According to a class-action lawsuit filed on Tuesday, the D.C. rabbi who pleaded guilty last year to 52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism— relating to the surreptitious filming of more than 150 women inside a mikveh (ritual bath) adjacent to Georgetown’s Kesher Israel synagogue—is being sued by nine of his victims. Rabbi Barry Freundel and the Rabbinical Council of American are cited in the lawsuit, along with the Beit Din of America, reported The Washington Post.
The plaintiffs are seeking $1 million each, according to their lawyer. The convicted rabbi is currently serving a 6.5-year sentence. A memo filed by the prosecution during Freundel’s hearing outlined the crimes of the former leader of D.C.’s Modern Orthodox community. His illegal acts included recording women in the mikveh using a clock radio camera and engaging them in “practice dunks,” among other elaborate schemes.
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Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.
