Case of Rabbi Baruch Lanner
(AKA: Bernard S. Lanner, Baruch S. Lanner, Bernard Lanner)
National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY)
(Some of the teens called Rabbi Lanner "Charlie" among themselves, referring to convicted cultist killer Charles Manson, and spoke of the female teens the rabbi favored as "Baruch's girls.")
Currenlty Resides - Elizabeth, NJ
Principal, Hillel Yeshiva - Deal,
N.J.
Etz Chaim NCSY Leader - New Jersey
Convicted sex offender. Baruch Lanner was released from prison on either January 8th or 12th 2008.Convicted sex offender. Baruch Lanner was released from prison on either January 8th or 12th 2008.
June 15, 2008
WARNING TO PARENTS IN ELIZABETH, NJ - Rabbi Baruch Lanner
The goal of this warning is to protect any more children from becoming the next victim of a convicted sex offender. If you spot any children or teenagers near Baruch Lanner call 911 immediately!
Warning
To Parents - Download
PDF 
Rabbi Baruch Lanner was released from prison back in January of this year. He is currently residing in Elizabeth, NJ. There has been some concerns from community members who keep spotting Lanner hanging out at a local Dunkin Donuts "with several the kids from the local school". Please warn your children to stay away from this man (see photograph below). If you spot any children or teenagers near him call 911 immediately!
Allegations surrounded Rabbi Baruch Lanner for years. The allegations include kissing and fondling scores of teenage girls in the 1970s and '80s, repeatedly kicking boys in the groin, and reports of taking a knife to a young man in 1987, and propositioning girls in 1997 at the yeshiva high school where he was principal for 15 years. He was convicted back in 2002.
For more information on Rabbi Baruch Lanner go to: http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/Lanner_Baruch.html
For more information on sex offenders go to: http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/offenders.html
Rabbi Raphael Butler, who was the executive vice president of the Orthodox Union who supervised Baruch Lanner for 19 years, was accused by many of covering up for Lanner. When questioned about the allegations Butler responded to the New York Jewish Week as saying: "he has never heard any specific allegations against Rabbi Lanner, though he has heard the rumors for many years. "It's like chasing shadows," he said with frustration.". . . "our method of dealing with the rumors has been to have a bet din, as an independent entity, evaluate the charges, and we abide by all its decisions."
Rabbi Pinchas Stolper, founding director of NCSY, was also aware of the allegations and did nothing. Rabbi Stolper acknowledges there were several complaints from young women many years ago about improper behavior by Rabbi Lanner. Rabbi Stolper says he sought to deal with the allegations but found no real substance to the charges. Stopler also said he heard reports of Rabbi Lanner's improper behavior with girls or, in at least one case, kicking a boy in the groin, Rabbi Lanner has remained in a leadership role and in regular contact with young people through NCSY. "He has had such a magnificent impact" on so many young people, Rabbi Stolper says in defense of Rabbi Lanner, "despite some obvious sickness that is not sexual but has to do with needing to be in control."
1970's - First allegations of kissing and fondling teenage girls
1987 - Allegations were made of Baruch Lanner taking a knife to a young man
1989 - Bet din, or religious tribunal was created to evaluate allegations made against Baruch Lanner. The Bet din was made up of three Yeshiva University-affiliated rabbis. The three highly respected members of the bet din include: Rabbi Yosef Blau, mashgiach ruchani (or spiritual guidance counselor) at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva; Rabbi Mordechai Willig, a rosh yeshiva at the school; and Rabbi Aaron Levine, a professor of economics..
June 23, 2000 - Jewish Week reports that as principal and on his duties with the National Conference of Synagogue Youth, Rabbi Baruch Lanner allegedly sexually, physically, and emotionally harassed or abused several teens in the last three decades.
June 27, 2000 - The Orthodox Union accepts Lanner's resignation From the National Conference of Synagogue Youth. (NCSY)
July 12, 2000 - Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye says his office is conducting a wide-ranging criminal investigation based on the allegations against Lanner.
Dec. 26, 2000 - The Orthodox Union Releases a report accusing Lanner of sexually abusing women and girls and physically abusing boys and girls. The report concludes some personnel of the union and NCSY failed to respond properly to "red flags" raised during decades of complaints against Lanner.
March 21, 2000 - A Monmouth County grand jury indicts Lanner on charges that he had sexual contact with female students at Hillel Yeshiva. Lanner is charged with two counts each of aggravated criminal sexual contact, criminal sexual contact, and endangering the welfare of a child.
April 30, 2000 - Lanner surrenders to authorities and pleads not guilty. He surrenders his passport and is freed without bail. Lanner faces up to 40 years in prison and $250,000 in fines if convicted of molesting the girls.
Oct. 19, 2001 - A state Superior Court judge rejects Lanner's request to dismiss the charges. Lanner denies the allegations, and his lawyers say there is reason to question the credibility and mental stability of his two accusers.
June 12, 2002 - Trial opens. During opening arguments, prosecutors say they will prove that Lanner used his power "to isolate, intimidate them, and abuse" the female students when he was principal of Hillel Yeshiva. Defense lawyers counter that Lanner did not have privacy in his office to commit such offenses.
June 27, 2002 - A jury convicts Lanner of fondling one student. He is acquitted of fondling another of his accusers.
January 8, 2008 - Baruch Lanner is scheduled to be released from prison and placed on probation.
Disclaimer: Inclusion in this website does not constitute a recommendation
or endorsement. Individuals must decide for themselves if the resources meet
their own personal needs.
Timeline
2000
Stolen Innocence (06/23/2000) - The article that broke the case
Youth groups react to sex-abuse report (07/06/2000)
Paper Seen as Villain in Abuse Accusations Against Rabbi (07/10/2000)
Letters - The Lanner Episode (07/14/2000)
Students accuse New Jersey rabbi of abuse over 20 years (07/14/2000)
Journalistic Integrity - Jewish journalists grapple with 'doing the write thing' (07/14/2000)
Best & Worst of Times (07/14/2000)
Statement of New Jersey Orthodox Synagogues Youth Chairs and Concerned Parents (07/18/2000)
Rabbis accused of coverup in sex case (07/19/2000)
Lessons From The Lanner Case (07/20/2000)
LETTERS - On Rabbi Lanner And The OU (07/21/2000)
Message from Rabbi David Kaminetsky - National Director of NCSY (07/31/2000)
Kashrus Deserves Praise Not "Guilt by Association" (08/2000)
Summer of Shame (08/18/2000)
Rabbi Lanner Article Wins National Award (09/29/2000)
Report Slams O.U.'s 'Failure' in Lanner Abuse Scandal (12/29/2000)
2001
Jewish Week Follow-Up (07/05/2001)
Grappling with Sexual Abuse in the Orthodox Community - No Longer Taboo (2001)
2002
CNN - Rome: Cardinals Meet to Remedy Sex Scandal in U.S. Catholic Church (04/23/2002)
Pressure Builds on O.U. Ahead of Rabbi's Sex Abuse Trial (04/26/2002)
Orthodox Rabbi Issues Warning on Sexual Abuse (05/03/2002)
OU Standing By Lanner Report (05/31/2002)
Rabbi Baruch Lanner trial update - Jury selection under way in rabbi sex trial (06/11/2002)
Rabbi Baruch Lanner trial update - Day 1 (Wednesday) (06/13/2002)
Responding to sexual abuse: Catholic problems are public, but Jews can't be complacent (06/13/2002)
Ex-student tells jurors rabbi punished her for refusing sexual advances (06/14/2002)
Ex-student of rabbi testifies about abuse; Intimidation, fondling cited (06/14/2002)
Sex abuse case goes to defense (06/19/2002)
Mother's rage was pointed at rabbi (06/19/2002)
Secretary defends rabbi (06/20/2002)
Women Detail Abuse By Lanner - Former students testify rabbi molested them in school (06/21/2002)
Surprise witness in rabbi sex case - Additional testimony may aid prosecution (06/21/2002)
Accused rabbi's attorney calls charges 'fiction' (06/26/2002)
Jury deliberating fate of rabbi in sex abuse case (06/26/2002)
Jury weighing fate of rabbi accused of molestation (06/27/2002)
Jury weighs groping case against rabbi (06/27/2002)
Lanner Protégé Under Scrutiny (06/28/2002)
Critics Call for Firing of Lanner Protégé - Orthodox Union Official Testified for Defense in Sex Abuse Trial (06/28/2002)
Vigorous Defense In Lanner Case (06/28/2002)
Rabbi Lanner Guilty (06/28/2002)
N.J. Rabbi Convicted of Sexual Abuse (06/28/2002)
Monmouth rabbi guilty in school sex case - Principal endangered welfare of two girls (06/28/2002)
Sexual Abuse Scandal Hits Orthodox Jews (06/29/2002)
Rabbis Trial Begins (07/12/2002)
Looking for Lanner (2002)
Judge is told: Rabbi's not safe in jail (10/09/2002)
Lanner Gets 7-Year Prison Term (10/11/2002)
Lanner Out On Bail Pending Appeal (10/11/2002)
2003
Critics Charge Rabbinic Court Covered Up Lanner Abuse (01/30/2003)
An Injustice That Still Lingers (01/30/2003)
Group opposes lecture by rabbi (01/31/2003)
Victims: Rabbi failed to protect children - They criticize his handling of sex scandal (01/31/2003)
Still Waiting For Answers (02/05/2003)
Lanner Attorney Deplores `Guilt By Innuendo' (02/14/2003)
Letters to the Editor - Rabbi Lanner's Attorney (02/14/2003)
Rabbi Mordechai Willig - Statement and Sichas Mussar (02/19/2003)
Statement and Sichas Mussar (Apology) (02/19/2003)
Lanner Bet Din Rabbi Apologizes (02/26/2003)
Top Rabbi Admits Errors In Handling Lanner Case (02/26/2003)
Learning From Rabbi Willig (02/26/2003)
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Chief Rabbi Efrat, Israel - Letters: Sexual Abuse (04/311/2003)
New NCSY Chief: Lanner `Behind Us' - Critics of youth group call Zale Newman `naive (07/11/2003)
2004
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (01/30/2004)
Lanner Appeal Decision - By Murray L. Sragow (02/10/2004)
Opinion Notices Released For February 2005 (02/10/2004)
Appeals panel dismisses 1 charge against rabbi (02/11/2004)
Convicted rabbi gets one count dropped (02/14/2004)
Split Ruling On Lanner Appeal (02/18/2004)
Lanner Back In Prison (02/23/2004)
2005
2006
2007
Inside the eruv: Are some Orthodox discreet or closing their eyes? (01/11/2007)
New Jersey Department of Corrections (12/31/2007)
2008
Lanner To Be Released From Jail Next Week (01/03/2007)
New Jersey Sex Offender Registry (01/15/2007)
National Sex Offender Registry (02/13/2008)
Warning
To Parents in Elizabeth, NJ
(06/15/2008)
Also see:
Background Information and The History of Rabbinical Ordinations
by Gary Rosenblatt - Editor And Publisher
The Jewish Week - Thursday, January 30, 2003 / 27 Shevat 5763
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=3817
Rabbi Baruch Lanner, the charismatic magnet of NCSY, was revered in the Orthodox Union youth group, despite longtime reports of abuse of teens.
