By Nina Pineda
ABC 7
March 1, 2006
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=local&id=3952502#
(New York-WABC, March 1, 2006) - There's a sex scandal at a local synagogue involving a rabbi allegedly offering and giving "sex therapy" to a congregant looking for a husband.
That rabbi -- from a prominent orthodox family -- is now forced from his job. But now, that rabbi is fighting back, saying he can't be fired.
It's happening at a temple in New Hempstead in Rockland County. Eyewitness News Reporter Nina Pineda has the story.
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Nina Pineda: "Can you confirm anything that happened with the allegation against him?"
Rabbi: "No, nobody knows anything about it."
No one would talk about the scandal in which a growing list of women say Rabbi Mordechai Tendler used his position of power to sexually harass them in or in this case, engage in sex with those seeking counsel.
The rabbi's accused of telling a young woman seeking husband, to have sex with him instead so her life would open up and men would come to her.
The rabbi was not at home and did not return repeated phone calls for comment, but in a letter to the Council of America -- which expelled the rabbi after an investigation -- he called the allegation as conspiracy to denigrate the prominent family.
That is, his father is a renowned professor at a university. He told Eyewitness News the so-called boards efforts to remove his son were accusations about a personal vendetta.
But women say they are the ones with a vendetta against them now. In fact, they have written their experiences on a blog.
Many of the women who came forward have had to leave the New Hempstead community saying they have been taunted and retaliated against. The rabbi refuses to acknowledge the board had suspended him.
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