NBC A once-prominent Orthodox rabbi who admitted to secretly videotaping scores of women in a changing room at a Jewish ritual bath was sentenced to nearly six and a half years in prison Friday.
Rabbi
Bernard "Barry" Freundel was sentenced in Washington, D.C., court after
16 of his victims -- some in tears -- spoke against him, sharing their
pain and suffering during the three-hour sentencing. [...]
Freundel was sentenced to 45 days on
each of 52 counts of voyeurism to be served consecutively, which comes
to 2,340 days in prison, or just less than six and a half years.[...]
"I can't imagine ever giving into this impulse again," he said.
But Judge Geoffrey Alprin said there was no excuse.
"The
defendant repeatedly and seriously violated the trust and abused his
power," Alprin said. "The conduct is despicable. There is no
justification. The defendant lured victims to the mikvah and secretly
recorded them undressed without their knowledge or permission."
Truly sad.
ReplyDeletePlease clarify. What exactly are you sad about?
ReplyDeleteBarry Freundel got 6.5 years. I argued in earlier comments for leniency and
ReplyDeletefor minimizing the bad he did. Nowadays secret
videos are watching and taping seemingly everywhere, some legal and some
illegal. “in Washington, D.C., court
after 16 of his victims -- some in tears -- spoke against him, sharing their
pain and suffering during the three-hour sentencing.” Barry Freundel shows remorse. He had no enablers. There was no conspiracy in the bad Barry
Freundel did. There was no danger of Barry
Freundel’s crime leading to illegitimate offspring and to other crimes as there
is in Mendel Epstein et al crimes. Incarceration
6.5 years is far far too much. All 16
victims should’ve been quiet and let the court do its job without their
damaging testimony. What do they want?
Revenge?
Travesty of justice.
ReplyDeleteGerald, being that you are not a female, and are not able to empathize with the feelings of violation that these women experienced, let me instead ask you this question: How would you react if your daughter had been abused in this way? Would you then write in a post minimizing the bad that he did? Would you think that 45 days is far, far too much? Would you have been quiet and let the court do its job without your damaging testimony? I certainly wouldn't. You say that he has no enablers? He certainly does. It is the people like you who enable people like him.
ReplyDeleteAll 16 victims should’ve been quiet and let the court do its job without their damaging testimony.
ReplyDeleteThe victims should not have testified? You sound nuts.
Whoa!
ReplyDeleteHere we witnessed the demise of man who had done good stuff for his community. A person who self-destructed without realizing what how far reaching his errors would be. A person with much potential. We also witnessed the destruction of some of the good he has done, as things that carry his signature on it are repulsive to some members of his community. The complete situation is sad. After the jail sentence, after all is said and done, it is a sad day. How easy it is to destroy what was built over many years....
What do they want? Revenge?
ReplyDeleteYes. It's deeper. They want their trust in Rabbis, their trust in the representatives of Judaism, back. They're deeply hurt. I do think the sentencing was quite harsh. The women were unable to thin of anything besides the deep breach of trust. Their complete undressing, in every way.
it is not far too much, the man is a danger to society and a walking chillul Hashem. He should be denied contact with with innocent people, and even after he is released should be tagged and barred from acting as a "rabbi".
ReplyDeleteNot really. His destruction was so much worse due to the fact that he had all those years to continue with more and more violations, many, many times. (That time could have been used to do teshuva as well.) However, had he been discovered after he videod "only" two or three women, he would have been destroyed and faced jail time as well.
ReplyDeleteIt's a sad story.
Honesty, the fact is that we did not witness the demise of a man. This is a person who had been doing things throughout most of his tenure as rabbi. He may have been putting on a pretense of doing good for people, but this is a man who was flawed throughout and was putting on a show. This was not a one-time thing.
ReplyDeleteThis is a person who had been doing things throughout most of his tenure as rabbi.
ReplyDeleteHow do you know this?
He may have been putting on a pretense of doing good for people, but this is a man who was... putting on a show.
How do you know this?
People are more complicated than being either good or evil. People can be good in some areas, and evil in other areas. Furthermore, please consider יוחנן כהן גדול, who was a צדיק for close to century, who successfully entered the קודש הקודשים for 80 years running, yet he went off the deep end in his old age. Even people who did tremendous good can fall off the deep end, in certain areas.
I will rephrase my statement. I don't know about "most of his tenure as rabbi," but these things (and other things) have definitely been going on for a good few years.
ReplyDeleteJust because it is claimed that Barry Freudel did good work and this has not been taken into account and it is tragic that this will now be curtailed. I am sick of hearing this type of flawed argument. Just like they did not report Jimmy Saville during his lifetime because he donated a lot of money to charity! And what about those that commit frauds and then donate some of the proceeds of their crimes to charitable causes e.g. schools and yeshivahs, should they also be treated leniently. What a twisted logic! A crime is a crime and in Barry Freundels case it is of little comfort to those who feel violated that he did good in the community, in fact it would likely make them feel even more angry as it shows how he deceived people into trusting him, which is exactly how sexual predators work, they have to groom their target to gain their trust!!!!
ReplyDeleteYEAH!
ReplyDeleteHitler did some great work in Germany and he worked well with the Zionists, but they both had a problem with Orthodox Polish Jews - neither of them wanted them, so they agreed in the Holocaust:
Sanhedrin 64a - 64b
Now Google:
THE SECULAR ZIONIST AGENDA FOR A JEWISH STATE
Rabbi Dr. Chaim Simons
P.O.B. 1775, Kiryat Arba
90100, Israel
tel and fax: 02-9961252 (within Israel),
972 2 9961252 (from outside Israel)
e-mail: chaimsimons@gmail.com
August 2007
THIS IS THE ANSWER YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR!
"JEWS NEVER FORGIVE"!
ReplyDeleteAdolf Hitler
the difference between Savile and Freundl is that Savile was an ex-criminal, who made it big in showbiz, and used his success to commit heinous crimes. Whilst Freundl's crimes were not physical rape (or murder - which savile had boasted of committing), he was supposedly a Talmid Chacham, a talmid of RYBS , and a Dayan on a BD. It is really difficult to understand the type of psychosis which allows a Rabbi to lead such a double life.
ReplyDelete@Eddie, you have missed the point. Saville and Freundel were able to carry out their crimes precisely because they were successful and well respected. All sex predators place themselves in positions of trust to enable them to carry out their crimes. I am not comparing the crimes which Freundel and Saville carried out, but merely commenting that they were both able to get away with them for so long because they appeared pillars of the establishment
ReplyDelete