The Gafni Saga
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Dear Reader,
The Jewish Week has been covering Marc Gafni, the controversial spiritual teacher and former rabbi accused of sexual misconduct, for well over a decade.
The fact that he is in the news again, after gaining stature in the New Age community despite longstanding reports about his sexual misbehavior and pattern of deception in Jewish circles, speaks to his resilience and ability to re-invent himself.
Our lead story this week - see below - suggests that his past is catching up with him once more.
For coverage of Gafni in The Jewish Week over the years, describing his intellect, charisma and charm as well as charges of sexual abuse from two teens and many women who trusted him, see the links below.
Sincerely,
Gary Rosenblatt
Gafni Faces Fallout From New Age Community
PREVIOUS COVERAGE
2004: The Jewish Week broke the story in
this article
International
A Rabbi Accused of Sexual Abuse Seeks to Reinvent Himself
Back in 2004, Gary Rosenblatt weighed the evidence and considered Marc Gafni's case.
Gary Rosenblatt
Editor And Publisher
Marc Gafni. Via youtube.comIs there a statute of limitations for rabbis accused of abuse, and should there be? How does the community determine when someone has done teshuvah, or repentance, as claimed? Can rabbinic ordination be revoked? And when, if ever, do persistent rumors and allegations over a period of years add up to a legitimate story?
Prompting these thoughts in this season of repentance and forgiveness is the continuing saga of Rabbi Mordechai Gafni, 43, who in recent years has become an increasingly influential leader of the Jewish Renewal movement.
Born as Marc Winiarz, he came to New York from the Midwest for high school and college, became a youth leader and rabbi, was accused of sexual abuses and misconduct and started life anew in Israel 13 years ago with an Israeli name. He has left several rabbinic and educational posts, here and in Israel, amid a swirl of rumors and allegations spanning two decades.
Over time Gafni has assumed an increasingly high profile as a charismatic teacher, promoting what he calls a new, post-Orthodox stream of Judaism. He has been featured on Israeli television; written several books, including "Soul Prints: Your Path to Fulfillment," which was made into a PBS special; lectured extensively in the United States and Israel; served on the spiritual advisory council of Aleph: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, a national organization based in Philadelphia; led retreats at Elat Chayyim, a Jewish Renewal center in the Catskills; preached frequently at the Stephen S. Wise Temple in Los Angeles (see sidebar below); and founded Bayit Chadash ("new home"), a New Age Jewish community in Israel that he said strives "to restore the spark of holy paganism."
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the spiritual leader of the Israeli community of Efrat, called several months ago to tell me he would like to revoke the rabbinic ordination he gave Gafni many years ago when they had a close rabbi-student relationship. Riskin characterized as beyond the bounds of Orthodoxy his former student's theology, described earlier this year in a lengthy profile in Haaretz, the Israeli daily. In the newspaper, Gafni called for restoring a balance between the erotic and the spiritual in Judaism.
For his part, Gafni acknowledged he has moved beyond Orthodoxy. He said he has other ordinations and, in a letter to Riskin this spring, "returned" his smicha to spare his former teacher any further embarrassment.
Dogged by Critics
But the crux of the controversy surrounding Gafni is more about his personal behavior than his theology. For the past two decades he has been dogged by a small, informal network of people, here and in Israel, who charge that he has had a long history of immoral conduct, including sexual contact with and abuse of underage girls.
These critics, including alleged former victims, several rabbis and educators, have urged synagogues and educational institutions not to hire or engage him, and they have stepped up their efforts as Gafni's activities have broadened and become more public after his return from a self-imposed exile of sorts, spending several years writing and studying at Oxford University in England.
Gafni admitted to having "made mistakes in my life," including giving in to a strong temper when he was a young man. But he insisted that while he had adult relationships with women at times when he was single, he has been married for several years to his third wife, he was "never abusive." He said he has done teshuvah, in part by carefully removing himself from potentially tempting situations.
