The Kesher Israel modern Orthodox community in Georgetown has been part of my life for several decades. During my ten years as the Guardian's correspondent and then bureau chief in Washington, I was a member and frequent presence along with my young family.
In the subsequent couple of decades, my work has taken me to America's capital on a regular basis, and I have made a point of dropping in on the shul and renewing connections with old friends.
One of the best reasons for going has been the minister, Rabbi Barry Freundel. A slightly ungainly and socially awkward figure, he is not one of those rabbis who rushes up to you, shakes hands and makes warm inquiries about the family.
But his sermons are something else. He can take the most unprepossessing weekly sidrah, such as Metzora, dealing with leprosy, and draw a profound narrative from it. There were sermons worth the wait, with significant intellectual content and were never too long, even when they were lengthy.
So imagine my disquiet when a friend from the community sent me an email with a disturbing link to the Washington Post. The Georgetown rabbi, the paper informed us, had been arrested on allegations of "voyeurism". If it was shocking to me here in London, a long way from a community for which I hold such respect and affection, how much worse it must have been for the Kesherites.
His shul hosted a plethora of great rabbis
The Georgetown community, nestled among the elegant and tree-lined red brick streets of the capital's most expensive in-town neighbourhood, boasts an extraordinary diverse membership.
Aside from members of Congress, the great Jewish-American writer Herman Wouk and Leon Wieseltier of the New Republic were members. Wieseltier rediscovered his Judaism at Kesher and wrote a memorable book about the experience. Among the many rabbinical scholars who have been Shabbat guests at Kesher are the late, great Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, regarded as the founder of modern orthodoxy in the US, and our own former chief rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks.
There is no shortage of material about the rabbi's alleged offences. It is in the nature of US justice that witness statements, police documents and the like are made available to the courts at an early stage and available for scrutiny by the media and the public.
Converts have raised questions as to whether the allegations made against the rabbi could lead to the validity of the conversions being challenged. The events have also been a gift to the enemies of Judaism who have been quick to vent antisemitic sentiments, almost relishing in the "celebratory" status of some of Kesher's members.
A previous incumbent, the beloved Rabbi Philip Rabinovitz, was brutally murdered on his way to shul in 1984. It was a tragic moment but the community mourned, healed and grew again.
