____________________________________________________________________________________
Statement from President Richard M. Joel in Response to Allegations of Past Abuse
By Rabbi Richard M. Joel
Yeshiva University - December 13, 2012
http://blogs.yu.edu/news/2012/12/13/statement-from-president-joel/
Dear Yeshiva University Community,
The safety and well-being of our students is Yeshiva University’s
highest priority. The inappropriate behavior and abuse alleged by The Forward to have taken place in the past, and described in statements attributed by The Forward
to Dr. Lamm, are reprehensible. The actions described represent heinous
and inexcusable acts that are antithetical both to Torah values and to
everything that Yeshiva University stands for. They have no place here,
in our community, or anywhere at all. The thought that such behavior
could have occurred at our boys’ high school, or anywhere at this
institution, at any time in its past, is more than sufficient reason to
express on behalf of the University, my deepest, most profound apology.
At this institution we continually review and strengthen policies and
practices addressing the safety of all members of the Yeshiva family.
We are vigilant and responsible, and always will be. While we cannot
change the past, I can say with absolute certainty that Yeshiva
University has implemented, and will continue to maintain and enforce
the policies and procedures necessary to assure a safe environment. Such
policies and procedures, established in consultation with outside
experts, include:
- At each and every one of YU’s schools, including Yeshiva University
High School for Boys, there is zero tolerance for abuse or sexual
harassment of any sort, of students, faculty or staff. If, despite our
best efforts, they should occur, procedures exist both to swiftly deal
with the perpetrators and aid the victims. These policies are posted on
our website and are communicated directly to all employees annually.
- Members of our own faculty and staff, at every level, undergo
training designed to increase sensitivity to these issues, including
mandatory training for new hires concerning sexual harassment.
- Students are encouraged to report any incidents of abuse to the
University administration and should feel safe knowing that their
security is our number one concern. A hotline exists to enable
confidential reporting of such complaints. The hotline number is
866-447-5052.
Yeshiva University’s many programs in this area for rabbis, teachers,
care providers, community leaders, parents and children widely impact
the broader Jewish community:
- The Comprehensive Abuse Response Education (CARE) program at YU’s
Institute for University-School Partnership works with day schools
around the country to keep children safe in their schools by addressing
abuse issues with research, training and consultation.
- YU’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration
offers a NYS workshop and certification in preventing and identifying
child abuse.
- Members of our faculty advocate on behalf of victims of child abuse;
consult and advise around the world, including with child protective
service organizations, and in communities across the spectrum; and
present educational programs designed to prevent abuse both to parents
and children.
- A curriculum developed at YU’s Center for the Jewish Future called
“Life Values and Intimacy Education: Health Education for the Jewish
School,” is now taught in grades 3-8 in many day schools around
theUnited States.
- CJF offers continuing educational programs to rabbis and rebbetzins,
including a certificate program, to help them recognize and address all
forms of abuse in their communities.
- Before embarking on service learning and experiential education
missions where they will work with children, students are taught to
recognize warning signs of child abuse and to refer concerns to
appropriate authorities.
- All candidates for ordination at YU’s affiliated Rabbi Isaac
Elchanan Theological Seminary are required to complete a course that
addresses the role of rabbis in preventing and identifying child abuse.
Additional related coursework, including simulation, is required for
students planning to become congregational rabbis or chaplains.
Anyone who may have suffered harm is invited to contact us in confidence. By emailing yucounseling@yu.edu,
counseling resources of the University will be made available to you,
and I welcome the opportunity to personally and confidentially discuss
any issues with anyone who may have suffered harm. I can be reached at president@yu.edu or (212) 960-5300.
Thank God, communities across the nation are well aware of these
issues today, and hopefully address them appropriately. At Yeshiva
University we are committed to our sacred obligation to ensure that best
practices are set and followed on our own campuses, and to play a key
role in the broader community in keeping our most precious resource, our
children, safe from harm.
Sincerely,
Richard M. Joel
President and Bravmann Family University Professor
_______________________________________________________________________________
Former Students Recall Alleged Sexual Abuse at Yeshiva High School
By
Joe Coscarelli
New York Magazine - December 13, 2012
A new investigation by the Jewish Daily Forward unearths upsetting sexual abuse allegations
by former students at the Yeshiva University High School for Boys in
Manhattan at the hands of two faculty members decades ago, as well as a
disturbing lack of action on the part of the school. According to men
who attended the 116-year-old institution in the late seventies and
early eighties, former teacher Rabbi Macy Gordon and and former
principal Rabbi George Finkelstein repeatedly engaged in inappropriate
conduct with young boys, including wrestling with sexual undertones and,
in one case, alleged sodomy with a toothbrush.
Current president Richard Joel told the Forward
in a statement that the school is "looking with concern into the
questions" raised by the article, but the school's leadership at the
time of the alleged abuses had a far more accepting attitude of the
charges. Norman Lamm, president of the school from 1976 to 2003 and now
its chancellor, said although he knew about the allegations, police were
never notified. "My question was not whether to report to police but to
ask the person to leave the job," he said. "This was before things of
this sort had attained a certain notoriety. There was a great deal of
confusion."
The
charges, and their bungled handling in the days before Penn State and
abuse by the Catholic Church, mirror those that surfaced earlier this
year at New York City's hallowed Horace Mann school.
"I don't really remember exactly how it happened, but he [Gordon]
wound up looking to see where I was developing physically," one of the
alleged victims recalled, claiming he was then violated sexually. Gordan
told the Forward he had heard "various forms of [the sodomy accusation] before" but had "no recollection of such a thing."
Three men also told the Forward that Finkelstein crossed
the line with them, often inviting them to wrestle in private. "You
could tell what was going on in his pants," one said. "It wasn't just a
wrestling match." The educator defended himself, admitting to the
play-fighting but insisting, "There was never any sexual anything that
was involved," and adding, "That's what the boys did with each other."
"When
the institution is more important than the people, then
what's the point of the institution anyway?" said one victim recently,
according to the in-depth investigation. "It's too late for justice, but
it would be interesting to see some of this come to light."
_______________________________________________________________________________
Advisory Board - Council of Young Israel Rabbis in Israel
The Awareness Center's Daily Newsletter - December 13, 2012
http://www.youngisraelrabbis.org.il/about.htm
Note that both Rabbi Macy Gordon and Rabbi George Finkelstein are listed as members of this advisory board. Both are alleged sexual predators, who moved from New York to Israel
 |
| Both Rabbi Macy Gordon and Rabbi David Finkelstein are alleged Sex Offenders |
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Yeshiva U. Apologizes Over Alleged Abuse
By Paul Berger
Forward - December 13, 2012
 |
Rabbi Richard Joel
|
Yeshiva University President Richard Joel has issued a statement of apology in response to a Forward story
describing how Y.U. failed to report claims of child abuse made against
staff members during the 1970s and ‘80s.
Joel’s statement, released this morning, offered victims who were
allegedly abused by members of YU’s faculty and administration “my
deepest, most profound apology.”
The Forward investigation into allegations that two
staff members at a Manhattan boys high school run by Y.U. sexually
abused students led to a startling admission by the university’s
chancellor Rabbi Norman Lamm: The school dealt with allegations of
“improper sexual activity” against staff members by quietly allowing
them to leave and find jobs elsewhere.
For years, former students have asked Y.U. to
investigate their claims that a former principal at Yeshiva University
High School for Boys, in Manhattan, Rabbi George Finkelstein had
repeatedly abused students in the all-male high school. Another former
high school student said Y.U. covered up for a staff member, Rabbi Macy
Gordon, who sodomized him.
Joel’s statement tracks very closely with a statement issued to the Forward on December 3.
In the previous statement, Joel expressed his “deepest, most profound regret.” Now, that word has changed to “apology.”
The statement reads, in part: “The inappropriate
behavior and abuse alleged by The Forward to have taken place in the
past, and described in statements attributed by The Forward to Dr. Lamm,
are reprehensible. The actions described represent heinous and
inexcusable acts that are antithetical both to Torah values and to
everything that Yeshiva University stands for. They have no place here,
in our community, or anywhere at all. The thought that such behavior
could have occurred at our boys’ high school, or anywhere at this
institution, at any time in its past, is more than sufficient reason to
express on behalf of the University, my deepest, most profound apology.”
_______________________________________________________________________________
Report of ’80s Sexual Abuse Rattles Yeshiva Campus
By Vivian Yee
New York Times - November 13, 2012
 |
| Yeshiva
University says it will review newly published claims that it had
ignored accusations that teachers abused its high school’s students long
ago. |
A tall, imposing rabbi with a black goatee who served as assistant
principal and principal during his 27 years at Yeshiva University High
School for Boys, George B. Finkelstein was the face of authority to
Mordechai Twersky, who graduated in 1981.
So when Rabbi Finkelstein asked Mr. Twersky to “hit him hard” during a
meeting in his office in 1980, Mr. Twersky said in an interview on
Thursday, he was mortified. When Mr. Twersky refused, the rabbi knocked
him to the ground and sat on him, goading him to wrestle. He could feel
the rabbi’s erection, Mr. Twersky, now 48, said.
Mr. Twersky’s account was published Thursday on the Web site of The Jewish Daily Forward,
which also reported that another former student said that in the same
year, when he was 16, the Talmud teacher, Rabbi Macy Gordon, visited him
in his dormitory room. Rabbi Gordon inspected his genitalia, the
student told The Forward. Then he sodomized him with a toothbrush.
Both rabbis have denied engaging in any inappropriate sexual behavior.
Rabbi Gordon’s accuser said his parents had complained to
administrators, who promised action but did nothing. Several years
later, Mr. Twersky, who said he wrestled with Rabbi Finkelstein twice
more, also raised concerns with administrators, and several other
students also complained about the rabbi’s wrestling. Yet administrators
of Yeshiva University, the prestigious
Modern Orthodox institution in Washington Heights that runs the high
school, allowed each man to simply leave.
 |
| Rabbi Norman Lamm |
The university president from 1976 to 2003, Norman Lamm, who is now its chancellor, told The Forward that he never notified the police.
Dr. Lamm told the paper that when the school received complaints of
sexual activity involving the staff, “if it was an open-and-shut case,”
he would just let the staff member “go quietly.”
“It was not our intention or position to destroy a person without further inquiry,” he said.
“This was before things of this sort had attained a certain notoriety,” he added. “There was a great deal of confusion.”
In 1995, after administrators confronted Rabbi Finkelstein about the
wrestling, the rabbi “decided to leave because he knew we were going to
ask him to leave,” Dr. Lamm told the newspaper. The rabbi became the
dean of Samuel Scheck Hillel Community Day School in North Miami Beach,
Fla. Yeshiva did not notify the school about the accusations, Dr. Lamm
told The Forward, and the school never asked.
Officials of the Florida school did not respond on Thursday to questions about Rabbi Finkelstein.
Rabbi Finkelstein eventually moved to Israel, where he served as the
director general of the Jerusalem Great Synagogue, and is now its ritual
director. To The Forward, he acknowledged wrestling with students “as a
way of trying to remove the distance between students and faculty,” but
said the physical contact was not sexual.
Around the time the Jerusalem synagogue hired him, rumors reached
synagogue leaders about the rabbi’s inappropriate conduct, said Zalli
Jaffe, the synagogue’s vice president, in an e-mail on Thursday. Mr.
Jaffe said the synagogue’s president contacted a “very high authority”
at Yeshiva, “who denied the charges outright.”
The same allegations of sexual abuse resurfaced about four years ago,
but the synagogue accepted Rabbi Finkelstein’s declarations of innocence
because no charges had been filed. (Even if the police were to
investigate the men today, criminal charges would be unlikely because
the accusations described in The Forward happened too long ago under New
York’s statutes of limitations.)
“Naturally the synagogue will carefully study the article and we will
take advise in this matter, so we can conduct ourselves as befitting the
Great Synagogue,” Mr. Jaffe wrote.
Rabbi Gordon retired from Yeshiva in 1984 and moved to Israel, and both
he and Rabbi Finkelstein serve on an advisory board for the Council of
Young Israel Rabbis in Jerusalem.
In an interview from his home on Thursday, Rabbi Gordon denied the
allegations and asked to know the identity of his accuser.
“I heard the rumors years ago, but they’re simply rumors,” he said. “If I
give it any credence at all, it is as an attempt by a disgruntled
student to cast aspersions on a former teacher.”
Dr. Lamm would not comment on Thursday. In a statement, Richard Joel,
Yeshiva’s president, apologized and promised to remain vigilant in the
future.
“The inappropriate behavior and abuse alleged by The Forward to have
taken place in the past, and described in statements attributed by The
Forward to Dr. Lamm, are reprehensible,” Mr. Joel’s statement said.
A Yeshiva spokesman added, “We are conducting an investigation into the
allegations, and until that investigation is completed, it would not be
appropriate to comment beyond what we have already said.”
On Thursday, as the news spread across the campus shared by the
university and the high school, Rabbi Hershel Schachter, 71, said he
knew of another staff member who was dismissed for inappropriate
behavior with students around the same time. He also said he once knew a
university student who said Rabbi Finkelstein had touched him
inappropriately, but was afraid to speak out.
Mr. Twersky, now a journalist in Jerusalem, says he threatened to sue in
2000 unless Dr. Lamm publicly apologized or offered compensation, but
was rebuffed. A Yeshiva official had said Rabbi Finkelstein’s
“condition” would be treated, but nobody at Yeshiva reached out to
victims, Mr. Twersky said.
“It dawned upon me that I had not merely been wrestled with and
violated, but knowingly abandoned by the high school leadership,” he
said Thursday.
That approach was not unusual for the time; an article in The New York Times Magazine
in June described how teachers of the prestigious Horace Mann School in
the Riverdale section of the Bronx had behaved inappropriately with
students around the same era. By the late 1980s, several high-profile
cases involving schools and youth organizations had begun to raise
awareness of sexual abuse, said David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes
Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.
Before then, however, “the so-called passing the trash style of handling
these events was very, very widespread,” he said.
