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Disgraced former Reform movement leader Sheldon Zimmerman expelled from rabbinical association
(JTA) – The Reform movement’s rabbinical association has expelled Sheldon Zimmerman, a former leader of major Reform institutions, after an ethics committee reinvestigated allegations of sexual misconduct lodged more than 20 years ago, including that he abused a 17-year-old congregant.
The announcement of Zimmerman’s expulsion was made Tuesday when the Central Conference of American Rabbis added his name to a public list of rabbis found to have violated the association’s code of conduct.
Zimmerman, 81, served as president of the rabbinical association for two years, and later as president of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the movement’s seminary.
His expulsion provides a measure of closure in a reckoning that has gripped the Reform movement for nearly two years, after the full nature of Zimmermans’s alleged misconduct first came to light and set off a crisis of trust among rabbis, lay leaders, and congregants.
“Sheldon Zimmerman should have no place in our movement, nor any place of honor, nor position of leadership — especially of programs serving young adults,” Rabbi Mary Zamore, executive director of the Women’s Rabbinic Network, said in a statement. “This was a collective failure and one that should not be repeated. We wholeheartedly support the Central Conference of American Rabbis’ moral, responsible and compassionate decision to expel him from its membership.”
The original investigation into Zimmerman concluded in 2000 with his resignation from Hebrew Union College and a suspension from the rabbinical association. But with allegations against him described publicly only in vague terms, Zimmerman retained much of his prestige and status. He went on to hold leadership roles at Birthright and the Jewish Federations of North America and, in 2005, CCAR reinstated his membership.
Then, in 2021, New York City’s Central Synagogue, where Zimmerman had been rabbi from 1972 to 1985, revealed that three women came forward to accuse Zimmerman of sexual misconduct during his tenure and that these allegations were related to his earlier disciplinary action.
In the months following the news about Zimmerman, the Reform movement hired law firms to conduct three separate investigations into the movement’s accountability mechanisms, revealing past failures around sexual misconduct.
Zimmerman’s listing on CCAR’s webpage of expelled rabbis says that his case was reopened in 2021 when new information surfaced indicating that he had violated the terms of his reinstatement, which required he undergo a process of teshuvah, or making amends.
The listing doesn’t specify how he had erred, but an article published in 2021 by Gary Rosenblatt, the former editor of New York Jewish Week, shed light on how Zimmerman viewed both the allegations against him and his responsibilities under the teshuvah process.
According to Rosenblatt, who cited emails he received from Zimmerman in 2005, Zimmerman believed that his accuser was seeking revenge against him. “This is about destroying me and my family,” Zimmerman wrote to Rosenblatt.
Zimmerman also reportedly threatened to reveal the identity of his accuser. “She may leave us no recourse but to respond to her in public and by name, and to lift the veil that has protected her and her actions,” Zimmerman wrote in an email, according to Rosenblatt.
At the time, Rosenblatt refrained from publishing the allegations and Zimmerman’s comments in response in order to protect the identity of the accuser.
In 2021, the rabbinical association’s ethics committee began investigating Zimmerman anew and ultimately expelled him for violations of sections of the rabbinic code of conduct that have to do with “exploitative practices,” “bullying, harassment, intimidation” and “power differential[s]” as well as failure to cooperate with terms of suspension.
Zamore applauded steps taken by Reform institutions to address issues of safety, respect and equity, and vowed to keep pressing for accountability.
“We continue to encourage anyone who has a story of sexual abuse, harassment, misconduct or discrimination to please continue sharing those truths,” she said in the statement.
The list of Reform rabbis who have been expelled, suspended, or publicly censured is updated occasionally to reflect the results of a private ethics investigation.
Besides Zimmerman, recent months have seen at least three additions to the list. Allen Secher, who retired from the pulpit in 2013 after serving most recently in Whitefish, Montana for 13 years, was censured under sections of the code of conduct relating to “sexual misconduct” and “requests for sexual favors.” Gersh Lazarow, a rabbi in Australia, was censured for intellectual dishonesty for having plagiarized sermons. David Kaufman, who led a congregation in Ohio, was expelled following his conviction in an Ohio court for gross sexual imposition.
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Quiz: For America 250, how well do you know U.S. Jewish history?
The Forward produced The Great American Jewish History Quiz! using Claude, a generative artificial intelligence tool by Anthropic. All questions and answers were researched and written by Louis Keene, who prompted Claude to create the user interface and underlying code and to track statistics.
Questions or feedback? Send us an email: forwardquiz@forward.com.
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Mazel tov, Taylor and Travis: A rabbi’s imagined wedding speech under the celebrity chuppah
I have to admit, as a rabbi, I never imagined I’d be standing at a wedding bringing together two of America’s great religions: football and Taylor Swift.
And yet here we are. I’ve officiated weddings in synagogues, in backyards, on beaches. I was not prepared for Madison Square Garden.
Before I get to the blessings, I need to share a little Torah with you. Don’t worry: I’ll keep it short. Half this room is Swifties and half is Chiefs fans, and the only thing you agree on is that you didn’t come here for a sermon.
The very first matchmaking story in the Torah involves a man named Eliezer, sent by the patriarch Abraham on a mission: find a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac. Eliezer travels far, he arrives at a well, and he devises a test. A test that looked past beauty, past pedigree, past fame, past achievement.
The test is simple: When a stranger arrives tired and thirsty, what do you do?
Rebecca does more than just offer water to Eliezer. She sees his camels are also thirsty, and without being asked, she waters every single one. Ten camels. Anyone who has ever watered a camel knows this is not a small thing.
And the Torah stops to tell us: this is the wife for Isaac.
The Torah could have stopped to admire her talent or her beauty. Instead, it stopped to admire her kindness. Because she saw need in the world and responded to it, just because that’s who she was.
Taylor and Travis, I think about that story when I think about the two of you. Because what we know about you isn’t just about the Grammys or the Super Bowls. It’s about the friendships. It’s about the family. It’s the way Travis’s eyes light up when he talks about his brother Jason. It’s the way Taylor has shown up, year after year, for her crew — the people who have been with her since the beginning, long before the sold-out stadiums.
These are people who know how to love. Eliezer traveled hundreds of miles looking for exactly that. Turns out it was worth the trip.
Red zones and red carpets
Now, because we have a professional athlete here, permit me a football analogy.
Every great quarterback needs protection from a tight end like Travis. Every championship team depends on its offensive line. The line doesn’t get the glory. They don’t score the touchdowns. But without them, nothing works.
Marriage is the same. Protect one another. Protect each other’s dignity. Protect each other’s dreams. Protect each other’s hearts. Be each other’s offensive line on the hard days.
And because we also have one of the greatest songwriters in history standing before me — someone who has written the soundtrack to a generation — permit me a music analogy as well.
Every beautiful song has both melody and rhythm. Sometimes one instrument leads. Sometimes another does. But what makes the song truly beautiful is that each makes room for the other. The goal is never the solo. The goal is the harmony.
Marriage is exactly the same. There will be seasons when one of you carries more. Seasons when one of you needs extra support. Seasons of celebration and seasons of challenge. The goal is to reflect each other’s light. The goal is to create something together that neither of you could have created alone.
So, Taylor and Travis, here is my blessing for you: May you always remember what drew you to each other, the soul beneath the spotlight. May you protect each other fiercely and gently, in the stadiums and in the quiet rooms where no one is watching. May you make room for one another — to lead and to follow, season by season, era by era.
And may the love you build together — the real love, the private love, the love that has absolutely nothing to do with cameras or crowds — be the greatest thing either of you ever creates.
Mazel tov.
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The 50 most interesting Jews in American history you’ve probably never heard of
The United States is turning 250 years old. You know the stories of many of the Jews who have helped to shape the country’s history and culture, including such luminaries as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Philip Roth and Barbra Streisand.
But behind the American Jewish names we know and revere are the stories of many other American Jews who influenced the nation — and whose lives reflected the country’s efforts to realize its founding promises — who have found less purchase in history’s spotlight. To celebrate the 250th anniversary of this country’s founding, we’ve collected 50 of those stories here.
Among their number are scientists, athletes, lawmakers, clergymen and a couple genuine American characters — the type of people who, no matter where they were born, ended up living lives that speak to the best of what the U.S. has to offer its citizens.
As one of our honorees, the author Edna Ferber, wrote: “America — rather, the United States — seems to me to be the Jew among the nations. It is resourceful, adaptable, maligned, envied, feared, imposed upon. It is warmhearted, overfriendly; quick-witted, lavish, colorful; given to extravagant speech and gestures. Its people are travelers and wanderers by nature, moving, shifting, restless; swarming in Fords, in ocean liners; craving entertainment; volatile. The schnuckle among the nations of the world.”
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