“Because the Talmud Told Me To”: Former Students File $380 Million Sex Abuse Lawsuit Against Yeshiva University

Lawsuit, filed by 19 former students, alleges the school covered up allegations of sexual misconduct by staff members.

JTA
Haaretz
July 9, 2013

Yeshiva University's David H. Zysman hall.  Wikimedia Commons.
Yeshiva University’s David H. Zysman hall. Wikimedia Commons.

A $380 million lawsuit was filed against Yeshiva University by former students who allege the school covered up allegations of sexual misconduct by staff members.

The lawsuit, which was filed Monday in White Plains, N.Y., alleges a “massive cover-up of the sexual abuse of [high school] students … facilitated, for several decades, by various prominent Y.U. and [high school] administrators, trustees, directors, and other faculty members,” the Forward reported.

The Forward first published details of the claims against two former Yeshiva University staff members late last year. Rabbis George Finkelstein and Macy Gordon were accused of inappropriate contact with several students at the Yeshiva University High School for Boys in Manhattan.

Finkelstein left the high school in 1995 and took a post at a Jewish school in Florida before moving to Israel. Gordon also lives in Israel and until recently was a teacher at the Orthodox Union’s Israel Center. Both men deny the charges.

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