Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Boston Rabbi Barry Starr Sent Nude Pics to Teen — Trolled Web for Sex

Disgraced Boston-area Rabbi Barry Starr sent naked photos of himself to boys and trolled the internet for escorts for sexual liaisons — and was tripped up when the brother of one teen demanded thousands in hush money, court documents alleged.

The prominent rabbi, who resigned as leader of Temple Israel in Sharon, engaged in “extensive” browsing of the classified websites Backpage and Craigslist, according to documents related to a search warrant that were released in Stoughton District Court.

The cleric became ensnared in a shakedown scheme when the brother of one boy he communicated with threatened to go public with a sexually-charged email exchange, the Boston Globe reported.

“I went through theses [sic] e-mails and learned that you lure boys in with the promise of paying them a hundred bucks to let you proform [sic] various sex acts on them,” Nicholas Zemeitus, the brother, wrote in one 2011 email. “That made me so upset and even sick to my stomach.”

He threatened to go to the media and added: “I will bring them and post them on the walls of your temple.”

Starr resigned last week from his position as the scandal erupted.

Authorities are investigating the possibility that the rabbi misused nearly $500,000 in synagogue funds to pay hush money.

Starr’s lawyer insists that he is a victim of a blackmail scheme.

It’s still unclear if either Starr or Zemeitus, or both, will face criminal charges.

In an e-mail sent Tuesday to congregants, Arnie Freedman, Temple Israel president, called the allegations about the rabbi “so painful and deeply upsetting.”

She suggested that Starr misled her about the sexual nature of the budding scandal.

“At no point during my conversations with the rabbi did he tell me anything as to the nature of his relationship, which seems to be at the heart of all of this,” said Freedman, who referred the matter to attorneys and eventually law enforcement.

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

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.