Prominent Washington DC rabbi charged with voyeurism
Rabbi Barry Freundel arrested on suspicion he placed hidden camera at synagogue's mikveh, videotaping at least six women changing clothes.
WASHINGTON - A prominent rabbi secretly videotaped at least six women changing clothes at a ritual cleansing bath affiliated with his District of Columbia synagogue, police said Friday.
Rabbi Barry Freundel, 62, was arrested by police earlier this week at his home in the US capital's upscale Georgetown neighborhood, a few blocks from his modern Orthodox synagogue, Kesher Israel Congregation.
He has been charged with voyeurism and pleaded not guilty.
According to a document filed in DC Superior Court, Freundel set up a recording device disguised as a digital clock radio in the changing and showering area of the National Capital Mikveh, which is affiliated with the Kesher Israel Congregation.
Police said he recorded women on June 2 and September 13 and appears on tape setting up the device.
Judge William Nooter ordered Freundel to stay away from all individuals he had helped convert to Judaism and participated with in the Jewish ritual bathing process known as mikveh, according to the court documents.
He was also ordered to stay away from the Kesher Israel synagogue and the National Capital Mikveh.
According to a police report, the alleged victim, a 35-year-old woman, told police she saw Freundel plugging in a black alarm clock that contained a video recording device while she was preparing to take a mikveh at the synagogue.
Freundel explained to her the device was for ventilation purposes, according to the report.
A few days later, the woman noticed that the clock was gone. It was back October 12, police said, and this time she grew suspicious and removed it. She later found “what appeared to be a video camera” in the clock and a card for electronic storage. She called police and turned the clock over to them.
One woman said that she recalled seeing the clock as far back as 2012.
Police said that on one recording device, they found more than 100 deleted files dating back to February. Some of the files were labeled with women’s first names.
Police said they seized a camera-equipped clock radio in Freundel’s home, in addition to the one found in the shower area of the ritual bath, which is near the synagogue.
The ritual bath is primarily for people converting to Judaism and by observant Jewish women at very intimate times as a way of becoming closer to God.
Freundel, a modern Orthodox rabbi, is renowned in the religious community for his intellect and influence.
He holds top leadership positions in regional and national bodies of Orthodox rabbis and is considered a national arbiter on conversion issues between modern Orthodox rabbis in the United States and religious leaders in Israel.
It has left many women who used the bath fearful that they were recorded during a sacred ritual and that the violation may have been done by someone they trusted.
According to an affidavit, police now think the rabbi had been “engaging in the criminal act of voyeurism in several locations and with the use of several devices and over a period of time.”
Police listed items seized from the rabbi’s home as six external hard drives, seven laptop computers, five desktop computers, three regular cameras, 20 memory cards and 10 flash drives. Police have said the camera in the bath and another found in the home were part of clock-radios in which the hidden device was linked to a motion detector.
As a misdemeanor, the maximum penalty for voyeurism is imprisonment of no more than one year, or a $2,500 fine, or both.
Kesher Israel's congregation included Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and former Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, according to Washingtonian magazine.
