The Pride of the Deal, New Jersey SYs: Pedophile Modern Orthodox Hero Baruch Lanner is Back Baby!
David Shasha
Orthodox Union and its Youth Group Sued over Handling of Past Sexual Abuse Allegations
By: Gary Rosenblatt
More than two decades after publication of allegations that Rabbi Baruch Lanner abused teens in his charge for more than 30 years, four of his victims are seeking their day in court.
The four women, now middle aged and older, filed a lawsuit today with the Superior Court of New Jersey in Middlesex County against Lanner, the Orthodox Union and the National Conference of Synagogue Youth, the OU’s youth arm, where Lanner was a top official.
It is believed to be the first such legal action taken against the Orthodox organizations as a result of the scandal involving Lanner, 72, who was forced to resign days after The Jewish Week published in 2000 an investigation that detailed charges against him by more than a dozen former NCSY members.
The revelations emboldened other accusers, and in 2002 Lanner was convicted of sexually abusing two teenage girls who were students in the 1990s at the Hillel Yeshiva High School in Deal, New Jersey, where he had been principal in between stints at NCSY. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, served nearly three years and was released on parole in early 2008.
The lawsuit focuses only on his time at NCSY, according to Boz Tchividjian, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs. He said it alleges that the two prominent Orthodox organizations knowingly allowed the rabbi’s predatory behavior at its youth group to continue despite numerous, long-standing complaints that he sexually, physically and emotionally abused girls and boys in his role as NCSY’s director of regions.
The suit was filed under recent changes in New Jersey law that allowed for a two-year “lookback” window during which sexual abuse victims could come forward and sue their abusers and their enablers. That deadline is Nov. 30, prompting the four women to file their lawsuit now. Previously, a statute of limitations in New Jersey had inhibited any civil suits against the Orthodox organizations that employed Lanner.
“Our clients are going to finally hold Baruch Lanner accountable for his deplorable and abusive conduct, and the Orthodox Union accountable for giving a known offender decades of access to vulnerable children who he terrorized and victimized,” said Tchividjian. “By filing this lawsuit, these bold women are reclaiming the power that was taken from them by a perpetrator and the organization that employed him and empowered him.”
Another attorney for the plaintiffs, Brian Kent, of the law firm Laffey, Bucci & Kent in Philadelphia, said participants might still be added to the lawsuit if they come forward by the deadline Tuesday.
Asked to respond to the women’s accusations in the days before the suit was filed, a spokesperson for the OU told The Jewish Week: “The OU is not aware of any impending lawsuit and therefore cannot comment.”
Among the charges in the lawsuit, according to Tchividjian, are that the OU and NCSY were negligent in failing to protect children — that instead they protected themselves by ignoring or dismissing complaints about Lanner’s “willful, malicious and wanton” actions for decades.
Even by 2000, when the Lanner story came to light, the statute of limitations had long passed for those complainants, preventing them from taking legal action. The article received national and international attention and was cited as “a watershed in the way the Orthodox community addresses sexual abuse,” according to the Baltimore Jewish Times.
But the women bringing the lawsuit are among those who believe the problem persists, and that despite impressive written policies and standards, systemic cultural change is still required at the OU and NCSY as well as other Orthodox institutions.
“What’s needed is for organizations to protect their members, not just protect their organizations,” said Jessie (not her real name), one of the four plaintiffs in the lawsuit, in an interview with The Jewish Week. “
[The four women are not named in the lawsuit, their attorneys said, and in response to their request for privacy, they are not named here. The pseudonyms are for the purposes of this article.]
“For now, the culture is to do what is technically defensible,” Jessie said, “rather than what is the right thing to do for all members.”
She noted that while the Reform and Conservative movements are in the midst of major internal reckonings on sexual misbehavior and moral accountability concerning their clergy, and making the information public, the Orthodox community leadership has not announced any such action.
Jessie also said that neither she nor the other Lanner victims she knows were ever approached by the OU or NCSY to apologize or offer assistance after their experiences became known through The Jewish Week report in 2000.
This week, two of the four women who brought the lawsuit spoke with The Jewish Week. They each recalled their separate traumatic experiences with Lanner, dealing with his aggressive sexual behavior and violent temper when they were teens in the 1970s — much of it detailed in the Jewish Week article and in the current lawsuit. And the women explained why they chose to take legal action now.
Jessie was 16 when she became involved with NCSY in 1974. One weekend she attended a Shabbaton in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Lanner had arranged for her to sleep at a home next door to the home where he was staying, she said. At night, when no one was around, “he tried to kiss and caress me.” When she pushed him away and threatened to tell a rabbi’s wife about his behavior, “he put his hands around my neck and began strangling me. Only when he saw that I was losing consciousness did he stop. And he walked away without a word.”
https://www.jta.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/11-29-2021-Lanner-Flyer.jpg
A flyer from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Sexual Offender registry lists Baruch Lanner’s status as “Subject to Registration.” Lanner was convicted of sexually abusing two teenage girls who were students in the 1990s when he was principal at the Hillel Yeshiva High School in Deal, New Jersey. (Via FDLE)
Jessie said she told no one at the time because she realized it was futile to do so. There was “a sense of conspiracy of enablers and a sexualized atmosphere” at Lanner-led NCSY events, she said, with the rabbi engaged in “explicit sexual kidding, talk of body parts,” commenting on girls’ figures, and similar behavior. The male advisors, mostly college students, “observed all of this and understood that it was ok to cross boundaries, to touch girls.”
But the excitement of being part of a close-knit social and religious group led by a charismatic rabbi kept Jessie and other youngsters actively involved in NCSY.
The following year, when Lanner chose Jessie to be regional president of NCSY, she agreed on the condition that he not molest her. If he tried, she told him, she would report him to Rabbi Pinchas Stolper, the founding director of NCSY.
In response, Lanner “laughed at me,” she recalled, “and said, ‘they all know about me,” including Stolper. In the 2000 article, Stolper acknowledged there were several complaints from young women many years previously about improper behavior by Lanner, but said he found no real substance to the charges.
