NEW YORK — 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 university following
reports of sexual abuse by two faculty members at YU’s high school for boys in
the 1970s and ‘80s 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 Dec. 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.
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