"I don't work with kids, I don't counsel men or women and I don't meet alone with women," he said, anxious to be rid of the old allegations.
"How do I make it be over?" he asked me.
Even Gafni's detractors said he is brilliant, charming and magnetic; even his supporters admitted he has a powerful ego and a spotted past. And he has plenty of detractors and supporters. Indeed, what makes this case so unusual, besides the length of time this issue has been discussed and debated, is the number of prominent rabbis and educators lined up on opposing sides, and the intensity of their convictions.
Avraham Infeld, now the president of Hillel, was heading an educational program in Israel called Melitz when he hired Gafni in the late 1990s, despite pressure not to do so. Infeld has said he had no regrets. Rabbis Saul Berman, who heads the Modern Orthodox group Edah, and Joseph Telushkin, the writer and ethicist, also defended Gafni, asserting that he is a gifted teacher and that they have heard no credible reports against him of improper behavior in the past 15 years or so.
"There is an element of unfairness," Berman said, "in continuing to resuscitate the same old claims, which are not substantiated, and for people not to acknowledge that individuals can change and grow."
Regarding the allegations of sexual misbehavior against Gafni, Riskin said he has been approached by many people over the years with similar patterns of complaints of seductive and harassing behavior toward young women on the part of his former student -- charges he takes seriously.
Other rabbis troubled by Gafni's past behavior and skeptical of his depth of teshuvah include Rabbi Heshie Billet, the former president of the Rabbinical Council of America, and Rabbi Yosef Blau, spiritual adviser at Yeshiva University, both of whom knew Gafni in his youth.
Blau said he has spoken with a number of women "from the past who said they were victimized, and in no case do I know of his admitting direct responsibility or contacting them to express regret. So what teshuvah has he done?"
In Love or Abusive?
Two women who claim to be victims of Gafni when they were teenagers in New York more than 20 years ago have come forward separately to speak out, though both asked that their full names not be used because they said they still fear the rabbi.
One of the women said Gafni "repeatedly sexually assaulted" her over a nine-month period, beginning when she was 13. The woman said she remains emotionally scarred by the experience, which took place in 1979 and 1980. She asserted that Gafni, who was then a student rabbi, "repeatedly and forcibly sexually assaulted me" when he would stay at her house over Shabbat and sneak into her room in the middle of the night.
"It was a reign of terror and I felt helpless," she said. "He told me that if I told anyone, I would be shamed in the community and I believed him. I was physically afraid of him."
In the mornings, she continued, Gafni would be overcome with guilt and pray fervently, beating his chest and urge her to do teshuvah, as well, since he said his desire for her was her fault.
Only years later was she able to tell her family, and she still feels anger about the experience.
"I had a real spiritual home in Judaism, and he completely destroyed it," the woman said. "My work has been to make peace with my own spirituality because it died after that experience."
When told of the woman's comments, Gafni said he would like the situation to be "healed," adding that his attempt to do so several years ago went unheeded. He pointed out that he was only 19 or 20 at the time of the relationship.
"I was a stupid kid and we were in love," the rabbi said. "She was 14 going on 35, and I never forced her."
The second woman, Judy, said that when she was 16 and deeply unhappy at home, she joined a popular Orthodox outreach group for teens that Gafni was leading called JPSY (Jewish Public School Youth), and was drawn to his charisma and concern for her.
During a two-week period when she ran away from home and was staying with Rabbi Gafni, who was then 25 and married, Judy said he abused her sexually on two occasions. Even more upsetting, she said, was that afterward, the rabbi tried to convince her the encounter did not happen, and then harassed her for many months. He threatened to keep her out of Jewish schools (she was seeking to transfer from public school to a yeshiva), called her home at all hours of the night and then hung up, mailed pictures to her home of naked men and had her followed.
"He attempted to destroy my life for a year and a half," she said.
Gafni said that Judy was a troubled, unstable teenager who fabricated the story after he rebuffed her advances.