Attempts to reach both Lanner and Stolper for this article were unsuccessful.
During her time as president, Jessie said she “witnessed Lanner prey on multiple 14 and 15-year-old girls,” according to the lawsuit.
She told The Jewish Week “it was inconceivable” that the leadership of the organization did not know of Lanner’s behavior.
Nancy (not her real name) was 15 in 1974 when she took part in NCSY’s annual summer program in Israel at Lanner’s urging. At one point during the tour, Lanner called her into his room and questioned her loyalty to him, threatening to send her home or transfer her to another tour group, she said. When she began to cry, the rabbi told her she could prove her loyalty by kissing him on the cheek. She did, and he told her she could stay.
He paired her with another girl, Sarah (not her real name) as roommates. Nancy witnessed how Sarah would be called away by Lanner in the evenings to meet with him. “Then my turn came,” Nancy said, “the touching and kissing.” This went on at least a dozen times, according to Nancy.
Once, after grabbing her and asking, “do you love me?” she refused to respond. The rabbi punched her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her, according to the lawsuit.
Over time, the two girls confided in each other, sharing details of Lanner’s similar pattern of behavior.
At one point, they both claimed to be ill so they wouldn’t have to go to Eilat with Lanner and the group.
On a visit to Bayit V’Gan, Nancy met with an American rabbi and told him what was happening. “He seemed shocked and genuinely sympathetic,” she said, but nothing came of it.
Toward the end of the trip, she approached Stolper, who was visiting for the weekend. “When I told him that Rabbi Lanner was acting inappropriately with me, he said, ‘I’m sure you misunderstood him.’ And then he asked me, “But are you having a good time” on the trip?
“He didn’t seem at all surprised by the allegations,” Nancy said.
The experiences of the other two women were similar to those of Jessie and Nancy, as described in the lawsuit, according to their attorneys.
Susan (not her real name) was 13 years old when she became involved with NCSY. She was “groomed” by Lanner for months, made to feel noticed and special before he began to kiss, touch and grope her when they were alone. This occurred more than 20 times over the next two and a half years.
On an NCSY summer program in Israel, Susan found the courage to say “no” to the rabbi’s advances. He became angry and punched her in the chest. She told no one, fearful that Lanner would send her home.
During the next school year, while riding in a car together, Lanner attempted to pull over to an isolated area and sexually assault Susan.
When she told an NCSY advisor, a young rabbi, he referred her to a higher-up in the organization who, according to Susan, told her: “I inherited the monster. I didn’t create him.”
No action was taken to report Lanner’s behavior then or many other times when Susan told rabbis of the OU, and other rabbis, of being sexually abused by Lanner.
Laura (not her real name) was 12 when she was active in NCSY. She recalled that Lanner insisted on driving her home one Saturday night from a Shabbaton. He pulled over to a deserted parking lot, she said, told her to take off her shirt and tried to kiss her.
“For me it closed the door for religion,” she stated. “I feel that he took advantage of an innocent soul and you can never get that innocence back.”
The two women who spoke to The Jewish Week in recent days emphasized that their primary motive for filing a lawsuit almost a half-century after some of these painful incidents was not for financial gain or revenge. And that it was a difficult decision to wade into a legal battle against two large, prominent Orthodox institutions.
“It always bothered me that the OU was never really accountable,” Nancy said. “I do want my day in court because I want to see real change. I wouldn’t mind people seeing that a few women can change the way things are.”
Jessie echoed the sentiment, asserting that she wants “to see the culture change around sexual safety in Orthodox institutions.
“No real guilt was admitted. There was no true reckoning. The process of teshuva means acknowledging one’s mistakes, facing the hard truth.”
She said she was “delighted to see” that NCSY released a new Conduct, Policy and Behavioral Standards Manual as of Sept. 17, which includes guidelines on reporting, “grooming behavior,” “boundary violations” and “inappropriate behavior with minors.” “Whether it was because they knew a lawsuit was coming or just a coincidence, it’s a very positive move,” she said.
Jessie added that she hoped the lawsuit will be “an important catalyst.”
Mostly, she holds out the hope that when it comes to safety for all, the actions of the OU and NCSY will be “grounded in Jewish ethics and sources — not because someone is watching these organizations or suing them but because it is what God and our religion demands of us.”
Gary Rosenblatt was editor and publisher of The Jewish Week from 1993 to 2019. Follow him at garyrosenblatt.substack.com
From JTA and The New York Jewish Week, November 29, 2021
Stolen Innocence
By: Gary Rosenblatt
Baruch Lanner is widely regarded as one of the most
brilliant, dynamic and charismatic
educators in Jewish life today. As director of regions of the National
Conference of Synagogue Youth, an arm of the Orthodox Union, the 50-year-old
rabbi has been working with and supervising teenagers for more than three
decades. He has also been a principal and teacher in yeshiva high schools in
New Jersey, and for many years has led a highly successful six-week NCSY summer
kollel program in Israel offering Torah study to up to 300 American boys.
But even while he is credited with bringing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of youngsters closer to Judaism, reports have continued to circulate that he has harassed, if not abused, many scores of teens sexually, physically and/or emotionally, from the early 1970s to the present.
Though Rabbi Lanner's erratic behavior has long been an open secret in some Orthodox circles, for the first time more than a dozen former NCSYers and others have come forward publicly over a three-month period, telling their stories to The Jewish Week. They described in detail firsthand experiences, including Rabbi Lanner's alleged kissing and fondling scores of teenage girls in the 1970s and '80s, repeatedly kicking boys in the groin, and reports of taking a knife to a young man in 1987, and propositioning girls in 1997 at the yeshiva high school where he was principal for 15 years.
Those who have elected to tell their stories say they are motivated by anger
and frustration over the refusal of the OU, the national central body of
Orthodox synagogues, to act decisively on repeated complaints about Rabbi
Lanner's behavior. These critics are particularly upset that he has continued
to work with young people, having led a group of students on the Birthright
Israel trip last winter and participating regularly in NCSY Shabbat retreats,
or Shabbatons, across the country.
