Comments (0)Controversy Grows Over Rabbi Max Case
Alleged victims of Rabbi Jacob A. Max tell their stories.
April 24, 2009Phil Jacobs
Executive Editor
Judy Flax-Gerstein called the April 13 conviction of Rabbi Jacob A. Max on fourth-degree sexual molestation charges “the greatest moment of my life.”
She alleges that she, too, was molested by Rabbi Max; the incident occurred 10 years ago when Ms. Flax-Gerstein worked in the Moses Montefiore Anshe Hebrew Congregation (Liberty Jewish Center) religious school office as a secretary.
Ms. Flax-Gerstein was a single mother with five children. She wanted her kids to observe their b’nai mitzvah at Liberty Jewish Center. Her second oldest child was studying for his bar mitzvah when all of this happened.
Ms. Flax-Gerstein lived in the Jones Valley neighborhood, across the street from Rabbi Max’s residence.
“His secretary had left to go home or go to the bank for maybe a total of half an hour,” she recalled of that day. “Rabbi Max called in and asked for his messages. He asked me ‘Who is with you?’ There was nobody else there. He came into the office. My back was towards him when I heard him come out of his office. He pushed me into the wall. He came closer, kissed me and put his hand down my shirt.
“I screamed at him, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ He said, ‘I guess I am a bad rabbi.’ I couldn’t breathe. I put the office keys on the table, and I just left and went home. I then ran into my house. Max then came into my house saying, ‘It was a mistake. Don’t tell Eileen [the rabbi’s wife].’
“I was like in a tailspin. I called the synagogue’s treasurer, who was in charge of the front office, and he told me to meet him at the shul. I’m in my car and I look into the rearview mirror, and there’s Rabbi Max, following me.
“I told my boss what happened, with Max just sitting there. And Max didn’t deny anything. I said to Max, ‘I can’t believe this is happening. You are an ordained rabbi. What were you thinking?’ I wrote out a timeline report to the board, and I gave it to them.”
Ms. Flax-Gerstein said she was soon fired from her job at Liberty Jewish Center. She said she was told to make other arrangements for her son’s bar mitzvah and her children’s Hebrew school education.
“Bob Meyerson [the congregation’s president] and Rob Rubin told me they didn’t need me any longer, and they decided it was in the best interest that I just leave the shul. I burst into tears and walked out.”
Mr. Meyerson told the BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES that he had no knowledge of why Ms. Flax-Gerstein left Liberty Jewish Center.
“I have no recollection of why she had to leave the shul, and it wasn’t by me,” he said. “I do not remember having a conversation with her, but I do recall the letter she wrote.”
Mr. Meyerson said Rabbi Max “absolutely denied any of this happened. He said that she made it up. If someone told her to leave, I don’t have knowledge of it. But he denied it and that was the end of it. It was basically a she said/he said issue. The rabbi had been there forever, so I wouldn’t question [his denial].”
Ms. Flax-Gerstein said she had a telephone conversation with Mr. Meyerson. In that conversation, she said Mr. Meyerson said the rabbi denied her allegations.
Mr. Meyerson said in that phone conversation, he let Ms. Flax-Gerstein “rant and rave,” that she was “venting.”
The summation, though, confirmed by Mr. Meyerson, was that if anyone had to go, it wasn’t going to be the synagogue’s long-time spiritual leader, especially since, as he said again, this was a “she said/he said.”
Ms. Flax-Gerstein said, “This will always be in the archives of my brain. It’s not fair that he’s allowed to do this and get a slap on the wrist with a suspended sentence. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
She said she has also made contact with Kathleen Cahill, attorney for the victim who pressed charges after she said she was molested by Rabbi Max last December at Sol Levinson & Bros. funeral home.
When asked why she did not press charges in 1999, Ms. Flax-Gerstein said, “I was afraid, and I didn’t know what to do.”
Debbie Troutman
She says she was a 16-year-old girl when the moment happened. The Torah scroll was being returned in its traditional procession. She stood near the back of Liberty Jewish Center when the procession arrived. Instead of moving forward to kiss the Torah, she was moved to step backward and sit down.
“Rabbi Max was in the procession,” Ms. Troutman said. “He was holding the Torah. He walked over to me and said to me, ‘Hey baby, you look great. Why don’t you come to my office afterwards?’”
She said she was castigated by her parents for sitting down in front of the Torah. When she told them why she had to sit, Ms. Troutman said her parents were still more upset at her actions than the rabbi’s.
“Because he was a pillar of the community, nobody believed me,” Ms. Troutman said. “I am shocked that he finally got caught, but very glad. I can’t begin to describe how I feel. I’m beside myself. I was so pleased because of the conviction. I was so pleased because I saw a conviction there.”
Ms. Troutman, now 55, said she has always considered herself one of the “lucky ones” because after the incident, she would never allow herself to be in a position where she would be alone with Rabbi Max.
“I left shul many years ago,” she said. “The reason I left was because of him, because of his innuendos and off-the-wall comments. I thought, ‘If this is what religion is all about, I don’t want to be a part of it.’ I still consider myself to be Jewish, but organized religion is not for me. He’s the only reason I walked away. There’s zero doubt in my mind.”
Ms. Troutman, like many other women interviewed, said she and her parents did not think about going to any authorities about the matter because “back then, you just didn’t do it. After all, he’s a rabbi, he’d never do that, and that’s what I heard from my parents. I think it was that simple. I feel safe in saying, it was going on.”
If the rabbi loses his appeal and receives a prison sentence, Ms. Troutman said that would be “ludicrous.” She said she wants to see him forfeit his ordination and any ability to officiate at organized events.
But mostly, she said she wants him to admit his transgressions and apologize. “Just admit it, be a man,” she said. “Step up and be a man.”