A woman named Susan, who at the time was a 22-year-old adviser in JPSY, said she believed Judy's account. She said that when she took Judy's side, Gafni made harassing phone calls and threats against her.
"He told me I would regret it," Susan said, adding that the rabbi made inappropriate advances to her, as well.
The rabbi said his version of the episode with Judy was corroborated by a psychologist engaged by Yeshiva University, which housed JPSY at the time. Judy said other psychologists support her account.
Spiritual Signature
The back-and-forth on the charges and explanations have filled many of my notebooks over the past three years, as I have interviewed more than 50 people on this issue. Some investigations have a clear resolution; this one does not.
Defenders of Gafni note the allegations go back many years. They demand more recent proof of wrongdoing and real names to back up the charges. His critics offer, and psychologists affirm, that it is common for abuse victims to speak out only after much time has elapsed, if at all, and to feel embarrassed, if not fearful, about using their names.
Even the criteria of when a public airing of abuse charges constitutes lashon hara, Hebrew for gossip, and when it is an obligation -- to protect people -- is ultimately a judgment call. The determining factor is whether the accused person is a danger to society and may abuse again.
But who is to say when and whether Gafni is free of his acknowledged past "mistakes"?
Two groups in the Renewal movement, Aleph and Elat Chayyim, looked into the allegations against Gafni and found "no evidence of wrongdoing," according to Rabbi Arthur Waskow. (The three women with whom I spoke said they were never contacted.) And Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, the acknowledged leader of the Renewal movement, said he is aware of the allegations against Gafni but supports him.
"If you want to find fly specks in the pepper, you can always find them," Schachter-Shalomi said. "But I've watched him teach. He is learned, exciting and charismatic. A good teacher is one who gets people excited."
Indeed, Gafni's followers and admirers said he is a gifted thinker and leader who has helped bring many people closer to Judaism through his writings, lectures and television shows. They said he has done teshuvah, presents no threat to anyone and should be left alone to continue his important teaching.
His critics contend that he is a self-promoter and deceiver who has never been honest with others, or himself, about his behavior. They find his increasing popularity infuriating and worry that his charisma and influence could result in trouble for unsuspecting followers.
In the middle is Gafni, who said that while others portray him as Svengali, he sees himself as a "victim" of a longstanding "witch hunt," motivated primarily by several Orthodox rabbis jealous of his success.
In his writings he described himself as "a flawed human being, forever striving," and urged each of us to establish and craft our "soul print," our personal life story, the "spiritual signature" we leave on the world.
Gafni evokes strong emotions wherever he goes, leaving a mark of darkness or light, depending on how his own "soul print" is perceived.
gary@jewishweek.org---------------------
2006: A reflection on Gafni's story after a public downfall
National
Deconstructing The Gafni Case
Gary Rosenblatt
Editor And Publisher
Relationship expert? Marc Gafni.I was not surprised when I learned a few weeks ago of the public downfall of Mordechai Gafni, the charismatic figure who had transformed himself from an Orthodox rabbi in America to a New Age spiritual guru based in Israel, with a loyal following in the U.S.
Only after sexual abuse complaints against him were filed with the police in Israel by several female students and an employee of his at Bayit Chadash, the spiritual renewal community he helped found in Tel Aviv, was he dismissed as religious guide, teacher and rebbe. And at that point Gafni apologized publicly to those he had hurt, said he was “sick” and in need of treatment, and disappeared from view.
The fact that he managed to avoid such a humiliated outcome for more than 20 years – during which time he was surrounded by a cloud of accusations of improper sexual behavior – is a testament to his persuasive powers of argument, the support of well-meaning rabbis and educators who believed him, and the unwillingness of those who felt victimized by him to go on the record with their accounts.
I hasten to add that I fully understand why the women in question did not want to speak out on the record, using their names, and I emphasize with them. They felt they were victims, that they had suffered enough and did not want to go through a public scrutiny of past abuses and humiliations. His former wives and other women had new lives to live and reputations to protect.
