UK Rabbi Declared ‘Not Fit’ After Harassment Accusation
Five London rabbis have declared Rabbi Chaim Halpern from Golders Green “not fit” to act as rabbi because of accusations that he had behaved “inappropriately” with women.
The five rabbis demanded in a statement published on Thursday that Halpern cease to act as rabbi at his home synagogue in northwest London because of the accusations, which surfaced last month.
“We are confident of our conclusion that the Rov concerned is not fit and proper to act in any rabbinic capacity. This unequivocal decision was taken after painstaking and extensive investigations, including interviews with alleged victims,” the statement read.
The authors – Chanoch Ehtrentreu, Menachem Gelley, Yonason Abraham, Shimon Winegarten and Yissochor Knopfler – did not name Chaim Halpern in their letter.
On Dec. 6, the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations announced that it would convene a special rabbinic court to hear claims against Halpern, The Jewish Chronicle reported.
Rabbi Chaim Halpern resigned as a union rabbinic judge and from other communal roles two weeks ago, after complaints about his counselling sessions for women, but he continues to lead the synagogue he runs in his Golders Green home.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