They are speaking out now, they say, because Rabbi Lanner's divorce from his
wife of 23 years recently was finalized. There had been concern that any
negative publicity before the divorce proceedings were complete may have
jeopardized its resolution.
"It's long overdue that this whole story be told,"
said Judy Klitsner, 42, of Jerusalem, who
asserted that when she was a 16-year-old active in NCSY in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.,
Rabbi Lanner, who was director of the Etz Chaim (N.J.) region, tried to caress
and kiss her one evening during a Shabbaton in New Jersey. When she rebuffed
him, she recalled recently, "he began to strangle me with all his
strength, and it was only when he saw that I was losing consciousness that he threw
me down and walked away."
Klitsner said she was afraid to tell anyone of the incident
because the rabbi had a volatile temper and she feared reprisals. When she
later told Rabbi Lanner that she would inform his supervisor, she said the
rabbi laughed and told her his supervisor already knew of his behavior.
"It's immoral," she said, "that this cover-up
has gone on for decades and that Baruch Lanner is still working with
kids."
Klitsner and several other critics of the rabbi were adamant
about going on the record publicly, insisting they did not believe the OU would
take action unless forced to do so by communal pressure. They also asserted
that relieving Rabbi Lanner of his current duties quietly would leave his
public record unblemished and allow him to take another job in the future
working closely with and supervising young people.
Pressed Not To Publish
At stake, critics and defenders of Rabbi Lanner agree, is
not only his own future but the
credibility of the Orthodox Union and its youth arm, NCSY, which with its
hundreds of chapters and 12 regions throughout the U.S. and Canada is
considered the jewel of the OU. The parent organization has described NCSY in
its literature as "the most effective and respected educational youth
movement in the world."
But several weeks ago, at least two influential lay leaders
of the OU met personally with Rabbi Raphael Butler, its executive vice
president, and urged the organization to remove Rabbi Lanner from working with
youngsters. The lay leaders are torn between their belief that Rabbi Lanner is a
negative role model for young people and their loyalty to NCSY. These leaders
say they want Rabbi Lanner removed from his present work, but do not want to
cause any negative publicity for the organization. They chose not to speak on
the record for this article.
By contrast, some of the alleged victims interviewed,
particularly those who say their complaints about Rabbi Lanner's treatment of
them were rebuffed by OU and NCSY leaders, want the facts to come out so that
the organization's response, or lack of response, over more than three decades will
be widely known.
"Sometimes you have to use fire to clean out
impurities," said Marcie Lenk, a Judaics teacher at the Pardes and Hartman
Institutes in Jerusalem and an alleged victim of Rabbi Lanner. "That's how
we kasher things in Judaism."
Some point out that according to Jewish law, one is not only permitted but obligated to publicize what would otherwise be considered lashon hara, or malicious gossip, for the protection of those who would be in danger. And they believe that Rabbi Lanner working with young people poses such a danger.
Rabbi Lanner has not responded to several requests for an interview, but in
recent days, a
number of OU leaders and friends and colleagues of Rabbi Lanner, having learned
of the
preparation of this article, called on his behalf. They urged that the article
be withdrawn,
claiming it would be harmful to Rabbi Lanner and his family, NCSY, the OU and the Jewish community.
One rabbi, saying he was calling at Rabbi Lanner's suggestion, proposed a deal
that would call for the article to be withheld in return for Rabbi Lanner's
agreeing to cease working with youngsters and move into adult education work
for the OU.
Others said the determination had already been made in
recent days for Rabbi Lanner to end his three-decade association with NCSY, but
there were conflicting reports as to whether the decision was Rabbi Lanner's or
the OU's.
When pressed, Rabbi Butler said there was some truth to each
of the reports regarding Rabbi Lanner's status (though the reports were
inconsistent). He added that Rabbi Lanner would not take part in the NCSY
kollel this summer, calling it "a devastating loss" for the program.
Rabbi Butler said that after the summer, Rabbi Lanner would move into adult
education, noting that his duties would include working with college students.
Rabbi Butler said he has never heard any specific
allegations against Rabbi Lanner, though he has heard the rumors for many
years. "It's like chasing shadows," he said with frustration.
Rabbi Butler, who has supervised Rabbi Lanner for 19 years,
said "our method of dealing with the rumors has been to have a bet din, as
an independent entity, evaluate the charges, and we abide by all its
decisions."
When asked if he would care to examine the research gathered
for this article, including
allegations from more than a dozen former NCSYers, Rabbi Butler declined,
saying a bet din, or religious tribunal, was the proper venue. He asserted that
a specific bet din of three Yeshiva University-affiliated rabbis, which was
first convened in 1989 over a dispute centering on Rabbi Lanner, subsequently
has been consulted periodically and has permitted his youth work to continue.
The three highly respected members of the bet din in
question are Rabbi Yosef Blau, mashgiach ruchani (or spiritual guidance
counselor) at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva; Rabbi
Mordechai Willig, a rosh yeshiva at the school; and Rabbi Aaron Levine, a professor
of economics.
Rabbi Levine, who is the least involved in this matter, declined
to speak on the record, though he indicated that Rabbi Blau was most
knowledgeable on the subject and said the bet din had met only once regarding
Rabbi Lanner since 1989. That was in 1997, when the bet din gave its approval
for Rabbi Lanner to work full-time for NCSY after leaving his position as
principal at Hillel yeshiva in Deal, N.J.
Rabbi Willig, a staunch defender of Rabbi Lanner over the years, is believed to agree with Rabbi Butler's assertion that the OU has followed the guidance of the bet din regarding Rabbi Lanner.
Rabbi Blau believes that while that may be technically
correct, it does not address many missteps along the way. Bottom line, he says
bluntly, Rabbi Lanner is "unfit to work in Jewish education," and
Rabbi Blau has taken a leading role in seeking his dismissal.
