Barry Freundel

[3] Freundel's career came to a sudden end in October 2014 when he was arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia[4] and charged with committing voyeurism of several women in a mikveh (Jewish ritual bath).

[6] Similarly, he was also suspended from membership in the Vaad[7] and the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), the main professional association for Modern Orthodox rabbis in the United States.

He received a Master's degree in Talmudic studies from the Bernard Revel Graduate School and his semikhah (rabbinic ordination) from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), part of Yeshiva University.

[27][28] Assistant U.S. Attorney Sharon Marcus Kurn told the judge that Freundel "violated the laws up in the heavens and down,"[29] but he pleaded not guilty to these initial charges[30] and was released on his own recognizance under condition that he stay away from and have no contact with the synagogue and the mikvah,[31] which are located in adjacent buildings.

"Upon receiving information regarding potentially inappropriate activity, the Board of Directors quickly alerted the appropriate officials," it noted in a statement published upon Freundel's arrest and suspension.

"[34] A witness told the police that Freundel was observed placing the clock radio in the mikvah shower room and, when he was discovered doing so, he claimed that he was repairing the ventilation.

A forensic examination determined that several media storage devices found in Freundel's home contained copies of videos backed up from the camera's memory card.

[38] A search of Freundel's Towson office revealed several small cameras hidden in everyday items, multiple computer storage devices, and a list of handwritten names.

[40] On January 16, 2015, the prosecution requested another one-month delay to complete their review of all the video evidence obtained from computers seized by police in the hope to identify additional victims.

[41] "We are appalled by the accusations against Rabbi Barry Freundel and wish to stress that the acts attributed to him are atrocious and strictly against Jewish law," a spokesman for the Chief Rabbinate of Israel stated.

[43] On October 20, the RCA issued a press release stating that it discovered in 2012 that Freundel had coerced conversion candidates into performing clerical work at his home and contributing money to his rabbinic court.

At the time the RCA did not view these activities as rising to the level that would require Freundel's suspension, but did suspend him once he was arrested[44][45] and, together with its affiliated Beth Din of America, launched its own investigation led by Allen Fagin, the chief professional at the Orthodox Union, and Eric Goldstein, CEO of the UJA-Federation of New York.

[48] Two days after Freundel's arrest and suspension, Jakabovics addressed a packed synagogue at Shemini Atzeret services, declaring: "These sacred spaces — our shul and our mikvah — have now been tarnished.

[54] She was soon named, together with another female convert, to a new RCA committee charged with reviewing the entire conversion process,[55] and was later chosen as one of The Forward 50 in recognition of her initiative.

[61] On December 18, a student at Towson University identified only as "Stephanie" added her name to the lawsuit, claiming that Freundel encouraged her to take a "practice dunk" in the mikvah as part of her studies, even though she was not Jewish and had no interest in converting.

[62] She was joined by Emma Shulevitz, a woman who had been converting to Judaism under Freundel's auspices and who had likewise been encouraged by him to take a "practice dunk," an anomaly that he said would help prevent any misstep on the day of the conversion.

They charged that the RCA and Kesher Israel should have removed Freundel from his positions of authority and that his alarming actions included inviting non-Jewish women to use the mikvah and inventing and encouraging the use of "practice dunks."

[70] On February 11, prosecutors informed victims that of all the women appearing in the recordings seized from Freundel's home and office, only 152 could be positively identified from headshots submitted to the police department via email in the preceding weeks.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Zubrensky noted that in addition to the camera in a clock radio, Freundel had recorded women using mini-cameras embedded in a tissue box and a table-top fan.

"Bernard Freundel exploited his position of power to victimize dozens of women who entered a sacred, intimate space of religious ritual," he said.

"[80] "It is my hope that the many victims in this case draw a small measure of relief from the sentencing action today," added Metropolitan Police Chief Lanier.

"[80] Prosecutors later revealed that among the videos Freundel stored at his residence were several he made of himself in "sexual situations" with other women, many of whom may have been unaware that the liaisons were being recorded.

[83] A second attempt to have his sentence reconsidered, made to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, was filed on June 21, 2016[84] but was unanimously rejected on September 15, 2016, by the three-man panel.

[86] After an initial hesitation on its part,[23] the Chief Rabbinate of Israel agreed, but warned that if Freundel were to attempt to perform any conversions in the future, they would not be recognized.

[87] When he was unanimously fired by Kesher Israel's board on November 24, 2014,[88] Freundel was given a grace period until January 1, 2015, to vacate the synagogue-owned rabbinic residence,[6] but one month after the deadline passed he still had not done so.

[89] As a result, Kesher Israel referred the matter to the Beth Din of America, asking that it order Freundel to move out, return all synagogue property, compensate the congregation for his occupancy of the house beyond the January 1 deadline, and cover the costs of the arbitration.

In explaining his inclusion, the newspaper wrote that "It's hard to imagine a more disturbing violation of a sacred Jewish space than the one of which Orthodox rabbi Barry Freundel is accused.

"[97] In July 2015 an RCA review panel of six men and five women (including two converts) that was established in the wake of Freundel's arrest released a list of nine recommendations to guide the conversion process.

"[98] Freundel issued a public apology for his "heinous behavior" and "perverse mindset" on September 8, 2015, the eve of the Jewish High Holy Days, which are marked by repentance and forgiveness for sins.

[99] In July 2017, a morality play by a local Washington-area playwright, entitled "Constructive Fictions," which was based on the Freundel scandal, ran at the Gallaudet University theater.