My congregation is Congregation Brith Sholom. The clergy sex offender there is Rabbi Allen Juda. Congregation Brith Sholom is a conservative synagogue and a member of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism (USCJ).

In January of 2003 the ethics committee of the Rabbinical Assembly got involved.
Two rabbis from the Rabbinical Assembly- Rabbi Joel Myers and Rabbi Milton Fieirstein both worked together to protect Rabbi Juda's Job. The ethics committee did not expel Rabbi Allen Juda for his sexual abuse of women. Congregation Brith Sholom ended up keeping the Rabbinical Sexual Abuser, Rabbi Allen Juda. Individual synagogues would have a much harder time keeping an offending Rabbi if that Rabbi was expelled from the Rabbinical Assembly. While each congregation acts independently and members supposedly vote on it, if a Rabbi is expelled, it is a lot easier to get rid of them.

Our congregation never had an actual vote on whether to keep or get rid of Rabbi Allen Juda.
The board initially voted to keep him. A lot of congregants assumed that it was given that the Rabbi should be fired. When more women came forward and the board was threatened with resignations they changed their tune. They tried to offer the Rabbi a terminating contract which he refused to accept. Rabbi Allen Juda then got a group of his closest friends together to form a new board to be voted in and take control. Over 50 families left the synagogue, the majority of them didn't even show up for the annual elections.

Had the Rabbinical Assembly Expelled Rabbi Juda, I doubt that the congregants would have kept him. Numerous congregants, especially board members called up Joel Myers and requested that he come to the annual meeting. Brith Sholom congregation is about an hour and a half drive from the Rabbinical Assembly in New York. Rabbi Joel Myers and Milton Fieirstein refused to come.

Rabbi Joel Myers claimed that there was only one women that came forward with a claim. The experts that later came to our synagogue confirmed that several women had come forward. Those experts were never hired to come back. The 2nd set of experts that came to the synagogue produced a written report that the board refused to distribute to the congregation because it openly and honestly stated that Rabbi Juda needed to go.

If the Rabbinical Assembly Expelled all Rabbi's that are proven guilty of clergy sex abuse and refused to allow congregations that retained such Rabbi's to remain a member of their organization than the Jewish Community would be much better protected from these predators.

Following with the case of Allen Juda at Congregation Brith Sholom in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was the case of Rabbi Jonathan Ginsberg. The Rabbinical Assembly actually recommended that Rabbi Jonathan Ginsbergs congregation keep him. They did keep him and ended up being sued by the victim.

The internet has enabled victims of Rabbinical Abuse to gather and share information with other victims. I know that the Rabbinical Assembly has had about 2 dozen cases over the past 2 years. I encourage all victims to post their experiences on the Internet, on Web pages, or in blogs.

Our congregation use to get between 125-150 people every Saturday morning for Services. Now we get about 75 people on Saturdays. Financially the synagogue is starting to hurt as well. Last year they even had to cut the Rabbi's salary. Over 50 families have left our synagogue. I believe everyone of the members that left, with the exception of one family, was paying full dues. The only family that returned to our synagogue was the one that wasn't paying full dues. In addition there are many Jews in the community that refuse to set foot in our synagogue.

Had the Rabbinical Assembly, Joel Myers and Milton Fieirstein handled matters appropriately and expelled Rabbi Juda I know that things would have been different. The organizations in the Community here would not of felt compelled to use him nor would have the majority of our congregants stood idly by. The Rabbinical Assembly's Ethics Committee gets about one case a month. Considering there are only 800 member synagogues, thats a lot, and they only hear the cases that are actually reported.