New York – Within days of the announcement of a $380M lawsuit filed against Yeshiva University by 19 former high school students claiming a prolonged and massive cover-up of physical and sexual abuse by school officials, a lawyer representing six additional ex-students says his clients are prepared to file suit if current attempts to reach an out-of-court settlement continue to stall.
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The JEWISH DAILY FORWARD (http://bit.ly/12GlBMK) reports that Attorney Mike Reck, from the New York office of sexual-abuse specialists Jeff Anderson and Associates out of Minnesota, said that, while some of his clients were abused by Rabbi George Finkelstein when he was principal of Y.U.’s boys high school in Manhattan between 1969 and the early 1980s, he has a female client who claims she was molested by Finkelstein in the 1990s, when he was dean of the Samuel Scheck Hillel Community Day School in North Miami Beach, Florida.
Reck said his client contends her molestation was the result of a failure on behalf of Y.U. officials to warn school officials in Florida that Finkelstein was a predatory threat to children.
VIN (http://bit.ly/12GoDR5) reported on Monday the details of the $380M suit against Y.U.
Tuff luck, I didn’t learn in YU, if I would, I could of come out (true or not) and be part of the law suit.
Anyone making such allegations when he is about to make money out of it, has no right to be believed.
Oyb m’shmekt di gelt, shtinkt fin sheker!
Looks like Norma Lamb resigned just in the nick of time. (coincidence?)
Finkelstein may be way wacky, and definitely inappropriate, but he’s not a serial molester. As for the “victims” coming forward, this isn’t about payback … it’s about payday. Nothing but a good old-fashioned shakedown.
the good news is that its the 9 days… so this stuff fits.
the trick is to read about all this, with all the feelings on all sides of the issue, and still maintain ahavas chinam
Last January Rabbi Lamm acknowledged his miss handling of the abuse issue.
There is no question about if abusive events have occurred. They did.
I take no joy being involved in litigating against YU.
I suggest you read the initial court filing and see the type of issues the people are dealing with now after having been abused.
As one of the plaintiffs I feel no ill will towards Rabbi Lamm or Yeshiva University.
I am not angry at anyone for things that occurred more than thirty years ago.
Not even with the abusers. If the actual abuser could be jailed I would have no problem with that.
The statute of limitations has passed so that won’t happen in NY.
Both law firms are using a relatively new, unique approach to go after YU.
This approach is needed because of statute of limitation issues
Many states have changed their laws concerning suing abusers.
The problem with abuse is that frequently people repress the memories for decades.Then they remember,but it is too late legally to do anything about it.
In NY there are people who are trying to change the law. The politicians who are blocking the needed changes are linked to the Catholic Church and Charedei institutions
So the modern orthodox centrist world praises Rabbi Norman Lamm for everything he has done for the Jewish World, notwithstanding his covering up of the now-known and growing sex scandal. But Rabbi Lipa Margulies is BLASTED by the modern orthodox centrist world for covering up a similar sex scandal. And look what happened to Joe Paterno, whose name was synonymous with Penn State and now has been stripped of all vestiges in their lore…..
Weighing in on a controversial issue opens cans of worms every time, but here goes. I am with victims. They should be compensated in some way for the “emotional death” which was inflicted on them. I also vote against any form of statutes of limitations. One should have the ability to file criminal charges or civil suit until the end of time. The trouble is that this is difficult when much time has passed, finding witnesses, evidence, etc. And I don’t have trouble believing a victim decades later, though there is often basis to challenge the accuracy of memories beyond certain time limits. Let courts decide. I feel that laws should not stop this. As far as the civil suits, I am all for tort reform. The astronomical dollar figures are bizarre. A million more or a million less will not have any impact on the victim’s life, other than having an opportunity to become wealthy. It will bankrupt an organization, school, yeshiva, university, or whatever. And lawsuits these days have gotten very crazy in awarding money (which doesn’t come from the judge or jury). There must be a way to do something without the utter insanity of today’s civil courts.
#15 correction – you can’t know for sure, everyone else knows. Stop smoking weed.
Meanwhile, YU vice provost Lawrence Schiffman has emerged as the leading candidate for the vacant chancellorship: votelawrenceschiffman dot wordpress