SEVERAL WEEKS, CASES of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic
clergy have been given wide publicity. And it's not only the abusers, or
alleged abusers, who have been condemned; the conduct of those who knew
but covered up, or asked few questions and looked the other way, has
likewise been called into question. This is all as it should be.
It
was an unresponsive bureaucratic structure which heightened the agony
surrounding revelations about sexual abuse in the Catholic priesthood,
but just because Jews do not have such a structure does not mean that
sexual abuse does not appear in other, similar configurations.
Of course it does. And here are two book ends to the problem in the Jewish community.
Some
15 years ago, allegations began to be heard in Winnipeg, Manitoba,
about an American-born Orthodox rabbi who was molesting young girls. The
rumors continued, until a 17-year-old boy, who also claimed to have
been molested, committed suicide in Toronto in 1993. The charges had
been before the police at the time, and not long afterwards a CBC
television documentary reported on the case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks, and
on the way in which Jewish authorities had stone-walled concerned
parents.
More recently, in 2000 The New York Jewish Week reported
that for nearly two decades Rabbi Baruch Lanner, a youth worker with
the Orthodox Union, had allegedly been abusing teens -- sexually,
physically, and/or emotionally. when confronted with the results of a
meticulous investigation, and the failure of Jewish authorities to
respond, the OU declined to take serious measures (Jewish Star, March 9,
2001).
DURING THESE YEARS, THERE WAS A reluctance to seriously
treat the allegations of young people -- just like the response of
Catholic authorities. There was a desire to bury it within the organized
Jewish world -- just like within the Church. And there was a sometimes
innocent (but always misguided) fear that to bring the issue into the
open would constitute lashon ha'ra (gossip), and would bring into
disrepute religious authorities.
That sexual abuse should be a
problem in all communities is not a surprise. What is regrettable is
that evidence suggests that Jews and their organizations don't seem to
respond to it any better than others.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Ex-student tells jurors rabbi punished her for refusing sexual advances
Newsday - June 14, 2002
FREEHOLD,
N.J. -- A woman who graduated from a Monmouth County Jewish high school
told jurors Thursday that the rabbi who worked as principal made
repeated sexual advances then punished her when she rebuffed them.
During
her freshman and sophomore years, Rabbi Baruch Lanner put his arm
around the woman's shoulder and touched her breasts roughly four times
when they were alone together at the school, the woman testified. The
former student, now 23, also said the rabbi also called her at home and
made crude sexual remarks to her, then took her out of honors classes
when she told him to stop.
She said the rabbi "discredited" her among teachers and put her in detention for tardiness.
Under
cross-examination, the woman couldn't recall the exact comment Lanner
made nor explain specifically how he discredited her.
Lanner, 52,
is on trial on charges of aggravated criminal sexual contact, criminal
sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child involving two
female students at the Hillel Yeshiva in Ocean Township between 1992 and
1996. Both students were under 16 at the time the alleged incidents
occurred.
Lanner could face up to 40 years in jail if convicted. Testimony will resume Tuesday.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Ex-student of rabbi testifies about abuse; Intimidation, fondling citedBy TOM DAVIS
The Record (Bergen County, NJ) - Friday, June 14, 2002
FREEHOLD - A 23-year-old woman testified Thursday that a former Bergen County rabbi fondled her breasts and intimidated her during his tenure as a high school principal in Monmouth County.
The unidentified woman was the first to testify in the sexual misconduct trial of Baruch Lanner, a nationally known rabbi and former leader in an Orthodox youth group. But his lawyers immediately tried to discredit the testimony by Lanner's former student as contradictory.
"Rabbi Lanner engaged in lewd, crude telephone conversations, he touched your breast, and then you were willing to go to Israel ... with the man who molested you?" asked defense attorney Marvin Schecter.
Lanner, 52, a father of three who has lived in Paramus and Fair Lawn, is charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child. After two days of jury selection and opening arguments this week in Superior Court in Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Peter Boser said he plans to call a second accuser to the stand to recount Lanner's years of allegedly "inappropriate behavior."
Both were students of Lanner in the early to mid-1990s.