Baruch Lanner
is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant, dynamic and charismatic
educators in Jewish life today. As director of regions of the National Conference
of Synagogue Youth, an arm of the Orthodox Union, the 50-year-old rabbi has
been working with and supervising teenagers for more than three decades.
He has also been a principal and teacher in yeshiva high schools in New Jersey,
and for many years has led a highly successful six-week NCSY summer kollel
program in Israel offering Torah study to up to 300 American boys.
But even while he is credited with bringing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of youngsters closer to Judaism, reports have continued to circulate that he has harassed, if not abused, many scores of teens sexually, physically and/or emotionally, from the early 1970s to the present.Though Rabbi Lanner's erratic behavior has long been an open secret in some Orthodox circles, for the first time more than a dozen former NCSYers and others have come forward publicly over a three-month period, telling their stories to The Jewish Week. They described in detail firsthand experiences, including Rabbi Lanner's alleged kissing and fondling scores of teenage girls in the 1970s and '80s, repeatedly kicking boys in the groin, and reports of taking a knife to a young man in 1987, and propositioning girls in 1997 at the yeshiva high school where he was principal for 15 years.
Those who have elected to tell their stories say they are motivated by anger and frustration over the refusal of the OU, the national central body of Orthodox synagogues, to act decisively on repeated complaints about Rabbi Lanner's behavior. These critics are particularly upset that he has continued to work with young people, having led a group of students on the Birthright Israel trip last winter and participating regularly in NCSY Shabbat retreats, or Shabbatons, across the country.
They are speaking out now, they say, because Rabbi Lanner's divorce from his wife of 23 years recently was finalized. There had been concern that any negative publicity before the divorce proceedings were complete may have jeopardized its resolution.
"It's long overdue that this whole story be told," said Judy Klitsner, 42, of Jerusalem, who asserted that when she was a 16-year-old active in NCSY in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Rabbi Lanner, who was director of the Etz Chaim (N.J.) region, tried to caress and kiss her one evening during a Shabbaton in New Jersey. When she rebuffed him, she recalled recently, "he began to strangle me with all his strength, and it was only when he saw that I was losing consciousness that he threw me down and walked away."
Klitsner said she was afraid to tell anyone of the incident because the rabbi had a volatile temper and she feared reprisals. When she later told Rabbi Lanner that she would inform his supervisor, she said the rabbi laughed and told her his supervisor already knew of his behavior.
"It's immoral," she said, "that this cover-up has gone on for decades and that Baruch Lanner is still working with kids."
Klitsner and several other critics of the rabbi were adamant about going on the record publicly, insisting they did not believe the OU would take action unless forced to do so by communal pressure. They also asserted that relieving Rabbi Lanner of his current duties quietly would leave his public record unblemished and allow him to take another job in the future working closely with and supervising young people.
Pressed Not To Publish
At stake, critics and defenders of Rabbi Lanner agree, is not only his own future but the credibility of the Orthodox Union and its youth arm, NCSY, which with its hundreds of chapters and 12 regions throughout the U.S. and Canada is considered the jewel of the OU. The parent organization has described NCSY in its literature as "the most effective and respected educational youth movement in the world."
But several weeks ago, at least two influential lay leaders of the OU met personally with Rabbi Raphael Butler, its executive vice president, and urged the organization to remove Rabbi Lanner from working with youngsters. The lay leaders are torn between their belief that Rabbi Lanner is a negative role model for young people and their loyalty to NCSY. These leaders say they want Rabbi Lanner removed from his present work, but do not want to cause any negative publicity for the organization. They chose not to speak on the record for this article.
By contrast, some of the alleged victims interviewed, particularly those who say their complaints about Rabbi Lanner's treatment of them were rebuffed by OU and NCSY leaders, want the facts to come out so that the organization's response, or lack of response, over more than three decades will be widely known.
"Sometimes you have to use fire to clean out impurities," said Marcie Lenk, a Judaics teacher at the Pardes and Hartman Institutes in Jerusalem and an alleged victim of Rabbi Lanner. "That's how we kasher things in Judaism."
Some point out that according to Jewish law, one is not only permitted but obligated to publicize what would otherwise be considered lashon hara, or malicious gossip, for the protection of those who would be in danger. And they believe that Rabbi Lanner working with young people poses such a danger.
Rabbi Lanner has not responded to several requests for an interview, but in recent days, a number of OU leaders and friends and colleagues of Rabbi Lanner, having learned of the preparation of this article, called on his behalf. They urged that the article be withdrawn, claiming it would be harmful to Rabbi Lanner and his family, NCSY, the OU and the Jewish community.
One rabbi, saying he was calling at Rabbi Lanner's suggestion, proposed a deal that would call for the article to be withheld in return for Rabbi Lanner's agreeing to cease working with youngsters and move into adult education work for the OU.
Others said the determination had already been made in recent days for Rabbi Lanner to end his three-decade association with NCSY, but there were conflicting reports as to whether the decision was Rabbi Lanner's or the OU's.
When pressed, Rabbi Butler said there was some truth to each of the reports regarding Rabbi Lanner's status (though the reports were inconsistent). He added that Rabbi Lanner would not take part in the NCSY kollel this summer, calling it "a devastating loss" for the program. Rabbi Butler said that after the summer, Rabbi Lanner would move into adult education, noting that his duties would include working with college students.
Rabbi Butler said he has never heard any specific allegations against Rabbi Lanner, though he has heard the rumors for many years. "It's like chasing shadows," he said with frustration.
Rabbi Butler, who has supervised Rabbi Lanner for 19 years, said "our method of dealing with the rumors has been to have a bet din, as an independent entity, evaluate the charges, and we abide by all its decisions."
When asked if he would care to examine the research gathered for this article, including allegations from more than a dozen former NCSYers, Rabbi Butler declined, saying a bet din, or religious tribunal, was the proper venue. He asserted that a specific bet din of three Yeshiva University-affiliated rabbis, which was first convened in 1989 over a dispute centering on Rabbi Lanner, subsequently has been consulted periodically and has permitted his youth work to continue.
The three highly respected members of the bet din in question are Rabbi Yosef Blau, mashgiach ruchani (or spiritual guidance counselor) at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva; Rabbi Mordechai Willig, a rosh yeshiva at the school; and Rabbi Aaron Levine, a professor of economics.
Rabbi Levine, who is the least involved in this matter, declined to speak on the record, though he indicated that Rabbi Blau was most knowledgeable on the subject and said the bet din had met only once regarding Rabbi Lanner since 1989. That was in 1997, when the bet din gave its approval for Rabbi Lanner to work full-time for NCSY after leaving his position as principal at Hillel yeshiva in Deal, N.J.
Rabbi Willig, a staunch defender of Rabbi Lanner over the years, is believed to agree with Rabbi Butler's assertion that the OU has followed the guidance of the bet din regarding Rabbi Lanner.
Rabbi Blau believes that while that may be technically correct, it does not address many missteps along the way. Bottom line, he says bluntly, Rabbi Lanner is "unfit to work in Jewish education," and Rabbi Blau has taken a leading role in seeking his dismissal.
"The pattern of protecting Baruch rather than his victims" goes back at least 25 years, Rabbi Blau says, and reflects "a broader inability within the Orthodox community to acknowledge improper behavior by rabbis."
He notes that "an unanticipated consequence of covering [Rabbi Lanner's] improprieties was to make into accomplices all those who knew" of his actions, making it more difficult to act against him.
"The number of men and women who have been hurt is incalculable," said Rabbi Blau. "The lack of action by the OU until now is a statement to the many victims that the Orthodox community condoned Baruch's actions, and that they were the problem."
