Synagogue elders became enablers

To the editor:

From the ongoing saga of the “Rabbi and the Sauna,” (“Congregants petition for rabbi’s removal,” June 11), it has become eminently clear that the Riverdale Jewish Center was aware of the rabbi’s unorthodox behavior long before it became public. Without interfering to put a stop to it, the synagogue elders became enablers of the rabbi’s known practices and must share responsibility for allowing it to continue.

The most significant factor in altering the tacit symbiotic relationship that prevailed for so long is the current “zeitgeist.” Years after the deed, alumni of elite private schools (cf. Horace Mann) and universities are coming forward to bring charges against former faculty members. Similar litigation, as well as a decline in new membership, threatens the Riverdale synagogue. And the refusal of the rabbi to accept a buyout heightens the certainty of escalating scandal. It is difficult to fault him for his stance in his own defense and seeming duplicity of the congregation. It is also difficult to exonerate those who knowingly endangered the psychological development of young people. The synagogue’s congregants were supposedly not impacted.

It is a most regrettable situation for which a speedy and just resolution is needed.

Evelyn Kantor