During opening arguments on Wednesday, Boser told the jurors he would prove that Lanner used his power "to isolate, intimidate them, and abuse" the female students when he was principal of Hillel Yeshiva in Ocean Township.
Tama Beth Kudman, another lawyer on Lanner's legal team, countered that he did not have the privacy in his office to commit such offenses.
The trial is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Tuesday, with more testimony from the 23-year-old witness. In previous court hearings, defense attorneys have complained that the alleged victims, now both in their 20s, have admitted suffering from psychological problems or exhibiting bizarre behavior in high school.
Lanner appeared confident but weary in Judge Paul Chaiet's courtroom Thursday as the trial proceeded before a jury of seven men and seven women. A crowd of Lanner's supporters - including his mother - and supporters of the victims filled the seats.
Chaiet has barred the media from publishing the names of the accusers, although he did allow television cameras in the courtroom - as long as the accuser's images were shielded from view.
For more than five hours Thursday, jurors heard testimony from the 23-year-old who attended the Hillel school between 1992 and 1996, when she graduated. Appearing nervous and somewhat guarded, she struggled to remember the details of her encounters with Lanner, admitting her memory is fuzzy.
She said the "inappropriate" conduct began when she was a freshman, in late 1992, and that Lanner encouraged her to telephone him as late as 9 p.m. at his office in the school. The woman, who said the commuting-weary rabbi would sometimes sleep in his school office, recalled that the initial conversations between the two were friendly and not inappropriate. But over time, they became more personal, she testified.
"He was suggesting engaging in sexual activity - not explicitly," she said.
The woman said her sister, who is eight years older, had a great relationship with Lanner and that she hoped to become active in the National Council of Synagogue Youth, where Lanner was director. He resigned two years ago when the allegations came to light.
The woman testified that when she told Lanner that she no longer wanted to have telephone conversations, the principal became "enraged.'' After that, he treated her poorly and gave her detention more times than she deserved, she said.
He also moved her out of a higher-track academic program, and tore up her application for a summer-study program he ran in Israel, the woman said.
The woman said Lanner used the detention as an opportunity to meet with her alone. "There were occasions where he'd speak to me really close, and I'd back up, but then he'd back me up against the wall," she said.
She then demonstrated to the jurors where Lanner allegedly wrapped his arm around her, and touched her breast.
Under cross-examination, the woman admitted that she received detention because she was habitually late. She also acknowledged that her poor grades were a factor in her transfer from a higher-track academic program.
Schecter was most aggressive in his cross-examination when the woman spoke of her attempts to join a summer study program in Israel, despite Lanner's role in the program. The woman said she didn't know he was involved.
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Sex abuse case goes to defense
Newsday - June 19, 2002
FREEHOLD, N.J. -- Lawyers for a rabbi charged with sexual abuse were expected to begin their defense Wednesday, one day after a woman testified that Rabbi Baruch Lanner molested her when he was principal of an Ocean County high school.
Lanner, 52, of Fair Lawn, is charged with two counts each of aggravated criminal sexual contact, criminal sexual contact and child endangerment between 1992 and 1997.
Lanner's attorneys have maintained their client's innocence.
A 21-year-old woman testified Tuesday that Lanner touched her breast, her legs and her inner thigh when she was a freshman at Hillel High School.
"He would rub his hand on my leg, just to cop a cheap feel," she said.
State Superior Court Judge Paul F. Chaiet ordered the news media not to identify the woman or her mother, who also testified.
The mother said she listened in on a phone call in which Lanner professed his love for her daughter.
"I was stunned. I was shocked," the mother said.
The next day, the mother confronted Lanner at the school. At first, he denied calling the girl, she said. Then he admitted that he had, but denied saying the things she claimed.
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Mother's rage was pointed at rabbi
Rabbi Baruch Lanner trial update - Day 3
By TOM DAVIS
The Star Ledger (New Jersey) - Wednesday, June 19, 2002
FREEHOLD - The mother of a 21-year-old woman testified Tuesday that she overheard a former Bergen County rabbi attempt to seduce her daughter in a telephone conversation about six years ago.
The mother, the third witness to testify in the sexual misconduct trial of Rabbi Baruch Lanner, said she was so enraged that she unleashed her fury the next day in the rabbi's office.
