The Hope for Rehabilitating Gafni/Winiarz
You had to know that he would end up trying to pull some kind of therapy-makes-me-better schtick, and Jewschool’s got the details on what appears to be the route he’ll take to that.
My perspective on this is still pretty well encapsulated by the staff editorial I wrote for the Yeshiva University Commentator more than four years ago, in response to this story.
The thing is, virtually all of Gafni’s defenders based their recent defense on the notion that even if he’d committed the abuses alleged against him a while ago, he could reasonably be said to have healed, should be allowed to repent, and so forth. Obviously, that proved to be a crock this first time around, but according to his defenders’ reasoning, there’s no cause for them to bar him from continuing to serve as clergy if he gets a good bill of rehabilitation.
And that’s a plainly-wrong atittude; clergy are in place not by grace of God, but by opportunity granted by the community. It is not their right to be clergy, but their privilege. And when they so severely break the trust granted them, they can never be accorded that privilege again.
In this vein, it’s worth noting that Gafni’s defenders, who included some of the most liberal Jewish thinkers alive, when pushed were still defending Gafni in the exact same ways that their more-conservative counterparts defended men like Baruch Lanner: it’s his parnassah, his living, they’d say, and that can’t be taken away; he’s a brilliant educator, and it’s hard to replace someone like that.
This is a chimerical approach that indicates an attitude of rabbinic privilege, a notion echoing throughout the rabbinate that they deserve to be there more than congregants deserve to be assured of their safety. It’s lame, and it just goes to show you that when their world is threatened, you can reasonably expect most people in power to act the same way.
May 18th, 2006 at 10:09 am
100%.
I would add that just as those who protected Lanner for decades at the OU/NCSY left their positions, so must those who protected Gafni in Jewish Renewal.
I would note that they are quick to run and speak with the press and portay themselves as heroes, yet they have done NOTHING to address and contact the survivors and their supporters that they have wronged. In others words no apologies no real mea culpe.
Also it broke in Israel.
see: ...
May 18th, 2006 at 10:38 am
“It is not their right to be clergy, but their privilege. And when they so severely break the trust granted them, they can never be accorded that privilege again.”
I was saying the same exact thing about r. willig from YU over on a different blog.
May 18th, 2006 at 10:41 am
Did you see Gafni’s ad in the Forward?
May 18th, 2006 at 10:46 am
Nachum - No…?
May 18th, 2006 at 10:49 am
I received this document from Luke Ford who confirmed that it was authentic. This is a letter that Gafni and others in Jewish Renewal widely circulated.
Damn them all.
To The Jewish Community worldwide:
In this letter we the undersigned ask the Jewish community worldwide to reaffirm its commitment to the Torah, and to the ethical principles of Judaism. Although the specific focus of our discussion is Rabbi Mordechai Gafni, whom have known collectively for many years, the issues we address are universal and timeless.
A group of several people – none of whom know Rabbi Gafni personally in any real way, and none who has had any contact in the past twenty years – have undertaken a systematic campaign to besmirch his name. Their primary method has been to keep alive and distort two very old and long discredited stories. Their attacks have recently increased in volume and intensity. He has consistently and generously offered to meet with them, but they have refused.
Many people who know Rabbi Gafni well, as all the undersigned do, have individually and collectively examined the accusations about him that this group has been spreading. We have found their rumors and accusations to be either wholly without substance or radically distorted to the point of falsification. We conclude that the false and malicious rumors against Gafni constitute lashon hara – and that the dissemination of such lies is prohibited by the Torah and Jewish ethical principles.
Thus we must address and to make right the wrong that has been attempted in regard to Rabbi Gafni, and affirm our support of him as an important teacher and leader in the Jewish community.
We have worked with Rabbi Gafni in many contexts, ranging from colleague to employer. We have published his works in our collections, co-taught with him, and known him in a host of other close relationships. Over the years, we have also extensively discussed with him the different stages of his life and the decisions he has made in relationships, professional choices and more.
