NEW YORK
The Jewish Week
Staff Report
A woman claiming she was seduced by Rabbi Mordechai Tendler, who according to court papers told her he was the messiah and could help her find a husband by submitting to his “sex therapy,” has filed suit against the controversial Rockland County spiritual leader.
Adina Marmelstein, 43, is the first woman to take legal action against the rabbi since he was expelled as a member of the Rabbinical Council of America, the largest Orthodox rabbinic association, in March for “conduct inappropriate to an Orthodox rabbi.”
The rabbi had been accused of various degrees of sexual harassment by several women, though it is believed that Marmelstein was not one of the complainants in the RCA case.
According to a suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court last week, Marmelstein said the rabbi, acting as a religious authority and counselor she trusted, had encounters with her in his rabbinic study from 2001 to 2005, and that his actions were “beyond all bounds of civility and decency.”