NEW YORK
New York Post
By DAVID HAFETZ and JEANE MacINTOSH
March 5, 2006 -- EXCLUSIVE
Details of allegations by eight more female accusers have surfaced in the explosive sex scandal surrounding Mordechai Tendler, the Rockland County rabbi who allegedly called himself the Messiah to bed a synagogue member.
The women claim the disgraced holy man demanded sexual favors and made bizarre passes - all while offering them spiritual and marital guidance.
Tendler, scion of a preeminent Orthodox family, allegedly paid off one woman after an affair, advised another to have sex with him to "forget her problems," and begged a mother of five to let him bathe her.
Batye Seigel told The Post that as her marriage crumbled in the early '90s, she confided in Tendler, who she believed could help her obtain a "get," a Jewish divorce decree.
But during meetings, Tendler began "hitting on me, big time . . . He would always close the door and lock it - that is forbidden by Jewish law," Seigel said.