"I knew I was going to be quite loud and quite angry. I didn't want [my daughter] to be subjected to that," said the mother, who said she demanded to Lanner's secretaries, without success, that she address her complaints directly to the rabbi.
Lanner is a nationally known rabbi and a former leader in an Orthodox youth group and was the daughter's principal at theHilel Yeshiva in Ocean Towship.
Lanner, 52, a father of three who has lived in Paramus and Fair Lawn, is charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child. Tuesday was the second day of testimony in state Superior Court in Monmouth County. Judge Paul Chaiet has barred the media from publishing the names of the accusers in the trial, which began June 12.
On Tuesday, defense attorneys questioned the family's appearance on the Sally Jesse Raphael show, during which the daughter talked about her alleged encounter with the rabbi.
The daughter, who also testified Tuesday, said that her words were scripted but still true.
The daughter who was 14 at the time of the alleged abuse, was the second former student to testify. Like the first, she said the rabbi touched her on the breast.
Defense attorneys have complained that the alleged victims, now both in their 20s, have admitted suffering from psychological problems or exhibiting bizarre behavior in high school.
On Tuesday, the woman's mother testified that Lanner talked to her daughter on the telephone and told her that he loved her.
The mother said she was listening on another telephone that tapped into the same line.
The state rested its case Tuesday, and Lanner's attorneys will question witnesses beginning at 9 a.m. today.
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Secretary defends rabbi
By Tom Davis
The Star Ledger (New Jersey) - Thursday, June 20, 2002
Witnesses for Baruch Lanner say there was no sexual misconduct. (AP)
FREEHOLD - A secretary who once worked for a former Bergen County rabbi testified Wednesday that she never witnessed him touch teenage girls when he was principal of Hillel Yeshiva in Ocean Township.
Susan Snyder, testifying in the sexual misconduct trial of Baruch Lanner, contradicted two former students who accused the nationally known rabbi of sexual misconduct.
Snyder, Lanner's secretary from 1985 to 1997, said she could hear the rabbi's telephone conversations and never heard him utter a sexually inappropriate word. Two former students testified earlier that Lanner tried to seduce them in telephone discussions.
"I could hear what was going on," she testified in state Superior Court in Monmouth County. "The walls were made of glass. It was very thin."
Lanner, 52, a father of three who has lived in Paramus and Fair Lawn, is charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child.
The defense called six witnesses to testify Wednesday, all of whom were former employees or associates of the rabbi when he was principal of the yeshiva. He also was the leader of an Orthodox youth group.
The defense witnesses said they never saw Lanner behave in a sexually inappropriate way. They said the rabbi's office was accessible, and at least part of it was visible through an outside glass window.
Snyder also contradicted the mother of one of the rabbi's two accusers, who said she was so enraged by the rabbi's behavior that she complained, loudly and bitterly, in front of Snyder one day in Lanner's office.
"It was just pleasant chit-chat," Snyder said of the conversation.
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Women Detail Abuse By Lanner - Former students testify rabbi molested them in school
by Eric J. Greenberg The Jewish Week - June 21, 2002
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| Rabbi Baruch Laner at Trial |
Freehold, N.J. — She was 14 and an incoming freshman at a yeshiva high school in New Jersey. He was 45, a married rabbi with three children, and the principal of the yeshiva at the shore. He was also one of the most prominent Orthodox Jewish youth leaders in America.
Yet once a week, the rabbi would call the 14-year-old student at home, proclaiming his love and promising she would be his wife someday.
At school he would summon the teenager to his office, where he would grope her private parts while she sat powerless and disgusted.
That was the testimony from a New Jersey college student on Tuesday, as the trial of Rabbi Baruch Lanner, the former principal of the Hillel Yeshiva in Deal, N.J., entered its second week in Superior Court in Monmouth County.
The student, now 21, graphically detailed how her principal and religious mentor — she was affiliated at the time with the Orthodox youth group Rabbi Lanner helped lead — repeatedly molested her. She said the abuse took place in his office in 1995 for nearly the entire school year before she finally challenged him and was expelled.
The woman was the second of three witnesses — including her mother and a second female former Hillel student — who testified against Rabbi Lanner this week.