Loyalty Was Everything
Some see the re-emergence of the bet din as a last-minute ploy by the OU to shift the blame for lack of action over Rabbi Lanner. Certainly none of the more than three dozen former NCSYers and others interviewed for this article seemed to know that the place for complaints was the bet din. Many said they lodged complaints with various rabbis and OU officials over the years but were rebuffed or dismissed, and they were never told to speak to a bet din.
Marcie Lenk, the Judaics teacher in Israel, said she has told her story to a number of influential rabbis, including Rabbi Pinchas Stolper, founding director of NCSY, but they either ignored her or made excuses for Rabbi Lanner as a brilliantly effective, if erratic man whose good works outweigh his problematic behavior.
Lenk and other women who complained to rabbis about Rabbi Lanner over the years said the implicit message was clear: leave it alone. In time, youngsters stopped reporting his actions.
Rabbis Butler and Stolper say they never heard specific allegations, but Rabbi Stolper acknowledges there were several complaints from young women many years ago about improper behavior by Rabbi Lanner. Rabbi Stolper says he sought to deal with the allegations but found no real substance to the charges.
At the time, he says he warned Rabbi Lanner in no uncertain terms that if he ever heard such accusations again, even if they could not be proved, he would have to dismiss him because "NCSY lives on the reputation of the community, the parents and the synagogues."
But decades after Rabbi Stolper says he heard reports of Rabbi Lanner's improper behavior with girls or, in at least one case, kicking a boy in the groin, Rabbi Lanner has remained in a leadership role and in regular contact with young people through NCSY.
"He has had such a magnificent impact" on so many young people, Rabbi Stolper says in defense of Rabbi Lanner, "despite some obvious sickness that is not sexual but has to do with needing to be in control."
Powerful Role Model
Rabbi Lanner's need for control was a dominant theme in numerous interviews and conversations. What emerges is a pattern of an extremely bright, talented and troubled man who created his own universe of adoring teens — a universe in which loyalty to him was paramount.
"Do you love me?" Rabbi Lanner would repeatedly ask teen officers of NCSY during required daily phone calls to him, either early in the morning or late at night. "Tell me you love me," he would demand. "Tell me you love me." And they did.
Dealing with boys, Rabbi Lanner reportedly would use four-letter words and tell crude jokes freely in his private conversations with them, disparage those not in his inner circle, and often greet them with a swift, hard kick in the groin. When they sometimes would crumple to the ground in pain, he would laugh, insisting he was just showing he was one of the guys.
With girls, he allegedly tended to focus his attentions on attractive, well-developed teens from nonobservant and often troubled families, showering them with praise but demanding complete devotion and secrecy. He would constantly tease them about their bodies, make lewd and suggestive comments, and sometimes try to kiss and fondle them when they were alone with him, warning them never to tell anyone.
The emotional power Rabbi Lanner had over these impressionable youngsters was formidable. "He was like a god to us," several men and women said. They basked in his praise, but if he turned on them, and he could easily, they were bereft. The price he demanded was loyalty.
"I was not allowed to criticize or question him," recalled one former NCSYer, now a rabbi. "I had to trade in my dignity and honesty for the feeling of power he gave me. And I had to give up control of my life to him."
Some of the teens called Rabbi Lanner "Charlie" among themselves, referring to convicted cultist killer Charles Manson, and spoke of the female teens the rabbi favored as "Baruch's girls."
Even today, a number of these former proteges, men and women with children of their own and successful careers — many in Orthodox Jewish education — say they still fear Rabbi Lanner, however irrational that fear may be. "When I hear his name my stomach clutches in tension," one woman wrote. "I feel flushed and cold at the same time."
Controversial Figure
One thing Rabbi Lanner's critics and defenders agree on: he is a controversial figure.
One of his self-described defenders, Dr. John Krug, a psychologist who was hired by Rabbi Lanner when he was principal of the Hillel yeshiva high school in Deal, N.J., and worked with him there for more than a dozen years, says the rabbi 'generates extremely strong feelings - you either hate his guts or love him to bits.'
'He's a combination genius and Talmud chochem [scholar]. He's very charismatic, flamboyant, given to histrionics. He's the master of the double entendre and he marches to a different drummer,' Krug said.
Krug said the rabbi was known to 'take an active interest in some kids - he always had his favorites' - and could be heavy-handed in seeking to persuade students to follow his advice, including convincing some to go on NCSY summer programs.
Krug says he heard allegations over the years of Rabbi Lanner committing acts of violence against students but noted that he was not 'personally aware of any improprieties' and 'never saw him' commit such acts. He did note, though, that Rabbi Lanner was disciplined by school authorities in the 1980s at least one time after a complaint that he had kicked a male student in the groin.
'That's the one incident I am aware of where the board sat him [Rabbi Lanner] down and intervened,' he said.
Krug also heard rumors that the rabbi had made sexual advances to two female students, whom he questioned directly and who denied to him any wrongdoing on the part of the rabbi.
'The perception was that he was cruising close to the boundary' of acceptable behavior, the psychologist said, but there was no proof that he stepped over.
Still, Krug offers: 'I believe a person in a leadership position in the Jewish community, and especially Jewish education, should be squeaky clean. Is Baruch? The answer is no.'
He adds that if asked 'to intervene' for Rabbi Lanner on a moral or ethical matter, he would decline, citing conflict of interest since he had been an employee of the rabbi's.
Others are less circumspect in describing Rabbi Lanner's behavior.
Etan Tokayer, a 31-year-old rabbi and former Judaics teacher at the Torah Academy of Bergen County, an Orthodox boys high school, says Rabbi Lanner was psychologically abusive to him from the time he was a seventh-grader in NCSY through high school.
'He was a very important role model to me during my formative years,' Rabbi Tokayer said. 'But while Baruch was so deep and spiritual in his public performances, he was cruel and crude in his private encounters. There seemed to be two Lanners, the destructive and the good, and that caused great tension in me. I wanted and needed his friendship and approval, yet he inspired great fear as well.'
He tells of times when as a youngster, he was berated by Rabbi Lanner, accused by him of lying, and hit in the groin. 'He preyed on the insecurities of young people and fostered a cult of personality,' Rabbi Tokayer said, 'using his power to manipulate and control us when we were vulnerable.'
Erica Schoonmaker Brown, 33, a Jewish educator in Boston, boarded at Rabbi Lanner's home in Paramus, N.J., when she attended the Frisch yeshiva high school, where he was her teacher. She recalled that she once drew a portrait of Rabbi Lanner's rebbe, the late Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, and presented it to Rabbi Lanner for his birthday. 'He ripped it up in front of me, threw it in the garbage and slammed the door,' she recalls.
'A few minutes later I was in my room, talking to a friend on the phone, when Baruch came in, slammed the phone down, threw me on the bed and screamed at me for telling someone else.'
She said Rabbi Lanner created a 'constant sense of fear and terror, and to this day I've never met anyone with the kind of hostile, volatile temper he has.'
Yet she and others expressed more anger with NCSY and OU officials for allowing young people to fall prey to abuse than with Rabbi Lanner himself, who they feel is unable to control his behavior. And not all NCSY leaders are supportive of the rabbi. Several adult leaders of regions in the New York area said Rabbi Lanner is not permitted to appear at any of their events or programs because of his track record.
Taking Advantage
Some of those interviewed noted with irony that despite the emotional trauma they have endured, Rabbi Lanner remains a major positive figure in their lives in terms of Jewish inspiration and education. But some of these same people assert that their loss of self-esteem was profound, and they said there is no way of knowing how many young people in NCSY, on the cusp of religious observance, gave it all up after witnessing or experiencing Rabbi Lanner's allegedly abusive behavior.
Lisa Rabinowitz Dunn, 32, of Hastings, N.Y., said when she was 13 and active in NCSY, Rabbi Lanner insisted on driving her home from a Shabbaton on a Saturday night. She alleges that he pulled over in a deserted parking lot, asked her to take off her shirt and roughly sought to kiss her.
'I didn't tell anyone at the time,' she said. 'I loved NCSY and I had become more religious because of Rabbi Lanner. I understand the love people have for him. At the time he gave me attention I didn't get at home. But his behavior was so hypocritical, singing about the wonders of Hashem and then chasing young girls. For me it closed the door for religion, and while I have no sense of revenge, I feel that he took advantage of an innocent soul, and you can never get that innocence back.'
Now the mother of two small children, Dunn has a renewed interested in Judaism and may send her 5-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son to a Conservative day school. But she looks back on her experience with Rabbi Lanner as 'only negative.'
Allegations Spill Out
Many of those interviewed said they felt a need for validation, after having their stories dismissed over the years. Invariably, by conversation's end, they would offer the names of at least three or four contemporaries with similar experiences and encourage a reporter to speak with them.
'I feel that speaking out is the right thing to do now,' said Dena Greenspan Lehrman, 34, an occupational therapist in Efrat, Israel. 'There is a sense of closure at this stage of my life, and I want to keep others from having to go through' the experiences she had with Rabbi Lanner as a teenager in the mid-'80s. His need for control was amazing. He destroys your sense of self.'
She recalls, as a high-schooler, mentioning to Rabbi Lanner a scheduling conflict between an NCSY activity and family obligation. 'He said, 'listen to me before you listen to your father,' and when I think back on that, it blows me away.'
Rosie Shyker, now a dental assistant in Ranana, Israel, says that when she was in high school and active in NCSY, she was subjected to 'verbal and physical abuse' from Rabbi Lanner, who would call her names and embarrass her in front of her friends. 'And I would come home with bruises. He would hit me or pinch me on my arms, legs and thighs,' she said.
