Luke Ford

Jef* says: “See below in which RAMAZ acknowledges it passed on Rosenfeld to SAR, funny how they say no one has come forward about accusations, they just need to check their own files! Its all over the internet. This follows SAR’s January self protective/insurance/liability driven so called “investigation” (which will remain private) press release

Funny too how this escaped the jewish media— JTA and Jewish Week and Forward wont touch a scandal at their beloved open orthodoxyschools

Next: should be Westchester and other schools that passed him down the line and that Rosenfeld was “trained” by notorious “rabbi’ Herschey Worch.”

RAMAZ EMAILS:

Dear Ramaz Family,

Last week, SAR sent its community a letter stating that it is launching an investigation into claims of sexual abuse of a former student by Stanley Rosenfeld, a former teacher and administrator employed by SAR in the 1970’s. Reports about sexual abuse by Mr. Rosenfeld, including his pleading no contest to two counts of second degree child molestation in 2001, are extremely disturbing. We are deeply distressed by this recent news and support SAR’s profound commitment to the safety of its students and alumni as it conducts this investigation.

It is in this same vein of protecting our current and past students that we, at Ramaz, are reaching out to our community. Mr. Rosenfeld was also employed at Ramaz as Director of the Primary School (grades 1-3) from 1972-1973. As of today, no one has come forward with any accusations relating to Mr. Rosenfeld’s time at the school. However, given that we now know he is a convicted sexual offender, we owe it to our alumni to investigate Mr. Rosenfeld’s tenure at Ramaz.

If you have any information at all regarding any instances of abuse at Ramaz, we urge you to please contact the law firm, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, whom we have retained to conduct an investigation. We believe that Debevoise has the experience, sensitivity, and judgment essential for this situation. Please reach out to Helen Cantwell, who can be reached at hcantwell@debevoise.com or 212-909-6312, or Andrew Ceresney, who can be reached at aceresney@debevoise.com or 212-909-6947.

The safety and security of our students, and the lifelong well-being of our alumni, are at the very heart of what we stand for as a school, and we are open to hearing anything you feel should be shared. We have zero tolerance for inappropriate teacher-student relationships of any kind, and have training and systems in place to ensure appropriate relationships are maintained.

We are here to support our community and will keep you informed about any key findings.

Thank you,

Philip J. Wilner, M.D.

Chairman of the Ramaz Board

Jef says: “NOW THE THIRD JEWISH SCHOOL SENDS OUT LETTER, FAILING TO DISCLOSE WHAT THEIR OWN RECORDS SAY ABOUT THE CONVICTED MOLESTER ROSENFELD OR WHY HE WAS PASSED TO THE NEXT INSTITUTION WITHOUT WARNING, JUST LIKE THE CHURCH DID WITH ITS PERPS. AND STILL NO MENTION IN THE JEWISH WEEKIES.”

From Westchester Day School:

Dear WDS Community,

As you may know, within the past 10 days, two area yeshiva day schools have sent messages to their communities regarding a past employee, Stanley Rosenfeld, who pled no contest to two counts of second-degree child molestation in 2001 in Rhode Island. The communications were sent out when allegations came to light, that were previously unreported, of sexual abuse at one of the day schools during Rosenfeld’s tenure in the 1970s. We are writing to you now, as Rosenfeld was also an employee at WDS in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Following the statements from last week, we received information that he engaged in similar misconduct involving at least one WDS student in the early 1970s.

It is extremely upsetting to hear all of this, and in particular to hear that any child was harmed or mistreated by an adult whose job it was to teach and protect that child. As educators and community members, there is nothing more important than the safety and well-being of our students.

At WDS, we are deeply committed to certain values elucidated in our mission statement, including the value of leading with a keen sense of justice and obligation. In that spirit, we have already reached out to the appropriate authorities, to report what we know, and to give them the opportunity to do their important work enforcing the laws that apply to this type of misconduct. Furthermore, we adhere to the value of identifying and responding to the needs of others with sympathy and empathy. Accordingly, we want to hear from anyone who was impacted or has information that they would like to share with us regarding any events of impropriety that took place at WDS. If you would like to reach out, please contact either the Village of Mamaroneck Police Department Detective Sergeant Charles Lanza, our Head of School, Rabbi Joshua Lookstein, or Dr. Naomi Adler, our Director of Student Services and School Psychologist. Information gathered will be passed on to the authorities to assist in their investigation.

We are committed to learn from this process so that we can understand what happened, support those who have been affected, and work to build an even stronger community and safer environment for our students.

Finally, we want to reiterate that nothing is more important to us than the safety and well-being of our students. Westchester Day School continually re-evaluates and updates its policies and practices to promote the safety of our students. These efforts include, for example, conducting extensive background checks on all existing and prospective WDS professionals; providing our faculty with professional development on the subject of appropriate interactions between students and WDS professionals (which we did this past Monday), and teaching principles of internet safety for both students and professionals. In addition, our students are taught not to hesitate to contact the appropriate person when they experience or witness any inappropriate behavior. We will continue these and other efforts to protect our students.

We intend to provide a further update to the community, as appropriate.