Rabbi Schachter said he thought both administrators and students now
were less likely to sweep such issues aside: “The students are different
students now; they would open their mouths. Years ago, students were
quieter.”
Randy Leonard contributed reporting.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Yeshiva University president apologizes for '70s and '80s molest allegations
New York Daily News - December 13, 2012
By Reuven Blau and Rachel Monahan
THE PRESIDENT of Yeshiva University apologized Thursday over
allegations two rabbis at the college’s high school campus abused boys
in the late 1970s and early ’80s.
Yeshiva was repeatedly notified that a Talmud teacher, Rabbi Macy
Gordon, and a former principal, Rabbi George Finkelstein, abused
students, alums of the High School for Boys told the Jewish newspaper
the Forward.
University President Richard Joel stopped short of confirming the
allegations but called the abuse described in published reports “heinous
and inexcusable.”
“The thought that such behavior could have occurred at our boys’ high
school, or anywhere at this institution, at any time in its past, is
more than sufficient reason to express on behalf of the University, my
deepest, most profound apology,” he wrote in a letter posted on the
Yeshiva website.
But the apology did not placate Mordechai Twerksy, who attended the
upper Manhattan school from 1977 to 1981 and said he was moved to write
about the abuse after the Penn State scandal broke.
“Joel’s so-called ‘profound regret’ is hollow,” he said in an email to the Daily News.
Norman Lamm, president of the Orthodox Jewish institution from 1976 to
2003, denied he’d heard allegations against Gordon. He acknowledged
Finkelstein was forced out over inappropriate wrestling with students.
Lamm acknowledged he allowed alleged abusers to leave rather than reporting allegations to police.
“If it was an open-and-shut case, I just let [the staff member] go quietly,” he told the Forward.
One student told the Forward that in 1980 when he was 16, Gordon
sodomized him with a toothbrush. Finkelstein, students told the Forward,
wrestled students to the ground, rubbing his crotch against them.
Twersky said he’d raised the alarms over the abuse repeatedly with administrators over the years, including with Joel in 2002.
“It well-known among students that Finkelstein ‘wrestled’ with
students,” he said.University officials would not comment on what
actions they will take to address the past abuse pending an
investigation.
Gordon and Finkelstein denied the allegations when contacted by the Forward.
_______________________________________________________________________________
RCA 'Deeply Troubled' by Yeshiva Allegations
Shmuel Goldin Vows To Root Out Abuse in 'Our Own House'
Forward Staff - December 13, 2012.
The Rabbinical Council of America said it is “deeply troubled” over
the allegations of sexual abuse at the Manhattan campus of the Yeshiva
University’s High School for Boys that was revealed by the Forward.
 |
| Shmuel Goldin |
The Modern Orthodox group said it was particularly
disturbed by the allegations that occured at the flagship educational
organization of the denomination, which it said “cannot be condoned or
excused.”
“It is especially hard to confront improprieties which may have
occurred in our own house, yet that is where the responsibility lies,”
said Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, president of the RCA. ” We are confident that
Yeshiva is equal to the task.”
The statement said the group “commends” Yeshiva
President Richard M. Joel for his response to the allegations. It made
no mention of Norman Lamm, the Yeshiva chancellor.
The Forward reported that two staff members at Y.U.
high school’s upper Manhattan campus sexually abused students during the
late 1970s and early ’80s. Lamm said the school dealt with allegations
of “improper sexual activity” against staff members by quietly allowing
them to leave and find jobs elsewhere.
Lamm said that anytime he had to dismiss a member of
staff — of which there were “quite a number of cases” — he gave the job
of investigating allegations to his vice president, Rabbi Israel Miller.
“I had to trust people doing a job, and [I] had a great deal of trust
in Izzy Miller,” Lamm said.
Miller died in 2002.
_______________________________________________________________________________
YU President Calls Abuase Alegations 'Reprehensible'
JTA - December 14, 2012
The Awareness Center suggests that if you were abused by anyone at YU, you contact The Awareness Center, a private attorney or a legitmate rape crisis center prior to making any calls to the University. It's much better you share your experiences with a non-biased party to ensure your civil rights are protected.
The president of Yeshiva University said the school had a "zero tolerance" policy for sexual abuse and harassment following a lengthy investigation of past abuse allegations in the Forward.
President Richard Joel issued a statement Thursday following the publication of an article in the Forward newspaper which investigated claims, most of them more than two decades old, that two rabbis at the university's high school for boys were known for acts of inappropriate and sexual contact with students.
According to the Forward, the activities of the two rabbis -- George Finkelstein and Macy Gordon -- were widely known in the university community and were reported to school adminstrators. Neither rabbi was disciplined by the university.
The university's former president and current chancellor, Rabbi Norman Lamm, said in the report that he had been aware of the allegations but allowed the two men to "go quietly" rather than investigate or report the allegations to authorities.
"The actions described represent heinous and inexcusable acts that are antithetical both to Torah values and to everything that Yeshiva University stands for," Joel said. "They have no place here, in our community, or anywhere at all. The thought that such behavior could have occurred at our boys’ high school, or anywhere at this institution, at any time in its past, is more than sufficient reason to express on behalf of the University, my deepest, most profound apology."
In his statement, Joel encouraged anyone with information about abuse to the administration via a hotline, 866-447-5052.
In a statement Friday, Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, president of the Rabbinical Council of America, an Orthodox organization, said it was "deeply troubled" by the allegations. "It is especially hard to confront improprieties which may have occurred in our own house, yet that is where the responsibility lies. We are confident that Yeshiva is equal to the task."
The group Survivors for Justice, dedicated to victims of abuse in the Jewish community, said the univerity's actions were inconsistent with Jewish law. "Established halacha places a pedophile in the category of a rodeph (an imminent threat), the group said, "in part because of a recidivism rate of more than 50 percent. In his 2004 psak (ruling) on the issue, the late Rabbi Shalom Elyashiv writes that one should report those who sexually abuse children directly to the police and that doing so is of benefit to society."
_______________________________________________________________________________
Confronting Abuse
Forward - December 14, 2012
This
has been the year when the historically opaque veil of secrecy about
child sexual abuse has been lifted. Thanks to courageous reporting by
our Paul Berger and others in the Jewish and mainstream media, the
belated activity of law enforcement officials and, most importantly, the
willingness of victims to come forward, Jewish institutions and entire
communities are finally confronting the abuse by some and the cover-up
by many.
Sadly,
there are no geographic boundaries to this story. In February, Berger
reported on how a child sexual abuse scandal in Australia was spilling
over onto America’s shores. Since then, one convicted sex offender has
been extradicted from the United States to Australia.
And as
Berger reports in this week’s Forward, two former staff members of
Yeshiva University High School for Boys, accused by former students of
inappropriate sexual behavior, were allowed to leave without
investigation and went on to build lives and careers in Israel.
This
is why the denial of such crimes, or the unwillingness on the part of
authorities to deal with serious allegations, is so insidious. The
cover-up is never as hurtful or damaging as the act itself — it’s rare
to find anyone who was victimized as a youngster who is able to forget
the pain and humiliation. But when those in authority deny or dismiss
such claims, it only opens up the possibility that another person will
be hurt. That may sound obvious, but it is routinely ignored.
Or
at least has been routinely ignored. Finally, in the Jewish community
and beyond, there is a growing recognition that abuse must be
confronted, that there cannot be a moral statute of limitations that
absolves those in authority of the duty to investigate. Finally, the
first, understandable impulse to protect the alleged abuser is being
weighed against the imperative to listen to the alleged victim.
Because,
while the heinous acts may be sexual in nature, this is really about
the abuse of power — the power of a teacher, a priest, a principal or a
coach to impose his twisted will on those least able to resist.
Occasionally, a brave youngster will be able to come forward to testify,
as the young Satmar Hasidic woman did in the trial that recently
convicted Nechamya Weberman, an unlicensed therapist, of repeated counts
of sexual abuse. But it is unfair and unrealistic to expect violated
youngsters to challenge authority voluntarily, without the explicit,
genuine support of those in power.
While
the Forward’s reporting has focused on abuses within the broad Orthodox
community, surely those Jews are no more prone to commit abuse than any
other people. The difference is the effective way in which communal
norms against challenging authority in that community are enforced, at
times with law enforcement apparently turning a blind eye. The
prosecution and conviction of Weberman by the Brooklyn district
attorney, whose office has been rightly criticized for its tepid pursual
of such crimes, signals a new willingness to hold members of the
powerful Satmar community to the same standards as other citizens. That
is to be applauded.
In
his statement to the Forward regarding allegations of abuse by Y.U.
high school staff, President Richard Joel said that such behaviors “have
no place here, in our community, or anywhere at all.” Let this be the
year those words are backed up by true action.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Norman Lamm = Joe Paterno – Shame On Yeshiva University!
By Ronn Torossian
Times of Israel - December 14, 2012
In
the latest high-profile sex scandal in the New York religious
community, claims of sexual abuse and cover-up of these acts in the
1970’s and 1980’s at Yeshiva University have emerged in the last few
days and have attracted extensive media attention. Owning 5WPR, a NY PR
agency and as an involved concerned Jew whose children attend Orthodox
Day Schools I am very cognizant and concerned about Jewish portrayals in
the media.
If you aren’t following the story, yesterday the
President of Yeshiva University (YU) issued a carefully worded apology
regarding claims of child abuse made against YU staffers which offered
victims YU’s “..deepest, most profound apology.” Rabbi Norman Lamm, the
Chancellor (who was YU President at the time) never notified police of
the acts and admittedly allowed the abusers to quietly leave YU and go
on to teach other kids. Lamm told the media yesterday that “This was
before things of this sort had attained a certain notoriety.”
As
one who attended schools in New York City during this time period, I’d
assure anyone that child abuse and molestation has always had “a certain
amount of notoriety.” Shame on Norman Lamm for turning a blind eye and
enabling these acts to continue. YU covering up and protecting those
who abuse children are despicable actions – and the furthest thing from
“religious” behavior. This issue is not only about child molestation –
it is an institution turning a blind eye. An awful story for a so-called
institution of higher learning to tell.
It infuriates me for
anyone to dare claim they are religious to behave in this sort of
manner. One cannot be a “religious Jew” simply because they pray and don
tefillin daily. Morality and decency are required. Perhaps on the
heels of the rightful indictment of Satmar counselor Nehamaya Weberman
for repeated rape of a young girl, there should be a little less chumash
study in yeshiva and a little more on normal ethics and decency
I
find myself wondering why these people are referred to as religious, or
Orthodox. Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the Zionist prophet said “Silence is
despicable” – and the fact that Lamm and who knows how many others said
and did nothing must be addressed. Joe Paterno turned a blind eye and
was rightfully fired – should we demand any less from a Jewish yeshiva?
“Rabbi”
Norman Lamm must be fired immediately – turning a blind eye and being
silent is despicable. There must be an immediate investigation into this
matter immediately.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Alleged Yeshiva Abuser Quits as Accusations Mount
Finkelstein Steps Down at Shul; 5 More Students Claim Abuse
Forward - December 16, 2012
By Paul Berger and Nathan Jeffray
 |
| Yeshiva University - Washington Heights, NY |
Rabbi George Finkelstein has resigned his position at the Great
Jerusalem Synagogue after the Forward reported that he had sexually
abused students at Yeshiva University High School for Boys in Manhattan
during the 1970s and ‘80s.
“He sent us an email saying he’s resigning because he
does not want to expose the Great Synagogue to embarrassment,” Zalli
Jaffe, the synagogue’s vice president, said in an interview. Finkelstein
had served as the institution’s executive director since 2001; last
month, he began serving as its ritual director.
Jaffe said that the resignation was received on
Thursday, “immediately following the publication” of the Forward’s
investigation. The correspondence came from France, where Finkelstein is
currently vacationing.
Around the same time as Finkelstein resigned, senior staff of the
Orthodox Union in America and Jerusalem held a teleconference regarding
the position of the other Y.U. high school staff member investigated by
the Forward, Rabbi Macy Gordon. They decided to impose a “leave of
absence” on Gordon’s teaching duties at the OU Israel Center in
Jerusalem, where he gives a weekly class on the laws of the Sabbath,
Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, OU executive vice president emeritus, told the
Forward on December 16.
He said that the unilaterally-imposed leave of absence
will last until the OU can “clarify exactly what happened.” This is in
spite of the fact that the OU has “to presume that he’s innocent until
we find out more about it.”
Weinreb said: “When we became aware of the news article
we felt we had to investigate ourselves to see what kind of credence to
give [the claims].” He stressed that the allegations were dated to a
time before Gordon started teaching at the OU.
He said of Gordon: “I know that he has no memory of the alleged incident whatsoever.”
The dramatic news came as five more men have stepped
forward to say they were inappropriately touched and suffered emotional
and sexual abuse at the high school.
In its investigation published online December 13, The
Forward described the claims of three former students who said that they
were abused by Finkelstein, who rose to become principal of the high
school. Another former student said he was sodomized with a toothbrush
by Gordon, a Talmud teacher.
Three of the former students said that their subsequent appeals to Y.U. to take action were ignored.
While denying that he knew about the severity of the
allegations against the staff members, Norman Lamm, the chancellor of
Y.U., told the Forward on December 7 that the school dealt with
allegations of “improper sexual activity” against staff members by
quietly allowing them to leave and find jobs elsewhere. Lamm was
president of Y.U. from 1976 to 2003.
In particular, Lamm said that he did not report
anything about the allegations against Finkelstein when he left after 27
years at the high school for a position at a Jewish school in Florida.
Finkelstein was dean of the Samuel Scheck Hillel Community Day School in
North Miami Beach, Fla. until moving to Israel.
Now, the Forward has heard from five more men who say they were harassed by Finkelstein and Gordon during the 1970s and ’80s.
The claims included description of how both men thrust
their hands under boys’ shirts to check whether they were wearing
tzitzit, the tasseled undershirts required under Orthodox Jewish law.
Finkelstein and Gordon, interviewed by the Forward in
Israel where both men now live, denied the initial allegations. Efforts
to reach them to respond to the latest allegations were unsuccessful.
