NEW YORK
The Jewish Voice
ANTHONY MARANDETTO
Jonathan Rosenblatt, the modern Orthodox rabbi who found himself at the center of a controversial firestorm at the Riverdale synagogue that he has led for decades, has now announced that he will be stepping down from his post as spiritual leader.
The prominent rabbi of the Riverdale Jewish Center drew harsh rebuke from congregants for taking boys as young as 12 years of age along with young men to join him in naked sauna visits. Reports indicate that during the 1980s and 90s, Rosenblatt, now 59, would engage his young charges in deep discussions about their lives and faith in G-d. The sauna sessions would generally take place after playing squash in the synagogue gym. Rosenblatt would shower with the boys and then enter the sauna or hot tub. While nothing sexually untoward occurred, a 2015 article in the New York Times renewed an ongoing debate as to whether his conduct was appropriate as several of the boys in question, who are now in their 40s had said that Rosenblatt made them feel uncomfortable by looking at their naked bodies and commenting on them.
In 2011, Rosenblatt reached an agreement with the Rabbinical Council of America, which oversees American Orthodox rabbis, to stop taking congregants to the sauna altogether.
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