Judge Paul F. Chaiet has ruled that the media cannot publish the names of the two victims or the mother.
Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor Peter Boser rested the state's case on Tuesday.
Rabbi Lanner, 52, is charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact, criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child in the incidents involving the two women. If convicted, he could face up to 40 years in jail.
Rabbi Lanner's defense team was expected to begin calling witnesses Wednesday before a jury of seven men and seven women (two alternates). Contending that the abuses could not have occurred in Rabbi Lanner's office because of its lack of privacy, the defense planned to call school employees to testify the Venetian blinds in his office were always open and that they never saw or heard any disturbances there.
"That fishbowl of an office is not a private office," defense attorney Tama Kudman told the jury in opening statements last week.
The trial is expected to last another week.
The short, heavy-set rabbi with close-cropped hair and glasses is a former leader of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth, the largest Orthodox youth group in the nation. He was also principal at the Hillel Yeshiva for 15 years until he left quietly in 1997 amid rumors of his alleged misconduct.
Through nearly three hours of testimony and cross-examination, the student testified how the relationship with the rabbi began innocently with his offering to help her with personal and academic problems.
But she said Rabbi Lanner quickly moved to putting his hand around her shoulder, then rubbing her breast and thighs during private meetings after he summoned her to his office during the school day several times each week.
"I always thought he was a little creepy," said the woman, dressed in a white blouse, black slacks and black sweater.
In later testimony, the student's mother tearfully told jurors how she "was shocked" after first learning about the rabbi's advances. She said she overheard a phone conversation between her daughter and Rabbi Lanner in May 1996 in which he told the girl he loved her and pressured her to say she loved him.
The mother said she tried to discuss the incident with her daughter, "who was crying but wouldn't say a thing."
She tried to confront Rabbi Lanner the next day, the mother testified, and at first he refused to speak to her. He then denied he made the phone call, then said he made the call but did not say the things she alleged.
When the mother shouted at the rabbi and refused his demand that she leave, she said she was manhandled by two male school employees, one of whom was a rabbi and assistant principal.
Last week and early Tuesday, the first alleged victim, a 23-year-old woman — a former NCSY member and Hillel graduate — testified that when she was a student at the school, Rabbi Lanner touched her breast at least four times in his office during school hours. She said the principal also repeatedly called her at home when her parents weren't there and made crude sexual remarks.
The two students and the mother testified that it was an investigative report in The Jewish Week in June 2000 detailing a series of allegations of sexual, emotional and physical abuse against Rabbi Lanner by scores of former NCSY students that led them to contact New Jersey law enforcement officials and press charges. Rabbi Lanner was forced to resign from NCSY the day the first article was published.
Much of what the 21-year-old woman alleged in court this week was detailed in a Jewish Week article in July 2000 about her alleged abuse at the hands of Rabbi Lanner. On Tuesday, speaking in a clear voice in the small, wood-paneled courtroom, she recalled that her first day in high school was fine and the rabbi was "very nice and welcoming."
"The only unusual thing was he talked right up in my face," she said.
But almost immediately he began making sexual advances, she said, noting that Rabbi Lanner tried to convince her to become more observant and urged her to stay away from her parents because they weren't observant by Orthodox standards.
"If they weren't the solution, they were part of the problem," she quoted him as saying.
A couple of weeks into the school year, the physical contact began, she said.
"He would bring me in close," she testified. "He would put his arm around my shoulder."
That confused her, she said, because she was taught that Orthodox men and women aren't supposed to touch.
"I didn't say anything but I knew it was wrong," she testified.
She said during the one-on-one meetings in his office and elsewhere, Rabbi Lanner kept going further, trying to "cop a cheap feel" by stroking her legs, waist, breast area and inner thighs.
While she was testifying, Rabbi Lanner sat at the defense table with his three-person defense team. He mostly stared without expression at the young woman.
She testified that he repeatedly called her at home.
"The nature of the conversations was always the same: `You know how much I love you,' " she quoted the rabbi. " `One day you're going to be my wife.' "
She said she just "yessed him" to avoid conflict.
"Rabbi Lanner wasn't the type of person you talk back to," she said, stressing that he had a penchant for yelling at her. "He was a pretty scary guy."
