Towson Student Adds Name To Suit Against Rabbi
TOWSON, Md. (WJZ) --A rabbi accused of secretly videotaping women in a ritual bath. Now, two more women have joined a lawsuit against Rabbi Barry Freundel, including a Towson University student.
Meghan McCorkell has more on the latest cases.
Freundel was a respected rabbi at a Georgetown synagogue and a teacher at Towson University, before he was arrested on voyeurism charges.
"I feel betrayed," Emma Shulevitz said. "I feel duped."
Shulevitz said Rabbi Freundel was a mentor who was helping her convert to Juadism.
In October 2012, he convicted her to visit a ritual bath, known as a mikvah. She said he warned her in the changing room not to put a water bottle in front of a clock radio.
Two years later, Freundel is charged with putting a hidden camera in that clock to record naked women.
"I feel so hurt," Shulevitz said. "I feel so disappointed and I feel like finally there is some understanding of what happened."
Shulevtitz is one of three women, including a Towson University student, filing suit in the case.
Freundel taught classes at Towson and the student said she visited the mikvah this February as part of the course.
The student said Freundel repeatedly encouraged young female Towson students to go on field trips to the mikvah.
She said after she visited the mikvah, Freundel repeatedly called her late at night form an unlisted cell p hone. Freundel also taught at Georgetown University, which is named in the suit, along with the mikvah, Kesher Israel Synagogue and the Rabbinical Council of America.
Attorneys said those organizations all ignored red flags about the rabbi.
"Freundel was permitted to rig the game," attorney Steve Kelly said. "He used that power and abused that power in ways that were designed to sexually explicit innocent people."
Freundel has pleaded not guilty to six counts of voyeurism. He has been suspected from all activities at Towson University since his arrest in October.
Freundel is expected back in court next month.
Other Local News: