New York – At least 38 former Yeshiva University High School students filed a civil lawsuit for sexual abuse on Thursday at the New York Supreme Court, the Jerusalem Post reports.
According to Kevin Mulhearn, a lawyer for the group of students, the abuse took place between the 1970s and 1980s, and was perpetrated by a YU teacher and pricipal.
The students had tried to bring charges multiple times in the past, but the court always dismissed the case since the statute of limitations had run out. That all changed when New York passed the Child Victims Act, as the statute of limitations for sexual abuse claims has now been extended to allow victims to stepo forward until they reach the age of 55.
According to the summons and complaint document, “starting in 1971 and spanning several decades, George Finkelstein (“Finkelstein”), an assistant principal, associate principal, and then principal of YUHS, repeatedly sexually abused multiple student victims.”
The documents claim that the Yeshiva University and MTA administrators “refused to take action against Finkelstein, never reported him to law enforcement authorities, and – despite actual knowledge of his propensity to sexually assault children – never took any significant measures to prevent Finkelstein’s future abuse of children.”
According to the complaint, Finkelstein also “specifically targeted vulnerable boys for physical and sexual abuse.
“He preyed upon children of Holocaust survivors and after he abused them implored these children to not add to their parents’ suffering by telling them about his assaults,” the document continues. “Finkelstein also used his power as a [MTA] administrator to try and keep his victims from reporting his sexual assaults to their parents and other authorities.”
Finkelstein also allegedly threatened to sabotage the students’ grades if they dared breathe a word of his assaults to anybody.
The complaint also names MTA Judaic Studies faculty member Rabbi Macy Gordon as a repeat abuser. However, “He was not reported to law enforcement authorities even after various victims came forward [beginning, upon information and belief, in the mid-1950s and 1960s] with detailed [and horrifying] complaints of his sexual abuse of children.”
In certain cases, the the YU administration was notified of Gordon’s deeds, however they “failed to notify law enforcement officials of Gordon’s criminal acts, and failed to warn any students, parents or prospective students that Gordon was a known sexual predator.”
The complaint alleges that some of the abuses even occured in front of other students.
Of the 38 former students bringing the complaint, at least a few of them have chosen to not remain anonymous.
Yeshiva University did not immediately return a request for comment on the matter.
As reported by Vos Iz Neias