Emails Reveal Activity at Towson U. After Rabbi Accused of Voyeurism

Concern spread quickly among students and administrators at Towson University after a rabbi was accused of secretly recording naked women at a D.C. synagogue, emails obtained by the News4 I-Team revealed.

According to search warrants, after Rabbi Barry Freundel was accused of recording at least six women in the ritual bath at Kesher Israel in Georgetown, police found micro cameras inside regular objects including a tissue box and a clock at Freundel’s office at Towson University, where he was an associate professor.

Just hours after the news about Freundel broke, a Towson University student wrote to a school administrator that she'd been to Kesher Israel

“I am inquiring to see if I was at risk by being there,” she wrote.

Another wrote, “I went there on a field trip to his synagogue that included this ritual bathing (mikvah) as a cultural experience. I believe he has been taking students on these field trips for quite some time.”

Emails sent among Towson University administrators -- obtained by the I-Team under the Freedom of Information Act -- revealed how the school's top brass responded to their employee's arrest.

The emails show administrators asked staff to conduct a midnight search of the ladies bathrooms inside the school's College of Liberal Arts Building for cameras and that none was found.

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One administrator wrote to another, “Have the night shift personnel check all the ladies rooms in campus (excluding residence halls) during the midnight shift so we can confirm that we checked all publicly accessible ones and found nothing. As a parent that is something I would want done.”

Emails indicate the school also made a list of every female student who'd taken a class with the rabbi and sent them a warning letter about his arrest, telling them the rabbi had been suspended and directed the students to police.

Towson University, in a statement to the I-Team, said it has yet to receive a student complaint about the rabbi and his employee evaluations were "overwhelmingly favorable."

The rabbi's attorney told News4 "the emails correctly state that there is no evidence of anything improper happening at the university.”

Freundel has pleaded not guilty to voyeurism.

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