One night, while driving her home from a Shabbaton at about 3 a.m., Rabbi Lanner allegedly became enraged with something she said. 'He stopped at a corner, and pushed me out of the car,' she recalled. 'There I was alone, in the middle of the night. I just stood there for about 20 minutes, until finally he came back for me, but he screamed and yelled at me the whole car ride.'
Still, Shyker says she has only positive memories of her NCSY experience. 'It was only good for me - the subject of Baruch is separate.'
Leah Silber, who lives in Israel, says that in the summer of 1973, when she was 19 and on an NCSY tour of Israel, Rabbi Lanner, four years her senior, told her he wanted to marry her. 'I was very drawn to religion and the Torah, and he would use his learning, citing rabbinic sources as a technique to work on me,' she said.
When Silber rebuffed him, she said, 'he smacked me in the face' and nearly broke her jaw. 'It was swollen and out of place, and I was really in pain.' She says she went to one of the rabbis affiliated with the tour to tell him what happened, but nothing came of it.
'Baruch is repulsive, and yet he has so much charisma, so much brilliance,' she said. 'I can't even explain it to myself.'
Perhaps Dr. Samuel Klagsbrun can. Although he does not know Rabbi Lanner, and was not given his name when told of some of the episodes, the well-known New York psychiatrist said the behavior described - manipulation and abuse of teens - was classic among people with severe character disorders. Klagsbrun said there was little or no chance of correcting such behavior through therapy.
He also said it was typical for victims, especially young women, to come forward and discuss their experiences only many years later, if at all, 'when they are healed from major trauma and have created their own lives.'
The larger, communal problem, Klagsbrun says, is that 'our community's concept of concern over a shanda [embarrassment] operates in such a destructive way. Regardless of how uncomfortable we are with confronting these situations, or how damaging it may be to an individual organization, if we don't uproot these problems we are damning young people to lifelong damage.'
A Disputed Letter
The only time Rabbi Lanner's disturbing behavior surfaced on a public level until now was in the summer of 1989, shortly after he was hired to become the rabbi of a fledgling Orthodox congregation in Teaneck, N.J.
That was too much for Elie Hiller, who was 24 at the time and attended the synagogue, then known as the Roemer (Avenue) shul. He had worked for seven years for NCSY as an assistant regional director, and says that at various times Rabbi Lanner had hit him in the groin and in the head, called him names and threatened to withhold pay.
But what upset Hiller most was an incident that had taken place two summers earlier, Aug. 7, 1987, after Rabbi Lanner sought to dissuade Adina Baum, a young woman who had boarded at the rabbi's house while in high school from marrying Hiller's younger brother, Jonah, because he had Hodgkin's disease.
Jonah, who was 22 at the time, drove up to Rabbi Lanner's summer bungalow to ask him not to interfere in his relationship with his fiancée. According to Elie Hiller, Jonah and Rabbi Lanner exchanged words and then the rabbi, in a rage, grabbed a kitchen knife, lunged at Jonah, and cut him in the neck and arm, and tried to choke him.
Hiller, who worked for Rabbi Lanner at the time, says that after the incident, the rabbi called to tell him that he and Jonah had just had an argument and that he had tried to calm Jonah down. 'Then he laughed and talked to me about getting me a raise,' Elie said.
Elie wasn't amused. He quit his NCSY job, and he and his family, after contacting an attorney, sought to have the OU remove Rabbi Lanner from his job, threatening to go to the police otherwise.
Eventually they reached a compromise with the organization that would have Rabbi Lanner save face by easing him from his job as director of the New Jersey region, have no contact with staff or members of the region, and have no active participation in Shabbatonim.
But the Hillers say that though Rabbi Lanner was given a new title (seemingly a promotion, director of regions), the OU soon reneged on the agreement, denying the knifing incident had taken place and allowing the rabbi to take part in several Shabbatonim.
The last straw for the Hillers was the appointment of Rabbi Lanner at the new Teaneck congregation, despite their personal appeals to local rabbis and leaders of the congregation.
Frustrated, Elie Hiller wrote a letter graphically detailing Rabbi Lanner's alleged abusive behavior to him, his brother and others, and sent it to the entire Orthodox community of Teaneck, urging that Rabbi Lanner not be allowed to lead the new congregation.
Rabbi Lanner responded by calling for a bet din, asserting that Hiller had unfairly maligned him. The three-man tribunal consisted of Rabbis Blau, Willig and Levine.
In August 1989, the bet din met in marathon session for 18 hours, with witnesses for both sides testifying as to the specific charges made in the letter and the character of Rabbi Lanner, who sought to undermine the qualities and veracity of those who spoke against him, according to witnesses.
Several witnesses say Krug, the psychologist, characterized young witnesses against the rabbi as troubled. Though he is now more cautious in defending Rabbi Lanner, Krug says he has no regrets about his testimony at the time.
The result of the hearing was never made public, but the bet din concluded that most of the charges were not proven, though some of the rabbi's actions were deemed inappropriate. Elie Hiller was told to make a public apology to Rabbi Lanner, which he did.
Rabbi Lanner did not become the rabbi of the synagogue.
Jonah Hiller and Baum were married a few months later, early in 1988. Jonah died of cancer three years later.
Self-Appointed Monitor
Though the case was closed, Rabbi Blau was troubled. After the formal proceedings ended, he received a number of letters and phone calls from individuals unwilling to testify publicly or detailing events outside the purview of the particular case.
'They described a pattern of totally unacceptable behavior that reflected a troubled individual who should not be allowed to deal with teenagers,' he says now.
In time Rabbi Blau came to regret the bet din's decision, and took it upon himself to monitor Rabbi Lanner's behavior. For more than a decade, and particularly in the last year in working toward a divorce settlement for the Lanners, he has been the point person for those with complaints about Rabbi Lanner, often counseling those with feelings of bitterness or remorse.
One of the more disturbing calls Rabbi Blau says he received came a few years after the bet din from a woman who was one of Rabbi Lanner's character witnesses. 'She admitted that she had not told the truth when testifying, and wondered how one repents for this act.
'Most shocking,' Rabbi Blau says, 'was the orchestrated campaign' used by Rabbi Lanner and his defenders 'to convince this young woman not to describe what had really transpired between Baruch and herself. She was reminded of her debt to him for his role in her becoming observant, and it became apparent that she was not the only one pressured either not to testify or to testify falsely. Those who did testify against him were ostracized in NCSY.'
One woman who testified against Rabbi Lanner at the bet din was Marcie Lenk. She said that as a teenager active in NCSY, she endured constant remarks from Rabbi Lanner about her figure, often in front of her friends.
'He would invite kids to his house for Shabbos, and say to me, 'so, are you going to sleep with me this Shabbos?' I'd say, 'I'm sleeping at your house this Shabbos.' It was a game of manipulation to him, a test to see how far he could go. He'd look at me innocently and say, 'right.' That kind of behavior was constant.'
Rabbi Lanner was also her teacher at Frisch, and sometimes, she says, he would squeeze through a classroom doorway at the moment she was walking through, rubbing against her. 'He'd say, 'ooh, that felt good,' ' she said.
But she didn't tell any adults of this behavior. 'Baruch created this situation where we needed him,' she says now. 'We were kids looking for friendship and community. But to be 'in,' this was the price we had to pay. I guess I felt it was worth it at the time.'
At the bet din, Rabbi Lanner 'made up reasons why those of us who testified against him were supposedly out to get him,' Lenk said. 'He said I wasn't religious, and that I resented that he wasn't close to me.'
Deaf Ears
The night before the bet din, Lenk, who was 23 at the time, says she received a call from Rabbi Lanner's wife, clearly at his request, tearfully urging Lenk not to testify. 'When she said, 'how could you do this to me?' I said, 'I'm not doing this to you, he did this to you.' '
The most disappointing part of the experience, she says, were rabbis who knew her since childhood testifying on Rabbi Lanner's behalf, asserting that he could never have done the things she alleged were done to her.
'The kids who had no one else to protect them were not being protected,' she says. 'I'm still very angry at the rabbis. They turned away from us. We thought of going to the authorities but trusted the system to take care of it. The system failed us, and it still is.'
Naomi Freistat, 41, of New York, says when she was a 15-year-old NCSYer on a summer program in Israel, Rabbi Lanner would kiss and fondle her until one evening when she insisted he stop. 'He punched me in the stomach,' she says, 'and I told him, 'you just punched the wrong girl.' But when I complained to several rabbis, no one wanted to hear of it and nothing happened.'
Shelly, 41, who now lives in Israel, and asked that her last name not be published, says that when she was a 14-year-old NCSYer, Rabbi Lanner made sexual advances to her, and she told several rabbis at the time. One, who was Rabbi Lanner's superior, told her that he had 'inherited the monster, not created him,' she recalls, and said there was nothing he could do. Others ignored her complaints. 'We've learned that it's a given that he always gets away with it,' she says.
'It bothers me that the OU has protected him all these years. What if it was one of their daughters who was treated this way? People don't realize how much damage he's done to kids,' Shelley says.
This complaint was heard from virtually every critic interviewed. Several said they believed that as a result of the 1989 bet din, the OU had agreed to remove Rabbi Lanner from direct contact with young people. While the OU did change the rabbi's title from regional director of NCSY to director of regions, its officials now dispute whether or not Rabbi Lanner was indeed banned from contact with young people.
In any event, he has continued to take an active part in Shabbatons around the country at least a few times a year, delivering divrei Torah, or sermons, as well as mingling with individual teens, according to numerous observers.