But for a journalist probing these accusations and knowing that the resulting expose could destroy the subject’s career, professional standards require offering up real people and real names to make those charges. That is why I spent three years on the Gafni trail, interviewing dozens of people about the allegations of sexual misbehavior, before publishing anything. And at that point, in September 2004, I wrote an opinion column rather than a news story because I still did not have anyone with first-hand experience of abuse speaking on the record.
I tried to present both sides, offering damning accounts from several women who claimed to have been victims of Gafni’s abuse when in their teens, and rabbis an others who supported their claims. And I offered up Gafni’s denials, and other rabbis defending him. They said that even if these things had happened, it was a long time ago and he had done teshuva (repentance).
Not surprisingly, the column was criticized harshly from both sides. The defenders, several of whom I greatly respect, said I had besmirched Gafni’s name; the women said I had been too sympathetic to him rather than expose him for the criminal they believed him to be.
My role is journalist, not judge. But in hindsight, I think I should have written at the time that I found the women far more credible than Gafni.
In the wake of Gafni’s apparent downfall, I spoke about the case to several colleagues who practice and teach journalism. One thinks I should have acted on my instincts and been tougher on Gafni, even though I had no first-hand accounts on the record. Another said I was right to have held out for the on-the-record attribution.
Several of Gafni’s most fervent defenders in the community now acknowledge that they were taken in by his protestations of victimizations. Each seemed to rely on the other as the source of proof of Gafni’s innocence, underscoring the lack of serious and professional investigations into such murky matters. At least one rabbinic defender was so upset at the time with the tone and tenor of Gafni’s critics, particularly on blogs and websites, that he seemed to conflate their stridency with Gafni’s claims of innocence.
But just because critics can be zealous and over the top at times doesn’t mean the source of their ire is blameless.
In the past, when Gafni said he had made mistakes in his life but that he had done teshuvah, some were ready to believe him; others were not. At some point in the future he is sure to reappear, eager to resume his role of spiritual guide and teacher, insisting he has gone through therapy and is cured.
Will we believe him then?
editor@jewishweek.org---------------------
2008: Gafni's first comeback
Opinion
Mordechai Gafni Is Back, In Utah, And Going On Offense
Gary Rosenblatt
Editor And Publisher
Marc Gafni. Via youtube.comThe last time Mordechai Gafni was in the news was two years ago, when the charismatic and controversial rabbi accused of sexual misconduct here and in Israel was dismissed as the rebbe of Bayit Chadash, a spiritual renewal community in Tel Aviv.
Faced with sexual abuse complaints filed with the police in Israel by several women who were former students or employees of Bayit Chadash, Gafni came to the U.S., issued a public statement apologizing to those he had hurt, said he was “sick” and needed treatment, and disappeared.
At the time (June 9, 2006), I wrote: “In the past, when Gafni said he had made mistakes in his life but that he had done teshuva, some were ready to believe him; others were not. At some point in the future he is sure to reappear, eager to resume his role of spiritual guide and teacher, insisting he has gone through therapy and is cured. “Will we believe him then?”
Well, Gafni has resurfaced in Salt Lake City, Utah and is insisting that he, not his female accusers, was the victim of the events of two years ago. He has an extensive website, which includes not only his teachings and writings on kabbalah and spirituality, but an aggressive defense of his previous actions, complete with a report on the results of a polygraph test he took which, he claims, clears him of abuse.
The test indicates that Gafni was engaged in mutual and consensual relationships with the women, he says.
(Gafni, formerly known as Mordechai Winiarz, was ordained by Shlomo Riskin, an Orthodox rabbi, but later evolved into a spiritual guru who wrote and lectured on incorporating Eros into Judaism. At 47, he has been married and divorced three times, and surrounded by accusations of sexual misbehavior his entire adult life.)
Gafni appears to have been embraced by a New Age spiritual community (not Jewish) in Salt Lake City, as evidenced by a lengthy and sympathetic profile in Catalyst, a local magazine focused on “the world’s ecological, social and spiritual crises,” and to which he has contributed a column called “Spiritually Incorrect.”
