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U.S. NEWS Friday 23 august 2019

Yeshiva University hit with sexual abuse lawsuit

By VERENA DOBNIK and punched Finkelstein while
DAVID KLEPPER he says the rabbi was sexu-
Associated Press ally “wrestling” with him.
NEW YORK (AP) — Thirty- Now there are days he
eight former students of an can’t bear being on a
Orthodox Jewish school in crowded subway be-
New York City operated cause “I can’t stand being
by Yeshiva University sued touched by people.”
Thursday over claims they “So you don’t even realize
were molested by two what the long-term impact
prominent rabbis in the is,” said Bressler, a father
1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. of two. Yeshiva Univer-
The suit, filed in state Su- sity, which calls itself “the
preme Court in Manhattan, world’s premier Jewish insti-
alleges that the university tution for higher learning,”
failed to protect students has trained both secular
at Yeshiva University High and religious leaders for
School for Boys and pro- the past century. With four
moted one of the rabbis to campuses in Manhattan,
principal even after receiv- the university operates the
ing abuse reports. Albert Einstein College of
A Yeshiva University spokes- Medicine, the Benjamin
person declined to com- Barry Singer, left, David Bressler, center, and Jay Goldberg, right, who say they were sexually Cardozo School of Law
abused while they were students at Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy (MTA)—also known as
ment, citing a school policy Yeshiva University High School for Boys in Manhattan, hold a press conference, Thursday Aug. 22, and other schools that at-
against speaking publicly 2019, in New York. tract a mix of Jewish and
about litigation. Associated Press non-Jewish students.q
The lawsuit is one of hun- and Finkelstein have de-
dreds that have been nied the allegations in the
filed over child sexual past.
abuse allegations since Finkelstein was promoted
last week, when New York from the school’s assistant
state opened a one-year principal to principal even
window for suits previously after some of the boys’
barred by the state’s stat- parents reported the al-
ute of limitations. leged abuse to school of-
During a news conference ficials, the plaintiffs said.
Thursday, three of the al- He eventually moved to
leged victims, flanked by Israel, where he worked at
their lawyers, spoke about Jerusalem’s Great Syna-
disturbing behavior they gogue. Calls to the syna-
say went on for decades. gogue rang unanswered
“I didn’t even understand Thursday. Thirty-four of the
at the time that this was plaintiffs attempted to sue
sexual abuse; I just knew Yeshiva University for sexual
that this guy was putting abuse and facilitating sex-
his hands all over me,” said ual abuse in 2013 but the
Barry Singer, 61, speaking case went nowhere be-
of one of the rabbis he cause it was barred by the
said kept reaching into the statute of limitations at the
boy’s pants, even in school time. On Thursday, one of
hallways. their attorneys, Kevin Mul-
The Associated Press hearn, called the plaintiffs
doesn’t typically identify “trailblazers.”
people who say they are David Bressler, 51, said the
victims of sexual abuse abuse he suffered while a
unless they choose to be student in the early ‘80s led
named. him to abandon his religion
One of the accused rabbis, that now rekindles memo-
George Finkelstein, target- ries of the abuse. He has
ed children of Holocaust no contact with his parents
survivors, according to the and other relatives who are
lawsuit, telling them they observant Jews. When he
would increase their par- married his Jewish wife a
ents’ suffering if they spoke decade ago, he made her
about the abuse. The oth- promise not to raise their
er, Rabbi Macy Gordon, children in the Jewish faith.
who taught Jewish studies, He said he still doesn’t tuck
allegedly sodomized boys in his shirt, a habit he start-
in a “vicious and sadistic” ed in high school to make
manner using objects, the it more difficult for his abus-
lawsuit says. Gordon died er to put his hand down
in 2017 in Israel. Both he his pants. Bressler once