“Macy Gordon was malevolence personified,” said Barry
Singer, who graduated from Y.U.’s Manhattan High School for Boys in
1975, “whereas George Finkelstein was a more complicated, disturbed
individual.”
“I fought these guys tooth and nail the entire time I
was in school,” Singer added. “I had no idea that what was being done to
me was sexual abuse or any abuse, I merely knew I didn’t want these
guys touching me and I did my best to keep them away from me.”
Singer, now a New York City journalist and bookseller, recalled
walking into a school stairwell one day and being grabbed by Finkelstein
who thrust him over the railings and “groped me looking to see if I was
wearing tzitzit.”
“It went under the shirt to the skin and below the waistline,” Singer
said. “Hanging over the stairwell I didn’t understand what was being
done to me, I just knew I hated him for it.”
Singer said Gordon emotionally abused him. “I believe
that Macy Gordon found a way to emotionally abuse and intimidate any
student that ever crossed his path,” Singer said. “He conducted tzitzit
checks under my shirt that made me very uncomfortable.”
Singer, along with two other former students, also
described being wrestled by Finkelstein in his office.
“I was 6 foot tall and a basketball player,” Singer said. “I didn’t know
I was fighting someone off sexually, I just knew I was fighting someone
off I didn’t want near me.”
Zack Belil, who graduated from Y.U. in the early 1980s,
said that he was forced to wrestle with Finkelstein for four years, at
his home or in an office at the high school. Often, Belil said,
Finkelstein would initiate the wrestling by asking Belil a question he
could not answer and then wrestle him as a form of punishment. “It was
very rough for an adult and a child…You can feel an erection through
someone’s pants rubbing up against you. That was the most horrifying
part,” Belil told the Forward.
Belil, now a New York real estate developer, said that
during school hours Finkelstein could appear at the classroom door at
any time of day and pull him out of class. On one occasion, Belil said
Finkelstein led him to a staircase behind a closed door and asked him a
question that he knew Belil could not answer.
“[Finkelstein] slapped me,” Belil said, “And then he said, ‘Aren’t you going to slap me back?’
“What are you to do at that age when this man of
authority says something like this to you?”
Belil said he gave Finkelstein a light slap on the cheek hoping that it
might make Finkelstein stop, but Finkelstein replied, “Harder!” Belil
said.
Belil, like other Y.U. high school alumni, said Finkelstein often
called him at home. “I think that my parents actually felt honored that
he took such an interest,” Belil said.
A fourth man, aged 57, contacted the Forward to
describe months of emotional abuse by Finkelstein that drove the man out
of Y.U. high school and away from Judaism for more than a decade.
“As soon as I saw the picture [of Finkelstein in the
Forward] I got nauseous,” the man said. “I wasn’t touched by him, but he
emotionally almost destroyed me.”
The fifth man said Finkelstein and Gordon put their
hands under his shirt to check for tzitzit. The man, who had been abused
by a rabbi at his elementary school, said he did his best to give both
men a wide berth.
After the Forward submitted a list of questions to Y.U. on November 26,
detailing allegations of abuse against Finkelstein and Gordon, the
University said that it would look into the claims.
Asked how the investigation was progressing on December
14, a spokesman for Y.U. said: “I can’t offer you any update beyond the
fact we are conducting an investigation and when we have something to
share we will do so at the proper time.”
Asked who was leading the investigation, how many
people were involved and how it was being conducted, the spokesman said:
“I’m not the right person to speak to about that.”
In a statement released December 13 Y.U. President
Richard Joel said the “inappropriate behavior and abuse alleged by The
Forward…and described in statements attributed by The Forward to Dr.
Lamm, are reprehensible.”
The statement continued: “The thought that such
behavior could have occurred at our boys’ high school, or anywhere at
this institution, at any time in its past, is more than sufficient
reason to express on behalf of the University, my deepest, most profound
apology.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
George
Finkelstein's Open Office Door: Yeshiva University High School removed
the door of principal accused of abuse, but not the abuser himself.
By Gary Roseblatt
Jewish Week - December 18, 2012
One of the more telling and unreported aspects of the George
Finkelstein situation at Yeshiva University is the fact that at some
point during the time he was principal of the high school several
decades ago and accused of wrestling with students in his office, the
door to his office was removed, according to a number of former
students.
Was this the administration’s response to the reports and rumors that
he was behaving inappropriately, in a sexually aggressive way, with
teenage boys in his charge?
It’s hard to pin down the chronology of the door removal all these
years later when former officials are deceased or not responsive to such
inquiries, but it’s certainly a powerful statement about the lack of
seriousness given to the many stories of Finkelstein’s alleged abuse.
The principal is wrestling with students in his office? Take off the door. End of problem.
But of course, as we see now, the emotional scars abuse victims carry with them can be deep and long lasting.
It’s true that the times were different. What is now described as
sexual abuse in an age of mandated reporting was then perceived of, if
not openly discussed, by students at MTA (the YU high school) and too
many other yeshivas, was annoying behavior by rebbes – Judaic teachers,
some of them Holocaust survivors untrained pedagogically and no doubt
suffering from their own traumatic experiences.
It could be a slap, a “tzitzis check” under a boy’s shirt, a verbal
curse, a grope, or worse. Somehow the students knew among themselves who
to watch out for, who to stay away from, but they rarely talked to
adults, including their parents, about these situations.
Especially if they saw that the end result of their complaints was to remove the door, not the abuser.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Yeshiva Officials, Rabbis Knew of Alleged Abuse
More Students Say Nothing Was Done About Allegations
By Paul Berger, Edited by Jane Eisner
Forward - December 20, 2012
After the Forward published an investigation into sexual abuse
allegations against two former staff members at a high school for boys
run by Yeshiva University, Y.U. issued an immediate statement and said
that it would investigate. Later that day, Modern Orthodoxy’s official
rabbinic association, the Rabbinical Council of America, said it was
“deeply troubled” by the report and confident that the university was
“equal to the task” of confronting “improprieties.”
But interviews with current and former staff members of
Y.U. and with high-ranking RCA officials, as well as with several
former high school students who say they were abused, indicate that Y.U.
and the RCA have known about some of the allegations against at least
one of the alleged abusers, Rabbi George Finkelstein, for a decade or
longer.
The Forward has spoken to 14 men who say that Finkelstein abused them
while he was employed at Yeshiva University High School for Boys, in
Manhattan, from 1968 to 1995.
From the mid 1980s until today, however, Y.U. officials
and RCA rabbis have dismissed claims or kept them quiet. Some of these
officials allowed Finkelstein to leave the Y.U. system and find a new
position as dean of a Florida day school without disclosing the abuse
allegations. Later, an RCA rabbi and a Y.U. rabbi warned the Florida
school that Finkelstein could be a threat. And when Finkelstein’s next
employer, the Jerusalem Great Synagogue, asked whether the allegations
that dogged him were true, Y.U. assured the synagogue that there was
nothing to worry about.
Maurice Wohl, the synagogue’s president at the time,
“spoke to the responsible authorities at Y.U, who denied the charges
outright,” Zev Lanton, the synagogue’s director general, said in a
statement. “Later, the same authority, upon visiting Israel, offered
similar denials, both to the chairman of the board of the synagogue and
the vice president.”
In response to a Forward request for the identity of
that Y.U. official, Lanton replied that the synagogue would “take
outside advice” before responding.
The abuse allegations against Finkelstein and against
Rabbi Macy Gordon, a Talmud teacher who served at Y.U.’s High School for
Boys from 1956 to 1984, have shocked many in the tight-knit Modern
Orthodox community. Even Jack Lew, the White House chief of staff,
decried the allegations in his keynote address at the Y.U. annual
dinner, held on December 16.
Following the Forward’s December 13 story, Finkelstein
immediately resigned from the Jerusalem Great Synagogue; Gordon was
placed on a “leave of absence” from his teaching duties at the Orthodox
Union’s Israel Center, in Jerusalem. Both men denied the allegations to
the Forward.
The story quoted three former students who said they
were sexually abused by Finkelstein in a high school office or at his
home, where he coerced them into wrestling with him. Each of the men
said he could feel Finkelstein’s erect penis dig into him while the
rabbi pinned him to the floor. One of them said Finkelstein kissed him
on the neck; another said that Finkelstein declared his love for him. A
fourth former student said that Gordon sodomized him with a toothbrush.
By December 18, the Forward had spoken to at least 11
more former students who said Finkelstein emotionally, physically or
sexually abused them. Three more former students came forward to say
that they were emotionally abused by Gordon, including one man who said
that he was sodomized with an item taken from a medicine cabinet in his
dorm room.
The former student, who is now in his late 40s and who
does not wish to be identified, said he had returned to his dorm room
during a lunch break to find Gordon sitting at his desk.
“I do remember that he said: ‘I have three coins in my
pocket. If they’re heads, that’s bad for you, and if it’s tails, that’s
good for you,’” the man recalled. “And I distinctly remember two heads
and one tails, and he said, ‘That’s not good for you.’”
Gordon “pulled my pants down, went to [the] medicine cabinet and inserted something in my anus,” the man said.
Gordon denied that such an incident took place.
Finkelstein did not respond to a request for comment.
The Forward has interviewed former Y.U. high school
students who say that Finkelstein abused them as early as 1972 and as
late as 1995. They said that current and former Y.U. staff members were
aware of abusive behavior by Finkelstein from at least 1984.
It was an open secret in the Modern Orthodox world.
But Finkelstein was never publicly questioned during
his 27-year tenure at Y.U.’s high school, during which he rose to become
principal, nor during his six years at the Samuel Scheck Hillel
Community Day School, in North Miami Beach, Fla., nor during his 11
years as executive director of the prestigious Jerusalem Great
Synagogue.
As the Forward has reported previously, Mordechai
Twersky, a former high school student, said he told Y.U.’s then
president, Norman Lamm, in 1986 that Finkelstein behaved inappropriately
when he wrestled with boys. Twersky said he repeated the allegations to
Lamm in 2000. Lamm said he could not recall either of the reports.
Twersky said he also had a conversation with Y.U.’s
current president, Richard Joel, about Finkelstein’s abuse in 2001 and
wrote to him again a couple of years later.
Now, the Forward has learned of allegations of at least
three more occasions when a Y.U. staff or board member was made aware
of Finkelstein’s inappropriate behavior.
In 1984, a former student who does not wish to be
identified said he was invited to stay overnight at Finkelstein’s home.
The student, who had already been wrestled by Finkelstein several times
in a school office, told Finkelstein he had a bad back and did not want
to wrestle.
“Less than three minutes later, he comes up behind me,
grabs both of my shoulders and sticks his knee right into my back, and I
went down on the floor, writhing in pain,” said the man, now 44.
He described what he said felt like 15 to 20 minutes in
which Finkelstein lay on his back, with the short, lightweight
16-year-old student on top of him, facing the ceiling. Finkelstein
started “shark-biting” him, which involved pinching very hard using all
four fingers and the palm of his hand, all over the boy’s inner and
outer thigh.
“I’m begging him: ‘Rabbi, please stop. I’m not feeling
well,” the man said. “But he was twisting me and turning me and shark
biting me all over my body and all over my thighs.”
The next day, at school, Rabbi Samuel Scheinberg
noticed marks on the boy’s neck. He asked him to take off his shirt and
lift his undershirt, revealing welts all over the boy’s body.
“He goes, ‘Who did this to you?’” the man said. “Rabbi
Finkelstein walks in at that very second… and I look up, and I said, ‘He
did.’”
The man said Scheinberg took Finkelstein out of the
room and argued with him for some time before Finkelstein returned and
reprimanded the boy. “I thought what happened last night was between the
two of us,” the man said Finkelstein told him. He said he never
reported the abuse to his parents. Scheinberg has since died.
In 1991, when Finkelstein was promoted to principal,
another former student, Simeon Weber, said he went to Y.U. to complain
that he had been sexually abused when Finkelstein wrestled with him.
Weber said he first approached Irwin Shapiro, chairman
of the high school board. Weber said Shapiro removed the door from
Finkelstein’s office. “He meant well but was naive,” Weber said. Shapiro
did not return a call for comment.
Weber said he also approached Robert Hirt, who today is
a vice president emeritus of Y.U. But Hirt cut off Weber before he
could finish telling his story, Weber said.
“[Hirt] said, ‘Mr. Weber, stop speaking lashon hara
[malicious gossip],’” Weber recalled. “It was like I was abused all
over again.” (When reached by the Forward, Hirt referred questions to
Y.U.’s communications department. A spokesman declined to comment.)
Lamm told the Forward on December 7 that Finkelstein
was forced out of Y.U.’s high school in 1995 following accusations that
he had inappropriate contact with students by wrestling with them in a
high school office. But Y.U has not confirmed that explanation.
Finkelstein had risen to the principal’s position after
a life spent almost entirely within Y.U.’s family. He attended Y.U.
high school and then went on to Yeshiva College, graduating in 1967, one
year before taking an office job at the high school. He graduated from
Y.U.’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in 1972.
In those days, former students say, Finkelstein was
known as the “office boy.” He was “very tall and thin,” recalled Steven
Winter, who attended the high school from 1966 to 1970.
“He walked around with a severe facial expression and
played the role of disciplinarian,” Winter added, “but [the staff] all
did that; it was the cultural norm.”
One former student told the Forward that Finkelstein
wielded a lot of power and that he was emotionally abusive even in the
early 1970s. The man, now 57, said that his parents complained about
emotional abuse to Rabbi Samuel Belkin, then president of Y.U., but the
report only made Finkelstein’s bullying worse. “He thumbed his nose to
all of them and kept doing what he wanted to do,” said the former
student, who left halfway through his junior year because of the abuse.
Belkin has been deceased for decades.
Interviews with former students who attended the school
between 1968 and 1995 portray a man who tyrannized students
psychologically, physically and sexually. According to these former
students, his favorites could do no harm — though they might be pulled
into his office for wrestling bouts. Those to whom he took a disliking
could be threatened with expulsion for the most minor of infractions: a
haircut that Finkelstein did not like, or being in the gym when they
were not supposed to be.