The profile, written by editor and publisher Greta deJong, portrays him as having saintly qualities but hounded by accusers — as often happens with “charismatic spiritual leaders,” she notes.
Gafni, on his Web site, says he will continue teaching, but “wishes to do so as a spiritual ‘artist’ rather than as a rabbi, guru, or formal teacher.”
He now says that he wrote his public apology for his behavior two years ago under stress, and that the women accusers banded together to destroy his career. He also argues that his chief critics are bloggers who are irresponsible and untrue in their accusations.
Complaints about Gafni’s alleged sexual misbehavior first came to light in 2004 when The Jewish Week reported on longstanding accusations against him.
Gafni told me at the time that one of the girls was troubled and had made up the story, but he did acknowledge a sexual relationship with the other girl when he was a 19-year-old rabbinical student.
“I was a stupid kid and we were in love,” Gafni said. “She was 14 going on 35, and I never forced her.”
In response to the report, several prominent rabbis — including Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Arthur Green, Joseph Telushkin, Saul Berman, Tirzah Firestone and Arthur Waskow — rallied to Gafni’s defense, saying the evidence of impropriety was not convincing.
Two years later, after the news broke in Israel, several of those same rabbis backtracked, arguing that the new accusations were different from the old ones.
On Gafni’s Web site, where he describes himself as “a cutting edge spiritual teacher, author, television personality, mediator, corporate consultant, iconoclast and gentle provocateur,” as well as a “Heart Servant,” he writes that his primary motto is “Do No Harm.”
He has done plenty, though, based on extensive interviews I have had with those once close to him, including two of his former wives, and rabbis and Jewish educators who feel he misrepresented himself to them.
Gafni has always been best at re-inventing himself, and no doubt he will continue to charm, if not seduce, others with his ideas and personality. But with the attention he has received in The Jewish Week and elsewhere, people can no longer say they were unaware of his past.
JTA contributed to this report.---------------------
2011: More allegations
of sexual misconduct, this time from a new community
Opinion
Marc Gafni, Again: Faces Complaints From 'Spiritual Wisdom' Community
Gary Rosenblatt
Editor And Publisher
Marc Gafni. Via youtube.comThe news this week that Marc Gafni faces new allegations of sexual misconduct from those in the “spiritual wisdom” community with which he has been associated the last five years was sad, even tragic, but not surprising. And it brought back a flood of memories.
For much of the last decade, off and on, I followed the career of Gafni, 50, a former Orthodox rabbi who became a leader of the Jewish spiritual renewal movement, here and in Israel, and then a teacher among those in the New Age community seeking life insights. He is a charming, bright and charismatic man, but has been dogged throughout his career by reports of inappropriate sexual activities with women younger than him, many of them his students.
He has publicly acknowledged that he has made mistakes in his life, but always asserted that the accusations were false.
Gafni and I spoke a number of times about what he called “the witch hunt” against him, which he claimed was motivated by a small group of women and a few Orthodox rabbis who he said were jealous of his popular appeal.
Seven years ago I interviewed more than 50 people for a column I wrote about Gafni, and which was published in September 2004. I tried to offer a balanced portrait of a man that some women called a predator and some rabbis defended as a gifted, troubled soul who may have made missteps in his youth but who had done teshuva.
I presented the rabbis’ words of support and the women’s complaints that he took advantage of both their youth and the imbalance of the student-teacher relationship.
In the end, the women thought I was too easy on Gafni, the rabbis thought I shouldn’t have publicly scrutinized him.
At one point during my research on Gafni, in 2003 or 2004, he came to my office for a lengthy interview and insisted that his then-third wife, subsequently divorced, be present. I still have the tape.
I got the impression he felt that if he could sit down face to face with someone, anyone, he could convince that person he was telling the truth. And I think he believed he was telling the truth, even when subsequent events proved otherwise.
