Report: Georgetown U Law Student Sues Rabbi Accused of Voyeurism

A third-year law student at Georgetown University is suing Rabbi Barry Freundel, the synagogue where he used to work, a “mikvah” ritual bath as well as Georgetown University Law School, The Washington Post reports.

Police arrested Freundel in October at his home, charging him with six counts of voyeurism. The Kesher Israel synagogue in Georgetown fired him last week.

The student said she was invited by Freundel to the ritual bath, where she disrobed after he left the dressing room, the Post reported. The lawsuit is filed in D.C. Superior Court, and seeks class-action status.

Georgetown University responded that they are cooperating in the investigation and conducting their own investigation, the newspaper reported.

“This case involves an unfathomable breach of trust by a Georgetown professor and religious leader and defendants’ utter failure to prevent and/or stop it,” the Post reported Baltimore attorney Steven D. Silverman as writing in the lawsuit. He wrote later: “Defendants’ turned a blind eye to obvious signs to Freundel’s increasingly bizarre behavior, ignoring the bright red flags that Freundel was acting inappropriately with women subjected to his authority.”

In addition to teaching at Georgetown, Freundel was also teaching at Towson University in Maryland, where he invited female students to visit the mikvah. The university suspended him after his arrest.

Authorities have set up a hotline for anyone who thinks they were a victim in the case: The number at the U.S. attorney’s office is 202-252-7585. The email address is: usadc.bernardfreundelcase@usdoj.gov and a Web site with updated information is at:

http://www.justice.gov/usao/dc/programs/vw/bernard_freundel.html.