Baltimore Rabbi Found Liable For Assault, Battery Against Children

BALTIMORE, MD — A Maryland civil court jury has ruled that Steven Krawatsky, a rabbi and educator from the Baltimore area, committed assault against one child and battery against another, according to reports.

The jury, in its Feb. 16 ruling, awarded $1 in compensatory and $8,000 in punitive damages to the two victims.

Krawatsky was head counselor of an Orthodox summer day camp in Frederick County that the boys attended. He also taught in a Baltimore Jewish day school and led Shabbat services for children with disabilities at a local synagogue.

The rabbi was accused of engaging in the sexual assault and battery in 2015, when the children were 7 and 8 years old. The court rejected a battery claim against a third child.

Krawatsky had filed defamation claims against that child’s family and a victim advocate who used Facebook to issue a public warning about him. But those claims were dismissed by the Montgomery County Circuit Court judge in the case, The Jewish Daily Forward reported.

The alleged abuse by Krawatsky — which he has denied — reportedly happened in the summer of 2015 when he worked as a counselor at Camp Shoresh in Frederick County.

READ ALSO: Baltimore Rabbi Fired Over Sex Abuse Allegations Sues Families

The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office investigated the reports, but prosecutors did not file charges against Krawatsky, The Baltimore Sun reported.

The victims’ families filed claims against Camp Shoresh and its director, Rabbi David Finkelstein, whom they accused of knowingly employing an abuser and allowing his behavior. But those claims were thrown out last month after the judge decided they were not sufficiently substantiated, according to The Jewish Daily Forward.

In this month’s civil trial in Montgomery County, three of the children whose families made allegations against Krawatsky testified. Krawatsky also took the stand during the trial. One of the families lives in Montgomery County, while the others live outside the county.

"You saw the terror in those kids’ eyes when they talked," the victims' lawyer said at the civil trial, according to a report. "They were afraid of Rabbi Krawatsky, and they were afraid of the other evil, the rope running through this whole thing. The community that failed to protect its children."

Six years ago, The Jewish Week published an article that asserted leaders in the Orthodox Jewish community of Baltimore had ignored a number of warning signals about Krawatsky’s behavior.

After an initial statement of support for Krawatsky that criticized The Jewish Week article, the community Jewish day school where the rabbi taught fired him. Also, the synagogue where Krawatsky led services for children with disabilities announced his resignation.

In 2022, a judge dismissed a lawsuit that Krawatsky filed against The Jewish Week and reporter Hannah Dreyfus, the author of the 2018 article. The judge ruled that Krawatsky failed to prove that the publishers of the story had acted with malice.

In two of the cases involving the children, Child Protective Services case workers reported initially that Krawatsky was “indicated” for child sexual abuse, while a third case was ruled unsubstantiated, The Jewish Week reported. An “indication” from Child Protective Services means there was a “preponderance of evidence” that sexual abuse took place, an assistant Maryland attorney general told the publication.

Krawatsky appealed the findings, and case workers eventually changed the findings from “indicated” to “unsubstantiated,” which means that there is not a preponderance of evidence that abuse took place.