That day his wife, 15 years his junior, looked at him adoringly and at times referred to him as rebbe – she had been his student. A few years later she wrote, in an effort to alert others, that she had ignored warnings about Gafni when they dated and that he had lied to her, cheated on her and abused her verbally throughout their marriage.
In Israel, Gafni led a new spiritual group called Bayit Chadash, but he abruptly returned to the U.S. in 2006 when three female members of the community in their 20s went to the police to charge him with sexual harassment.
He downplayed his rabbinic background here, becoming a popular lecturer in the so-called integral community, which promotes spiritual wisdom.
But William Harryman, a self-described blogger, personal trainer and transformation coach, posted a recent report quoting Tami Simon of Sounds True, a company that publishes books and CDs on inner wisdom, that recent actions by Gafni have left her disillusioned.
Though she said she had believed his denials about past relationships, Simon is quoted as saying that based on “new and incontrovertible information” that Gafni was having secret, sexual relationships with two women, one of whom was his student, her company decided not to publish Gafni’s newest book, “Your Unique Self.” She also wrote, according to Harryman, that she could no longer support Gafni “as a spiritual teacher in the world.
“I do not trust Marc Gafni,” she stated. “I do not trust what he says, and I do not trust that he acts in the best interests of his students or his professional alliances.”
Robb Smith, CEO of Integral Life, which deals with spiritual wisdom, wrote in a blog yesterday that he was ending his organization’s association with Gafni, removing his contributions from the group’s website and calling for a new policy on ethics among contributors to the site.
The last time I spoke to Gafni was several years ago when he called me with an odd request. He said he wanted to fly to New York from the West, where he lived, just to meet with me for an hour or two. He said he didn’t care if I wrote about the meeting or not, he just wanted to present his side of the story to me one more time.
I declined.---------------------
READ THE FULL STORY
National
Gafni Faces Fallout From New Age Community
Deepak Chopra cuts ties publicly; Esalen Institute ‘in flux’ over abuse allegations aimed at former rabbi.
Gary Rosenblatt
Editor And Publisher
Marc Gafni. Via marcgafni.comWith spiritual guru Marc Gafni the subject of a widening and increasingly public effort to denounce his status in the New Age community, based on accusations that he is a sexual abuser, the prestigious Esalen Institute is “in flux” over whether to allow the former rabbi to offer a planned workshop on relationships next month.
Gordon Wheeler, president of the institute, told The Jewish Week that the leadership of the Big Sur, Calif.-based retreat and educational center is “looking into the situation,” based on complaints being raised about Gafni’s behavior.
Already some 25 New Age leaders — including Deepak Chopra, the best-selling author; Andrew Harvey, founder of the Institute for Sacred Activism; Craig Hamilton, CEO of Evolving Wisdom; author Jean Houston; and Stephen Dinan, CEO of The Shift Network — have signed a public statement disavowing themselves from Gafni.
(Chopra is believed to have disengaged from Gafni several years ago privately.)
The leaders, who sent out their statement to 180,000 subscribers to The Shift Network, said they had “concluded, based upon direct experience, investigation, or conversation with trusted allies, that we cannot endorse Marc Gafni as a teacher in any way.”
In his radio broadcast, Harvey, a highly respected figure in the New Age movement, said that after hearing complaints about Gafni, he sought out and spoke to “very brave” women who said they had suffered abuse from Gafni. Theirs were “some of the most painful and devastating life stories” he had ever heard, he said, detailing “mind control and physical abuse.”
Harvey said he is praying for the women and for Gafni, who he described as “a person of remarkable gifts who has made a series of very dangerous and destructive choices, it seems.”
Also last week a strongly worded petition entitled “Stop Marc Gafni From Abusing Again” was posted on the website change.org by Rabbi David Ingber, spiritual leader of Romemu in New York. The statement was signed initially by more than 100 rabbis, as well as other prominent educators in the Jewish community. It calls on those who continue to support Gafni “to cut all financial and institutional ties with … one who teaches spirituality but acts with absolute disregard for those teachings.”
