(JTA) — Rabbi Barry Freundel, the longtime spiritual leader at Kesher Israel in Washington, D.C., was arrested and charged with voyeurism after the synagogue board alerted the authorities.
Freundel, 62, was taken away Tuesday in handcuffs after uniformed officers and plainclothes detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department searched his home in the Georgetown section of Washington, Washingtonian magazine reported.
Reportedly the rabbi is accused of surreptitiously filming women showering in the synagogue’s mikveh. However, the police declined to confirm this detail.
A statement from the board of directors emailed to congregants said it had suspended Freundel without pay.
“Upon receiving information regarding potentially inappropriate activity, the Board of Directors quickly alerted the appropriate officials,” said the statement. “Throughout the investigation, we cooperated fully with law enforcement and will continue to do so.”
The D.C. police declined to provide further details beyond the charge. “We had an arrest of a Bernard Freundel, a 62 year old male who was arrested for voyeurism,” a police spokesman said.
Freundel, who is in police custody, is expected to have an initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday.
Freundel has led Kesher Israel, a modern Orthodox synagogue, for more than two decades. The congregation’s members include Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and former Sen. Joseph Lieberman.
The rabbi also serves on the executive council of centrist Orthodoxy’s Rabbinical Council of America.
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