Jordan Hirsch, 37, a professional musician and teacher in Teaneck, N.J., who has known Rabbi Lanner since he was an NCSYer 25 years ago, and considers him a friend, says the rabbi has been attending NCSY Shabbatons 'all through the years,' where he is 'lauded and lionized.'
Hirsch, whose band often performs at these functions on Saturday nights, says the rabbi 'was never monitored. He had contact with the kids all along.'
At one of these events three or four years ago, he says he was sitting with Rabbi Lanner when the rabbi, in speaking to a girl who was a senior in high school, began making sexual references to her in a lighthearted way, or as Hirsch puts it, 'getting into that sexual stuff.'
Hirsch says he interrupted, warning the rabbi about his behavior, and Rabbi Lanner responded, 'I know, Hirsch, I've got to be careful.'
Quiet Deal
But Rabbi Lanner's alleged inappropriate behavior apparently has not been confined to his NCSY experiences. He has been accused of harassing or abusing youngsters, physically and emotionally, in schools where he has served as teacher and/or principal.
The situation at Hillel high school in Deal came to a head in 1997. The official version is that Rabbi Lanner, who had been principal for 15 years, chose to leave at the end of the academic year, but several sources say he was forced out quietly after an internal investigation regarding his behavior with students, which reportedly included harassment, kicking boys and propositioning several female students. At least two girls are said to have confided in a faculty member, which led to the school inquiry.
Still, a number of faculty members he hired have remained loyal, crediting Rabbi Lanner with raising the pay scale for teachers at Hillel, a wealthy school, and indirectly in other area yeshivas as well. In addition, they say he was extremely supportive of his teachers and went out of his way to praise them and accommodate their schedules, and set high academic standards for the school.
Last year, Rabbi Lanner taught a Judaic class on Friday mornings at Bas Torah, a girls' yeshiva high school in Monsey, N.Y. Several students complained that he humiliated them in class and called them names disparaging their intellect, and a few refused to attend his class, saying he made inappropriate sexual comments, according to one teacher. They were excused from attendance.
The teacher, who asked not to be identified because 'I love my job,' says she feels strongly that Rabbi Lanner 'should not be in contact with kids.'
Critics of Rabbi Lanner cite these and other relatively recent examples to rebut those who say that any improper behavior on his part, if it existed at all, was a product of the distant past.
Communal Lessons
How could Rabbi Lanner remain in influential positions dealing with impressionable teens as a rabbi, educator and role model after all the allegations against him?
And if, as some OU and NCSY officials insist, they never heard complaints, was it because they didn't want to hear them, or did alleged victims get the message it did little good to speak out?
Some rabbinical leaders seem so dazzled by Rabbi Lanner's intellect and charisma that they are willing to ignore or overlook his faults, attributing them to youthful indiscretions rather than any continuing pattern of troubled behavior. They suggest that if these disturbing incidents did indeed happen - and teens are known for exaggeration, they note - then it was a long time ago, and besides, the rabbi's good works outweigh the bad.
Marcie Lenk, the Israeli educator, cites Orthodoxy's emphasis on scholarship, suggesting that the community puts less weight on other values. She says Rabbi Lanner's colleagues are so taken with his Talmudic abilities that they resist any criticism of him.
'But I was always taught Torah knowledge was a means to an end, of good behavior,' she says, 'not an end in itself.'
Others may have little training in the seriousness and long-term effect of emotional abuse. As one yeshiva principal told a critic in defending Rabbi Lanner, 'It's not as if he raped anyone.'
There is also the fact that a number of his rabbinical defenders were beholden to him in some way. Rabbi Lanner hired many of them in his capacity as yeshiva principal or through NCSY, and there was a combination of fear of retribution and an old-boys network of protecting one's own.
Clearly a number of rabbis, OU professionals and lay leaders sought to downplay Rabbi Lanner's behavior over the years because they believed he was indispensable to the organization and out of concern for its reputation, and their own. The longer this went on, the more difficult it was to act against him, no doubt.
Most disturbing to some of the men and women interviewed was that while his colleagues and others have gone to great lengths to apologize or make excuses for Rabbi Lanner's actions over the years, he himself has shown no sense of remorse or willingness to take responsibility, at least publicly.
Rabbi Stolper says he cannot think of anyone 'who has suffered as much' as Rabbi Lanner, but the alleged victims may well be asking, what about us?
Youth groups react to sex-abuse
report
By JULIE WIENER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency - July 6, 2000 Tammuz 3, 5760
http://www.cjnews.com/pastissues/00/july6-00/international/int2.htm
NEW YORK - A newspaper recently reported on allegations that a high-ranking Orthodox youth professional sexually molested and harassed scores of teenagers.
This was instrumental in the largest synagogue-sponsored chapter of National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY) seceding from the youth arm of the Orthodox Union (OU).
This was a powerful message to the national leadership about how the situation was handled over the years, and indicating the crisis is not over.
In a June 23 article, the New York Jewish Week quoted sources saying that, for almost three decades, the Orthodox Union had ignored complaints of Rabbi Baruch Lanner's misconduct as a professional with the OU's National Conference of Synagogue Youth.
Rabbi Glenn Black, regional director of NCSY in Toronto, said that he was "shocked by the allegations. I found out the same time as the rest of the world, and was very saddened.
"The bottom line is that we have to stay focused and try to develop protocol should any child have concerns. They are welcome to contact us, or Jewish Family and Child Services."
The day after the newspaper article appeared, the OU announced that Rabbi Lanner had resigned, but despite his resignation, congregants at Beth Aaron Congregation in New Jersey voted to immediately withhold all monies to be paid to the OU and to national and regional NCSY.
One congregant said members were deeply concerned over what they observed to be a lack of proper adult supervision in NCSY programs in other regions and chapters.
Rabbi Lanner was known as a charismatic, talented educator who drew many teens closer to Judaism.
A widespread complaint is that Rabbi Lanner has moulded and trained a number of rabbis and youth leaders who emulate his charismatic style and sometimes eccentric behaviour, encouraging advisers to do whatever is necessary to make youngsters more observant.
Rabbi Chaim Fraser, chair of the NCSY youth committee, said that Rabbi Lanner had been unwelcome at its NCSY programs for years, and that he had been unwelcome as well in up to half of the 12 regions in the country because of his behaviour and style.
He did, however, lead a group of students on the Birthright Israel trip last winter, and participated regularly in NCSY Shabbat retreats and Shabbatons across the United States.
For the first time, more than a dozen former NCSYers and others have come forward to publicly tell their stories.
Judy Klitsner, 42, of Jerusalem, said that when she was 16, and active in NCSY in Pennsylvania, Rabbi Lanner tried to caress and kiss her. "When I rebuffed him, he tried to strangle me· I was afraid to tell anyone because he had a volatile temper and I was afraid of reprisal."
When she later told Rabbi Lanner that she would inform his supervisor, he laughed and said his supervisor already knew of his behaviour. "It is immoral, that this coverup has gone on for decades," she said.
Klitsner, and several other critics of the rabbi said they were adamant about going on the record publicly, insisting they did not believe the OU would take action unless forced to do so by communal pressure.
They also spoke publicly, they said, because relieving Rabbi Lanner of his duties quietly allowed his record to be unblemished and he could, therefore, still work with youngsters.
An NCSY statement released last week, said that Mandell Ganchrow, president of OU was forming a commission of seven to 10 men and women from inside and outside OU who will review procedures monitoring personnel, and "immediately make changes as the study may indicate."
Lay and professional leaders of OU are split, with some insisting that only the resignation of top personnel will address what many say is a crisis of credibility.
Others believe, that the issue, no matter how painful it is now, will soon abate, and they are calling for limited actions.
Paper Seen as Villain in Abuse Accusations Against
Rabbi
By Felicity Barringer
New York Times Company - Jul 10, 2000
Most of a recent front page of The Jewish Week, the largest Jewish newspaper in the country, had a distinctly uplifting tone: ''Racing to Rescue the Sephardic Past.'' ''Catholic-Jewish Dialogue Reaches New Heights.'' ''The Jewish Family in 2000.''
All in all, it seemed to fit a newspaper whose subscribers are mostly regular contributors to the United Jewish Appeal philanthropy. But one headline in the June 23 issue was not like the others.
Under the words ''Stolen Innocence,'' the newspaper's editor and publisher, Gary Rosenblatt, wrote 4,000 words extensively documenting accusations that a ''brilliant, charismatic and dynamic'' rabbi in Paramus, N.J., had abused teenagers in his charge, emotionally, sexually and physically. The article also quoted his accusers' contentions that the rabbi, Baruch Lanner, had been shielded for decades by his superiors in the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, commonly known as the Orthodox Union, the most visible national organization in the Orthodox branch of Judaism.
Although Rabbi Lanner disputes many of the charges, either denying them or saying that he has no recollection of specific encounters dating back 20 or more years, his superiors announced, on the day the article appeared, that they had accepted Rabbi Lanner's resignation as director of regions of the National Conference of Synagogue Youth. The Orthodox Union, which operates the youth group, has since appointed an independent commission to investigate the assertions.
But for some of the 90,000 subscribers of The Jewish Week, most of whom live in or near New York City, the newspaper and its editors were the villains. One letter to the editor said, ''You are giving the families of teens from nonobservant homes the opportunity to completely remove their children from anything that has to do with Torah.''
Like reporters and editors at other publications devoted to religious groups or secular causes, observant Jewish journalists like Mr. Rosenblatt are dual citizens of sometimes conflicting worlds. They pledge allegiance to the imperatives of an aggressive press. They also believe in a mission -- in this case, celebrating Jewish life and abiding by Jewish law, one of whose tenets discourages ''lashon hara,'' or malicious gossip, even if the gossip is true.
