UPDATE:: Rabbi Accused Of Sexual Misconduct Is Suspended By Reform Rabbinical AssociationA Durham rabbi was forced to resign recently after the community he served for nearly three years received a complaint that was sexual in nature, according to interviews and documents.
The Reform movement’s rabbinical association has suspended a rabbi accused of sexual and emotional exploitation by a woman who regularly worshipped at his synagogue.
Rabbi Larry Bach, a well-known religious leader in Durham, North Carolina, was the subject of a several-months-long investigation by the Ethics Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. The suspension comes after Bach was initially given a censure — a lower tier of reprimand — in March. Bach’s synagogue, Judea Reform Congregation, was not immediately informed about the censure at the time, and instead learned of it from the woman who first brought the allegations of sexual misconduct. Bach resigned from the synagogue in April.
In a letter dated Aug. 21 and shared with the Forward, the case manager for the CCAR’s Ethics Committee informed the woman of the committee’s decision.
On Saturday, Steve Simon, president of the Judea Reform Congregation on Cornwallis Road, sent out an email saying the board had accepted Rabbi Larry Bach's resignation.
The resignation followed the temple leadership's learning that Bach had been censured for an ethics violation in March by the Central Conference of American Rabbis. It was the second time Bach had been in trouble.
“Our inquiries into this situation revealed that Rabbi Bach previously had received a reprimand from the CCAR for a similar transgression and that he had failed to follow the terms of that adjudication,” Simon wrote. “Together with the Rabbi, the Board concluded that the breach of trust was so significant that Rabbi Bach could not serve as a rabbi to our community.”
Durham rabbi forced to resign after sexual complaint | The Herald Sun
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