New York – Former Students Hit Yeshiva U With $380M Lawsuit Over Cover-Up In Sex Abuse Scandal

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    FILENew York – A $380M lawsuit has been filed against Yeshiva University by nineteen former high school students who claim teachers and administrators actively engaged in a “massive cover-up” of physical and sexual abuse of students during the 1970s and 1980s at a Manhattan high school run by the university.

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    The JEWISH DAILY FORWARD (http://bit.ly/15rNpc2) reports that suit centers around Y.U.’s handling of repeated reports of sexual abuse by former administrator, Rabbi George Finkelstein, and Talmud teacher, Rabbi Macy Gordon.

    According to Kevin Mulhearn, the attorney representing the nineteen former students, the first hurdle the suit has to conquer will be circumventing the current New York statute of limitations which states that both criminal and civil lawsuits involving the sexual abuse of a child must be filed before the victim’s 23rd birthday.

    But Mulhearn, who has been successful in circumventing the statute once before, said he plans to argue that the statute of limitations is “not applicable” in this case due to the fact that Yeshiva University “fraudulently covered-up” the abuse.

    Mulhearn said that because of the cover-up, there was “no way” victims could have been aware that other victims even existed, or, that Y.U. was actively engaged in a cover-up.

    Court papers say that victimization has resulted in years of physical and mental turbulence for many of the Mulhearn’s clients, with many of them suffering from depression, substance abuse, failed marriages, the inability to sustain employment, and in a few cases, attempted suicide.

    The lawsuit, which was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in White Plains, is extremely thorough in naming former administrators, trustees, directors and faculty members as defendants, including former Y.U. president Rabbi Robert Lamm (who retired last week), and former vice-president of Y.U.’s theological seminary Rabbi Robert Hirt.


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    52 Comments
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    wsbrgh
    wsbrgh
    10 years ago

    Y.U. accepted “openly toeva” students to qualify for federal money. They even had a complete dorm section for them. Between the 100’s of $ millions they lost to Madoff and this lawsuit- I guess it wasn’t such a profitable bargain.

    Reb Yid
    Reb Yid
    10 years ago

    I guess they didn’t learn the issur of arkaos.

    qazxc
    qazxc
    10 years ago

    Too bad no one has done the same to YTT.

    Yet.

    ShalomCon
    ShalomCon
    10 years ago

    Without commenting on the merits of these cases, I’ll say this:
    An inconvenient truth is that a high proportion of male sexual abuse victims become abusers themselves.
    By not investigating allegations quickly and impartially, the community (regardless of race or religion) perpetuates the cycle of abuse. All too often the alleged victim is punished for besmirching the name of a respected authority figure, only to learn years later (as in some of these cases) that others shared the same shame and humiliation in addition to the similar patterns of abuse.

    10 years ago

    $380million, sounds like a frivilous lawsuit now!

    BubbyB
    BubbyB
    10 years ago

    Rachmana Letzlan, this is a whammy of a Chilul Hashem. And we can anticipate it getting better, with the chassidish, yeshivish, Old World Orthodox playing this up big and finger pointing. And then I’m sure plenty of their own dirty laundry will be dragged out of the hampers and hung.

    10 years ago

    If this lawsuit is successful, it would likely bankrupt YU and mean that thousands of future bnai torah would be denied a yeshiva education and the greatest center of torah learning in the western hemisphere nd perhaps the entire world would cease to exist. That would be a real churban compared to the whining we hear from EY about a few thousand talmidim having to take a year or two off from their studies to serve in the IDF. At least when they return from military service, they will have a yeshiva to return to.

    charocza
    charocza
    10 years ago

    All this shows is that they are interested only in the money don’t care about the abuse

    TzviB
    TzviB
    10 years ago

    All other things aside, it’s the right thing to do. Let everyone learn from this and take immediate strong action against this sort of thing.

    higherpower
    higherpower
    10 years ago

    Why are they going to the authorities again?? It is total Meseira and vorbidden according to the Torah. They should resolve this in a Bais Din. No wonder the world is suffering. All these tznius issues should be kept quiet and be resolved with accepted Rabbaim or Gedolim.

    DavidCohen
    DavidCohen
    10 years ago

    This has been a long time coming, and there will be many more. Sadly, we’re following the Catholic Church model. First pretend to deal with the problem internally, which usually means hushing things up and moving the abuser to another location so that it becomes someone else’s problem. Then deny and cast doubt on the victims. And finally, when none of that works, try to stonewall and refuse to deal with the authorities. Sounds familiar, huh? Well, the Catholic Church was finally forced to acknowledge and address the issue only after repeated public embarrassment and losing lots of expensive lawsuits. And we’re going down the exact same path. Yes, there are going to be lots of lawsuits, some institutions will be financially destroyed, and some institutions heads and community leaders are going to face prosecution. And after that things will start to get better. It didn’t have to happen this way, but we refused to learn from other’s mistakes, so we get to suffer the same consequences.

    mewhoze
    mewhoze
    10 years ago

    and as we all can see the fighting amongst our own yidden is the saddest part of all.
    perhaps if we could learn to stik togetehr like other groups do (Latinos, African Americans, Asians) we would be better all around.
    Think about it…perhaps over Tisha Ba’v

    radrad
    radrad
    10 years ago

    Tisha Bav- What are we missing? Why was it destroyed?

    I am no YU lover; but people shoudl be a little more tame – unless you want Tisha Bav this year and next year……

    syag lchochma….

    yidineh
    yidineh
    10 years ago

    oy v’voy! what is happening to our world of torah? to the ignorant person who presented “statistics” about YU, I can only say oll tismach binfol oivechah. We so-called chareidim are as much responsible for the moshiach tarrying as anyone else. if YU students or students of any torah institution were abused in any way, we all need to look at ourselves because, one way or another, we are all responsible.

    favish
    favish
    10 years ago

    you still didnt refute me. the only thing you can come up with is ‘hatred’ ‘illiterate’ ‘shtetel yid’ (other postings)etc etc . I see I really hit a nerve. like ah mentioned in other posts thats as far as your intelligence con come up with

    qazxc
    qazxc
    10 years ago

    Nebach if you are an example of what is coming out of our yeshivos today.

    You’ve never seen YU but you sit and make accusations in what apparently passes for English in your.neighborhood.