Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Savannah Rabbi Who Gave Sex Abuse Talk to 9-Year-Old Girls Quits Synagogue

A rabbi whose sex abuse lesson to children divided a Savannah community has decided not to pursue a new contract at his synagogue.

Rabbi Ruven Barkan decided not renew his contract with Congregation Agudath Achim and “will be seeking other rabbinic opportunities,” according to a January 6 email from the synagogue board and the rabbi to congregants.

Barkan did not respond to a request for comment.

Several families left the Conservative congregation after Barkan terrified a class of nine-year-old girls during the fall of 2013 by teaching them about child sex slavery.

The lesson took place at the Shalom School, Savannah’s only supplementary Jewish school which Agudath Achim runs in partnership with Savannah’s only Reform Congregation Mickve Israel.

Barkan was kept out of the school for the rest of the academic year after some parents said they could no longer trust Barkan with their children.

Despite the opposition to Barkan, many Agudath Achim congregants supported their rabbi.

The synagogue board voted in October to recommend that its congregation not renew Barkan’s contract when the contract expires this summer. But in a subsequent ballot, congregants voted by 132 votes to 53 to keep their rabbi.

Those negotiations were due to begin at the end of last year.

Agudath Achim’s president, Steve Roth, declined to say whether those negotiations started before Barkan decided not to renew his contract. In the email to congregants, Roth said: “Congregation [Agudath Achim] has benefited greatly from the Rabbi’s passionate leadership and is saddened by his decision to leave.”

Simone Wilker, an Agudath Achim Congregant, said that she and others were surprised that Barkan decided not to renew his contract. Wilker added that despite the intense emotions of the past year, she was confident that the tight-knit community would heal.

“Even though there have been difference of opinion, underlying that is a cohesiveness and a sense of pride in the Jewish community,” she said.

Barkan will remain at the synagogue until his contract ends in July.

Contact Paul Berger at [email protected] or on Twitter @pdberger

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  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.