Rabbi Barry Freundel Seeks No Jail Time for Mikveh Peeping
Prosecutors are seeking a 17-year prison term for Rabbi Barry Freundel, 63, who will be sentenced on Friday. He pleaded guilty in February to recording the women between early 2009 and October 2014, using devices installed in two changing rooms for the National Capital Mikvah, next to the Kesher synagogue in the upscale Georgetown neighborhood.
Freundel attorney Jeffrey Harris, in a memo filed on Friday in response to the prosecutor’s request, said Freundel has been punished enough by being publicly humiliated and losing his job.
In the memo, the first time that Freundel or his attorney publicly addressed the case, Harris said Freundel sought medical attention after he was arrested in order to understand why he committed the crimes and to prevent him from doing it again.
Putting Freundel behind bars to keep him from interacting with society is unnecessary, Harris wrote. He recommended community service, saying Freundel already is teaching Judaism to small classes via telephone without compensation.
Harris also said Freundel regretted his actions and the affect they have had on the Jewish community.
The prosecutors in court papers filed on Friday asked the judge to sentence Freundel to four months for each of the 52 misdemeanor counts of voyeurism to which he pleaded guilty.
That represents a third of the maximum penalty but prosecutors called the 17-year recommendation “a reasonable and just punishment for this severe conduct that falls on the extreme end of the voyeurism spectrum.”
The mikvah, or ritual bath, is used most frequently as purification by people converting to Judaism and by Jewish women seven days after the end of their menstrual cycle.
Police began investigating Freundel, who headed the Kesher synagogue for 25 years, when a woman found a camera in a clock radio in the bathing area and turned it over to officers.
“I was violated … my rabbi is a pervert,” one unidentified victim said, according to court documents.
Another said: “We were at our most holy and our most naked, and he was watching it all.”
In December, Kesher Israel fired Freundel, whose congregants have included Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and former Connecticut U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman.—Rauters
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
