UPDATE::Mikvah-peeping rabbi sentenced to 6.5 years | Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Rabbi Barry Freundel was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for videotaping dozens of nude women at a ritual bath.

“You repeatedly and secretly violated the trust your victims had in you, and you abused your power,” Senior Judge
Geoffrey Alprin of D.C. Superior Court said at the sentencing, the Washington Post reported. Alprin also fined Freundel more than $2,000.

Prosecutors had sought 17 years after Freundel, the former spiritual leader of a prominent Washington Orthodox synagogue, pleaded guilty in February to 52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism. Freundel’s lawyers sought community service. Each count carried a maximum penalty of one year in prison and fines of $1,000 to $2,500.

Freundel was given 45 days for each of the 52 counts. He will serve the sentences successively, amounting to nearly six and a half years.

Mikvah-peeping rabbi sentenced to 6.5 years | Jewish Telegraphic Agency

UPDATE::For those who revered him, D.C. rabbi’s sentencing for voyeurism will not bring closure - The Washington Post

I will be honest, I want to say something snarky, but I wont.  All I will say, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."  That being said, this comment, I think sums up the situation:

These two statements from the article will make it very difficult if not impossible for the Kesher community to fully heal: "Judaism teaches that speaking negatively of others — or even listening to negative talk or gossip — can be sinful, and the D.C. Orthodox community is small." and then "...but this wasn’t a sin of the congregation — it was a sin of the rabbi.”

The congregation does bear ample responsibility for the actions of its former faith leader and until the congregation as a whole accepts and acknowledges its part it will be unable to fully heal and will certainly fall victim to the actions of its next charismatic leader. They need to understand what led them to permit the Rabbi to do what he did, fully understand and take responsibility for their part, grieve for their loss and those who were harmed. Until the faith community can hold a series of meetings guided by a professional mediator this congregation will never be able to overcome this scandal, nor be in a position to make the changes to polity that will prevent a recurrence.

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This week, a D.C. Superior Court judge is scheduled to hand down a penalty for Barry Freundel, a powerful Orthodox rabbi who for years secretly videotaped his female followers as they prepared to submerge in the mikvah, a ritual bath. But in the Orthodox world where Freundel was once a giant, the fallout of his crimes will continue unspooling.

Some of the hundreds who studied or worshiped with Freundel have stopped going to the mikvah, a ritual that is considered so important in Judaism that women are commanded to use it monthly before sharing any physical intimacy with their husbands.

Others who converted with Freundel are terrified that their status as Jews will forever be in question in their law-focused communities. Some people have stopped going to synagogue. Others suffer nightmares in which they are spied upon — and feel complicit.

 “This man was Judaism embodied for many of us, we must reconstruct our faith absent his titanic influence. Some members are experiencing deep crises of faith,” reads a group statement by a dozen of the hundreds of converts Freundel mentored over the years. “It was as though he took G-d away from me,” one wrote, using a traditional, respectful way Jews refer to God.

[,,,]
For a man who wrote 55 books and articles, lectured at places from Princeton and Yale to the Aspen Institute and Congress, this is a steep fall.

“There is a need to ostracize someone like this. While Judaism has a process of forgiveness and repair in such cases, it’s not instant,” said one D.C.-area rabbi. “There’s a notion in Judaism of someone in the community who becomes contaminated. They do return, but not just because they feel like it. I think he has to go through some process of reflection, treatment and repair.”

Orthodox Jews vary on what they want to happen Friday, as Judaism doesn’t clearly embrace incarceration simply for punishment. If someone is a danger, that’s one thing, said the rabbi, but “by punishing someone with incarceration, they aren’t allowed to grow.”

For those who revered him, D.C. rabbi’s sentencing for voyeurism will not bring closure - The Washington Post

UPDATE::Rabbi Barry Freundel fired by his D.C. synagogue, Kesher Israel | Jewish Telegraphic Agency

An update of this story,,,

The board of Rabbi Barry Freundel’s Washington synagogue, Kesher Israel, fired the rabbi and said he must vacate his residence by Jan. 1.

Freundel had been on suspension without pay since his Oct. 14 arrest on voyeurism charges for allegedly installing secret cameras in the shower room of the mikvah adjacent to the Orthodox shul. Freundel’s residence is owned by the synagogue.

The synagogue board made its decision last week and announced it to the community in an email sent Sunday and in a notice posted on the synagogue website.

“The decision by the Board of Directors was made under extraordinarily difficult and unfortunate circumstances,” the board said in its announcement. “The alleged acts leading to this step were a gross violation of law, privacy, halakha, and trust. They breached the high moral and ethical standards we set for ourselves and for our leadership.”

The ritual bath, known as the National Capital Mikvah, has been scrutinized to make sure no other hidden devices remained. Last week, Freundel also was formally terminated as the mikvah’s supervising rabbi.

Rabbi Barry Freundel fired by his D.C. synagogue, Kesher Israel | Jewish Telegraphic Agency

ADDENDUM::Mikvahs seek security after hidden camera scandal - Religion News Service

In the days since a prominent Orthodox rabbi was charged with spying on naked women in his synagogue’s mikvah, Jews who oversee the ritual baths across the country are rushing to reassure that the same scandal could not happen under their watch.

Sharon Weiss-Greenberg, executive director of the New York-based Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, said she’s heard about people checking for hidden cameras in mikvahs. She’s learned of some mikvahs where security firms have been brought in to assure that the space is as private as its clients — most of whom are women — expect.

[,,,]
In the wake of the Freundel scandal, Weiss-Greenberg and other women are suggesting that a focus simply on hardware isn’t enough to keep mikvahs safe and sacred.

JOFA is drawing up a list of suggested policies for mikvahs that address the culture of these places. The guidelines aim to ensure that authority over a mikvah is not concentrated in one person whose judgment may be difficult to question — such as the rabbi, the rabbi’s wife or a person appointed by the rabbi.

“They’re about creating an environment that’s welcoming,” said Weiss-Greenberg.

http://www.religionnews.com/2014/10/20/synagogues-redouble-security-efforts-mikvahs-hidden-camera-scandal/

Mikvahs seek security after hidden camera scandal - Religion News Service

D.C. rabbi Barry Freundel arrested, charged with voyeurism | Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Rabbi Barry Freundel, the longtime spiritual leader at Kesher Israel in Washington, D.C., was arrested and charged with voyeurism after the synagogue board alerted the authorities.

Freundel, 62, was taken away Tuesday in handcuffs after uniformed officers and plainclothes detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department searched his home in the Georgetown section of Washington, Washingtonian magazine reported.

A statement from the board of directors emailed to congregants said it had suspended Freundel without pay.

“Upon receiving information regarding potentially inappropriate activity, the Board of Directors quickly alerted the appropriate officials,” said the statement. “Throughout the investigation, we cooperated fully with law enforcement and will continue to do so.”

D.C. rabbi Barry Freundel arrested, charged with voyeurism | Jewish Telegraphic Agency