How Do You Celebrate Simchat Torah When Your Rabbi Has Been Arrested?

By Nathan Guttman
Jewish Daily Forward
October 17, 2014

http://forward.com/articles/207509/how-do-you-celebrate-simchat-torah-when-your-rabbi/?

WASHINGTON — A young woman jogging down O Street Thursday night slowed down as she passed by Kesher Israel synagogue, in the heart of Georgetown. “My father used to go here,” she told a group of congregants standing outside, before entering services on the eve of Simchat Torah. “I just wanted to tell you to be strong.”

For members of the synagogue, being strong following news of their rabbi’s arrest Tuesday meant going forward with the mitzvah of celebrating the Torah, even as he faced charges of peeping on women bathing in the mikveh, or ritual bath.

The scene at Kesher Thursday night made clear that its members were trying extra hard to celebrate this year. Rabbi Barry Freundel, leader of the prominent Washington, D.C. Orthodox congregation, was released to his home on Wednesday and banned from visiting the synagogue or being in touch with his alleged victims. Freundel is accused of installing a hidden camera in the synagogue’s mikveh and taping female congregants as they disrobed and dipped in the ritual bath. Investigators have seized his computer, on which they say they found nude images of at least six women he peeped on.

The holiday service was lay-led, not unusual for Kesher, and though Rabbi Freundel was undoubtedly on the mind of many, they did not allow the news hamper their celebrations. One member explained that this is the source of the congregation’s strength. “We have to continue,” he explained. “We are obliged to go ahead with the holiday services.”