''The first commandment of a journalist is to probe, uncover, explore,'' Mr. Rosenblatt said. ''The first commandment in the Jewish organizational world is pretty much the opposite: to present the united front. 'We are one.' That crystallizes the dilemma.''
Phil Jacobs, the editor of The Baltimore Jewish Times and a former protege of Mr. Rosenblatt, said: ''When I started working with Gary in 1982 we used to kid each other that there was an 11th commandment. No. 11 was Thou Shalt Not Air Thy Dirty Laundry. What we found then was that if you read the Jewish press, Jews were perfect people. They never got AIDS; they never did drugs; they never beat their wives.''
Gradually, however, Jewish newspapers became comfortable with uncomfortable information. ''I did a cover on these Orthodox teens -- how they were heavily into Ecstasy and all kinds of drugs,'' Mr. Jacobs said, recalling an article from last fall. ''I was told that if that story runs in The Baltimore Jewish Times, you will become persona non grata in the Orthodox community.'' After publication, he recalled: ''Some people canceled their subscriptions. Some people said it was sensationalist. It was lashon hara, they said.''
Mr. Jacobs's experience is not unusual. For The Detroit Jewish News, a recent flashpoint was a report on declining enrollment at a local religious day school. For The Jewish Journal, in Los Angeles, it was a mid-1990's report on the heavy staffing and overhead costs of a leading charity. For The Chicago Jewish News, there were accusations of money laundering at a kosher restaurant.
In 1996, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, a news service to which nearly 100 Jewish newspapers subscribe, ran a five-part series on sexual misconduct entitled ''When Rabbis Go Astray.''
''It ran during the High Holidays,'' Lisa Hostein, the editor of the news service, said last week. And she recalled the typical response: ''How could you, at this time, be writing about such a terrible thing?''
Such a sense of possession of the Jewish press perhaps reflects many of the newspapers' financial ties to Jewish philanthropy. Though Jewish papers in cities like Baltimore, Detroit and Atlanta are independently owned, others, including those in Los Angeles and New York, have direct ties to various regional federations of the United Jewish Appeal.
The Jewish Week charges its 30,000 direct subscribers $36 to $41 annually, depending on where they live; 60,000 more get subscriptions by giving $36 or more to the United Jewish Appeal. Still, Mr. Rosenblatt emphasizes the pledge of The Jewish Times that it is ''an independent community newspaper.''
His lean face creased with a worried frown, Mr. Rosenblatt sorted through sheaves of mail last week in his office in Times Square. Almost all dealt with the issues posed by the article about Rabbi Lanner.
Even the rabbi's detractors agree that his magnetic, eclectic intelligence drew teenagers to him, and sometimes to a closer sense of their Jewishness. Some accusers acknowledge his charisma but told Mr. Rosenblatt that the rabbi's actions had driven them from Judaism.
Mr. Rosenblatt did not succeed in persuading the rabbi to comment for the investigative article. Both Mr. Rosenblatt and Rabbi Lanner said last week that Mr. Rosenblatt called the rabbi about six days before the publication of the article and offered three dates for an interview. Rabbi Lanner, declining to be interviewed alone, said he sought to postpone the interview until a chosen witness could accompany him. Although Mr. Rosenblatt said he had explained there was a deadline, the rabbi said he had not known that by postponing the meeting he would lose his chance to comment before publication.
The article went to press quoting, by name, 10 people, most in their 30's and 40's. They said that, as teenagers, they had experienced either violence by the rabbi or sexually aggressive behavior by him.
In his interview with The New York Times, Rabbi Lanner went over each of the assertions, mostly from the 1970's and 80's. Asked about specifics of seven cases in which he was said to have propositioned or threatened young girls, including two who said he had struck them, he said: ''I have no recollection of that'' or ''I don't remember that.''
As for another incident referred to in the article, Rabbi Lanner did acknowledge that, as a high school principal, he had kneed a male student in the groin. But he said it was an inadvertent result of ''horseplay.''
The absence of action against Rabbi Lanner over the years by leaders of the Orthodox Union was perhaps the most inflammatory part of the Jewish Week article. ''What upsets me the most,'' Dr. Mel Isaacs of the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County said in a letter to the editor, ''is the lack of response by those in charge.''
Dr. Mandell Ganchrow, a retired surgeon who is president of the Orthodox Union, said last week that he could not discuss specifics until the newly appointed commission had finished its investigation.
The Jewish Week and New York's other two Jewish newspapers, The Forward and The Jewish Press, ''have a function and for the most part they perform well,'' Dr. Ganchrow said. ''Sometimes they sensationalize.'' But, he said, ''The author and editor -- they really have to weigh the harm versus the benefits.''
The Lanner article reported that as the publication date neared, Mr. Rosenblatt was approached by various community leaders arguing against printing it. Mr. Rosenblatt, who is an Orthodox Jew, said that before publishing he had consulted an expert in Jewish law to help decide if the piece would constitute lashon hara. He said he was told that sometimes the need to protect individuals can outweigh the prohibition on malicious gossip.
Though the response to the article has been largely supportive, he said, some high-profile figures have been openly critical.
Rabbi Basil Herring of the Jewish Center of Atlantic Beach, on Long Island, contends that the 100-year-old Orthodox Union -- which, aside from its other programs, officially certifies packaged and canned commercial foods as kosher -- could be damaged by the accusations, as could its active youth division.
In an interview last week, Rabbi Herring said he believed ''there are already voices being raised in synagogues to withhold support, to consider withdrawal'' from the Orthodox Union. ''I've even heard this go so far as to talk about their kosher standards,'' the rabbi added.
The proper course, Rabbi Herring suggested, would have been for Mr. Rosenblatt to present his reporting to Orthodox Union leaders and say that unless they removed Rabbi Lanner from work with young people, the article would be published. ''The fact that they did fire the man'' as the article was being printed ''indicates that they would have done so if the facts had been known beforehand,'' Rabbi Herring said.
Mr. Rosenblatt responded that the approach sounded like extortion, not journalism. ''It's part of our job to deal with real issues that are out there, even if others aren't willing to confront them,'' he said. ''We're urging the community to confront the real issues.''
The Jewish Week - Thursday, January 30, 2003 / 27 Shevat 5763
http://www.thejewishweek.com/top/editletcontent.php3?artid=411
Your story about Rabbi Lanner's alleged misdeeds in working with children ("Stolen Innocence," June 23) important and courageous. It is also discouraging. How many times will this story have to be told before those in positions of authority in Jewish institutions start to take responsibility for stopping religious leaders who violate ethical and legal boundaries and who hurt their followers?
In our reporting in Lilith magazine on decades of alleged sexual misconduct by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, the same pattern emerged as in the Lanner case: widespread rumors, accusations and a complete refusal on the part of communities around the world to protect youth and women against a charismatic leader. In the deluge of requests pleading with us not to print the story two years ago, callers reminded us of all the good Rabbi Carlebach did, as if somehow his stature would lessen the pain he was accused of causing. On the contrary, his greatness may have worsened the pain. Their power and charisma make it that much more difficult — and that much more important — to bring such allegations to light.
In all the worry about "malicious gossip" and the hand-wringing about not making trouble for the rabbi, defensive members of these religious communities are missing the real point: If the allegations against Rabbi Lanner are proven true, he is not only in violation of ethics, he is in violation of the law.
Susan Weidman Schneider, Editor in Chief
Sarah Blustain, Associate Editor - Lilith Magazine, New York, N.Y.
I went to high school in New Jersey, and while I was there, I was in NCSY, Etz Chaim region. I got to know Rabbi Lanner, not very well, but I observed a lot at Shabbatonim. Rabbi Lanner is a highly charismatic man, with a very forceful nature. He does have a wicked sense of humor, and it has endeared him to a lot of the kids. That doesn't make him abusive.
A joke that's taken too far is not the same as assault. There seem to be certain personalities that are simply easier to misrepresent. Rabbi Lanner is a funny and inspirational speaker. He can be crude — but not nearly as crude as the NCSYers themselves. He's someone the kids can relate to, and feel comfortable talking to.
As I read your article, all I could think of was that someone who has never met Rabbi Lanner would have a horrid perception of him. The man you described in your article is not the man I heard divrei Torah from on Shabbatonim, the man who could keep us in stitches for hours.
If you've ever seen guys talk to each other and rough each other up casually, you'd have an idea of how Rabbi Lanner interacts with kids. I can't picture what he and his family are going through right now. How can a Jewish newspaper publish an article like this and destroy a man's reputation? I know how many kids he's helped. Will we all lose out on Rabbi Lanner and what he has to give? Is it fair that we should?
Daniela Weiss
Gary Rosenblatt's stories on Rabbi Baruch Lanner bring to readers' attention a problem that needed to be aired. I am confident that these stories will make a difference far beyond the individuals and institutions directly involved. They will alert many in the American Jewish community that we must pay careful attention to how we are raising our children religiously and communally, and that we must question and speak out when we believe our teachers and other leaders are not serving us well.
Florence Eckstein, Editor and Publisher - Jewish News of Greater Phoenix, Phoenix, Ariz.
Students accuse New Jersey rabbi of abuse
over 20 years
By AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press Writer
The Detroit News - Friday, July 14, 2000
http://www.detnews.com/2000/religion/0007/15/07150004.htm
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- For 30 years, Rabbi Baruch Lanner was known in the Orthodox Jewish community as a charismatic, dynamic educator, a founding principal of a religious school in New Jersey.
