United Synagogue President Michael Goldstein has defended how it handled the sudden departure of Dayan Yonason Abraham last month from the London Beth Din and rejected calls to provide more details.
Dayan Abraham left his post at the Court of the Chief Rabbi and his synagogue in Hendon after evidence emerged of what was considered an inappropriate association with a married woman.
Although the US gave no reason for his exit, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis referred to it as a “shameful episode”.
Mr Goldstein, in a pre-Pesach letter to rabbis and rebbetzins, said much of the speculation about the incident had been “deeply inappropriate. Together with the Chief Rabbi, Dayan Gelley [head of the Beth Din] and my fellow trustees, we ensured that the matter was dealt with swiftly.”
In his letter - posted by the IfYouTickleUs blog - he said very few of the requests to reveal more details had been “l’shem shamayim” “for the sake of Heaven".
“But the loudest calls have been mendacious and insincere, belying an insatiable need for juicy gossip and lashon hara [speaking badly of people] rather than a genuine desire to help,” he said.
“There are innocent family members who have been directly affected and whose lives have been devastated by the situation. As a community, we have a responsibility to look after them, to respect their privacy and to offer appropriate support.”
He also said he had been shaken by a JC article by Daniel Greenberg, which accused the religious establishment of having tried to hush up the incident as quickly as possible.
Mr Greenberg, a barrister and an author of a book on Orthodox conversion, said there was no professional body “that regulates the rabbis in a transparent and accountable way and investigates complaints”.
He also argued that a lack of accountability encouraged a culture of “mediocrity” within the rabbinate.
But Mr Goldstein said it was “extraordinary and hugely irresponsible for anyone without any first-hand knowledge of the situation to profess an opinion of what details of a highly sensitive situation should be made public.”
The US president wrote that it had “robust policies and procedures, a transparent complaints process and a whistleblowing policy”.
Plans were now being prepared “to roll out rabbinic supervision as a key support mechanism across the rabbinate”.
He said he had was more angry about Mr Greenberg’s “unwarranted attack” on the rabbis. They and their rebbetzins were the US’s “greatest asset”, Mr Goldstein said.
No number of policies could “fully protect any organisation,” he said. “We need to provide chizuk [encouragement] to each other. As president of the United Synagogue, I am fortunate to see the very best of the rabbinate.”
