Incidents of physical and sexual abuse at Yeshiva University
were not limited to its high school for boys, an investigation has found.
An outside investigation commissioned by the New York-based
institution following reports of sexual abuse by two faculty members at YU’s
high school for boys in the 1970s and 1980s confirmed that “multiple incidents
of varying types of sexual and physical abuse took place” at the school.
Individuals in positions of authority perpetrated the
incidents, which continued even after administration members had been made
aware of the problem, according to the investigation.
The probe also found sexual abuse at other divisions of the
university but did not describe them in any detail or specify where they took
place.
Carried out by the New York-based law firm Sullivan and
Cromwell and released Monday, the investigation was prompted by a December 13,
2012 article in the Forward newspaper titled “Student Claims of Abuse not
Reported by Yeshiva U.”
The article centered on abuse allegations against two YU
faculty members, Rabbi George Finkelstein, an administrator and faculty member
from 1963 to 1995, and Rabbi Macy Gordon, a teacher from 1956 to 1983.
A group of former students filed a $380 million lawsuit
against Yeshiva University in early July, just days after YU’s longtime
chancellor, Rabbi Norman Lamm, announced he was stepping down with the end of
his contract and acknowledged mishandling the abuse allegations decades
earlier. The lawsuit has grown to $680 million.
Investigators at Sullivan and Cromwell, led by Karen Patton
Seymour, sought to interview the former students named in the suit, but their
lawyers declined to make them available, according to the Sullivan and Cromwell
report.
“Up until 2001, there were multiple instances in which the
University either failed to appropriately act to protect the safety of its
students or did not respond to the allegations at all,” the report found. “This
lack of an appropriate response by the University caused victims to believe
that their complaints fell on deaf ears or were simply not believed by the
University’s administration.”
The report noted that YU’s responses to allegations of abuse
after 2001 improved significantly but issued detailed recommendations for new
policies at the school to prevent and report sexual or physical abuse or
harassment. The report did not go into detail on the past instances of sexual abuse.
Investigators at the law firm and T&M Protection
Services, a firm specializing in preventing sex abuse, spent 6,300 hours on the
investigation, including interviews with 145 people, according to the report.
According to the investigators, 70 people contacted either
declined to be interviewed or did not respond to requests for interviews.
Yeshiva University president Richard M. Joel responded to
the report in a statement released Monday.
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