Barry Freundel

Bernard "Barry" Freundel (born December 16, 1951) is an American former rabbi.

The leader of Kesher Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C. from 1989 until 2014, Freundel was regarded as "a brilliant scholar," a "profound" orator and an authority in several areas of halakha (Jewish law), including eruvim, which he assisted in constructing in a number of cities, including Washington.

In the past, he had served as pre-rabbinics advisor and assistant director of synagogue services at Yeshiva University (August 1986 - June 1989), as a member of Yeshiva University's Rabbinic Alumni Association Executive Committee, and as a vice-president of the RCA, whose conversion committee he headed.

Freundel appeared on the episode of Da Ali G Show entitled "War."

Freundel served as consultant to the Ethics Review Board of the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health and consultant to the United States Presidential Commission on Cloning (May 1997).

One day later, Freundel was arraigned and charged with six counts of voyeurism, a misdemeanor, for allegedly filming women while they were undressing before immersing themselves in the National Capital Mikvah, an independent facility that Freundel was instrumental in founding in 2005.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sharon Marcus Kurn told the judge that Freundel "violated the laws up in the heavens and down," but he pleaded not guilty to these initial charges and was released on his own recognizance under condition that he stay away from and have no contact with the synagogue and the mikvah, which are located in adjacent buildings.

The police acted after the National Capital Mikvah's lay leadership handed them a suspicious clock radio the rabbi had placed in the shower room at the mikvah, a ritual bath that is used as part of the conversion ritual, by married Orthodox women following menstruation and childbirth and by some Orthodox men before the onset of the Sabbath and major Jewish holidays.

"Upon receiving information regarding potentially inappropriate activity, the Board of Directors quickly alerted the appropriate officials," it noted in a statement published upon Freundel's arrest and suspension.

"Throughout the investigation, we cooperated fully with law enforcement and will continue to do so."

A witness told the police that Freundel was observed placing the clock radio in the mikvah shower room and, when he was discovered doing so, he claimed that he was repairing the ventilation.

A police inspection of the clock radio found that it contained a video camera whose memory revealed surreptitious recordings of six different women changing — and moving images of Freundel himself setting up the camera.

Detectives said that as many as 200 women could have been recorded without their knowledge.

A forensic examination determined that several media storage devices found in Freundel's home contained copies of videos backed up from the camera's memory card.

According to a search warrant, Freundel may not only have set up spying and recording devices at his synagogue and at the mikvah, but also at Towson University.

A search of Freundel's Towson office revealed several small cameras hidden in everyday items, multiple computer storage devices, and a list of handwritten names.

On November 12, district prosecutors told a D.C. Superior Court judge they needed more time to investigate and determine if there were additional victims.

The court was informed that a web site was being created in order to reach other victims.

Freundel's career came to a sudden end in October 2014 when he was arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia and charged with committing voyeurism of several women in a mikveh (Jewish ritual bath).

Kesher Israel immediately suspended him without pay and later notified the congregants that he had been fired.

Similarly, he was also suspended from membership in the Vaad and the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), the main professional association for Modern Orthodox rabbis in the United States.

He also was suspended from his multiple academic positions.

He was assistant professor of rabbinics at Baltimore Hebrew University, where he was the rabbinic studies graduate program adviser, associate professor at Towson University and adjunct lecturer at the Georgetown University Law Center.

Towson University immediately opened its own administrative review of Freundel's conduct with students, while Georgetown University began its own investigation as well.

Freundel ultimately pleaded guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism and was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison and fined $13,000.

On October 14, 2014, police took Freundel from his synagogue-owned residence in handcuffs and, pursuant to a search warrant, removed computers and other items from the premises.

On January 16, 2015, the prosecution requested another one-month delay to complete their review of all the video evidence obtained from computers seized by police in the hope to identify additional victims.

"We are appalled by the accusations against Rabbi Barry Freundel and wish to stress that the acts attributed to him are atrocious and strictly against Jewish law," a spokesman for the Chief Rabbinate of Israel stated.

The day Freundel was arrested, the president of the RCA, Rabbi Leonard Matanky, revealed that the Council investigated allegations earlier in the year that related to "ethical issues that came up regarding an issue with a woman," but no action was taken.

On August 28, 2018, the $100 million class action lawsuit which had been brought on behalf of the victims against Freundel and the organizations he was associated with was dropped in lieu of a settlement of $14.25 million, to be paid by the insurance of the parties named in the suit.

He was expected to be released on August 21, 2020, but was released early on April 1, 2020, due to COVID-19.

Freundel earned a Bachelor of Science at Yeshiva College with a double major in chemistry and physics, along with a concurrent B.S. from the Erna Michael College of Hebraic Studies.

He received a Master's degree in Talmudic studies from the Bernard Revel Graduate School and his semikhah (rabbinic ordination) from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), part of Yeshiva University.

He earned his Ph.D. at the Baltimore Hebrew University.

Freundel served congregations in Great Neck, New York, Norwalk, Connecticut and Yonkers, New York before assuming the pulpit at Kesher Israel, a prestigious Washington synagogue located in the capital's exclusive Georgetown neighborhood, whose members have included Cabinet secretaries and Members of Congress.

Freundel had been an adjunct at a number of universities in the past, including American University and the University of Maryland, College Park.

As a writer and lecturer, Freundel addressed topics ranging from environmentalism to Jewish medical ethics.

He had served as a visiting scholar at Princeton, Yale and Cornell and guest lecturer at Columbia and the University of Chicago.

Due to his congregation's proximity to Georgetown University, he lectured at that institution with particular frequency.

Similarly, his proximity to Capitol Hill had facilitated his participation in governmental affairs as a consultant and commentator.