"The pattern of protecting Baruch rather than his
victims" goes back at least 25 years, Rabbi Blau says, and reflects
"a broader inability within the Orthodox community to acknowledge improper
behavior by rabbis."
He notes that "an unanticipated consequence of covering
[Rabbi Lanner's] improprieties was to make into accomplices all those who
knew" of his actions, making it more difficult to act against him.
"The number of men and women who have been hurt is incalculable," said Rabbi Blau.
"The lack of action by the OU until now is a statement
to the many victims that the Orthodox community condoned Baruch's actions, and
that they were the problem."
Loyalty Was Everything
Some see the re-emergence of the bet din as a last-minute
ploy by the OU to shift the blame for lack of action over Rabbi Lanner.
Certainly none of the more than three dozen former NCSYers and others
interviewed for this article seemed to know that the place for complaints was
the bet din. Many said they lodged complaints with various rabbis and OU
officials over the years but were rebuffed or dismissed, and they were never
told to speak to a bet din.
Marcie Lenk, the Judaics teacher in Israel, said she has
told her story to a number of influential rabbis, including Rabbi Pinchas
Stolper, founding director of NCSY, but they either ignored her or made excuses
for Rabbi Lanner as a brilliantly effective, if erratic man whose good works outweigh
his problematic behavior.
Lenk and other women who complained to rabbis about Rabbi Lanner over the years said the implicit message was clear: leave it alone. In time, youngsters stopped reporting his actions.
Rabbis Butler and Stolper say they never heard specific allegations, but Rabbi
Stolper
acknowledges there were several complaints from young women many years ago
about improper behavior by Rabbi Lanner. Rabbi Stolper says he sought to deal
with the allegations but found no real substance to the charges.
At the time, he says he warned Rabbi Lanner in no uncertain
terms that if he ever heard such accusations again, even if they could not be
proved, he would have to dismiss him because "NCSY lives on the reputation
of the community, the parents and the synagogues."
But decades after Rabbi Stolper says he heard reports of Rabbi Lanner's improper behavior with girls or, in at least one case, kicking a boy in the groin, Rabbi Lanner has remained in a leadership role and in regular contact with young people through NCSY.
"He has had such a magnificent impact" on so many
young people, Rabbi Stolper says in defense of Rabbi Lanner, "despite some
obvious sickness that is not sexual but has to do with needing to be in
control."
Powerful Role Model
Rabbi Lanner's need for control was a dominant theme in
numerous interviews and
conversations. What emerges is a pattern of an extremely bright, talented and
troubled man who created his own universe of adoring teens - a universe in
which loyalty to him was paramount.
"Do you love me?" Rabbi Lanner would repeatedly ask teen officers of
NCSY during required daily phone calls to him, either early in the morning or
late at night. "Tell me you love me," he would demand. "Tell me
you love me." And they did.
Dealing with boys, Rabbi Lanner reportedly would use
four-letter words and tell crude jokes freely in his private conversations with
them, disparage those not in his inner circle, and often greet them with a
swift, hard kick in the groin. When they sometimes would crumple to the ground
in pain, he would laugh, insisting he was just showing he was one of the guys.
With girls, he allegedly tended to focus his attentions on
attractive, well-developed teens from nonobservant and often troubled families,
showering them with praise but demanding complete devotion and secrecy. He
would constantly tease them about their bodies, make lewd and suggestive
comments, and sometimes try to kiss and fondle them when they were alone with him,
warning them never to tell anyone.
The emotional power Rabbi Lanner had over these
impressionable youngsters was formidable.
"He was like a god to us," several men and women
said. They basked in his praise, but if he turned on them, and he could easily,
they were bereft. The price he demanded was loyalty.
"I was not allowed to criticize or question him,"
recalled one former NCSYer, now a rabbi. "I had to trade in my dignity and
honesty for the feeling of power he gave me. And I had to give up control of my
life to him."
Some of the teens called Rabbi Lanner "Charlie"
among themselves, referring to convicted cultist killer Charles Manson, and
spoke of the female teens the rabbi favored as "Baruch's girls."
Even today, a number of these former proteges, men and women
with children of their own and successful careers - many in Orthodox Jewish
education - say they still fear Rabbi Lanner, however irrational that fear may
be. "When I hear his name my stomach clutches in tension," one woman
wrote. "I feel flushed and cold at the same time."
Controversial Figure
One thing Rabbi Lanner's critics and defenders agree on: he is a controversial figure.
One of his self-described defenders, Dr. John Krug, a
psychologist who was hired by Rabbi Lanner when he was principal of the Hillel
yeshiva high school in Deal, N.J., and worked with him there for more than a
dozen years, says the rabbi 'generates extremely strong feelings - you either
hate his guts or love him to bits.'
'He's a combination genius and Talmud chochem [scholar].
He's very charismatic, flamboyant, given to histrionics. He's the master of the
double entendre and he marches to a different drummer,' Krug said.
Krug said the rabbi was known to 'take an active interest in
some kids - he always had his
favorites' - and could be heavy-handed in seeking to persuade students to
follow his advice, including convincing some to go on NCSY summer programs.
Krug says he heard allegations over the years of Rabbi
Lanner committing acts of violence against students but noted that he was not
'personally aware of any improprieties' and 'never saw him' commit such acts.
He did note, though, that Rabbi Lanner was disciplined by school authorities in
the 1980s at least one time after a complaint that he had kicked a male student
in the groin.
'That's the one incident I am aware of where the board sat
him [Rabbi Lanner] down and
intervened,' he said.
Krug also heard rumors that the rabbi had made sexual
advances to two female students, whom he questioned directly and who denied to
him any wrongdoing on the part of the rabbi.
'The perception was that he was cruising close to the
boundary' of acceptable behavior, the psychologist said, but there was no proof
that he stepped over.
