UES Jewish School Ignored Sexual Misconduct Complaints: Reports

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A prominent Upper East Side private Jewish school ignored reports of sexual misconduct against a former teacher, according to a report from a law firm hired by the school.

The Ramaz School — which has lower, middle and upper school campuses on the Upper East Side — failed to take action after school parents notified school officials of abuse by a former teacher after he had already left the school, a law firm hired by the school said in an investigation of the school's conduct.

Stanley Rosenfeld worked at Ramaz between 1972 and 1974, according to the report by the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton. The investigation revealed that Rosenfeld abused young boys before, during and after his tenure at Ramaz, often using sleepovers at his home to take advantage of students. The former educator would grope children's genitals, touched children over their clothes while they sat in his lap and engaged in sexual acts, including oral sex, with children.

Ramaz administrators learned about Rosenfeld's misconduct after he left the school, but they did not alert law enforcement or other schools to warn them of Rosenfeld's predatory actions, the law firm's report says. The inaction continued despite Ramaz officials knowing that Rosenfeld was involved with an organization called Camp Massad, which left him in contact with many students who attended Ramaz.

A parent of one student who was molested by Rosenfeld reported the abuse to former Ramaz principal Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, according to the report. Lookstein who now serves as Rabbi Emeritus of congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side, did not act upon the report, Debevoise & Plimpton found.

In 2001, Rosenfeld pleaded no-contest to two counts of child molestation committed while he served as cantor of Temple Am David in Rhode Island. Rosenfeld was given a ten-year suspended sentence and spent 18 months in prison after a probation violation.

The Debevoise & Plimpton investigation, which was launched in January of 2018 also revealed sexual misconduct by two other former employees of Ramaz.

Another Ramaz teacher, Albert Goetz, was fired by Ramaz in 2005 after an investigation into sexual misconduct with female high school students at Ramaz. Goetz took photographs of 17 students' feet during the 70s, 80s and 90s and engaged in romantic relationships with two female students during that time, according to the law firm's report.

In the 1990s a parent told Lookstein that Goetz attempted to photograph their daughter's feet. After hearing the complaint, Lookstein forced Goetz to be evaluated by a psychiatrist, who ruled that he could keep teaching at the school, the law firm's report said.

Richard Andron molested multiple Ramaz students while teaching after-school karate lessons at the school in the 70s and 80s, the law firm said in its report. Andron molested boys during overnight stays at his home, where he also showed them films containing sexual content, according to the report. The karate teacher was accused of sexual misconduct in a 2013 civil suit unrelated to his time at Ramaz.

"Based on the findings of this investigation, there are at least some instances in which administrators at Ramaz could have done more to protect Ramaz’s students," lawyers at Debevoise & Plimpton wrote in the report.

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