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(JTA) — A rabbi who pledged to enhance safeguards in opposition to abuse at a Jewish summer season camp he ran is the topic of a lawsuit alleging that he dramatically mishandled a sexual assault involving two campers in 2018.
Rabbi Ethan Linden, director of Camp Ramah within the Berkshires, one in all 10 in a single day camps related to the Conservative motion of Judaism, is the goal of a lawsuit filed final week charging that he “acted with deliberate indifference” after being knowledgeable {that a} feminine camper had been sexually assaulted by a male camper.
Linden didn’t observe the protocol set forth by the camp’s accrediting company, the American Camp Affiliation, for what to do when sexual assault is alleged at camp, the lawsuit fees. It says he didn’t instantly report the assault to authorities or take away the male camper from camp.
Linden additionally didn’t inform the household of the feminine camper of the assault, in response to the lawsuit, which identifies the alleged sufferer as Jane Doe. The truth is, the lawsuit fees, he pressed the camper to not inform her mother and father in any respect and concerned police solely at their insistence a number of weeks after the alleged assault.
The lawsuit additionally names Camp Ramah within the Berkshires and the Nationwide Ramah Fee, the group that oversees all Ramah camps, charging that the group knew in regards to the sexual assault and its dealing with by at the very least January 2019 however has allowed Linden to stay in cost.
“Camp Ramah and Linden made the deliberate determination to do nothing to guard Ms. Doe and acted with deliberate indifference to identified acts of discrimination, retaliation, sexual assault, gender-based violence and harassment in opposition to Ms. Doe,” the lawsuit concludes. “Camp Ramah and Linden’s do-nothing strategy condoned additional discrimination and harassment in opposition to Ms. Doe.”
Camp Ramah mentioned in an announcement late Monday that the Nationwide Ramah Fee and Camp Ramah within the Berkshires “are conscious of a lawsuit which was just lately filed in opposition to the camp and its director” and that the camp had beforehand cooperated with regulation enforcement.
“Because the plaintiff’s grievance notes, camp referred to as the authorities and cooperated with regulation enforcement on this matter,” the assertion mentioned. “We stand with all victims of sexual misconduct and acknowledge the braveness it takes for them to come back ahead. Then, as now, Camp Ramah is dedicated to defending the security, well being, and well-being of all campers and employees in our care.”
Linden didn’t reply to requests for remark Monday. Native police in Dutchess County, New York, the place the camp is positioned and whom the lawsuit says in the end arrested the male camper, additionally didn’t instantly present extra particulars to JTA.
The lawsuit’s allegations come amid a nationwide reckoning in regards to the dealing with of sexual assault allegations inside Jewish establishments, together with camps. They stand out as a result of the occasions described within the lawsuit came about comparatively just lately, as guidelines round camper security had been being strengthened to mirror rising consciousness of the issue.
Campers at Camp Ramah within the Berkshires, Wingdale, New York. (Uriel Heilman)
“We’re troubled to study of those regarding allegations,” Jeremy Fingerman, CEO of Basis for Jewish Camp, mentioned in regards to the Ramah lawsuit. “Each household who entrusts their little one to camp’s care does so with an expectation for his or her security and well-being. Nothing is extra necessary than offering a bodily and emotionally protected atmosphere for kids.”
The lawsuit has spurred an outpouring of concern and grief amongst graduates of Ramah camps, lengthy thought-about probably the most profitable actions of the Conservative motion, and others within the Conservative motion.
“The Ramah Berkshires alleged cowl up is odious. Supremely dissatisfied in my colleagues however largely really feel terrible for the girl who was assaulted,” tweeted Rabbi Adir Yolkut, a Conservative rabbi within the New York space. He advised JTA he was “extremely” shocked by the allegations within the lawsuit.
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Linden got here to Camp Ramah within the Berkshires in 2016 from a place as rabbi of Shir Chadash Conservative Congregation in Metairie, Louisiana, outdoors New Orleans. He had beforehand labored at three Ramah camps, in Canada, Georgia and Massachusetts.
Early in his tenure, Linden pledged to replace the camp’s insurance policies and procedures for coping with assault by working with Sacred Areas, a company that works to stop and reply to sexual abuse in Jewish establishments. Sacred Areas didn’t return a request for remark from JTA Monday.
“Coming in new, it was a very good alternative to work with somebody who has experience in stopping the types of nightmare eventualities that hold camp administrators up at evening,” Linden advised the New York Jewish Week on the time.
A 12 months later, a nightmare state of affairs occurred at Linden’s camp.
Based on the go well with, filed within the U.S. Southern District Courtroom of New York, a male camper assaulted a feminine camper whereas she slept, in an incident that came about 10 days into the 2018 summer season session.
Greater than 750 campers and 300 counselors attended Camp Ramah within the Berkshires in the summertime of 2015. (Uriel Heilman)
The lawyer for the feminine camper, Wylie Stecklow, declined to supply extra particulars past what’s within the lawsuit however advised JTA that his shopper was 15 on the time of the assault. It was her fourth summer season at camp.
Based on the lawsuit, the sufferer reported the incident to her counselor, who “instantly and appropriately” despatched it up the chain of command. Per week later, Linden lastly met with the sufferer. He discouraged the sufferer from telling her mother and father for 2 weeks, saying that in the event that they knew, it could get to different campers and they might begin gossiping about it, the lawsuit claims.
Linden ultimately did name the sufferer’s mother and father on the request of the steerage counselor, however he downplayed the alleged assault. Based on the grievance, he started the dialog by speaking a couple of delinquent camp payment and when he broached the subject, he referred to as the assault a “little incident” and a “small drawback,” saying that “nothing actually occurred.”
Later, the lawsuit says, Linden advised the camper “in sum or substance that, ‘I don’t actually suppose that is that large of a deal, he [the assailant] is only a attractive little boy.’”
In the meantime, the feminine camper discovered herself the topic of gossip on the camp that made it not possible for her to get pleasure from herself, in response to the lawsuit. The lawsuit says that police turned concerned solely on the household’s insistence and that it was solely after that time that the male camper was faraway from camp.
Three years after the alleged assault, the previous camper is alleging within the lawsuit that she “continues to undergo damages, together with humiliation and emotional trauma.” She needs a jury to rule that Camp Ramah violated Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in instructional settings together with camps, and that she must be compensated for her expertise and the ensuing trauma.
The Nationwide Ramah Fee, which is predicated on the Conservative motion’s Jewish Theological Seminary in New York Metropolis, was named in two lawsuits filed in recent times beneath New York State’s Baby Victims Act, which created a window for victims of long-ago assaults to file claims. Each circumstances contain the identical counselor who labored on the camp within the early Nineteen Seventies and are shifting via the court docket system now.
The brand new lawsuit signifies that sexual assault complaints about Jewish summer season camp are usually not a factor of the previous, regardless of the newer efforts to enhance reporting and responsiveness that Linden himself has emphasised.
“The core mission of the camp,” Linden advised the New York Jewish Week in 2017, “is to care for kids.”
The opening day of Ramah within the Berkshires’ 2022 camp session is June 28.
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