The lead plaintiff in the sexual abuse case against Yeshiva University has called for the dismissal of YU President Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, general counsel Avi Lauer, and the board members who authorized “a systematic legal assault on the dignity of survivors and their families,” The Jerusalem Post learned on Tuesday.
Plaintiff Mordechai Twersky told the Post that YU’s outside law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP is asking plaintiffs to turn over “highly personal documents,” including “Copies of any family therapy and/or couples therapy records of Plaintiff’s family/parents… sufficient to show the existence, if any, of family or marital instability, economic instability, employment instability, and/or other circumstances or conditions within the home that had an adverse impact upon Plaintiff or Plaintiff’s family.”
The law firm also requested “Documents sufficient to show any online dating website in which Plaintiff has registered and/or participated at any time” and “each mental health professional or provider, who has ever treated plaintiff or with whom plaintiff has ever consulted in any capacity at any time in plaintiff’s life.”
Attempt to silence victims
Twersky, who is the son of Holocaust survivors, told the Post on Tuesday that “It’s a vulgar and obscene attempt to wrap the trauma of childhood sexual abuse victims around the marriages and private struggles of our Holocaust survivor parents, rather than accept responsibility for betraying those parents and failing to protect us.
“Their demands are irrelevant and go beyond any legitimate legal defense,” he said. “It’s intimidation, harassment, and humiliation in its purest form.”
YU has also been met with accusations of witness tampering after a crucial witness – Rabbi Bloch – allegedly withdrew from his deposition after being contacted by university attorneys.
“The loss of his testimony, according to court documents, was both unexpected and irreversible,” said Twersky. The court documents, viewed by the Post, claim YU’s lawyers “thwarted the deposition.”
As such, Twersky is calling for the immediate dismissal of President Ari Berman and General Counsel Avi Lauer, the severing of all ties between YU and Seyfarth Shaw LLP, and a full and independent investigation into potential obstruction and intimidation of witnesses.
“This case is no longer just about abuse in the past – it’s about the abuse of process in the present,” Twersky said.
“If this is how Yeshiva University defends itself, it is not just unfit to lead a Jewish institution: It is actively harming the survivors and families it already failed decades ago.”
When asked why he called for the firing of Berman specifically, Twersky said that, as the face of the institution, Berman “bestows honorary degrees, invokes Torah values at every public opportunity, and never misses a chance to frame YU as a moral beacon.”
Given the aforementioned legal tactics that have unfolded under his watch and with his blessing, Twersky said the rabbi should take responsibility.
“As the rabbi-president of a Torah institution, he chose intimidation over integrity.”
Lawsuits against YU regarding sexual abuse
Twersky’s case is part of a pair of lawsuits against Yeshiva University brought by more than 50 men who say they were sexually abused decades ago by teachers and staff while in the Marsha Stern Talmudic Academy/Yeshiva University High School for Boys.
The lawsuits, filed in 2019 and 2021, claim that teachers and the principal of the school sexually abused students beginning in at least 1971. Several plaintiffs say they met with school leadership to report their assaults, but the perpetrators were never removed or reported to police.
Twersky told the Post that the current administration attempts to cover up the abuse because “YU officials know what’s in those sealed depositions, YU enabled serial abusers, honored them publicly, and abandoned victims. If the full scope of the abuse and cover-up ever became public, it would trigger seismic fallout and irrevocable damage to the brand.
“So instead,” the lead plaintiff said, “YU delays discovery, hides behind privilege, and pays Seyfarth Shaw millions to grind this case and its victims into the ground, just as it has since 2012.”