But by May she confronted the rabbi in his office and a screaming match ensued.
"I just wasn't scared of him anymore," she said.
After the shouting, Rabbi Lanner "told me to get the hell out of his office."
She never told her parents about the situation, but she testified that she told Hillel vice principal Rabbi Steve Amon that Rabbi Lanner had acted inappropriately, without getting into specifics.
"He told me I probably did something wrong," she said.
In May 1995, the girl was expelled after cutting school and going to the local mall, where she shoplifted, she testified.
In cross-examination, defense attorney Julian Wilsey brought up her poor grades in her freshman year. The defense has sought to suggest that the accusers, who have admitted having had psychological problems, were seeking revenge on their former principal for punishing them academically.
The young women maintain that Rabbi Lanner's disciplinary actions came after they resisted his advances.
Last week, for example, the 23-year-old testified that when she finally told Rabbi Lanner to stop calling her at home, he punished her with detentions, transferred her out of the honors program and forced her out of NCSY — blocking her attempt to go on a trip to Israel.
Defense attorney Marvin Schecter asked why she sought to go to Israel on a group youth trip headed by a rabbi who had sexually harassed her. She said she did not know the rabbi would be leading the trip and that she wanted to go to Israel.
In contrast to her testimony, which seemed tentative at times and vague on specifics, the 21-year-old student spoke confidently and in detail about her encounters with the rabbi.
She revealed that she stopped attending morning prayers at Hillel, instead sneaking into the school gym to attend an "Atheist's Minyan" where rebellious students smoked marijuana and inhaled nitrous oxide cartridges, or laughing gas.
Her mother testified she sent her daughter to Hillel because she believed the yeshiva "would keep her as innocent as possible for as long as possible."
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Surprise witness in rabbi sex case - Additional testimony may aid prosecutionBy Tom Feeney
The Star-Ledger New Jersey - Friday, June 21, 2002
The rabbi accused of groping two high school students continued his defense yesterday, but the focus of his trial shifted to a surprise prosecution witness.
The witness -- who is not expected to take the stand until Tuesday -- contacted prosecutors this week to say one of the two students had complained to him during the mid-1990s that Rabbi Baruch Lanner had "sexually touched her" during a meeting in his office at the Hillel Yeshiva High School in Ocean Township, Monmouth County.
What's more, the man told prosecutors, he had shared the allegations with the rabbi who runs the New Jersey chapter of a large Orthodox Jewish youth group, the National Conference of Synagogue Youth.
Lanner, 52, of Fair Lawn, the principal at Hillel until 1997, is charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact, criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a minor for allegedly groping the two students, both now in their 20s, on numerous occasions between 1992 and 1996.
The prosecution's case has rested almost entirely on the testimony of the two students. The only other witness the prosecution called was the mother of one of the students. She testified in Superior Court in Freehold that she listened in on the phone one night while Lanner told her daughter, then a high school freshman, that he planned to one day make her his wife. The mother could not offer testimony about the sexual contact because her daughter didn't tell her about it until years later.
The existence of the corroborating witness became public yesterday during the testimony of Rabbi Matt Tropp, director of the New Jersey region of the NCSY and a self-described Lanner protégé.
Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Peter Boser asked Tropp whether the young man Edward Kline -- a contemporary of one of the victims -- had told him and another rabbi about the allegations against Lanner during an NCSY event in Elberon.
The jury was led out of the courtroom after defense attorneys objected to the line of questioning. In their absence, Boser explained to Superior Court Judge Paul Chaiet that Kline had come forward Tuesday evening, and that he planned to call him as a rebuttal witness when the defense rests its case. Chaiet allowed Boser to pursue the question.
Tropp acknowledged knowing Kline through the NCSY, but insisted Kline had never told him about the student's troubles with Lanner. Also,Tropp and another witness testified that Kline's family has been angry with NCSY leaders for kicking a younger brother out of the group.
Even if Kline had told Tropp about the allegations against Lanner, Tropp said, he would not have gone to the police. Unlike teachers and social workers, he said, youth group leaders have no legal obligation to report potential abuse to the Division of Family and Youth Services.
Tropp did say he would have felt a moral obligation to make a report, though not to the police.
