Rabbi Freundel Voyeurism Class Action

Case name: Jane Doe 2, et al. v. The Georgetown Synagogue – Kesher Israel Congregation, et al.

Case type: Sexual Violence, Title IX, and Victims’ Rights
Filed in: [Superior Court of the District of Columbia]
Docket: [Case no. 2014-CA-008073-B]

Case Summary

In October 2018, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia granted final approval of a $14.25 million class action settlement arising from Rabbi Bernard Freundel’s secret videotaping of females without their consent at the National Capital Mikvah facility in Washington, DC.

Freundel pleaded guilty in 2015 to 52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism and was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.

In addition to Freundel, the Class Action Complaint named as Defendants those religious institutions that enlisted his services: the Georgetown Synagogue – Kesher Israel Congregation, the National Capital Mikvah, Inc., the Rabbinical Council of America, and the Beth Din of America.

According to the Complaint, Freundel, a prominent Modern Orthodox rabbi, surreptitiously videotaped some 150 congregants, conversion students, and other users of a Jewish ritual bath, called a mikvah, for nearly a decade.

The settlement covered a class of females who were videotaped by Freundel or who otherwise used the National Capital Mikvah between July 1, 2005 and October 14, 2014.

Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight served as lead counsel for the Plaintiffs, with Chaikan, Sherman, Cammarata and Siegel.