Still, Krug offers: 'I believe a person in a leadership
position in the Jewish community, and especially Jewish education, should be
squeaky clean. Is Baruch? The answer is no.'
He adds that if asked 'to intervene' for Rabbi Lanner on a
moral or ethical matter, he would decline, citing conflict of interest since he
had been an employee of the rabbi's.
Others are less circumspect in describing Rabbi Lanner's behavior.
Etan Tokayer, a 31-year-old rabbi and former Judaics teacher
at the Torah Academy of Bergen County, an Orthodox boys high school, says Rabbi
Lanner was psychologically abusive to him from the time he was a seventh-grader
in NCSY through high school.
'He was a very important role model to me during my formative years,' Rabbi Tokayer said. 'But while Baruch was so deep and spiritual in his public performances, he was cruel and crude in his private encounters. There seemed to be two Lanners, the destructive and the good, and that caused great tension in me. I wanted and needed his friendship and approval, yet he inspired great fear as well.'
Now the mother of two small children, Dunn has a renewed
interested in Judaism and may send her 5-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son to
a Conservative day school. But she looks back on her experience with Rabbi
Lanner as 'only negative.'
Allegations Spill Out
Many of those interviewed said they felt a need for validation, after having
their stories
dismissed over the years. Invariably, by conversation's end, they would offer
the names of at least three or four contemporaries with similar experiences and
encourage a reporter to speak with them.
'I feel that speaking out is the right thing to do now,' said Dena Greenspan Lehrman, 34, an occupational therapist in Efrat, Israel. 'There is a sense of closure at this stage of my life, and I want to keep others from having to go through' the experiences she had with Rabbi Lanner as a teenager in the mid-'80s. His need for control was amazing. He destroys your sense of self.'
She recalls, as a high-schooler, mentioning to Rabbi Lanner a scheduling
conflict between an NCSY activity and family obligation. 'He said, 'listen to
me before you listen to your father,' and when I think back on that, it blows
me away.'
Rosie Shyker, now a dental assistant in Ranana, Israel, says
that when she was in high school and active in NCSY, she was subjected to
'verbal and physical abuse' from Rabbi Lanner, who would call her names and
embarrass her in front of her friends. 'And I would come home with bruises. He
would hit me or pinch me on my arms, legs and thighs,' she said.
One night, while driving her home from a Shabbaton at about 3 a.m., Rabbi Lanner allegedly became enraged with something she said. 'He stopped at a corner, and pushed me out of the car,' she recalled. 'There I was alone, in the middle of the night. I just stood there for about 20 minutes, until finally he came back for me, but he screamed and yelled at me the whole car ride.'
Still, Shyker says she has only positive memories of her NCSY experience. 'It
was only good for me - the subject of Baruch is separate.'
Leah Silber, who lives in Israel, says that in the summer of
1973, when she was 19 and on an NCSY tour of Israel, Rabbi Lanner, four years
her senior, told her he wanted to marry her. 'I was very drawn to religion and
the Torah, and he would use his learning, citing rabbinic sources as a technique
to work on me,' she said.
When Silber rebuffed him, she said, 'he smacked me in the
face' and nearly broke her jaw. 'It was swollen and out of place, and I was
really in pain.' She says she went to one of the rabbis affiliated with the
tour to tell him what happened, but nothing came of it.
'Baruch is repulsive, and yet he has so much charisma, so much brilliance,' she said. 'I can't even explain it to myself.'
Perhaps Dr. Samuel Klagsbrun can. Although he does not know Rabbi Lanner, and was not given his name when told of some of the episodes, the well-known New York psychiatrist said the behavior described - manipulation and abuse of teens - was classic among people with severe character disorders. Klagsbrun said there was little or no chance of correcting such behavior through therapy.
He also said it was typical for victims, especially young women, to come
forward and discuss their experiences only many years later, if at all, 'when
they are healed from major trauma and have created their own lives.'
The larger, communal problem, Klagsbrun says, is that 'our
community's concept of concern over a shanda [embarrassment] operates in such a
destructive way. Regardless of how uncomfortable we are with confronting these
situations, or how damaging it may be to an individual organization, if we
don't uproot these problems we are damning young people to lifelong damage.'
A Disputed Letter
The only time Rabbi Lanner's disturbing behavior surfaced on
a public level until now was in the summer of 1989, shortly after he was hired
to become the rabbi of a fledgling Orthodox congregation in Teaneck, N.J.
That was too much for Elie Hiller, who was 24 at the time
and attended the synagogue, then known as the Roemer (Avenue) shul. He had
worked for seven years for NCSY as an assistant regional director, and says
that at various times Rabbi Lanner had hit him in the groin and in the head,
called him names and threatened to withhold pay.
But what upset Hiller most was an incident that had taken
place two summers earlier, Aug. 7, 1987, after Rabbi Lanner sought to dissuade
Adina Baum, a young woman who had boarded at the rabbi's house while in high
school from marrying Hiller's younger brother, Jonah, because he had Hodgkin's
disease.
Jonah, who was 22 at the time, drove up to Rabbi Lanner's
summer bungalow to ask him not to interfere in his relationship with his
fiancée. According to Elie Hiller, Jonah and Rabbi Lanner exchanged words and
then the rabbi, in a rage, grabbed a kitchen knife, lunged at Jonah, and cut him
in the neck and arm, and tried to choke him.
Hiller, who worked for Rabbi Lanner at the time, says that
after the incident, the rabbi called to tell him that he and Jonah had just had
an argument and that he had tried to calm Jonah down.
'Then he laughed and talked to me about getting me a raise,'
Elie said.
Elie wasn't amused. He quit his NCSY job, and he and his family, after contacting an attorney, sought to have the OU remove Rabbi Lanner from his job, threatening to go to the police otherwise.
Eventually they reached a compromise with the organization
that would have Rabbi Lanner save face by easing him from his job as director
of the New Jersey region, have no contact with staff or members of the region,
and have no active participation in Shabbatonim.