We affirm without reservation that in addition to being a person of enormous gifts, depth, and vision, Rabbi Gafni is also a person of real integrity. He possesses a unique combination of courage and audacity coupled with a genuine humility that comes only from having lived life fully – with all of its complexity, beauty and sometimes pain.
Leaders of his caliber and depth who are committed to ongoing personal development are few and far between. From our dual commitment to him as an individual, as well as to the most profound ethical teachings of the Torah, we urge you as the reader of this letter to reject the false reports about Rabbi Gafni, and to give him your full support, as we all have done and continue to do.
If you have further questions, please feel free to contact any one of us directly.
Sincerely,
Metuka Benjamin, Director of Education, Stephen S. Wise Temple
Rabbi Phyllis Berman, Former Director Elat Chayyim summer program
Rabbi Saul Berman, Director, Edah
Zivit Davidovich, Executive Producer, Israel Channel 2 Television
Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, Congregation Nevei Kodesh
Rabbi Shefa Gold. Director C-Deep, composer and teacher
Rabbi Arthur Green, Dean, Hebrew College Rabbinical School
Rabbi Eli Herscher, Stephen S. Wise Synagogue
Arthur Kurzweil, former Director, Elat Chayyim, Jewish Book Club,
Avraham Leader, Leader Minyan, Bayit Chadash
Stephen Marmer, M.D., Psychiatrist, UCLA Medical School
Jacob Ner-David, Board Chair, Bayit Chadash
Peter Pitzele, Ph.D., Bibliodrama Institute
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Rabbinic Chair, Aleph
Don Seeman, Ph.D. Emory University
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, author, Jewish Literacy and Jewish Wisdom
Rabbi David Zaslow, Havurah Shir Hadash
Noam Zion, Hartman Institute
May 18th, 2006 at 10:54 am
>Did you see Gafni’s ad in the Forward?
Was that for one of the several programs he had scheduled in NY?
May 18th, 2006 at 12:31 pm
Steve, thank you for your posting.
May 18th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
Sort of like the slack given to Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden, and for similar reasons.
Judaism, on the other hand, makes greater and not lesser demands on superstars.
At any rate, we now know more about the signatories.
May 18th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
He took out an ad in today’s Forward in which he spoke about how sick he is, how he needs treatment, and how sorry he is. Page three, I think.
May 18th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
>He took out an ad in today’s Forward in which he spoke
>about how sick he is, how he needs treatment, and how
>sorry he is. Page three, I think.
That sounds like him. Did it include pictures of him? That’s his usual meglomaniac style, like when he posed for a photo spread for the Maariv expose Sof’Shavua spread.
Could someone scan and post it? I wonder if he paid for it or whether one of his financial supporters did. Maybe the supporter (current? past?) who subsidizes the Forward?
May 18th, 2006 at 4:32 pm
>and how sorry he is.
Yeah, he’s sorry he got caught. He’s sorry he couldn’t cover this up. He’s sorry his enablers and protectors wised up.
If he were sorry, he would turn himself into the police, take full responsibility and make it easier on his survivors.
Oh that’s right it’s all about Gafni.
He doesn’t give a damn about anyone but himself. Never has, never will.
May 18th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
Let’s dismember him and chop off his head.
May 21st, 2006 at 8:56 pm
Yeah, I’d like to see Gafni’s ad in the Forward also. Could someone scan it and post it online?
May 21st, 2006 at 10:46 pm
jwb–how old is that letter?
May 21st, 2006 at 11:46 pm
My information indicates it was drafted late 2004 after both the Jewish Week and Maariv articles.
May 25th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
only Jesus can help him. and i am praying Mordechai will see that Jesus is not Haman, as the talmud lies about him, but is Messiah, The Man, for Jew and Gentile alike. AMEN!
Incidentally the talmud not only says that Jesus is Haman but that many Messianic prophecies that clearly point to Him, such as Psalm 22, actually refer to Esther. the talmud writing these lies about Jesus seems to have had too much wine to drink on purim. another disgusting pharisaical custom. where does it say to get drunk in the Book of Esther? they truly don’t know the difference between blessed is Jesus cursed is Haman. Yotzei!