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| Barry Freundel |
What do Sholom Rubashkin and Barry Freundel have in common? Well… a lot it seems. Although the 2 of them could not be more different from each other in Hashkafa - they have both entered the ‘Hall of Jewish Scoundrels’. Each for entirely different reasons. Both have committed crimes that have embarrassed the Jewish people. I don’t think the phrase ‘Chilul HaShem’ is inapt here. They both created a massive Chilul HaShem.
Rubashkin committed bank fraud to the tune of 26 million
dollars. Freundel is guilty of secretly videotaping and viewing over 100 women involved with him in has capacity as a rabbi - completely naked when they were in his Shul’s Mikvah… all for his own personal gratification.
And all unbeknownst to them.
Rubashkin has been discussed to death. I’m not going to rehash
it all here.
What makes Freundel’s crime of voyeurism so egregious is
that he violated the trust his congregants. He wasn’t just some run of the mill ‘Peeping Tom’ that got his jollies from viewing naked women. He was a prominent spiritual leader to his congregants. Someone that
was supposed to be not only a leader, but a role model for Jewish behavior. A
man of God from which the holiness of the Jewish people should emanate. A man
highly educated in the ethics of the Torah. A man that pretended to exuded
honesty and inspire people by his behavior. A man that
had an international reputation as a rabbi and scholar. An expert in conversions. He used that position
of power to take advantage of his female congregants that admired him.
When he was finally exposed, the fallout was horrendous. I
cannot imagine what it must be like for all those women to now realize that in
the moment when they were performing a sacred and holy ritual - they were (unbeknownst
to them) seen naked by their trusted rabbi. The shame… the embarrassment.
Nor can I imagine what this has done to his
family, who were probably completely unaware of his extracurricular and aberrational
sexual activity. I cannot imagine the shame and embarrassment experienced by his
wife who has since divorced him. I can’t imagine the shame experienced by his
colleagues at the RCA who once saw him as
a rising star – an expert on conversions. And now see him as a stain on
their reputation.
The victims of his voyeurism have been traumatized. It will probably affect them for the rest of their lives. Some are being
treated by mental health professionals.
It is one thing to have knowledge that
a ‘Peeping Tom’ somehow got to see you naked. It is orders of magnitude
different when the Peeping Tom in question is your trusted rabbi who has done
this to hundreds of other women countless numbers of time – and videotaped them
all for his own sexual gratification. They see the extent of planning
and execution that went into this. The psychological damage they have all
suffered from Freundel’s voyeurism must be devastating. It is they who have
suffered the most here .
It would not surprise me if more than one of his converts
have had second thoughts about their conversions. Or that some women were so
turned off to Judaism by what their rabbi did to them that they lost their faith and dropped their
observance.
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| Sholom Rubashkin |
As in the Rubashkin case - the prosecution in the Freundel case has asked for a very stiff prison sentence: 17 years - citing the numerous victims and the above reasons for requesting it. However, as bad as his crimes
were, I do not see any justice in giving a Peeping Tom what amounts to a near life sentence in
prison in this case. Freundel is 65 years old. That would mean he would be in
prison until he was 82 years old. As great as his crimes were, I do not think
they rise to the level of deserving a life sentence.
I don’t know what a just punishment would be in this case. But 17 years in prison is not it. The truth is that he has been publicly and forever humiliated. He
has lost his reputation. It will never be restored. He will never have a
position of power again. He will never serve in any official capacity as a rabbi. His fall from grace
was mighty. The higher you are,
the greater your fall. He had a big one. His infamy will follow him wherever he goes. His legacy will be one of being a sexual
pervert. He will likely never re-marry and is doomed to a life of being shunned
by people that once respected him. Colleagues and congregants alike. My guess is that his ruined reputation is a far greater punishment to him than any prison sentence.
The suggested 17 year prison sentence for Freundel is no more just than the 27 years was for Rubashkin. Both of these people deserved to be punished for what
they did. But the punishment has to fit the crime. The length of these prison sentences are the
same as would be given to violent criminals. Like drug dealers or even
murderers in some cases. And neither of them are. It might be too late for Rubsahkin, who is now
serving an unjustly long prison sentence. But it is not too late for Freundel. He has not been sentenced yet. Putting a Peeping
Tom in prison for 17 years - even one as
egregious as Freundel - just doesn’t seem right.