But the Hillers say that though Rabbi Lanner was given a new
title (seemingly a promotion, director of regions), the OU soon reneged on the
agreement, denying the knifing incident had taken place and allowing the rabbi
to take part in several Shabbatonim.
The last straw for the Hillers was the appointment of Rabbi
Lanner at the new Teaneck
congregation, despite their personal appeals to local rabbis and leaders of the
congregation.
Frustrated, Elie Hiller wrote a letter graphically detailing
Rabbi Lanner's alleged abusive
behavior to him, his brother and others, and sent it to the entire Orthodox
community of
Teaneck, urging that Rabbi Lanner not be allowed to lead the new congregation.
Rabbi Lanner responded by calling for a bet din, asserting that Hiller had
unfairly maligned him.
The three-man tribunal consisted of Rabbis Blau, Willig and
Levine.
In August 1989, the bet din met in marathon session for 18 hours, with witnesses for both sides testifying as to the specific charges made in the letter and the character of Rabbi Lanner, who sought to undermine the qualities and veracity of those who spoke against him, according to witnesses.
Several witnesses say Krug, the psychologist, characterized young witnesses
against the rabbi as troubled. Though he is now more cautious in defending
Rabbi Lanner, Krug says he has no regrets about his testimony at the time.
The result of the hearing was never made public, but the bet
din concluded that most of the charges were not proven, though some of the
rabbi's actions were deemed inappropriate. Elie Hiller was told to make a
public apology to Rabbi Lanner, which he did. Rabbi Lanner did not become the
rabbi of the synagogue.
Jonah Hiller and Baum were married a few months later, early
in 1988. Jonah died of cancer three years later.
Self-Appointed Monitor
Though the case was closed, Rabbi Blau was troubled. After
the formal proceedings ended, he received a number of letters and phone calls
from individuals unwilling to testify publicly or detailing events outside the
purview of the particular case.
'They described a pattern of totally unacceptable behavior that reflected a troubled individual who should not be allowed to deal with teenagers,' he says now.
In time Rabbi Blau came to regret the bet din's decision, and took it upon himself to monitor Rabbi Lanner's behavior. For more than a decade, and particularly in the last year in working toward a divorce settlement for the Lanners, he has been the point person for those with complaints about Rabbi Lanner, often counseling those with feelings of bitterness or remorse.
One of the more disturbing calls Rabbi Blau says he received came a few years
after the bet din from a woman who was one of Rabbi Lanner's character
witnesses. 'She admitted that she had not told the truth when testifying, and
wondered how one repents for this act.
'Most shocking,' Rabbi Blau says, 'was the orchestrated
campaign' used by Rabbi Lanner and his defenders 'to convince this young woman
not to describe what had really transpired between Baruch and herself. She was
reminded of her debt to him for his role in her becoming observant, and it
became apparent that she was not the only one pressured either not to testify
or to testify falsely. Those who did testify against him were ostracized in
NCSY.'
One woman who testified against Rabbi Lanner at the bet din
was Marcie Lenk. She said that as a teenager active in NCSY, she endured
constant remarks from Rabbi Lanner about her figure, often in front of her
friends.
'He would invite kids to his house for Shabbos, and say to
me, 'so, are you going to sleep with me this Shabbos?' I'd say, 'I'm sleeping
at your house this Shabbos.' It was a game of
manipulation to him, a test to see how far he could go. He'd look at me
innocently and say, 'right.' That kind of behavior was constant.'
Rabbi Lanner was also her teacher at Frisch, and sometimes,
she says, he would squeeze through a classroom doorway at the moment she was
walking through, rubbing against her. 'He'd say, 'ooh, that felt good,' ' she
said.
But she didn't tell any adults of this behavior. 'Baruch
created this situation where we needed him,' she says now. 'We were kids
looking for friendship and community. But to be 'in,' this was the price we had
to pay. I guess I felt it was worth it at the time.'
At the bet din, Rabbi Lanner 'made up reasons why those of
us who testified against him were supposedly out to get him,' Lenk said. 'He
said I wasn't religious, and that I resented that he wasn't close to me.'
Deaf Ears
The night before the bet din, Lenk, who was 23 at the time, says she received a call from Rabbi Lanner's wife, clearly at his request, tearfully urging Lenk not to testify. 'When she said, 'how could you do this to me?' I said, 'I'm not doing this to you, he did this to you.' '
The most disappointing part of the experience, she says, were rabbis who knew
her since
childhood testifying on Rabbi Lanner's behalf, asserting that he could never
have done the things she alleged were done to her.
From The Jewish Week, June 23, 2000
Rabbi Ezra Labaton and the Destruction of the Sephardic Tradition
The Brooklyn-born Syrian Rabbi Ezra Labaton passed away in 2013 after many years of debilitating illness. Rabbi Labaton was the spiritual leader of Congregation Magen David of West Deal in New Jersey and a true pioneer in the establishment of Ashkenazi Modern Orthodoxy in the Syrian Sephardic community.
His students and followers created a website in tribute to his influence:
Last week a flurry of e-mails were posted by members of the Syrian community in order to help publicize the website.
In order to get a better understanding of Rabbi Labaton and his influence in the Syrian Sephardic community it is helpful to read the many tributes written by his admirers:
http://www.rabbilabaton.com/tributes/
One of the most prominent tributes came from Rabbi Marc Angel who, like Rabbi Labaton, is an aggressive proponent of Ashkenazi Modern Orthodoxy and the YU system:
http://www.jewishideas.org/blog/memoriam-rabbi-ezra-labaton
Here is a representative example of Rabbi Angel’s fierce loyalty to the Ashkenazim:
And here is evidence of his ambivalence, if not contempt, for the Sephardic tradition which was sparked by an article I submitted to his journal Conversations that he immediately rejected for publication:
It is well-known that Rabbi Labaton, like his close friend Rabbi Angel, was deeply dedicated to Yeshiva University and its legendary leader Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik. After receiving his rabbinic ordination from YU Rabbi Labaton moved to Boston where he would be closer in physical proximity to his rabbi and be able to study at Brandeis University for his PhD which he finally received in 2012:
http://www.brandeis.edu/departments/nejs/doctoral/placement.html
Prior to the Haredization of the community in the 1980s, the influence of Ashkenazi Modern Orthodoxy was paramount in Brooklyn and Deal, New Jersey. Most of the Synagogues and Yeshivas in the Syrian Sephardic community followed Modern Orthodox pedagogical praxis, and over time – as had been the desire of Isaac Shalom going back to the 1950s – the Sephardic heritage was gradually dispensed with.