“What could potentially have been a great experience
turned into a tortuous and anxiety-filled [experience], because you
never knew if that was the day you were going to commit some sort of
infraction that was going to land you in a heap of trouble,” said Coby
Hakalir, who says he was threatened with expulsion about 40 or 50 times
between 1991 and 1995.
“It was just constant [fear],” Hakalir added. “If you
weren’t afraid or anxious that day, then [Finkelstein] had not
accomplished his task for that day.”
Then there was the wrestling. In an interview with the
Forward, Finkelstein said that the grappling was “a way of trying to
remove the distance between students and faculty.” But former students
have told the Forward that it constituted much more. Ivan Hartstein, who
attended the high school from 1978 to 1982, said Finkelstein invited
him to his apartment one night because he was lagging in his Judaic
studies. “I didn’t want to go,” said Hartstein, who already disliked the
way Finkelstein rubbed his back all the way down to his belt line,
checking to see if he was wearing tzitzit, ritual undergarments.
When Hartstein arrived at the apartment, Finkelstein was home alone.
“The deal was if I couldn’t answer the questions, he would wrestle me to
the floor,” Hartstein said.
“It was pretty quick that he was on top of me. I was on
the ground and he was on top of me. I could feel his breath on my neck,
and his erection pressing against my butt.”
Hartstein, who was 16, said he pushed Finkelstein off
and left. Zack Belil, who attended the high school at the same time,
also said he was wrestled by Finkelstein and felt his erection pushing
against him.
Barry Singer, who graduated from the high school in
1975, said Finkelstein wrestled with him and also put his hand down his
trousers during a tzitzit check.
Another man, who did not wish to be named, said
Finkelstein wrestled with him through the 10th and 11th grades at Y.U.
high school, occasionally telling him that he loved him. After the
student left the school in 1983, Finkelstein met the former student at a
yeshiva in Israel and invited him back to his room at the Laromme Hotel
— now known as the Inbal Jerusalem Hotel — which had two beds.
The man said that once he and Finkelstein were in the
hotel room, Finkelstein began to wrestle. The man recalled, “He had me
pinned on all fours and began to reach for my privates.”
The man told him to stop. “After he got off of me,
[Finkelstein] proceeded to rail at me that he was very disappointed in
me,” the man said. “I noticed that he was indeed quite aroused, and [I]
was nauseated by it.”
The man, who came from a troubled family and who had
seen Finkelstein as a father figure, said he was devastated. “I could
not believe that this is what he believed our relationship was all
about,” he said.
The man said that in 1995 one of his coworkers, another
Y.U. high school graduate, contacted him to say that people were
“speaking out against George” and asked if he had any bad experiences to
report.
“I am embarrassed that I did not step up then, and I’ve
not spoken with this individual regarding George since,” the man said.
“I think at that time I was either embarrassed or in denial. I can’t say
for sure. But it haunts me.”
The Forward asked Y.U. if a complaint against
Finkelstein had been made in 1995. A spokesman said, “As mentioned
before, Y.U. is looking into the allegations you’ve reported on, and as
such we are not in a position to comment any further.”
In 2000, former student Twersky said he approached
Michael Broyde, a Modern Orthodox rabbi who had just left a position at
Beth Din of America, the official religious court of the RCA. Twersky
asked if he should bring charges against Finkelstein in the beit din, and said that Broyde advised him that the allegations were “not flagrant enough.”
Broyde said he does not recall the exchange with Twersky “in any way, shape or form.”
“I don’t even know who Mordechai Twersky is,” Broyde
said. “If he said he was sexually assaulted, I would have said to call
the police.”
Twersky said Broyde ought to remember him; they were in
the same constitutional law class at Yeshiva College in 1983. During
the late 1990s, Beth Din of America retained Twersky for public
relations work that involved “working closely with Broyde on the
marketing materials for their newly established rabbinic court,” Twersky
said.
Although he denied knowing about Twersky’s allegations,
Broyde, a member of the RCA’s executive committee, said he had heard
rumors about Finkelstein. “There had always been a rumor out there that
there were kids who said this going back I don’t know how long,” Broyde
said.
Weber said that in 2001 he persuaded Rabbi Hershel
Schachter, a Y.U. seminary official, and Rabbi Basil Herring to contact
the school in Florida to warn about Finkelstein. Herring, who went on to
serve as executive vice president of the RCA from 2003 until 2011,
declined to comment “on the record.” Schachter did not return calls for
comment.
The Forward tried multiple times to contact Rafael
Quintero, chief operating officer of the Florida school, about this
report and to find out if any complaints had been made against
Finkelstein. A colleague at the school said Quintero was “extremely
busy.”
Weber also said he confronted Joel about Finkelstein several years ago, but nothing happened.
In Israel, the allegations against Finkelstein and against Gordon, who immigrated in 1985, have dogged both men.
Finkelstein and Gordon are listed as members of the advisory board of the Council of Young Israel Rabbis in Israel.
But Michael Strick, the organization’s executive
director, said that the advisory board was suspended “three or four”
years ago. Strick said the organization had heard “over the course of
time” about allegations against the two men but had “no way of
investigating.”
Strick insisted that the allegations were not the main
reason for suspending the 13-member advisory board. But he acknowledged
that the allegations against both men were “maybe in the background” of
the decision.
Meanwhile, Lanton said that the Jerusalem Great
Synagogue was informed about four years ago that Finkelstein “had been
summoned to [Israeli] police following a complaint reiterating [an abuse
allegation].”
“Rabbi Finkelstein informed the executive that in his
interview with the police, he insisted that he be submitted to a
polygraph test on the spot,” Lanton said in a statement. “The police
responded that this would not be necessary. No further action was taken
by the police.”
Joel and Lamm have been frequent guests for services at the synagogue. Y.U. has held at least one event there.
Joel did not respond to multiple requests for an
interview. In a statement on December 19: Y.U. said it “continues to
examine with concern the allegations of past abuse recently reported in
the media. A subcommittee of the Board of Trustees is working with the
law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell as outside Counsel, who is assisting
us in investigating the allegations and consulting with nationally
recognized specialists in this area to review our policies and
procedures.”
Joel’s initial expression of regret was enough for the
RCA’s president, Shmuel Goldin, to commend Joel for “his forthright
response and statement of concern.”
Reached for comment December 18, Goldin said: “When you
compare this community to others, at least what you are getting is an
immediate expression that we are going to deal with this, not that we
are going to sweep this under the rug.”
Goldin said he was not aware that Broyde or Herring, or any other RCA rabbis, knew about the allegations against Finkelstein.
The RCA’s executive vice president, Rabbi Mark Dratch,
said he, too, was unaware of allegations against Finkelstein or any
other former Y.U. staff members. Dratch, who is Lamm’s son-in-law,
declined to comment on Lamm’s actions as Y.U. president.
Goldin said that he was not sure what he would have
done if he had learned of such allegations in the past. But he added:
“Our position is, individuals who are aware of such allegations should
go directly to the authorities… And anything short of that does not
satisfy that position.”
Goldin said Finkelstein and Gordon, “deserve to have a fair hearing on these allegations.”
“Nobody should be tried on the pages of a newspaper,” he added.
Nathan Jeffay contributed reporting from Jerusalem
_________________________________________________________________________________
No Religious Exemption When It Comes to Abuse
By MARK OPPENHEIMER
New York Times - January 04, 2013
"Yeshiva University High School in Manhattan let rabbis accused of sexual abuse "go quietly."
Just
as we think we know what an abuser looks like, we think we know what an
abusive religious community looks like. We may think it is highly
insular - like the Satmar Hasidic community in the Williamsburg
neighborhood of Brooklyn, a prominent member of which was convicted last
month of sexually abusing a young girl sent to him for help. Or it is
hierarchical and bureaucratic: if the Roman Catholic Church did not have
so many bishops and archbishops who refused to dismiss or defrock
molesters in their ranks, would so many pedophile priests have been able
to carry on for so long?
But we don't know a thing. Consider Yeshiva University.
As
Paul Berger reported last month in the Jewish newspaper The Forward,
two rabbis at the Modern Orthodox high school run by the university were
accused of sexually abusing students in the 1970s and '80s. Leaders,
Mr. Berger wrote, responded by "quietly allowing them to leave and find
jobs elsewhere." The university president at the time, Norman Lamm -
until last month a titan of contemporary Judaism - told Mr. Berger that
he had let the staff members "go quietly."
"It was not our intention or position to destroy a person without further inquiry," Dr. Lamm said.
But
Yeshiva University is supposed to be modern, engaged, contemporary. Its
rabbis are not treated as infallible demigods. The school's graduates
work and live in the secular world. The culture of Yeshiva is supposed
to permit, even encourage, argument, not punish or ostracize critics. So
surely there were no impious skeletons in the closet, right?
But
the truth is, there are not two kinds of religions - the enlightened
and the medieval. Every religion has evildoers stalking its corridors.
They just survive, and thrive, with different strategies.
Take
Zen Buddhism, the paragon of open, nonhierarchical spirituality. Anyone
may practice Zen meditation; you do not have to convert, be baptized or
renounce your old religion. Yet leaders of major Zen centers in Los
Angeles and New York have recently been accused, on strong evidence, of
exploiting followers for sex. This weekend, Zen teachers ordained by
Joshu Sasaki, the semiretired abbot of the Rinzai-ji Zen Center in Los
Angeles, are holding a retreat to discuss sexual harassment accusations
against Mr. Sasaki. The Zen Studies Society, in New York, is under new
leadership after its longtime abbot, Eido Shimano, was forced out after
he was accused of inappropriate sexual liaisons with students and other
women.
Paul Karsten, a board member of the Rinzai-ji Zen Center,
said the intense relationship between Zen teacher and student can be
trouble. For example, in private meetings, some teachers touch students.
The touching is never supposed to be sexual, but there can be
misunderstandings, or outright abuse. "I know of stories I have heard,"
Mr. Karsten said, "where people feel like this experience has been very
important to them, and others where they feel like it has been the
opposite."
Mr. Karsten acknowledged complaints against Mr. Sasaki
- largely on the Internet, some anonymous - that the teacher went
beyond what most reputable teachers would consider appropriate. But Mr.
Karsten seemed torn between valuing extremely close teacher-student
relationships and acknowledging the dangers.
"People see there
has been something going on with students that on the one hand has been
remarkable, and on the other hand has been inappropriate in
teacher-student practice," Mr. Karsten said. "And consensual, or
nonconsensual?"
Questions e-mailed to Mr. Karsten for Mr. Sasaki, who is 105, were not answered.
Some
churches have checks and balances that discourage unethical behavior.
"A lot of it is secrecy versus transparency," said Hugh Urban, author of
"The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion."
"If
you have a church like the Episcopal Church, with a fair degree of
transparency, that is going to make a difference," he said. "But
Scientology - almost every aspect of it from early on has tended toward
secrecy."
Scientology is known for both secrecy and, at the
highest levels, extreme insularity. Committed Scientologists may fear
that if they complain about abuses, they will lose their friends, even
their families. Mr. Urban mentioned one woman who had told him about
human-rights abuses at the church headquarters in Clearwater, Fla.
"I
said, 'Why don't you go down the street and talk to the police?'" Mr.
Urban said. "Her answer was, once you are so deep in, invested in that
community, it doesn't seem like a real possibility to go talk to the
police."
Then there is the fear of bringing shame on the
community, particularly prevalent in minority groups. "When I started in
1982," said Phil Jacobs, the editor of Washington Jewish Week, "there
was an 11th commandment - 'Thou shalt not air thy dirty laundry.' " He
learned that commandment in Baltimore, writing about the high percentage
of Jews in a treatment program for compulsive gambling. "When I started
calling people, they said, 'You're not going to put this in the paper,
are you?' So I found out Jews didn't get AIDS, didn't get divorced,
didn't abuse their wives or children."
That fear of embarrassment
may be why Dr. Lamm - who is still at Yeshiva and declined to be
interviewed - stayed quiet about the abusive rabbis at Yeshiva. Perhaps
he loathed what they had done, and wept for their victims. But, he also
may have thought that people shouldn't hear bad things about Jews.
People shouldn't know, in other words, that Jews are just like everyone
else.
That is everyone else, not just religious people. The
Satmar Hasidim may have wanted to protect a beloved member, the Modern
Orthodox administrators probably worried about their community's
reputation - and the Penn State loyalists enabled Jerry Sandusky.
Somehow, the victims never seem as important as the rabbi, the Zen
master, the coach. In the words of a once-revered rabbi, Norman Lamm,
may as well let the perpetrators "go quietly."
____________________________________________________________________________________
Curious George Finkelstein
A former rabbi-teacher of mine has been accused of molesting students. So, why can’t I stop thinking of the good he did?
By Shalom Auslander
Tablet Magazine - January 15, 2013
The abuse of power, said the artist Jenny Holzer, comes as no surprise, and it certainly never has to me. I spent my childhood beneath the omnipotent thumb of the omniscient God of the Old Testament, and nobody abuses power like Yahweh abuses power.
Do what I say, proclaimeth the Lord, and nobody gets hurt. I might even turn you into a great nation.
My ass.
Jehovah wasn’t the only one in my universe, though, to abuse his position of power. There was my father, to begin with, who abused alcohol and then, when the alcohol was gone, abused his family. There was the vice principal of my yeshiva grade school, who invited the seventh- and eighth-graders to play racquetball at his health club and then go to his home to sit—in various states of undress—in his private Jacuzzi. There was the head of an Orthodox summer sleep-away camp I attended a year later, who used the excuse of nighttime “bed checks” to reach beneath the blankets of the boys he fancied and fondle their genitals.
So when, a year or so later, I arrived at Yeshiva University High School and heard all the stories of Rabbi George Finkelstein taking students into his office and wrestling with them—and we all heard the stories—I wasn’t exactly taken aback. The abuse of power, rabbinical or otherwise, comes as no surprise. Frankly, the wrestling bit seemed refreshingly Greco-Roman. At least there were rules, at least it involved fighting and anger and rage; you could, with enough effort, pin the piece of shit. No, what bothered me more than the wrestling was something common in the minds of the unabused: What bothered me most was that he never wanted to wrestle with me.