Colleagues and students say Lanner would call parents to persuade them to let their children travel to Israel with him, board students at his Paramus home so they could attend yeshiva and inspire them to become better Jews. To some, he was a substitute father.
But in recent months, more than 25 former students have come forward to say that Lanner, a leader in the Orthodox Union's National Conference of Synagogue Youth, sexually, physically and verbally abused them for decades.
The students, now in their 30s and 40s, said Lanner kissed, fondled and hit teen-age girls and kneed some boys in the groin. His accusers also say he attacked a man with a knife.
Lanner, 50, has denied breaking the law and has never faced criminal charges.
But he resigned as director of regions for the New York-based youth group last month after The Jewish Week published many of the allegations. Two New Jersey prosecutors also have begun criminal investigations and the Orthodox Union has begun a probe to determine whether it was responsible for covering up complaints about its former employee.
Rabbi Yosef Blau, a Yeshiva University counselor and one of Lanner's strongest critics, said the rabbi was largely protected by the Orthodox Union, a venerable institution with a membership of nearly 1,000 synagogues that also puts the seal of approval on kosher food.
"I think that they were so enamored with his success and accomplishments that they didn't want to hear problems," Blau said.
"There was a code of loyalty here at the same time, and also he was very scary," said Naomi Freistat, a 41-year-old doctor who said Lanner kissed and fondled her a dozen times and punched her in the stomach when she was 15. "This was a man where you didn't know what was coming next."
Lanner, who recently separated from his wife, said he has violated Orthodox Jewish law by having physical relationships with former students -- none of them teen-agers -- but hasn't broken any other laws.
"I did many things I shouldn't have done, but none of them were illegal. None of them were perverted. None of them were threatening," said Lanner, who was cleared by a religious tribunal that investigated whether he attacked a man suffering from cancer with a knife in an argument over who the man should marry.
He denied the allegations of Freistat and others printed in The Jewish Week and said he couldn't recall others.
The author of The Jewish Week's article, editor and publisher Gary Rosenblatt, said he spoke to 15 to 18 people who complained about Lanner, and has received letters from a dozen more.
"Some of them didn't know there were any others," Rosenblatt said.
Prosecutors in Bergen and Monmouth counties are investigating allegations in the article. One woman said Lanner suggestively brushed up against her while she was a student at the Frisch School in Paramus.
Lanner has said the woman, Marcie Lenk, could have misinterpreted his actions. He said Lenk was living at his home at the time and never spoke to him about feeling uncomfortable.
"If you felt threatened, idiot, why did you come?" Lanner said. "Why did your parents let you come?"
Freistat, a podiatrist in New York, said she met Lanner when she traveled from Wilkes-Barre, Pa., to retreats in New Jersey. Freistat said Lanner persuaded her mother to let her go on his six-week trip to Israel in 1974.
Lanner asked Freistat to kiss him on the cheek the first week of the trip, and on the second week summoned her outside -- "it was always outside," she said -- and kissed and fondled her. She endured the contact a dozen times, she said, fearing she would be sent home.
She said she tried to pull away the last time he approached her in a Jerusalem courtyard near her hostel.
"He said 'Don't walk away from me,"' Freistat said. "He punched me in the stomach. All I remember is just looking up at him and saying 'You just punched the wrong girl."'
Freistat said she and another girl on the youth group spoke to two rabbis about Lanner's conduct, but that he went unpunished. After the article was published, the Orthodox Union set up a commission to find out "who knew what and when did they know it," said president Mandell I. Ganchrow.
Freistat called the Union "a boys' club," while other students said the organization let Lanner's conduct go unchecked because he made a lot of money for it.
Said Freistat: "He was smart enough to pick on little kids."
Journalistic Integrity - Jewish
journalists grapple with 'doing the write thing'
By Hadas Ragolsky
Jewish Bulletin of Northern California - (2000)
http://www.jewsweek.com/society/177.htm
Jewsweek.com | Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of the New York Jewish Week, consulted a high-profile rabbi before publishing his investigative report about Rabbi Baruch Lanner's abuse of teenagers last year. His concern was whether the publicity of it would be considered lashon harah, slander according to Hebrew law.
"Jews are like everyone else but more so," said Rosenblatt, quoting an old Jewish saying.
Do Jewish journalists have more obligations than others? Are they responsible first to their communities, and do they need to represent Israel in their newspapers?
These questions and others were raised by the 50 participants of "Do the Write Thing," a special program for student journalists sponsored by the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization at the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities in Washington.
"There are different kinds of Jewish journalists," said Rosenblatt. "Some advocate about cause. It's difficult to say I'm objective and to show two sides, and on the other hand to be passionate about the cause."
Rosenblatt said the "role is to be as objective as possible but also understand you are part of the community."
"The truth is our most powerful tool, and we must engage young people with facts before expecting them to take up the cause," he wrote in his weekly editorial.
Rosenblatt's readers are his community, but other speakers asked for the loyalty of Jewish writers in the regular media. "In order to come to a very wide public we need a medium, a mediator," said Ephraim Lapid, the Jewish Agency spokesperson. "It's the most effective way we have to bring information to many."
Lapid was convinced of the duty of young journalists. "We need presence in the media, either by interviews or by initiative covers or letters to the editor," he said.
"... I am Zionist, but it doesn't mean you can't be critical of what happens in Israel ..." -- Deborah Meyers
He urged the audience to use Israeli consulates and Jewish Agency for Israel representatives to help the Israeli hasbarah, or public relations.
Some young journalists didn't see any problem with Lapid's offers. "On campus there is already so much anti-Israeli sentiment that we have to be careful about any additional criticism against Israel," said Marita Gringaus, who used to write for Arizona State University's newspaper. "This is our responsibility as Jews, which obviously contradicts our responsibilities as journalists." Gringaus explained her position by saying that in the campus media, "groups are set against each other rather than as objective views."
Uzi Safanov, a writer at the Seawanhaka newspaper of Long Island University in New York, agreed. "I'm a Jew before being a journalist, before someone pays me to write," he said. "If I find a negative thing about Israel, I will not print it and I will sink into why did it happen and what can I do to change it." Safanov said that even if he eventually wrote about negative incidents that happen in Israel, he would try to find the way "to shift the blame."
Others among the participants felt uncomfortable with these suggestions. "I personally don't agree with him [Lapid]," said Daniel Treiman, editor of New Voices magazine. "There is a mixture here between journalism and propaganda. Journalists have to realize the importance of unbiased reporting, the fairness of portraying both sides. They are not supposed to be agencies."
Deborah Meyers, who used to work for the Jerusalem Report, agreed. "They reinforce that, as Jews in the media, you have responsibly to help Israel. This is not reporting; this is PR," she said. "I am Zionist, but it doesn't mean you can't be critical of what happens in Israel."
Still, Meyers feels a loyalty to Jewish values. "It doesn't matter if you are a journalist or in another profession," she said. "Our Jewish values influence every aspect of our lives. Nobody can be totally objective because we all come with our own perspective, our own biases, and that is going to come through in the writing."
Leni Reiss, the American Jewish Press Association liaison to the conference, said one can never be 100 percent objective, "but (as a Jew) you can bring your unique knowledge, your unique sensitivity to the job that you do, and it's not necessarily a bad thing."
"A journalist's duty is getting the story right and meeting the deadline," said Warren Bass, director of special projects/terrorism program and a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He formerly wrote for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and others.
"Try to be a journalist and not a propagandist," he said.
{ Hadas Ragolsky is a correspondent for the Jewish Bulletin of Northern California. }
As national OU officials react to abuse charges, local branch opens new center.
By Julie Gruenbaum Fax, Religion Editor
JEWISH JOURNAL of Greater Los Angeles - July 14, 2000 (11 Tammuz, 5760)
http://www.jewishjournal.com/archive/07.14.00/5760.07.14.00.html
It's been a month of extremes for the National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY) on the West Coast. As the Orthodox youth group basks in the joy of moving into its own building, it is also reeling from the shock of a scandal involving an East Coast regional director allegedly abusing teens.
Last month Gary Rosenblatt, editor and publisher of The New York Jewish Week, published an article exposing 25 years of possible sexual harassment, assault and emotional abuse by Rabbi Baruch Lanner, who immediately resigned from his position as director of regions for the NCSY, a division of the Orthodox Union (OU). The OU - the same organization that grants kosher certification to 20,000 food products - has set up a counseling hotline and an independent commission to investigate the OU's role in the Lanner situation.
According to Rosenblatt's article, in which alleged victims from the past three decades revealed their identity to expose Lanner, the OU was long aware of the accusations but did not remove him from the organization, and only after many years did they prevent him from working directly with teens. Even according to the alleged victims - many of whom became Jewish educators - Lanner was a dynamic and magnetic leader in the movement. For years he served as regional director in New Jersey, where he was also a yeshiva high school principal.
"Our goal is to restore the public's confidence in the Orthodox Union and NCSY, and to preserve and improve the programs that have benefited tens of thousands of young men and women involved in NCSY since its inception in 1959," said Dr. Mandell Ganchrow, national president of the OU.
Dr. Larry Eisenberg, president of the West Coast region of the OU, says the incident has dealt a blow to the faith and goodwill the community has toward the organization.
But, he says, the incident has already led regions around the country to compare notes on how they ensure the safety and well-being of the NCSYers.
"The organization is being upgraded and modernized, all of the systems and procedures and policies. NCSY is an institution that has been around for a long time, and sometimes you run a certain way based on how you've been doing it for decades," Eisenberg says. "When a problem comes up, you realize you have to set things up based on the realities of today."