Figures like Rabbi Labaton adapted Sephardic Judaism to the Modern Orthodox model which was seen as superior to the classical Sephardic heritage. The Sephardim themselves were marked as loutish boors inferior to the “educated” Ashkenazi Jews. Contempt was shown to those who continued to believe that Sephardic tradition had an important role to play in the Jewish future.
Famously, Rabbi Labaton formulated this contempt for the Sephardic tradition when he casually told a group of my students back in 1997: “What have the Sephardim done since 1492?” It was this sort of dismissiveness that characterized the self-hating Syrian Jews whose loyalties were squarely in the Ashkenazi camp.
At a conference of the now-defunct Modern Orthodox group EDAH some years ago, Rabbi Labaton spoke contemptuously about the Syrian Sephardic community. Audio evidence of that lecture, mysteriously, has vanished from sight as if it was never delivered:
http://www.edah.org/upcoming_program2_new.cfm
But those who heard it will never forget the hammer that Rabbi Labaton applied to the Sephardic community; a primal clash that informed his work and life for many years. In that sense evidence from a specific lecture is not really necessary; Rabbi Labaton’s hostile feelings for the Sephardic tradition were well-known to all.
Making his home in Deal, New Jersey Rabbi Labaton played a prominent role in the Hillel Yeshiva and taught in its High School for many years:
Here is a summary of his career posted on jewishgen.org:
Rabbi Ezra Labaton, who has served as the spiritual leader of Magen David of West Deal for the past 18 years, has a lifelong commitment to helping others. As a small child, he appeared in television commercials. Rabbi Ezra attended Magen David Yeshiva, Flatbush High School and Yeshiva University where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in history and philosophy. He earned an MA in philosophy from Yeshiva University, where he also received his rabbinical ordination and was a student of Rabbi Joseph Soloveichick.
In 1975, while still a graduate student, Rabbi Ezra and his wife Emily Friedman went to South Africa where they conducted seminars for Jewish children. In 1976, Rabbi Ezra and his wife worked to gather critical information on behalf of Soviet Jews in Russia. Rabbi Ezra taught at the Maimonides School in Boston for seven years. Both he and Emily taught at Maimonides College of Yeshiva University. Rabbi Ezra has lectured throughout the country. Today, he continues to lead Magen David Congregation in Deal, New Jersey and teach at Hillel Yeshiva. Rabbi Ezra is now a Ph.D. candidate at Brandeis University in Boston.
It is critical to remember that Rabbi Labaton’s tenure at Hillel overlapped with that of Rabbi Baruch Lanner.
For those unfamiliar with the Lanner debacle and its corrosive impact on the Jewish community:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Lanner
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2008/01_02/2008_01_10_AwarenessCenter_CaseOf.htm
The degenerate Lanner began abusing children in 1970. He served as principal of the Hillel Yeshiva High School from 1982 until 1997 when he took a full-time position at the Modern Orthodox youth organization NCSY. In 2000 he was officially exposed as a child abuser and molester. His fall from grace was largely due to the untiring efforts of New York Jewish Week publisher Gary Rosenblatt whose seminal article “Stolen Innocence” provided gruesome details of the crimes:
http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=8916
In 2002 The Jewish Week published this article detailing the personal testimonies of the young women that Lanner abused:
http://www.thejewishweek.com/features/women_detail_abuse_lanner
Here is a reflective analysis on the Lanner matter written by Rosenblatt in 2013:
http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-opinion/gary-rosenblatt/lanner-what-ive-learned-what-i-wonder
In reviewing the Lanner material we see a number of things: Lanner was truly beloved in the Modern Orthodox world. He was seen as an exemplary leader and it was this respect that helped enable him to commit his vicious crimes.
A rabbinic review of the Lanner case led by YU Rabbi Mordechai Willig took place in 1989 and found him guilty of child abuse, but did nothing to have him removed from his positions of authority in the community:
http://forward.com/articles/9231/critics-charge-rabbinic-court-covered-up-lanner-ab/
http://forward.com/articles/9345/top-rabbi-admits-errors-in-handling-lanner-case/
The following letter written in 1991 by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is a fascinating document in light of what we now know about Lanner:
http://lukeford.net/Images/photos/shlomoriskin.pdf
The letter offers Lanner a job as a student recruiter in Rabbi Riskin’s Ohr Torah institutions in Israel two years after the YU tribunal found him guilty of child abuse.
It is interesting to note the close ties between Rabbi Riskin and Rabbi Labaton:
https://www.ohrtorahstone.org/donate/Dinner2008/OTS_Officers_ExecComm_Board.pdf
Rabbi Labaton was on the Ohr Torah board of directors and invited Rabbi Riskin many times to visit the West Deal Synagogue and deliver classes and sermons during the summer months. The relationship presented a strong image to the Syrian Sephardic community of Modern Orthodox unity and a confluence of Jewish interests.
We have mentioned the idea of “Da’as Torah” on many occasions, and in the Lanner case we can see those chickens coming home to roost: Being a well-respected insider in the Modern Orthodox hierarchy permitted Lanner to continue committing his heinous violations without any negative repercussions.
