Kesher Israel hires a successor to Rabbi Barry Freundel, who was arrested two and a half years ago for secretly videotaping women in the mikvah ritual bath of the Washington, DC, synagogue, and is now in prison.
Rabbi Hyim Shafner, a congregational rabbi in St. Louis since 2004, will serve as the senior rabbi of the modern Orthodox congregation in the Georgetown section of the nation’s capital. Rabbi Avidan Milevsky has been serving on an interim basis since July 2015.
In a letter to the congregation, Kesher Israel President Elanit Jakabovics describes Shafner as “humble, genuine, spiritual, and healing,” as well as “sensitive to the needs of his community and thoughtful in his approach.”
Freundel, 64, was arrested in October 2014, and began serving a 6 1/2-year sentence in May 2015 after pleading guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism.
— JTA
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