Last I heard, Rabbi Gafni was living in Utah with an Israeli woman Dalit and her two kids.
He hasn’t let last year’s controversies get in the way of his teachings.
Rabbi Gafni spoke last month at the retreat center at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (which is dedicated to "Advancing the science of consciousness and human experience to serve individual and collective transformation" so you know it’s good).
Vicki Polin was alerted:
Are you still looking for info on the whereabouts of Mordechai Gafni? My parents (God help me) were just at a "Mystery School" retreat run by Jean Houston in Petaluma, CA, and my mother told me that Gafni was one of their speakers. The retreat was held March 16-18. I do not know if Houston is aware of Gafni’s past. My mother was shocked when I e-mailed her the link to your site.
Nobody should be concerned. According to this blog:
Marc’s work as a dynamic voice in Israeli and international religious life and spirituality has earned him the reputation as a modern philosopher and spiritual master: wise, compassionate, inspired, and universal.
Many of Judaism’s wisest masters have spoken out for Gafni’s mentchlikeit. It would be a great shame if anybody held a little nookie against the great man. Like the rest of us, Rabbi Gafni deserves his sources of inspiration, however far they are from the beaten path. This is no time to allow heterophobia to get the best of us.
Gafni and the women in Israel who accused him of sleepting with them tried mediation. It fell apart when Gafni wouldn’t check himself into sex addiction rehab. The rabbi wanted "everyone to own their part in the story and everyone to apologize to each other for everything gettout of hand." Gafni said the legal complaints against him were false and that the relationships were mutual and consentual between adults.
This is shocking news. In his letter after his last scandal broke, he said he had a sickness and needed help. (In 2008, Marc wrote about why he signed that letter.)
There was a guy that learned with Gafni for a couple of years — Moti Bar-Or. They have a competitive relationship. Moti worked for Gafni for a year.
Moti is a Federation darling, especially in NY. They funded his ideas and programs, and paid him to speak to their missions and stuff. He started a program of virtual chevrutot between Israelis and NY’ers. He hired Liz Hollander to work for him, and she was there for a while when in Jerusalem. He is mentioned in the intro to Gafni’s book.