What’s wrong with me? I wondered. Why is he wrestling David and Ari and Eli and not me? I wasn’t the best-looking kid in the world, sure, but I wasn’t hideous. I mean, if I were a weirdo rabbi who liked wrestling kids, I’d totally want to wrestle me. I’d be all over myself.
But George didn’t wrestle me. He didn’t rub up against me, or massage my shoulders. It was worse.
He encouraged me.
He supported me.
He was kind to me.
And that’s what makes this whole sordid tale so personally difficult. Because while my other rabbis encouraged me to be observant, to be a Good Jew, George encouraged my interest in art. He encouraged me to draw, to go to museums. He encouraged me to write, and to read, and to write some more. He encouraged me to not let my friends keep me from my goals, to not let myself get dragged down by the others around me.
Of course I did have what my mother back then proudly called proteczia—protection, in the form of my uncle, who was the president of the yeshiva. There’s abusive, after all, and then there’s just stupid; my uncle was George’s boss’s boss, and even the horniest rabbi wouldn’t risk rubbing his throbbing Covenant with God against his boss’s boss’s nephew’s ass.
Proteczia would explain why George never wrestled me. It would explain why he might have stayed away from me, ignored me, smiled politely but safely had nothing at all to do with me.
But it doesn’t explain, to my mind, why he supported me. I smoked pot, I smoked cigarettes, I walked around the halls wearing pseudo-philosophical Jenny Holzer T-shirts I’d shoplifted from the Museum of Modern Art gift shop; I was hardly a believable witness. Even if George had wrestled me, who could I tell who would have believed me? Cain had a better shot of getting a fair trial than I did.
And so I’ve thought of George now and then over the years, wondering whatever became of him. Because somewhere along the way I’d come to the conclusion that if I had to make a list of all the rabbis in my life I could genuinely admire, rabbis who seemed like decent people and not just Good Jews, the list would be exactly one rabbi long:
George.
And then, a few weeks ago, the “Did you hear about George” emails began, and all the old stories about his wrestling and the yeshiva’s failure to protect the students were new again, and my first thought, again, was the very childlike, “Gee, why didn’t he ever wrestle me?”
And my second thought was the very adult-like, “Fuck.” Because the Rabbis I Actually Admired list was now down to zero.
Oh, well.
There’s something to be said for hitting bottom, I guess.
Unless there’s a horny rabbi lying on top of you.
***
George was … curious.
He spoke in a curious manner, he walked with a curious gait. He was fastidious, almost antiseptic, his hair always in place, his beard always trimmed. My friends and I were certain he was gay, but we were teenagers, and we were certain everyone we disliked was gay.
Most students hated him.
Some tolerated him.
Nobody liked him.
Except, secretly, me.
Because George was curious.
Because he was vice principal of the high-school yeshiva, it was one of his responsibilities to convince the students to continue their education at the yeshiva college, and he made the case for it whenever he could. I had taken an interest in art and was reading about artists whenever I could. One day George saw me in the cafeteria reading a book on Picasso, my favorite artist at the time.
He walked over and looked down at me.
“You know,” he said, “the yeshiva college has a very good art program.”
I looked up at him.
“No, they don’t,” I said.
He threw his head back and laughed.
“No,” he said. “No, they don’t.”
He asked me if I was considering Parson’s School of Art. I told him I was thinking about Cooper Union, but that it was tough to get in.
“You’ll get in,” he said with a confidence in me I’d never heard before. “You’ll get in.”
Then he glanced at his watch.
“Ten minutes to Talmud class,” he said. “Get moving.”
I didn’t mind Talmud class—it was pointless arguing, but I liked arguing. It was the daily prayers I hated the most. I hated God and didn’t feel like praising him; if anyone should be asking forgiveness, it was fucking Yahweh. So, each morning I sat in the back with my friends and talked. Loudly. Usually, George let it go. But one morning, he didn’t; he was in a bad mood, and so was I. He stormed over to us and told me to keep quiet. I told him I wasn’t praying anyway, so what was the difference. My friend laughed. George’s face reddened, and he told me to get out. He followed me outside to the crowded lobby.
“And don’t come back,” he said loudly. The other students turned around. He held up three fingers. “Three days.”
“You’re suspending me?”
“Three days.”
I felt the room spin. I didn’t care about missing yeshiva, but I knew what would happen when my father found out. So did George, though; I had not kept my family’s dysfunctions a secret from him, and he could see the terror on my face. He stepped toward me and spoke quietly so the others wouldn’t hear.
“I’m not calling home,” he said. “I don’t care what you do, or where you go, but don’t let me see you here, not even for a minute.”
He walked away, turning back at the stairway door and holding his three fingers up again.
“Three days,” he said loudly again, the anger in his face still visible. “Three days.”
I spent the next three days at the Museum of Modern Art, with occasional stops at the peep shows in Times Square.
George never called home.
When I returned to yeshiva three days later, he asked me where I’d gone.
“MoMA,” I said.
“I prefer the Met,” he replied with a smile.
George was curious.
***
Three weeks ago, thanks to the reporting of the Forward, I found out what happened to George: He’d fled, like so many other Jews who find themselves under a cloud of suspicion, to Israel. He fled there, as Rabbi Naked Jacuzzi had, and as Rabbi Under the Covers Bed Check had. It’s no surprise that NAMBLA is changing its slogan to “Next Year in Jerusalem.” (You can use that joke, by the way, but I totally want credit for it.) I’m certain this is not what God had in mind for his Promised Land. “And you will reach the land that I promised you, and you will settle there, and you will bring with you there all your perverts and all your molesters, and all your murderers and all your embezzlers, and all your tax cheats and all your white-collar criminals, to live in freedom from all charges and fines and legal authorities that pursue them, and you will be for me a less-than-great nation with questionable ethics and perverted morals, but I’ll take what I can get. PS: no cheeseburgers.”
So, what is all this then, Auslander? What’s with all these positive reminiscences of a clearly troubled man? Is this some kind of defense of a rabbi accused of physically and emotionally hurting countless number of yeshiva students? Is that what this is about?
No.
It’s not about a defense.
It’s about monsters.
The strange thing about monsters is that, as children, we believe in them and the adults tell us they’re not real, that there are no such things and we should just go back to sleep. And we believe them. But later, as we grow up and become adults and we see the world in all its misery and suffering and injustice and cruelty and shit … we decide to believe in monsters again. Because monsters help us to make sense of the world. Monsters help us feel better about our obviously non-monster selves.
There are monsters, after all, and then there’s … us.
If only.
If only all the monsters were full-time, green-skinned horror-show monsters. If only they were ogres top to bottom, demons start to finish. If only they had pointy horns and red eyes and razor-sharp claws.
But they don’t.
They have ties and jackets and jobs.
And some have beards.
And some wear yarmulkes.
And sometimes they do good.
And sometimes they do bad.
And sometimes the bad they do nullifies the good; in my case, looking back now on the situation, I am even more disillusioned than before, which is no small feat. Disillusioned with rabbis, religion, people, men, with the whole goddamned planet. If I were God, I’d fucking flood it.
So, trust me—I’d love it if George was a monster. Because George (allegedly, Ms. Attorney) did a lot of bad. But he also did some good.
He was curious.
Just like birth, and life, and love, and death, and all the unbearable and barely bearable moments in between.
Very, very curious.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Yeshiva U. Rabbi George Finkelstein Acted Inappropriately Even After Ouster
Wrestled With Boys in New Posts in Florida and Jerusalem
By Paul Berger and Jane Eisner
Forward - February 28, 2012
Rabbi George Finkelstein was quietly forced out of Yeshiva University High School for Boys in 1995 because of inappropriate wrestling with students that some of them considered abusive.
But the Forward has learned that the wrestling did not stop after his departure from Y.U. It continued during Finkelstein’s next two posts, as dean of a Jewish school in Florida and as director general of the Jerusalem Great Synagogue in Israel, where he worked until abruptly resigning this past December.
The most recent wrestling incidents documented by the Forward were in 2009.
Finkelstein, 67, has been a respected figure in the Modern Orthodox community for decades, first as an administrator at Y.U.’s high school in Manhattan and later at the Jerusalem Great Synagogue. But allegations that he behaved inappropriately with boys have trailed him for at least 30 years, according to dozens of interviews with former students, colleagues and peers in the United States.
Although former students of Y.U.’s high school long complained about Finkelstein’s behavior to staff members and administrators — both while he worked at the school and after he left — Y.U. appears never to have reported the complaints to police. Nor did Y.U. open an investigation until December 2012, when the Forward published allegations that Finkelstein and another former Y.U. staff member, Rabbi Macy Gordon, had sexually, emotionally and physically abused students over decades. Finkelstein and Gordon deny the abuse charges.
The Forward’s initial reporting concerned Finkelstein’s behavior before he left New York in 1995 for an administrative position at the Samuel Scheck Hillel Community Day School in North Miami Beach. But a former student at that school, who requested anonymity, has now told the Forward that Finkelstein wrestled with him around 1999. The former student said Finkelstein initiated the wrestling one Shabbat when the boy, then about 14 or 15 years old, slept over at Finkelstein’s home.
The Forward has also learned that a young man filed a complaint against Finkelstein with the Jerusalem police in 2009. The man, then aged 26, reported that Finkelstein had taken advantage of his vulnerability — he had serious family problems — and that Finkelstein used his prestigious post at the Jerusalem Great Synagogue to gain his trust. The wrestling took place over two-and-a-half years, in Finkelstein’s home and inside the Great Synagogue.
“Rabbi Gedalia [George Finkelstein] began to wrestle me and told me he is doing it in order to strengthen me and develop my self-confidence,” the man said in a 2009 police statement obtained by the Forward and translated from Hebrew into English.
“I remember one time in particular when he hugged me against my will, about a year ago at his home, and pulled me close to him and I was completely passive,” the statement continued.
“[Finkelstein] pushed me to the floor and I was on my knees facing the floor and he was behind me with his chest on my back. He put his body very close to mine and I think he could not get any closer than that.”
“I think he enjoyed it,” the man continued. “He was breathing heavily and I said to him ‘enough, what are you doing?’ and he stood up and I felt very angry and sexually abused.”
Israeli police dropped the case because of insufficient evidence, according to a letter sent by police to the man in 2010.
Finkelstein did not respond to several requests for comment.
More than one dozen former students who attended the Y.U.-run high school during the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s have told the Forward that Finkelstein had emotionally or physically abused them.
Finkelstein would try to wrestle with students in a Y.U. school office or at his home. Several students said Finkelstein told them that he loved them and that they could feel his erect penis rub up against them while they were pinned to the floor.
In a December interview, Rabbi Norman Lamm, the former president of Yeshiva University, told the Forward that during his tenure — from 1976 to 2003 — he dealt with allegations of “improper sexual activity” against staff members by quietly allowing them to leave and to find jobs elsewhere.
Lamm, a revered figure in Modern Orthodoxy and the current chancellor of Y.U., told the Forward that Finkelstein was forced out of the high school because of the wrestling. “He knew we were going to ask him to leave,” Lamm said.
Lamm said that Y.U. did not inform the Florida school about Finkelstein’s wrestling because “the responsibility of a school in hiring someone is to check with the previous job. No one checked with me about George.” Reached at his home on February 25, Lamm declined to respond to allegations that there were subsequent wrestling incidents after Finkelstein left Y.U.
Y.U.’s knowledge of Finkelstein’s problematic behavior did not stop the school from honoring him upon his departure. At Y.U.’s annual tribute dinner, held in March 1995 at the New York Hilton hotel in Manhattan, Lamm presented Finkelstein and his wife, Fredda, with the Heritage Award “for 25 years of dedicated service.”
Asked why Y.U. honored Finkelstein despite forcing him out because of the wrestling, a Y.U. spokesman said: “As you are aware, everything is being independently investigated by outside counsel who will make their report when the investigation is fully finished.” The spokesman did not respond to a request for details about how the investigation is proceeding and when it might be complete.
Finkelstein took up his post at the Hillel school in Florida in 1995. Many former students and school officials in Florida, including staff and board members, remember Finkelstein as a positive influence. “We had no difficulties with Rabbi Finkelstein whatsoever,” said Martin Hoffman, president of the Hillel board when Finkelstein was hired.
Samuel Maya, 30, a former Hillel student, said Finkelstein was “an incredible person and one of the kindest men I have ever met in my entire life. I have a lot of friends that spent a lot of time with him and never once did I hear one complaint about him,” Maya added.
Another former student, Elie Yudewitz, said that he spent a lot of time at Finkelstein’s home in North Miami Beach and he never saw or heard of Finkelstein wrestling. However, Yudewitz said that rumors about Finkelstein wrestling with boys in New York began to trickle down from former Y.U. high school students to Florida during the late 1990s.
A former Hillel staff member, who requested anonymity, said: “The kids went to convention or camp and they met kids from Y.U. and they asked, ‘Did Finkelstein touch you already?’”
Yudewitz and Maya said Finkelstein often invited boys to stay over at his house during Shabbat. Such behavior was typical for a Jewish educator trying to persuade students to become more observant.
It was during one such sleepover that one former Hillel student said Finkelstein asked him to wrestle.
Even before then, the former student recalled, Finkelstein had taken a particular interest in him. Finkelstein often told the boy that he loved him and, when he called him into his school office, he hugged him “a little bit closer than a normal person might hug.”
“He would lock his feet together and come in close [with his] legs touching each other and he was flat against me,” the former student said. “I never took it as he felt anything more than affection in a father-son type way,” he added.
The former student said he stayed at Finkelstein’s house many times. Then, one time when the two were alone, Finkelstein asked him to wrestle.
“His demeanor changed and he puts on this face like I would do with my kid if I was pretending to be angry,” the former student said. “[He] starts making a fist and says, ‘We’re going to come to blows.’”
“The whole thing ended with my getting pinned to the ground and he’s on top of me and I’m thinking, ‘I don’t know what the hell is going on,’” the former student said. “And he starts tickling me…and he got off [me] and that was the end of it.”