"I would certainly have reported it to some authority, certainly my supervisors," he said during cross-examination.
"Your first instinct would be to not report it to law enforcement, is that right?" Boser asked.
"Correct," Tropp said.
"That's because it would be embarrassing to the organization to have such a prominent person accused of a crime?" Boser asked.
"Correct," Tropp responded.
The two Monmouth County cases that led to the criminal charges have been just the tip of the iceberg for Lanner. In June 2000, the Jewish Week newspaper published a story accusing the charismatic rabbi of sexually, verbally and physically abusing scores of teenagers in his roles both asNCSY leader and high school principal. The Orthodox Union -- the parent group of the NCSY -- appointed a panel to investigate Lanner. The panel's findings substantially confirmed the newspaper's report.
The panel criticized the Orthodox Union for not taking more aggressive action against Lanner when complaints were filed earlier in his 28-year career.
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Accused rabbi's attorney calls charges 'fiction'
By Tom Davis
The Star Ledger (New Jersey) - Wednesday, June 26, 2002
FREEHOLD - Defense attorneys told a Monmouth County jury Tuesday that testimony accusing a former Bergen County rabbi of sexual misconduct is riddled with "inconsistencies" and "fiction."
"There can only be one decision in this case. It must be an acquittal," defense attorney Marvin Schechter said during closing arguments of the six-day-old sexual misconduct trial of Baruch Lanner.
Assistant Prosecutor Peter Boster countered that the testimony of Lanner's two female accusers proved the rabbi was "gratifying himself, and he was intimidating and degrading" students when he was principal of Hillel Yeshiva in Ocean Township in the early to mid-Nineties.
A final jury of 12 will be chosen from among the seven men and seven women who have heard the case. The 12 will begin deliberations over Lanner's fate this morning.
Lanner, 52, a father of three who has lived in Paramus and Fair Lawn, is charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child.
Superior Court Judge Paul Chaiet sent the jury home Tuesday after nearly five hours of testimony and dramatic closing arguments from Boser and Schechter.
Schechter attacked testimony from the prosecutor's rebuttal witness, Edward Kline, a friend of a 23-year-old woman who testified earlier that Lanner touched her inappropriately on several occasions. Kline took the stand early Tuesday and said the alleged victim told him of the incidents while she was attending Hillel between 1992 and 1996.
He also said he told Rabbi Matthew Tropp, the regional director for the National Conference of Synagogue Youths, about the incident but Tropp brushed him off. Lanner was a part of NCSY's national leadership in the early Nineties.
Schechter noted that Tropp testified last Thursday that Kline never reported the allegation to him. "Ed Kline lied," he said. "Ed Kline lied to you under oath. That's never easy."
Boser, however, argued that Tropp was a close friend of Lanner and would never say anything that would incriminate the rabbi. Lanner's charisma and hot-tempered personality, he said, "intimidated and controlled" people like Tropp.
"Baruch Lanner had absolute control," Boser said. "He knew he was going to be unquestioned."
Schechter also attacked the testimony of Lanner's two female accusers - one now 23, the other 21. Both were teenagers when the alleged sexual misconduct took place, and both testified during the first two days of the trial. Chaiet has barred the media from publishing their names.
The defense attorney told the jury that both students had poor academic and disciplinary records, but both remain angry that Lanner tried to force them to do better.
Schechter noted that the 23-year-old testified that Lanner moved her out of a higher-track program because, she believed, she resisted his sexual advances. But the attorney held up a transcript documenting her poor academic record that he said was the actual reason for her transfer.
"You know on television there's always that moment when they reveal the smoking gun?" Schechter said. "Well, it never happens. Except in this trial, it happens."
Boser, on the other hand, dismissed Schechter's suggestion that the two accusers had any motive other than bringing to justice a man whose years of sexual misconduct went undetected.
He noted that both did not feel comfortable in approaching prosecutors with their accusations until 2000 - four years after they left the school.
Boser questioned whether its possible for the two women to hold a grudge over disciplinary actions taken against them for so long.
"You absolutely have to evaluate the credibility of the two women in this case," he said, suggesting that something as major as sexual misconduct would cause them to take action. "Did these women decide four years after they were free from his influence that they were going to pay him back?"
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