Supporters Rally around Beloved Rjc Rabbi
By Phil Jacobs
Riverdale—Michael Stein had a particularly difficult and late night last Sunday. The Riverdale Jewish Center board member and former assistant rabbi to Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, the shul’s spiritual leader, was collecting some 40 signatures of former RJC rabbinic interns in support of their mentor. All of Stein’s efforts were part of an effort to offset the impact of a New York Times story detailing Rabbi Rosenblatt’s use of a shvitz or sauna as a part of his rabbinic practice. There after a game of squash with a youth or adult, he’d be nude in the athletic facility’s open showers with congregation members, students, youth, young adults or others and then both would cover up with a towel in the sauna. That, according to Stein, was where a great deal of relationship building, counseling and bonding would take place. “Never,” said Stein, who was also a rabbinic intern at RJC, “did it involve touch or anything that was sexual. That is and was never the intention of the rabbi.” The synagogue has gone into damage control since the Times story was published. Indeed, its executive committee released a letter Tuesday to its membership directed at the Times article. “As you know, Rabbi Rosenblatt is a highly respected member of the community who has given decades of devoted service to the Riverdale Jewish Center and its members,” reads a paragraph from the statement. “That said, we take any allegations of impropriety very seriously. Years ago when RJC leadership heard rumors about the Rabbi’s alleged interactions surrounding athletic activities, the details were assessed and no evidence of misconduct was found. In order to avoid even the appearance of impropriety as to such activities, in the 2011 time frame the Rabbinical Council of America issued explicit guidelines regarding participation in athletic activities by clergy. The RJC has followed those guidelines. “It bears emphasis that as far as we are aware, Rabbi Rosenblatt has fully complied with the guidelines, and there is nothing in The New York Times article that indicates otherwise. Significantly, if we ever saw evidence to the contrary, we would of course take appropriate measures.” A spokesperson for the Bronx District Attorney’s Office would neither confirm nor deny that her office has been called by a person seeking to press charges against Rabbi Rosenblatt, but has indicated to the public that if something happened within the statute of limitations, to contact the office. Terry Raskyn, director of public information, told the Jewish Link, “Anyone who needs assistance should be referred to us. The Bronx D.A. Crime Victims Assistance Unit provides services to all victims, whether or not a case has been prosecuted, an arrest made or even if no complaint has ever been filed.” Rosenblatt has not returned telephone or email requests for an interview to the Jewish Link. Now 58, Rosenblatt became the shul’s spiritual leader in 1985. He comes from a celebrated lineage. His great grandfather was Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt, a chazzan of great fame, and his grandfather Samuel Rosenblatt was the rabbi of Baltimore’s Beth Tfiloh Congregation for over 50 years. The New York Times article brought a great deal of shock and buzz especially to the area’s Modern Orthodox community, and especially to the 700-member family RJC. Stein, a 31-year-old businessman, was highly critical of the nature of the Times article. As a rabbinic intern and assistant rabbi at RJC, he played squash, showered and sat in the sauna with Rosenblatt. “He invited people to play squash,” said Stein. “And part of playing squash often meant that you’d go into the public showers with other people whether it was at Columbia University or at a public gym. I always brought a towel for the sauna. I know that the first time he invited me to play squash, I brought a towel. I was over 21 at the time when he first invited me. I never in any way felt uncomfortable. I know dozens of other people who played squash with him knew the routine included a shower and the sauna, and those people never felt uncomfortable or, God forbid, violated.” Sura Jeselsohn has a simple wish. “I hope this all ends well,” she said. Jeselsohn kept a journal for a time about the rabbi’s use of the racquetball court and sauna since her son was invited to play racquetball with the rabbi back in 1988. She said that a mother of another boy, who had also played racquetball with the rabbi, went into the shvitz. Jeselsohn asked her son if he entered the shvitz after playing racquetball. Her son declined the rabbi’s invitation. “You know what kind of character my son had to be able to say no in the face of an authority figure,” she said. “I would have gone to the cops if he had gone into that shvitz.” She would meet with the rabbi in his study hoping that he’d say that he’d never invite a young person in the sauna again. “He called it normal bonding,” she said. “He said that other rabbis do it. For me it was horrifyingly clear what this man was. If he had been smarter, he would have said ‘I had no intentions.’ But he took the position that this was normal and it works with youth.” Over the years, Jeselsohn kept up her campaign to get the rabbi to stop taking people to the sauna. “Part of his ability to relate is through semi-nudity?” she said. “I grew up believing in the unity of the Jewish people. We should have similar values, but what are we talking about here. I could just cry.” It was Yehuda Kurtzer, head of the Shalom Hartman Institute in New York, who remembers the feelings of embarrassment he felt when as a 19-year-old he was invited into the sauna. It was last fall that Kurtzer learned that Rosenblatt had spoken at SAR, the school his son attends. After an overwhelming response to an essay he wrote to the email list of the Wexner Foundation, he decided to inform the Times. David Winter, co-publisher of the Jewish Link of Bronx, Westchester and Connecticut, served for 10 years as RJC’s executive director. He too is feeling the pain of this difficult issue, because he feels the New York Times article was nothing short of a smear campaign. “I knew about the rabbi going to play racquetball,” he said. “It was a regular thing with rabbinic interns and many others. But I never heard of any talk of the sauna or the showers. I used to joke with the rabbi. I’d ask him why he never invited me to play racquetball. He’d say he didn’t want to kill me. “I didn’t hear anything scandalous until a few years ago,” continued Winter. “I had heard there were discussions on guidelines and boundaries, and that Rabbi Rosenblatt had accepted them, and it was fine.” Winter said he never discussed the sauna issue with the rabbi. “I was the operations guy,” he said, “the rabbi took care of the religious side.” He said that he was “incredibly sad and distraught,” when he read the New York Times article. “I stood side by side with this man for 10 years,” he said. “I never heard him curse. The man is class and eloquence and compassion and no, I don’t believe there was any sexual meaning to what went on in the sauna. I believe that he wanted people to be comfortable. There are countless stories of behind-the-scenes care this great man gave to the members of the synagogue. It’s unfortunate that because of a newspaper article, all of that is a memory. I mean the calls in the middle of the night; without hesitation he was there for you.” Stein agreed with Winter. “Outside of my wife and my family, Rabbi Rosenblatt is my best friend,” said Stein. “He wants to be a friend to people of all ages. He’d bring himself down to the level of an eight year old child to make that child more comfortable in shul. He’s trying to be a peer even to a bunch of kids. Maybe for some that’s a problem. But for me it makes him a phenomenal rabbi.” Stein said that he is certain that for most board members, he is still the same person they trusted, and still the best rabbi the shul could ever wish for. “The letter that I presented on behalf of the 40 former rabbinic interns underscored that we never felt coerced or that our jobs were at risk if we didn’t go into the sauna,” Stein said. “I know people who might have felt uncomfortable going into the sauna, but not one person was ever coerced or violated.” Getting back to Jeselsohn’s wish that this situation “end well.” Her interpretation of ending well would be for the rabbi to leave the shul. “He should not be able to go anywhere with access to children of any kind nor should he be allowed to be in an authority position again,” said Jeselsohn. For Stein, Winter and others it would be for Rosenblatt to remain in place and receive the appreciation they feel he is due. “This isn’t about the good outweighing the bad,” said Stein. “This man is the best rabbi we could ever ask for. Fallible? Yes, But I still trust him, the same way I trusted him before.”
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