The man said that he felt uncomfortable enough that the next time Finkelstein asked to wrestle he refused. But he said that he remained friendly with Finkelstein, even visiting him in Israel during his honeymoon.
A few years ago, he discovered a blog where former Y.U. High School students wrote of what they perceived to be the sexual undertones beneath Finkelstein’s wrestling. “It made me furious,” the man said. “I realized if he’s doing this to all these guys he’s either really naive or some kind of predator.”
He sent an email to Finkelstein last year asking him to explain his behavior. Finkelstein wrote back to say that he wanted to talk on the phone, but the man could not bring himself to speak to Finkelstein.
“I technically said yes [to the wrestling] which is why at the time I didn’t think anything about it,” the man said. “It’s only as I got older and thought of [the incident again] that I thought about it in a new light.”
In 2001, a former student from Y.U.’s high school, Simeon Weber, warned the Florida school that Finkelstein liked to wrestle with boys. He persuaded two prominent New York rabbis to corroborate to Hillel administrators his own story of wrestling with Finkelstein. Finkelstein left the school the same year.
When the Forward tried to contact the Hillel school in December, the school’s chief operating officer, Rafael Quintero, did not return multiple calls and emails for comment.
On February 20, the Forward sent an email to Quintero and to other Hillel officials alerting them to the 1999 incident involving their former student. The email asked what, if anything, the Hillel school had done to investigate Finkelstein’s employment at the school and to ascertain whether students were harmed.
No one responded to the email or to subsequent calls to Quintero and head of school, Rabbi Pinchos Hecht.
Allegations of Finkelstein’s inappropriate behavior preceded him when he applied for the job of director general of Jerusalem’s Great Synagogue, in 2001.
The Great Synagogue was concerned enough that its board launched an investigation and was twice reassured by a Y.U. “authority” that the rumors were baseless, according to Zev Lanton, the synagogue’s director general. Lanton told the Forward in December that after seeking legal advice the synagogue could not reveal the name of the Y.U. official who vouched for Finkelstein.
But in a statement released the same month Lanton said: “We would like to emphasize that during the ten years in which Rabbi Finkelstein served the synagogue, there was never any hint, direct or indirect, of any inappropriate behavior on his part.”
Finkelstein did inform the synagogue a few years prior to the statement that he had been summoned by police in Jerusalem regarding “a complaint reiterating the original allegation,” the statement said — apparently referring to allegations that Finkelstein abused a student in New York.
But the police report obtained by the Forward shows that the summons related to a complaint that Finkelstein assaulted a young man over a period of two-and-a-half years in Finkelstein’s home and inside the Great Synagogue.
The man who filed the complaint said he had family problems and few real friends when Finkelstein befriended him after he emigrated from Israel to America in 2005. “I remember [Finkelstein] saying, ‘I can play the role of father for you,’” the man, now 29, recalled in a telephone interview with the Forward.
He said Finkelstein would invite him to his synagogue office mostly when no one else was around. “He would say, ‘I love you. Do you love me?’” the man recalled. “At a certain point he wanted me to hug him. He would always seem to press me too tightly.”
“After hugging me, he would push me,” the man said. “He’s got a big office in a shul with an operating budget of millions of dollars and I’m like, ‘What the hell is going on here?’”
He said that the “bizarre relationship” continued as the “gray-haired” rabbi, now in his 60s, graduated from pushing to “tussling” and then to wrestling. One day, he found himself pinned to the floor in Finkelstein’s Jerusalem home, his face pressed to the ground. “I could feel his [penis] pushing against me,” the man said. “It was such a thin line between a wrestling move and humping someone.”
After contacting the police, the man also opened an anonymous email account and sent an email to the synagogue warning them about Finkelstein. He said that he never received a response.
“These are extremely painful memories, you can’t imagine,” the man said.
Jacob Rowe, a Great Synagogue board member, did not directly address whether the synagogue received an anonymous complaint about Finkelstein. But he said that he never heard “anything but positive” things about Finkelstein. “People who make anonymous things are destroyers of Judaism,” Rowe said. “No one can be protected against anonymous things like this.”
Rowe said Finkelstein still attends the synagogue and is welcomed warmly. “Everybody knows him to be a tzaddik [righteous man] here,” Rowe added.
One year after the police complaint was made, Mordechai Twersky, a former student of Y.U. High School, said he also tried to warn the Great Synagogue board.
Twersky said Finkelstein wrestled him several times in 1980, during his junior year at the school. In February 2010, he attended a meeting in Jerusalem where he met Tobias Berman, an officer of the Great Synagogue.
“Toward the conclusion of the meeting I got into an exchange with Berman, and I mentioned that I was a victim of his shul’s director general,” Twersky said. “Berman said he didn’t believe what I was alleging.” (Berman said he recalled a conversation with Twersky, but not what the conversation was about.)
The following month, Twersky filed a complaint against Finkelstein with Takana, a Jerusalem-based forum made up of educators, rabbis, yeshiva heads, lawyers and therapists who deal with allegations of sexual harassment and abuse made against clergy.
After hearing Twersky’s testimony, Takana met with several members of the Great Synagogue leadership who said they would look into the matter.
Zalli Jaffe, the Great Synagogue’s vice president, said the board took the allegations raised by Takana “very seriously.” But Finkelstein’s denial and the fact that he was able to become principal of the Hillel school after leaving Y.U. were seen as proof that he was innocent.
Jaffe, a commercial lawyer, said the synagogue had always believed the Israeli police investigation and the Takana investigation to be about the same allegation. He said he was surprised at the time that Israeli police would investigate allegations of abuse decades earlier in the U.S., but that he was “stunned” by the Forward’s suggestion that the police investigation referred to allegations of incidents in the synagogue.
He said that the synagogue had “no reason to suspect anything” when Finkelstein was employed at the synagogue, and that if Finkelstein was providing guidance to anyone in Jerusalem it would have been “outside his position” as director general.
Finkelstein retired from his post as director general of the Great Synagogue last summer, slipping into a lesser role of ritual director. He resigned from that post in December after the Forward published its first story detailing allegations against him.
Nathan Jeffay contributed to this story from Jerusalem.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Yeshiva U. Rabbi George Finkelstein Acted Inappropriately Even After Ouster
Wrestled With Boys in New Posts in Florida and Jerusalem
By Paul Berger and Jane Eisner
Forward - March 8, 2013
Rabbi George Finkelstein was quietly forced out of Yeshiva University High School for Boys in 1995 because of inappropriate wrestling with students that some of them considered abusive.
But the Forward has learned that the wrestling did not stop after his departure from Y.U. It continued during Finkelstein’s next two posts, as dean of a Jewish school in Florida and as director general of the Jerusalem Great Synagogue in Israel, where he worked until abruptly resigning this past December.
The most recent wrestling incidents documented by the Forward were in 2009.
Finkelstein, 67, has been a respected figure in the Modern Orthodox community for decades, first as an administrator at Y.U.’s high school in Manhattan and later at the Jerusalem Great Synagogue. But allegations that he behaved inappropriately with boys have trailed him for at least 30 years, according to dozens of interviews with former students, colleagues and peers in the United States.
Although former students of Y.U.’s high school long complained about Finkelstein’s behavior to staff members and administrators — both while he worked at the school and after he left — Y.U. appears never to have reported the complaints to police. Nor did Y.U. open an investigation until December 2012, when the Forward published allegations that Finkelstein and another former Y.U. staff member, Rabbi Macy Gordon, had sexually, emotionally and physically abused students over decades. Finkelstein and Gordon deny the abuse charges.
The Forward’s initial reporting concerned Finkelstein’s behavior before he left New York in 1995 for an administrative position at the Samuel Scheck Hillel Community Day School in North Miami Beach. But a former student at that school, who requested anonymity, has now told the Forward that Finkelstein wrestled with him around 1999. The former student said Finkelstein initiated the wrestling one Shabbat when the boy, then about 14 or 15 years old, slept over at Finkelstein’s home.
The Forward has also learned that a young man filed a complaint against Finkelstein with the Jerusalem police in 2009. The man, then aged 26, reported that Finkelstein had taken advantage of his vulnerability — he had serious family problems — and that Finkelstein used his prestigious post at the Jerusalem Great Synagogue to gain his trust. The wrestling took place over two-and-a-half years, in Finkelstein’s home and inside the Great Synagogue.
“Rabbi Gedalia [George Finkelstein] began to wrestle me and told me he is doing it in order to strengthen me and develop my self-confidence,” the man said in a 2009 police statement obtained by the Forward and translated from Hebrew into English.
“I remember one time in particular when he hugged me against my will, about a year ago at his home, and pulled me close to him and I was completely passive,” the statement continued.
“[Finkelstein] pushed me to the floor and I was on my knees facing the floor and he was behind me with his chest on my back. He put his body very close to mine and I think he could not get any closer than that.”
“I think he enjoyed it,” the man continued. “He was breathing heavily and I said to him ‘enough, what are you doing?’ and he stood up and I felt very angry and sexually abused.”
Israeli police dropped the case because of insufficient evidence, according to a letter sent by police to the man in 2010.
Finkelstein did not respond to several requests for comment.
More than one dozen former students who attended the Y.U.-run high school during the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s have told the Forward that Finkelstein had emotionally or physically abused them.
Finkelstein would try to wrestle with students in a Y.U. school office or at his home. Several students said Finkelstein told them that he loved them and that they could feel his erect penis rub up against them while they were pinned to the floor.
In a December interview, Rabbi Norman Lamm, the former president of Yeshiva University, told the Forward that during his tenure — from 1976 to 2003 — he dealt with allegations of “improper sexual activity” against staff members by quietly allowing them to leave and to find jobs elsewhere.
Lamm, a revered figure in Modern Orthodoxy and the current chancellor of Y.U., told the Forward that Finkelstein was forced out of the high school because of the wrestling. “He knew we were going to ask him to leave,” Lamm said.
Lamm said that Y.U. did not inform the Florida school about Finkelstein’s wrestling because “the responsibility of a school in hiring someone is to check with the previous job. No one checked with me about George.” Reached at his home on February 25, Lamm declined to respond to allegations that there were subsequent wrestling incidents after Finkelstein left Y.U.
Y.U.’s knowledge of Finkelstein’s problematic behavior did not stop the school from honoring him upon his departure. At Y.U.’s annual tribute dinner, held in March 1995 at the New York Hilton hotel in Manhattan, Lamm presented Finkelstein and his wife, Fredda, with the Heritage Award “for 25 years of dedicated service.”
Asked why Y.U. honored Finkelstein despite forcing him out because of the wrestling, a Y.U. spokesman said: “As you are aware, everything is being independently investigated by outside counsel who will make their report when the investigation is fully finished.” The spokesman did not respond to a request for details about how the investigation is proceeding and when it might be complete.
Finkelstein took up his post at the Hillel school in Florida in 1995. Many former students and school officials in Florida, including staff and board members, remember Finkelstein as a positive influence. “We had no difficulties with Rabbi Finkelstein whatsoever,” said Martin Hoffman, president of the Hillel board when Finkelstein was hired.
Samuel Maya, 30, a former Hillel student, said Finkelstein was “an incredible person and one of the kindest men I have ever met in my entire life. I have a lot of friends that spent a lot of time with him and never once did I hear one complaint about him,” Maya added.
Another former student, Elie Yudewitz, said that he spent a lot of time at Finkelstein’s home in North Miami Beach and he never saw or heard of Finkelstein wrestling. However, Yudewitz said that rumors about Finkelstein wrestling with boys in New York began to trickle down from former Y.U. high school students to Florida during the late 1990s.
A former Hillel staff member, who requested anonymity, said: “The kids went to convention or camp and they met kids from Y.U. and they asked, ‘Did Finkelstein touch you already?’”
Yudewitz and Maya said Finkelstein often invited boys to stay over at his house during Shabbat. Such behavior was typical for a Jewish educator trying to persuade students to become more observant.
It was during one such sleepover that one former Hillel student said Finkelstein asked him to wrestle.
Even before then, the former student recalled, Finkelstein had taken a particular interest in him. Finkelstein often told the boy that he loved him and, when he called him into his school office, he hugged him “a little bit closer than a normal person might hug.”
“He would lock his feet together and come in close [with his] legs touching each other and he was flat against me,” the former student said. “I never took it as he felt anything more than affection in a father-son type way,” he added.
The former student said he stayed at Finkelstein’s house many times. Then, one time when the two were alone, Finkelstein asked him to wrestle.
“His demeanor changed and he puts on this face like you would do with a kid if [you were] pretending to be angry,” the former student said. “[He] starts making a fist and says, ‘We’re going to come to blows.’”
“The whole thing ended with my getting pinned to the ground and he’s on top of me and I’m thinking, ‘I don’t know what the hell is going on,’” the former student said. “And he starts tickling me…and he got off [me] and that was the end of it.”
The man said that he felt uncomfortable enough that the next time Finkelstein asked to wrestle he refused. But he said that he remained friendly with Finkelstein.
A few years ago, he discovered a blog where former Y.U. High School students wrote of what they perceived to be the sexual undertones beneath Finkelstein’s wrestling. “It made me furious,” the man said. “I realized if he’s doing this to all these guys he’s either really naive or some kind of predator.”
He sent an email to Finkelstein last year asking him to explain his behavior. Finkelstein wrote back to say that he wanted to talk on the phone, but the man could not bring himself to speak to Finkelstein.
“I technically said yes [to the wrestling] which is why at the time I didn’t think anything about it,” the man said. “It’s only as I got older and thought of [the incident again] that I thought about it in a new light.”
In 2001, a former student from Y.U.’s high school, Simeon Weber, warned the Florida school that Finkelstein liked to wrestle with boys. He persuaded two prominent New York rabbis to corroborate to Hillel administrators his own story of wrestling with Finkelstein. Finkelstein left the school the same year.
When the Forward tried to contact the Hillel school in December, the school’s chief operating officer, Rafael Quintero, did not return multiple calls and emails for comment.