For businesses as well as organizations, that means policies and training regarding harassment, he says. What has always been practiced as proper decorum and sensitivity now needs to be formalized. Rabbi Alan Kalinsky, West Coast director of the OU, says the region, with its joint professional and lay leadership, parent involvement, and ongoing staff training and oversight, is a safe and inspiring environment for the roughly 3,000 teens it serves from Vancouver to El Paso.
"I am very confident that the necessary safeguards are in place," he said. "My office is always open to the kids." Eisenberg cautions that despite the sense of betrayal, the community should withhold judgment until the commission issues its final report. According to The Jewish Week, NCSY's largest synagogue-affiliated chapter pulled out of the group last week, and the sponsoring synagogue, Congregation Beth Aaron in New Jersey, voted to withhold all fees paid to the OU.
Several OU-affiliated Los Angeles synagogues said their boards would discuss the incident, but none expected any actions would be taken. "I think the process should be given a chance to run its course before we disconnect from an organization that has done a lot of good," said Marc Rohatiner, president of Beth Jacob Congregation in Beverly Hills, where he said a handful of people have brought up the notion of withholding fees form the OU.
Eva Yelloz of North Hollywood, whose three older children were enriched by their involvement as teens and later as advisors with NCSY, says her trust in the group has been shaken, but she will not keep her youngest son, 14, from getting involved if he wants to.
"I believe it was one person like this, and the administration who let it go on surely has learned its lesson," says Yelloz. "After this has come out, they will clean up their act in every way possible and do their utmost to keep a clean record and do better than their best."
Kalinsky says none of the kids withdrew from local summer programs, including a boys' camp for 60 kids. In fact, according to Sharyn Perlman, director of public relations for OU, not one of the approximately 1,000 teenagers signed up for NCSY's Israel trips or local summer programs pulled out.
NCSY, working with volunteers from Nefesh, the association of Orthodox mental health professionals, has set up a toll-free hotline (877-905-9576) for present and former NCSYers to call for counseling on religious or psychological issues.
The investigative commission is headed by Richard Joel, international director of Hillel, the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, and includes professor of psychiatry Rabbi Abraham Twerski, several lawyers, business people and philanthro-pists, and the former consumer affairs commissioner of New York City. "The Commission will explore past actions of Orthodox Union employees and lay leaders to determine what remedial action should be taken and will formulate new guidelines for our personnel to ensure that these circumstances will never be repeated," Ganchrow said.
Gary Rosenblatt's article, "Stolen Innocence," (New York Jewish Week, June 23) is available at www.thejewishweek.com. The OU's comments are at www.ou.org. Any information for the commission can be sent to inquiryncsy@yahoo.com
Statement of New Jersey Orthodox
Synagogues Youth Chairs and Concerned Parents
July 18, 2000
We, chairpersons of youth committees of New Jersey Orthodox synagogues and concerned parents, have assembled at Congregation Israel in Springfield, New Jersey, on Tuesday July 18, 2000. Our purpose is to recommend a course of action following reports of abuse and other improprieties by Rabbi Baruch Lanner. Lanner, a former Regional Director of the Etz Chaim New Jersey region of the National Council of Synagogue Youth and thereafter an administrator of National NCSY, has been reported to have victimized a large but unknown number of children from our communities over the span of more than twenty years.
While the reports of the incidents themselves are horrifying to any parent, what is even more frightening to us is that apparently the Orthodox Union and NCSY exposed our children to Lanner despite their prior knowledge of Lanner's behavior. Specifically, despite reports of his misbehavior, Lanner was allowed to remain as Regional Director in New Jersey until 1988. Even after the finding of a Beit Din that he should not be exposed to children, the OU and NCSY continued to invite him to events and allow him to run its programs at both Regional and National levels.
We all appreciate the work done by NCSY in our communities and for our children. But based on the OU's and NCSY's lack of action during the last twenty-plus years it is also evident to us that the administration and system failed to adequately safeguard children placed in NCSY's care and failed to provide an appropriate forum in which complaints regarding abuse can be aired and addressed. It is our obligation to protect the safety and welfare of our children. In order for this to happen within the context of NCSY, we feel that at a minimum the steps outlined below should be implemented as soon as possible:
1. Standards must be put in place and published governing:
a. Permitted and restricted interactions between staff and NCSYers, including adequate, mandatory annual staff training therein
b. Required staff and lay adult supervision of NCSY programs
c. Encouragement of child development in the context of respect for parents, and prohibiting NCSY staff actions when they promote disrespect
2. Procedures must be established and published to handle:
a. NCSYer complaints against staff
b. Discipline of offending NCSYers and staff
3. Parental oversight of NCSY is needed on issues regarding child safety. A parental review board should be established to govern the handling of NCSYer complaints and disciplining of offenders. Its members should be appointed by and responsible to the chairpersons of the local synagogue youth committees.
4. The Special Commission appointed by the OU must provide the community and youth leaders with a full accounting – including the assignment of direct responsibility and effectuation of appropriate punishment for those who knowingly failed to take action or use reasonable care to prevent harm from coming to the children hurt in the Lanner affair. The OU and NCSY must then take the appropriate actions recommended by the Commission. The lay leadership and youth chairpersons will convene to review the Commission findings and decide on further action.
We believe that our children's safety will be improved if these steps are taken, and we therefore expect no less from NCSY or from any organization entrusted with the safety of our children.
Rabbis accused of coverup in
sex case
By MITCHEL MADDUX
Bergen Record - Wednesday, July 19, 2000
After interviewing a half-dozen teenage boys in 1989 who said they had been physically abused by a local rabbi, weekly newspaper editor Susan Rosenbluth said she contacted members of the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County, expecting that the Orthodox organization would intervene.
But instead of showing concern about the alleged misdeeds of Rabbi Baruch Lanner, Rosenbluth claimed, three of the council members tried to protect him.
"One called me and said, 'If this gets into print, we will see to it that no stores under the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County can advertise in your newspaper,' " Rosenbluth charged in an interview.
"It was made clear to me by the rabbis who spoke to me that this was an RCBC decision," she said, declining to name the rabbis. "I said, 'You're kidding me. Is this real?' "
A spokesman for the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County vehemently rejected Rosenbluth's charges Tuesday. "We categorically deny that the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County made such threats to Ms. Rosenbluth. We simply do not operate in this fashion," said Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, a council member and rabbi of the Congregation Ahavath Torah in Englewood.
Over the last month, some of Lanner's former students have accused leaders of the 1,000-synagogue Orthodox Union, the largest Orthodox organization in the nation, of ignoring allegations that he had fondled and kissed a number of teenage girls and had kneed boys in the groin in the 1970s and 1980s. The Orthodox Union, where Lanner was an officer of its educational youth arm, has empaneled a tribunal to investigate the charges.
Rosenbluth's claims, however, represent the first accusations that local religious leaders engaged in an active cover-up.
Goldin declined to comment Tuesday on whether council members had spoken directly with Rosenbluth about Lanner. Rosenbluth ultimately did not publish any article about the accusations against Lanner in 1989.
"There were discussions at the time with various people concerning one specific allegation, and the matter was referred in responsible fashion to the Bet Din," Goldin said, referring to a Yeshiva University investigative tribunal that heard a dispute involving Lanner in 1989.
Meanwhile, Jewish leaders from throughout the state met behind closed doors in Springfield on Tuesday night to express their concern.
More than 10 people have accused Lanner in published reports of inappropriate behavior, including alleged incidents of fondling, making sexual remarks to teenage girls, and kneeing some boys. Most of the allegations involve Lanner's tenure as an officer of the National Council of Synagogue Youth, a respected Orthodox Union educational group.
In addition, prosecutors in Monmouth County are investigating a new complaint that Lanner behaved inappropriately with a female student when he was principal at the Hillel School in Ocean Township. Prosecutors in Bergen County have said they will review the allegations against Lanner with an eye toward a possible criminal investigation. Lanner also taught at The Frisch School in Paramus, and one former student there has told The Record that the rabbi improperly rubbed up against her on several occasions.
Lanner, who is currently living in Fair Lawn but is not working as a rabbi, has denied mistreating the teenagers, although he said he may have made inappropriate jokes when he was much younger.
"I've made plenty of errors and poor judgment in my early years, when I was in my 20s," Lanner, who is now 50, said in an interview last week. "In my younger years, I must have permitted some errors of judgment, and I must have somehow hurt people. But I never hurt anybody intentionally. And I did not fondle anyone, even before I was a rabbi."
Rosenbluth began writing and publishing The Jewish Voice and Opinion, a small weekly newspaper, in 1986 in the Englewood home she shares with her husband, Richard, who is the chief of oncology at Hackensack University Medical Center. She called herself a watchdog who occasionally clashed on issues with some members of the Bergen County Rabbinical Council.
But in 1989, she said, the issue went beyond ideological differences.
"Kids were being hurt," said Rosenbluth, 53. "There was inappropriate stuff going on, and it should have been stopped by the rabbis in charge."
"It was clear that they were not going to allow this story to come out. I think they shortchanged their congregations, and I think they shortchanged our children."
In addition to offering educational programs, the Rabbinical Council -- on which all of the county's Orthodox pulpit rabbis sit -- is responsible for certifying products in Bergen County as kosher.
Because Rosenbluth's 15,000-circulation newspaper receives roughly 90 percent of its operating revenue from advertising by Bergen County firms selling kosher products, Rosenbluth said she took the alleged thre