CONNECTICUT
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Josh Nathan-Kazis
May 7, 2016
A politically connected Orthodox rabbi has been accused in a federal lawsuit of molesting a student at his New Haven Jewish boarding school.
In a civil complaint filed in federal court in Connecticut on May 3, Eliyahu Mirlis, a former student at the Yeshiva New Haven, accused Rabbi Daniel Greer, 75, the school’s founder and principal, of repeatedly molesting him over the course of three years while Mirlis was a student at the school.
Greer is a former member of the New Haven Board of Police Commissioners and a prominent, if controversial, figure in the city. Fundraising dinners for his yeshiva were regular stops for Connecticut public officials, including a current U.S. Senator, New Haven’s former mayor, its police chief, and New York City police commissioner Bill Bratton.
Connecticut’s governor even visited Greer’s kitchen table in 2012.
No criminal charges have been filed against Greer. His alleged victim, now 28, claims that Greer raped and abused him “dozens and dozens of times,” both at the school, at motels, and at properties owned by the school. Mirlis was 15 when the alleged abuse began and 17 when it ended.
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