On February 20, the Forward sent an email to Quintero and to other Hillel officials alerting them to the 1999 incident involving their former student. The email asked what, if anything, the Hillel school had done to investigate Finkelstein’s employment at the school and to ascertain whether students were harmed.
No one responded to the email or to subsequent calls to Quintero and head of school, Rabbi Pinchos Hecht.
Allegations of Finkelstein’s inappropriate behavior preceded him when he applied for the job of director general of Jerusalem’s Great Synagogue, in 2001.
The Great Synagogue was concerned enough that its board launched an investigation and was twice reassured by a Y.U. “authority” that the rumors were baseless, according to Zev Lanton, the synagogue’s director general. Lanton told the Forward in December that after seeking legal advice the synagogue could not reveal the name of the Y.U. official who vouched for Finkelstein.
But in a statement released the same month Lanton said: “We would like to emphasize that during the ten years in which Rabbi Finkelstein served the synagogue, there was never any hint, direct or indirect, of any inappropriate behavior on his part.”
Finkelstein did inform the synagogue a few years prior to the statement that he had been summoned by police in Jerusalem regarding “a complaint reiterating the original allegation,” the statement said — apparently referring to allegations that Finkelstein abused a student in New York.
But the police report obtained by the Forward shows that the summons related to a complaint that Finkelstein assaulted a young man over a period of two-and-a-half years in Finkelstein’s home and inside the Great Synagogue.
The man who filed the complaint said he had family problems and few real friends when Finkelstein befriended him after he emigrated from Israel to America in 2005. “I remember [Finkelstein] saying, ‘I can play the role of father for you,’” the man, now 29, recalled in a telephone interview with the Forward.
He said Finkelstein would invite him to his synagogue office mostly when no one else was around. “He would say, ‘I love you. Do you love me?’” the man recalled. “At a certain point he wanted me to hug him. He would always seem to press me too tightly.”
“After hugging me, he would push me,” the man said. “He’s got a big office in a shul with an operating budget of millions of dollars and I’m like, ‘What the hell is going on here?’”
He said that the “bizarre relationship” continued as the “gray-haired” rabbi, now in his 60s, graduated from pushing to “tussling” and then to wrestling. One day, he found himself pinned to the floor in Finkelstein’s Jerusalem home, his face pressed to the ground. “I could feel his [penis] pushing against me,” the man said. “It was such a thin line between a wrestling move and humping someone.”
After contacting the police, the man also opened an anonymous email account and sent an email to the synagogue warning them about Finkelstein. He said that he never received a response.
“These are extremely painful memories, you can’t imagine,” the man said.
Jacob Rowe, a Great Synagogue board member, did not directly address whether the synagogue received an anonymous complaint about Finkelstein. But he said that he never heard “anything but positive” things about Finkelstein. “People who make anonymous things are destroyers of Judaism,” Rowe said. “No one can be protected against anonymous things like this.”
Rowe said Finkelstein still attends the synagogue and is welcomed warmly. “Everybody knows him to be a tzaddik [righteous man] here,” Rowe added.
One year after the police complaint was made, Mordechai Twersky, a former student of Y.U. High School, said he also tried to warn the Great Synagogue board.
Twersky said Finkelstein wrestled him several times in 1980, during his junior year at the school. In February 2010, he attended a meeting in Jerusalem where he met Tobias Berman, an officer of the Great Synagogue.
“Toward the conclusion of the meeting I got into an exchange with Berman, and I mentioned that I was a victim of his shul’s director general,” Twersky said. “Berman said he didn’t believe what I was alleging.” (Berman said he recalled a conversation with Twersky, but not what the conversation was about.)
The following month, Twersky filed a complaint against Finkelstein with Takana, a Jerusalem-based forum made up of educators, rabbis, yeshiva heads, lawyers and therapists who deal with allegations of sexual harassment and abuse made against clergy.
After hearing Twersky’s testimony, Takana met with several members of the Great Synagogue leadership who said they would look into the matter.
Zalli Jaffe, the Great Synagogue’s vice president, said the board took the allegations raised by Takana “very seriously.” But Finkelstein’s denial and the fact that he was able to become principal of the Hillel school after leaving Y.U. were seen as proof that he was innocent.
Jaffe, a commercial lawyer, said the synagogue had always believed the Israeli police investigation and the Takana investigation to be about the same allegation. He said he was surprised at the time that Israeli police would investigate allegations of abuse decades earlier in the U.S., but that he was “stunned” by the Forward’s suggestion that the police investigation referred to allegations of incidents in the synagogue.
He said that the synagogue had “no reason to suspect anything” when Finkelstein was employed at the synagogue, and that if Finkelstein was providing guidance to anyone in Jerusalem it would have been “outside his position” as director general.
Finkelstein retired from his post as director general of the Great Synagogue last summer, slipping into a lesser role of ritual director. He resigned from that post in December after the Forward published its first story detailing allegations against him.
Nathan Jeffay contributed to this story from Jerusalem.
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As Yeshiva Child Sex Abuse Scandal Grows, Why Are We Afraid To Speak Out?
Community Will Be Judged Harshly If We Stay Silent
By Stacey Klein
Forward - March 31, 2013
We in the Orthodox Jewish community claim to value children deeply. We want to have children, and we pressure our own children to get married and have children, and yet, when it comes to really ensuring those children’s utmost protection from harm, somehow the silence is deafening.
As a Yeshiva University alumnus and a psychotherapist who works with abused children, I was horrified to learn that my alma mater was apparently involved in a 30-year cover-up of sexual abuse that affected hundreds of children and protected known abusers. Y.U. — an institution to which I am grateful for making me who I am today — also has refused to commit to releasing to the public details of its investigation into these abuses.
So I created a petition urging Y.U. to commit to sharing the report findings with the public. Nearly everyone I know — many alumni from Y.U. and its Stern College for Women, including rabbis, did not sign. Other than one or two brave figures, the people I worked with for years through Y.U., programs teaching Jewish children worldwide about Jewish values, wouldn’t sign, nor would they do anything else I am aware of to support victims.
I am deeply saddened by this blinding lack of empathy for our fellow suffering Jews.
As a psychotherapist, I know firsthand about the long-term effects of sexual abuse on children: It impacts their self-esteem, their faith, their trust in others — especially in the community. Silence in the face of abuse conveys the message to victims that their suffering matters much less than protecting the abuser or the leaders who covered up the abuse. With each day of silence that passes, the victims feel more isolated and betrayed. What is this passivity in the face of such terrible injustice?
I have come to understand that most people in my community are blocked by fear. Most people want to do the right thing, but are afraid of being judged by others, or they don’t want to “break with Y.U.” While loyalty is an important value, it cannot take precedence over the safety of our children.
People invent intellectual arguments that enable them to avoid doing what’s difficult. They argue that holding someone responsible for particular actions will amount to vilifying an institution they care about. But this crisis is about holding specific people accountable for criminal and reckless behaviors and cover-ups, not about indicting a beloved school.
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Yeshiva U. Sex Abuse Probe Stalls Amid Fear and Mistrust
Some Victims Not Contacted, Others Wary of Investigation
By Paul Berger
Forward - May 2, 2013
It has been more than four months since Yeshiva University hired an international law firm to investigate allegations of emotional, physical and sexual abuse at a Y.U.-run high school.
Yet investigators working for the firm of Sullivan & Cromwell still have not contacted several former Y.U. school staff and students who described the abuse in a series of articles published in the Forward last year.
Meanwhile, many other former students who have been contacted say they refused to cooperate with investigators because they do not trust Y.U.’s motives. Such mistrust has only increased since Y.U. retained another international law firm, Greenberg Traurig, to fight a possible multiparty civil lawsuit.
Barry Singer, a former student who has spoken to a Y.U. investigator, said the investigator “made it clear that she had nothing to do with any sort of defense that Yeshiva might mount.” But, Singer added, she also told him that Greenberg Traurig “can use whatever they gather” to defend against a civil lawsuit.
Singer said he believed that the investigator, Lisa Friel, a sex abuse expert hired by Sullivan & Cromwell to assist with its investigation, was well intentioned. But he added that Friel has no control over how much of the information she gathers will be made public.
“It’s not really about her investigation at all,” Singer said. “It’s about [the Y.U. board], of course, and what they do with it.”
Despite protests from Y.U. alumni, Y.U.’s board has not committed to making the results of its investigation public. Instead, the board’s most recent statement, published in January, said. “We expect the findings of the investigation will be communicated to the public following completion of the investigation.”
The board will not say which of its members are overseeing the investigation. Several board members reached by the Forward declined to comment. Jayne Beker, who is listed as a board member on Y.U.’s website, said she knew nothing about the investigation and had not taken part in board meetings for some time. Ronald P. Stanton, a chairman emeritus, declined to answer any questions. “I can’t help you, sorry.” Stanton said, and then cut off the call.
Y.U.’s board launched what it called an “independent investigation” into the alleged abuse in December 2012. The investigation followed an article in the Forward citing several men who said they were abused by two former staff members at Y.U.’s High School for Boys, in Manhattan.
Since then, about 20 former students have told the Forward they were emotionally, physically or sexually abused by Rabbi Macy Gordon, a former Talmud teacher, or by Rabbi George Finkelstein, the school’s former principal, over a period spanning three decades. Both men, who deny the allegations, served at the school for about 25 years. Gordon left the school around 1984. Finkelstein left the school in 1995.
Several former students said they or their parents informed Y.U. staff members of the abuse either at the time or after they left the school, but no action was taken.
Rabbi Norman Lamm, who was president of Y.U. from 1976 until 2003 and is now chancellor, appeared to suggest in a December interview at his home that the abuse was even more widespread. Lamm told the Forward that during his tenure, law enforcement officials were never notified, despite “charges of improper sexual activity” made against staff “not only at [Y.U.’s] high school and college, but also in [the] graduate school.”
Rabbi Hershel Schachter, a dean of Y.U.’s rabbinical school, told the New York Times in December that in addition to rabbis Gordon and Finkelstein he knew of another staff member who was dismissed for inappropriate behavior with students.
In the wake of the allegations, Y.U.’s board swiftly assured staff, students and alumni that Sullivan & Cromwell had been hired “to conduct a full and independent investigation of the allegations as well as to review our current policies and procedures.”
In statements posted to Y.U.’s website, the board assured alumni that it would “only be satisfied with a broad and far-reaching investigation” and that Sullivan & Cromwell had been given “the unrestricted authority to pursue any leads that may shed light on all matters related to the investigation.”
But the Forward has found that many people who were named months ago as having information about the abuse have yet to be contacted.
Elan Adler, a director of Y.U.’s school dormitory from 1981 to 1986, told the Forward in December that some boys complained to him about Finkelstein’s “inappropriately aggressive” wrestling. In an April 23 email, Adler said that investigators had not contacted him and that he had no idea an investigation had been launched.
Coby Hakalir, a former high school student, told the Forward in December about an atmosphere of “constant [fear]” that pervaded the school during the 1990s. Hakalir said on April 23 that he did not know an investigation was being conducted. “It’s not that hard to find me,” he added. Investigators contacted him on April 30, after the Forward asked about his case.
Investigators have also failed so far to pursue obvious leads that people familiar with Y.U. might explore. Abuse victims in the Orthodox community often turn to Rabbi Yosef Blau, a long-standing victims advocate who has been a spiritual adviser at Y.U. for almost 40 years. The Forward is aware of at least one person who contacted Blau during the past few years to say that a Y.U. staff member abused him decades ago. However, investigators have not contacted Blau.
Blau said that he had not taken the initiative to contact investigators, because they are only interested in “people who were personally abused.” In fact, the investigators’ mandate is much wider; they have interviewed several former students who have secondhand knowledge of abuse. “I can’t tell you for sure what are the full guidelines given to the law firm and how they chose to function,” Blau said. “Did they send a message to people working at Y.U., asking for anyone who knows anything to please contact us? I don’t recall that.”
Perhaps the most striking omission is the investigators’ failure thus far to contact Mordechai Twersky. Twersky wrote about his allegations of abuse at Y.U.’s high school in an online publication, the Y.U. Beacon, in February last year. Since then, he has been quoted extensively in the Forward about the abuse he says he suffered and also about his repeated attempts to alert first Lamm and then the current Y.U. president, Richard Joel.
Twersky is among about 20 former students who have retained a lawyer to launch a possible multiparty lawsuit against Y.U. He said that the potential lawsuit, as well as his deep mistrust of Y.U., meant that he would likely decline to speak to investigators. Nevertheless, he said, the symbolism of investigators “not reaching out” to him is striking.
Certainly, the investigation has been complicated by the potential lawsuit.
Abuse victims in New York have until their 23rd birthday to bring a civil claim of child sexual abuse. But that has not stopped some victims from winning settlements in cases where alleged incidents fall well beyond the statute of limitations.
Kevin Mulhearn won just such a settlement last year on behalf of 12 men who said they were sexually abused by football coach Philip Foglietta at Brooklyn’s Poly Prep Country Day School.
Now, he represents the former Y.U. students who, Mulhearn said, have helped him compile a dossier showing that Y.U. administrators “facilitated, condoned and excused” the abuse of students over decades.
Such a lawsuit could be embarrassing for some of Modern Orthodoxy’s most respected leaders. It could also deal a blow to Y.U.’s fundraising at a critical time.
Y.U., which recently launched a drive to raise $600 million toward a capital campaign and scholarships, has suffered significant financial problems lately. In June 2011, a Moody’s Investors Service analyst reported that “Yeshiva is reporting the largest operating cash flow deficits of any research university rated by Moody’s.” The analyst downgraded Y.U.’s credit rating, noting that “significant operating deficits and very thin operating cash flow are key components to the rating downgrade and maintenance of the negative outlook.”
The Y.U. investigation is being led by Karen Seymour, a co-managing partner of Sullivan & Cromwell’s litigation group. Seymour, who specializes in internal investigations, said she could not say when the investigation might be completed. “We want to follow all the leads, and so we’re still in the midst of a very active investigation,” she said. “We’re moving as quickly as we can, because we want to get this completed.”