And this would not be the last time YU would find itself in hot water over sexual abuse scandals:
http://forward.com/articles/188247/richard-joel-knew-about-yeshiva-sex-abuse-allegati/?p=all
It is critical to note that Lanner worked at the Hillel Yeshiva High School during the period when he was committing these violations, and yet there was no investigation by the Syrian Jewish community leadership who were paying his salary, and only silence from Rabbi Labaton. It is equally essential to realize that Lanner’s criminal conviction resulted not from his tenure at NCSY, but for his despicable crimes against the Hillel students in Deal, New Jersey.
http://jewishsurvivors.blogspot.com/2008/01/rabbi-baruch-lanners-prison-time-is.html?m=1
To this day the matter is not openly discussed in the Syrian Jewish community.
Here is the complete Lanner report published by OU in 2000:
http://frumfollies.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/ou_special_commission.pdf
The Lanner issue brings together the Ashkenazification process of Syrian Jews like Rabbi Labaton and the corrupt insider world of Modern Orthodox Judaism.
Lanner was never seen as a problem by the Modern Orthodox Syrian Jews because he was “one of us.” In spite of the many accusations from students, Lanner remained a trusted figure because he represented what was seen as the best of Modern Orthodoxy. He was never targeted because of his authority within this community.
Sadly, those not seen as “insiders” did not receive the same preferential treatment. In the Modern Orthodox Jewish world there is indeed a pecking order and Sephardim and their heritage are most decidedly not welcomed with the same enthusiasm as Lanner was. The disdain and contempt for the Sephardic tradition extends to the personal level where individual attempts to support and promote the Sephardic heritage are met with a dismissive arrogance and a refusal to accept the humanity of the Sephardic activist. It is a warning shot that has served to ensure that Sephardim do not seek to preserve their history and culture.
Institutional control means that jobs are doled out to those who follow the (Ashkenazi) party line. Taking the Sephardi side is tantamount to personal and professional suicide. Those Sephardim who do actually battle against Ashkenazi persecution in both Israel and the Diaspora have thus been viciously attacked by the Modern Orthodox self-hating Sephardim whose loyalty to Ashkenazi Zionism has overridden their concern for their own community and its interests both cultural and political.
The many glowing testimonies to Rabbi Labaton exemplify the continued faith that many Syrian Jews have in the Modern Orthodox system in spite of the damage that it has done to our community.
I have discussed the matter in some detail in my 2012 article “The Idiot Sephardim”:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/davidshasha/a93EykBERUk/rA34Yg5U6oAJ
And in the follow-up “The Stale Winds of Summer”:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/Davidshasha/I5LcowTL5kE
In 2011 I discussed the matter of Sephardim and Modern Orthodoxy in more general terms:
The adoption of Ashkenazi Modern Orthodoxy has done two things to our community: It has sown the seeds of destruction for our Andalusian Jewish heritage which is based on the values of Religious Humanism. But it has also exposed the community to the vicious intra-Ashkenazi war between the Orthodox factions. As Modern Orthodoxy took hold of Sephardic institutions a counter-movement took place which adopted Ultra-Orthodox values akin to those of Lakewood Yeshivah:
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/133643/lakewood-redefining-orthodoxy
I have often commented on the toxic views of Rabbi Eli Mansour who is perhaps the foremost Ultra-Orthodox figure in the Syrian Sephardic community and is closely associated with the Lakewood revolution.
Here are some Mansour highlights I have presented over the past few years to give you an indication of how this transformation has taken place:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/davidshasha/mansour/davidshasha/uDqd0Lw2IVQ/-sOboiZdHD8J
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/davidshasha/mansour/davidshasha/Kmi5UgxrL9I/ZakBPZDhDRYJ
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/davidshasha/mansour/davidshasha/hm4lS3ELjN8/pKUjyWE7bwcJ
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/davidshasha/mansour/davidshasha/R2KtTnodRxI/plirPUpA3pgJ
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/davidshasha/mansour/davidshasha/5TQuFobPc4g/DV6EgCKxE0UJ
It is interesting to see that both the Modern Orthodox Sephardim and the Ultra-Orthodox Sephardim seek to make Sephardic tradition fully compatible with the Ashkenazi system, thereby undermining and eviscerating the ethical substance and intellectual content of our classical heritage.
I have recently addressed the problem in a critical discussion of Rabbi Meir Mazuz:
The Ultra-Orthodox revolution has had serious ramifications for the Sephardic community, though it is highly ironic that the current battle is being waged without the use of the actual Sephardic heritage which presents a counter-model to the Ashkenazi factionalism and dysfunction.
And for this we can thank Rabbi Labaton and his followers.
You will not find any mention on the tribute website of Baruch Lanner or of the battle that has been successfully waged against our Sephardic heritage. Sadly, a recent paper written by a YU student under the controlling influence of Rabbi Labaton has even excoriated the historical figure of Rabbi Matloub Abadi who was perhaps the last authentic Sephardic Sage in our community:
In my essay “Stealing Torah and Slandering the Pious” I have argued that the malice of the Ashkenazified Syrians has caused a transformation of values and a falsification of our history. As was Rabbi Labaton’s wish, the Sephardic tradition has been reframed according to Ashkenazi Modern Orthodox values in a way that serves to turn Rabbi Abadi into a student of Rabbi Soloveitchik.
The net effect of the failure of Modern Orthodoxy in the Sephardic community has thus led to the destruction of our intellectual culture and ethical traditions while at the same time allowing the Ultra-Orthodox sector of the community to advance their positions and conquer more and more territory in our religious culture. The inexorable eclipse of Modern Orthodoxy has provided an important opportunity for the Haredim and they have taken great advantage of it. The Syrian Sephardic community will likely never be the same.
It is thus a double failure: moral as well as historical.
In the end we can see the odious figure of Baruch Lanner as a symbol of what has gone wrong in the Syrian Sephardic community: a respected member of the Modern Orthodox fraternity is given carte blanche to abuse our children while at the very same time our socio-cultural and literary-religious traditions are trashed. There is a certain symmetry to it and a pathetic testimony to the continued inability of Sephardim to read the writing on the wall and make the necessary adjustments to protect their heritage.
David Shasha
From SHU 654, October 8, 2014