Mikvah Peeping Tevya Rabbi Barry Freundel has resigned from his part-time teaching post at Towson University in Maryland but will still be paid through March, despite pleading guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism for secretly video recording naked women as they prepared to immerse in the National Capital Mikvah (ritual bath) he controlled.
Mikvah Voyeur Rabbi Barry Freundel Resigns From University – But Will Still Be Paid Thousands Through March, Despite Guilty Pleas
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Mikvah Peeping Tevya Rabbi Barry Freundel has resigned from his part-time teaching post at Towson University in Maryland, the Baltimore Sun reported.
Last week, Freundel pleaded guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism for secretly video recording naked women as they prepared to immerse in the National Capital Mikvah (ritual bath) adjoining his Washington DC synagogue, Kesher Israel. Some of those women were Towson students Freundel encouraged to visit the mikvah and try for the sake of the experience.
Freundel was fired by Kesher Israel at the end of last year.
He resigned from Towson effective March 27 Thursday – meaning that despite his guilty pleas, he will continue to be paid until that date.
The 63-year-old Freundel, who was until his arrest one of the top few Modern Orthodox rabbis in North America, had tenure, and removing him would have required a lengthly and costly administrative hearing process.
He was suspended with pay by the university in October when he was arrested on the original six voyeurism charges. More counts were added as more victims were identified. He allegedly illegally video recorded more than 150 women in that mikvah, but some victims were either unidentified or were out of the statute of limitations.
Freundel has been paid $26,084 by the university during his suspension period and will be paid an $4,746 for the remaining period of his employment ending March 27.
A university spokesperson told the Sun the resignation deal with Freundel – who taugh classes on ethics and religion –was “within the university's best interest.”
Police found items at least one hidden camera and other related paraphernalia, including memory cards, in Freundel’s Towson office.