Seymour was reluctant to disclose many details of the investigation on the record. But she did reassure victims who were reticent to talk to her out of fear that their information could be turned against them during a civil lawsuit that their identities would be “anonymized.” She reiterated that the information is not being “gathered for the purposes of the defense.”
Still, many former students say they do not trust a law firm paid by Y.U. to conduct a truly independent investigation. “I did not trust that through my talking to them I would reach any sort of closure,” said one former student, who is in his late 40s and who did not wish to be named, in an email. “I had no assurances as to what Y.U. would do with any information I shared with them.”
The man said that the Forward’s articles about Y.U. had reawakened terrible memories that he had suppressed for decades. “People can’t and do not realize that the mind can hide something like this for years and then suffer flashbacks,” he said.
“I have been seeing a therapist since December and have been diagnosed with [post-traumatic stress disorder],” he added. “It keeps me awake some nights, or I wake up having had a nightmare. I am typing this with one hand because I finally snapped and punched a… wall and broke my hand about three weeks ago.”
After more than four months, Y.U.’s investigation is now longer than a three-month probe that Deerfield Academy, an elite Massachusetts boarding school, conducted into abuse allegations at its campus. It is also just one month short of a five-month investigation into abuse at the Orthodox Union’s youth organization, NCSY, which was led by Joel before he became president of Y.U.
At its current pace, the Y.U. investigation threatens to take as long as the probe into abuse at Penn State University, led by former FBI director Louis Freeh. Although that investigation, which took about eight months, included more than 400 interviews and the examination of more than 3.5 million emails and documents.
Asked how Y.U.’s investigation was progressing and when it might be completed, a Y.U. spokesman said the probe “continues to be ongoing, and as soon as it has been completed in the proper way and to the satisfaction of investigators, we will have an update to offer.” Asked whether there was a conflict of interest between Sullivan & Cromwell, whose mission is to shed light on the abuse, and Greenberg Traurig, whose mission is to protect Y.U from abuse claims, the spokesman did not respond.
A spokesman for Greenberg Traurig said no one from the firm was available to comment.
Some former students who have spoken to Y.U.’s investigators remain cynical. Although Juda Engelmayer was not abused at Y.U., he said that he contacted investigators because he knew, secondhand, of abuse. Engelmayer said he was disappointed by the investigators’ line of questioning. He said that the questions seemed more designed to explain why abusive behavior might have taken place than to seriously investigate what happened. “I don’t think they’re being genuine,” Engelmayer said.
Others were more sanguine. Neal Lehrman, who also knew secondhand of abuse, said that Friel appeared to be sincere. “She said, ‘The only thing I can tell you is I have been doing this for 25 years and I am not staking my reputation on something that’s going to be swallowed up,’” Lehrman said. When he last corresponded with Friel, she told him that the investigative team continued to interview “numerous people a week” and that the investigation would be complete “in about a month.”
That was on March 5.
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Yeshiva University High School former students file $380 million sex abuse lawsuit
The school ‘was allowing known sexual predators to roam the school at will seeking other victims,’ says attorney Kevin Mulhearn, who filed the suit on behalf of the 19 plaintiffs.
By Michael O'Keeffe
New York Daily News - July 8, 2013
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| Chancellor of Yeshiva University Rabbi Norman Lamm announced his retirement on Monday, July 1, 2013, Lamm said he was wrong in the way he handled allegations of sexual abuse at the university’s high school decades ago. Lamm is stepping down after decades at the university amid an ongoing investigation into accusations of abuse by alumni. |
Nineteen former students at Yeshiva University High School have filed a bombshell $380 million lawsuit against the prestigious Jewish institution claiming horrific acts of sexual abuse that went unchecked for two decades at the Manhattan school.
"Yeshiva University High School held itself out as an exemplary Jewish secondary school when in fact it was allowing known sexual predators to roam the school at will seeking other victims," said attorney Kevin Mulhearn, who filed the suit on behalf of the 19 plaintiffs. "Childhood sexual abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community can no longer be condoned and excused.”
One victim claims administrators ignored his protests when he told them a Judaic studies teacher sodomized him with a toothbrush. Other victims — the children of Holocaust survivors — say a former principal persuaded them not to tell their parents after he sexually assaulted them because their mothers and fathers had already suffered through so much.
The 148-page lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in White Plains, claims Yeshiva officials ignored and covered up the complaints because they feared the sexual abuse allegations would damage fund-raising efforts and bruise the schools reputation.
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| Yeshiva University |
The abuse took place between 1969 and 1989, the lawsuit says. New York state law requires survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file civil litigation by the time they turn 23 years old.
But Mulhearn said the clock on the statute of limitations should have stopped ticking because school administrators and officials at Yeshiva University, which operates the high school, engaged in years of fraud by portraying the former Judaic studies teacher and ex-principal as exemplary educators long after Yeshiva officials had received reports of sexual abuse.
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Shaya Greenwald stands with Norman Lamm and Rabbi Zevulun Charlop at Yeshiva University. The defendants in the sexual abuse suit include Lamm, a former chancellor who served as the president of Yeshiva University from 1976 to 2003.
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Administrators honored former Judaic studies teacher Rabbi Macy Gordon and Rabbi George Finkelstein, the ex-principal, when they left YUHS, and scholarships were awarded in both their names even though officials knew
Mulhearn represented 12 men who settled a sex abuse lawsuit in December against Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn. That suit also faced significant statute of limitations challenges. Mulhearn said the legal arguments in the Yeshiva suit are "more developed" than the Poly Prep case.
Gordon and Finkelsetein denied the abuse allegations in stories published by the Jewish Daily Forward in December. Both men now live in Israel. A Yeshiva University spokesman said officials could not comment on the litigation.
Three of the plaintiffs say they were abused by Gordon; one of those men left the school in 1980, shortly after he and his father told a high-ranking school official that Gordon had sodomized him with a toothbrush during a violent assault in the student's YUHS dormitory in Washington Heights.
The administrator, Rabbi Israel Miller, failed to report the assault to police and took no punitive action. Gordon later assaulted another plaintiff, according to the suit.
Sixteen plaintiffs say they were physical and sexually assaulted by Finkelstein, who was named principal even though several students had complained he had abused them. Finkelstein allegedly kept students quiet about the abuse with emotional manipulation.
"Finkelstein, as a YUHS administrator, specifically targeted vulnerable boys for physical and sexual abuse. He preyed upon children of Holocaust survivors and after he abused them implored these children to not add to their parents' suffering by telling them about his assaults," the suit claims.
The suit claims that officials allowed former YU student Richard Andron to visit the high school dorm despite the fact that officials knew “Andron had a propensity to sexually abuse boys.”
Only two of the plaintiffs — Mordechai Twersky and Barry Singer — are identified in the suit; the remaining 17 are named as John Does. The abuse lead to depression, drug and alcohol abuse, broken marriages, failed careers and other problems, the suit claims.
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King Juan Carlos 1 receives honorary Doctorate in Laws from New York Yeshiva University. The school has been sued by 19 former students claiming sexual abuse.
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The defendants include Rabbi Norman Lamm, a former chancellor who served as the president of Yeshiva University from 1976 to 2003. Lamm acknowledged mishandling abuse allegations in a letter when he retired as chancellor on July 1.
"It is our fervent hope that the leaders of Yeshiva University and YUHS will embrace the daunting challenge of reconciling with the survivors of these abuses with the fullest measure of grace, compassion, and humanity,” Mulhearn said. “My clients are brave and courageous men. They now, at long last, are seeking the justice they were denied as children."
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I attended Yeshiva University High School and left on early college admissions in 1973. It was common knowledge that George Finkelstein was a molestor and it was common knowledge that Macy Gordon was as well. There were so many bizarre characters in that school. The English teacher, Alfie Shapiro, was a feminized version of a man. Finkelstein was a very strange character who was very dull and never smiled. The school should have done a better job of providing an education. We learned everything from reading a book knowing full well that the teachers were either awful or too tired to teach. I went very far in life and my kids have gone even farther. Unfortunately, none of our success is due to a "wonderful learning environment" at MTA. Norman Lamm is a very decent human being who should not be blamed for any of this. He single-handedly saved the University from bankruptcy. Richard Joel is another story. He was about to rename the Business Department, the Bernard Madoff School of Business. Richard, how many dinners did you make for Bernie Madoff? Next time you get up at a graduation with your Al Sharpton medallions someone should toss a tomato at you. Richard Joel's apology is worthless. He just wants to negotiate a better pay package next time around.
ReplyDeleteI went to MTA in 69,was tortured by George F. in 72. I had to leave in the middle of my junior year or else I was heading towards a Nervous Breakdown. I was a Straight A student with no discipline issues whatsoever. George DESTROYED me. I was only 16 years old!As far as informing YU, Weinbach (principal) was cold and indifferent to the matter. My Dad went to the top of YU Rav Belkin and He Immediaelly reprimanded George. George blew a gasket and tortured me even MORE!leaving me with NO one I could Trust at YU
ReplyDeleteI want to send my apologies out to those of you who were so badly harmed by George. Thank you so much for the courage it took to share your story. You are all heroes and should be honored and respected for the tenacity it took to come forward.
ReplyDeleteIf you would want to reach someone at The Awareness Center, I can be reached by sending an email to: vickipolin@aol.com
I graduated in the class of 81. George was the reason many of us wanted to have nothing more to do with religion when we graduated. He and other educators in that school seemed to be very out of touch with the needs and concerns of the students.
ReplyDeleteAs far as inappropriate behaviors, we were all aware of his propensity for wrestling with certain students. Frankly if he would have touched me in any way I would have kicked the crap out of him. In my senior year when George threatened me to go learn in one of those brain-washing yeshivas in Israel, I let him know to his face what a failure he and his school had been.
I was validated the following year when my Hebrew Professor at YC upon hearing I had graduated YUHS looked at me and said, "And you're still Jewish?".
I do not believe I am alone in saying that there is much unresolved anger amongst students of George's era. As I move through the modern orthodox world I have met many people who have "George" stories to tell. Most are not complimentary in nature.
The lack of moral and ethical practices in the orthodox jewish world is despicable. We as Jews need to re-evaluate our positions. Derech Eretz and treating each other with dignity and respect should be what we are about. I hope that the children today are the benefactors of a better educational experience.
ReplyDeleteall I have heard is heresay which would never hold up in court. Use real names and give dates, time and place. So far two reputations have been ruined and where is the solid proof, witnesses, pictures, RECORDINGS, anything. THIS WILL NEVER GO TO COURT THERE IS . SO FAR THERE IS A LOT OF HERESAY AND NO REAL PROOF. Dr. Lamm is a hero at Y.U. He saved Y.U. THERE were others who should have handled the alleged sexual issues. Where are they and who are they? Rabbi DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG
Another 1973 graduate
ReplyDeleteI knew George when I attended MTA many years ago. I never heard the accusations that he was a well known abuser. I spent time in his office- for poor behavior on my part- but he never touched me. Having been abused as a child myself- I would have never tolerated him touching me in an inappropriate way. I probably was in class with anonymous #2 and year behind #3. Alfie was probaly gay- so what. Macy - I never had to deal with. It hurts me to think that George did these things.
i lived at finkelstein houe for over a year...people lie...he if the one of the mot caring peron i have ever met.. he was like a father to me..
ReplyDeletefinkelstein was also my fathers principal in MTA when my father was a student,
think about this: MTA high school had say 4000 boys, he works there for over 20+ if he had some kind of "off thinking" this would have come out a long time ago..
It should be a crime to slander such a good person like Finkelstein,
chazonistein@aol.com
chazon zoni tein
When thinking of the cases that recently made it to the news from YU (Rabbis George Finkelstein and Rabbi Macy Gordon), we all have to remember the way that YU's Rabbi Mordechai Willig handled the Lanner case.
ReplyDeleteDo you really think much has changed? http://theawarenesscenter.blogspot.com/2001/01/case-of-rabbi-mordechai-willig.html
I attended MTA from 1969-1972 and then continued on to YU. I would first like to comment that I received an excellent education - limudei kodesh (religious studies) and limudei chol (secular studies) and was well prepared to face the religious, moral and secular challenges that I have encountered over the past 40 years. As I read the articles I too remember Tzizit checks. I did not think of them at the time as sexual - and I believe for the most part they were not. Today any physical activity between a faculty member and a student would be considered inappropriate. Unfortunately, at the time such activity was not considered inappropriate. Some of the activities which [in my days] Mr. Finkelstein, officially [but everyone called George]is accused of, if true are truly reprehensible under any standard. Yes, George, did wrestle with students [I was spared]. Yet, surprisingly, I never heard of any sexual accusations by any of my friends who wrestled with George. And, George methods of discipline were discussed at great length between the boys. In fact in the dormitory George was a frequent topic until the wee hours of the morning, yet I never remember any sexual encounter being discussed. Among adolescent boys his arousal would have been a very hot topic. I ask that wen one reads the accusation, one condemn certain activities but not throw out the baby with the bath water.
ReplyDelete. I grew up in the Midwest and attended an elementary school where anti Semitism was rampant. There were only two Jewish children in the school; because we were poor we lived in that neighhborhood. Being beaten up because I was Jewish and fighting back was a common occurrence. I knew how to fight back and would have fought against anyone who molested me. Yeshiva students have to be taught to physically protect themselves against abuse.
ReplyDeleteRabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg
Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg - you're an insensitive putz.
ReplyDeleteI am another one who George "wrestled" while i was at MTA. class of 1984. I'm sorry it took this long for him to be outed. At the time I and others mentioned the "in-office private wrestling" to MTA staff, such as Rabbi Dulitz and others, but they were in disbelief. I hoped they would escalate the story to higher-ups - and perhaps they did, but ultimately it was swept under the rug and George was merely transferred away. Shame on you Dr. Lamm.
Finkelstein and Gordon were not only physical abusers, they mentally abused us as well. I will never forget the cold and menacing behavior they exhibited to us in those days. We were just kids.
ReplyDeleteI second the motion that Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg is a ... well moron. You should stop posting and find a job that keeps you occupied and hopefully away from young people.