As of Tuesday, more than 2,600 people had signed on, and the there were hundreds of online comments from men and women who accused Gafni of dishonesty, deception, manipulation and immoral activity.
Chief targets of the effort are Whole Foods, whose co-founder and CEO John Mackey, is a supporter of Gafni and chairs the executive board of Gafni’s Center for Integral Wisdom, and the Esalen Institute, where Gafni is scheduled to co-present a workshop on “Evolutionary Relationships” on Feb. 5-7.
Rabbi Ingber told The Jewish Week that as Gafni “rises in the New Age world he continues to act with impunity. We in the Jewish community didn’t do enough years ago. We could have prevented many of the more recent victims.”
Gafni, 55, has been the subject of numerous reports in The Jewish Week since 2004, when he acknowledged a number of sexual relationships outside of marriage but denied accusations that he had sexually abused two teenage girls when he was a young rabbi. While he recently said he did not represent himself “as someone who didn’t sleep with students,” he has long asserted that his critics exaggerate allegations against him and that he is victim of a vendetta. His Orthodox ordination from Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, founding rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue and now chief rabbi of Efrat, a Jewish community in the West Bank, was rescinded years ago when numerous allegations of sexual misconduct were leveled at Gafni. The Jewish Renewal movement reiterated its ban against Gafni last week, saying he is “not a rabbi or spiritual leader recognized by Aleph: Alliance for Spiritual Renewal.”
Long considered persona non grata in virtually all segments of the Jewish community, Gafni became newsworthy most recently when The New York Times published an article Dec. 25 on his increasing stature in the New Age community, which has prompted an exploration into his controversial past history.
“We are listening and learning,” said Esalen’s Wheeler told The Jewish Week. “We are not brushing away” the accusations against Gafni, who is described on the Esalen website as “a visionary scholar, public intellectual and spiritual artist” whose “teaching is marked by a deep transmission of heart, love and leading-edge provocative wisdom.”
Esalen is said to be exploring whether it is legally bound to honor its contractual commitment with Gafni for the upcoming workshop next month. Wheeler noted that such contracts with teachers — it has nearly 1,000 of them a year — emphasize ethical behavior and strictly prohibit teachers from engaging in any sexual contact or flirtation with students while at Esalen.
“Our policy is one strike and you’re out” when it comes to inappropriate behavior during programs at the institute, which seeks to foster transformational behavior to change the world.
Wheeler also said that a number of popular and gifted teachers over the years have not been invited to Esalen because of violation of boundary issues.
“It’s a slippery slope to judge someone’s intimate behavior,” Wheeler said, adding that Esalen has not had a case where it did not honor a contract signed with a teacher. But he said the institute is continuing to hold conversations with Gafni and his critics to determine “the best outcome, and how we go forward after Feb. 7,” the date of the workshop.
“We need counsel and education, and we appreciate” hearing from those whose information can be helpful, Wheeler said. “It’s a very sad situation but it is heartening that people are dealing with these issues.”
Whole Foods Market issued a statement that said “John Mackey’s involvement with Marc Gafni and the Center for Integral Wisdom is his personal business and does not represent an endorsement or support for either Mr. Gafni or the Center for Integral Wisdom by Whole Foods Market.”
Some critics contend that Mackey, in his capacity as an executive board member of Gafni’s nonprofit center, is violating his fiduciary responsibility to the ethical values of Whole Foods.
The rabbis and Jewish communal leaders who signed the Gafni petition wrote that they were “motivated by the obligation embedded in the belief that whoever saves a single life, it is as if they have saved a whole world. Marc Gafni has left a trail of pain, suffering, and trauma amongst the people and congregations who were unfortunate to have trusted him. He has abused his extraordinary intellectual gifts and charisma to harm many who came to him in search of spiritual guidance and teaching. He has used professional alliances to legitimize himself by association, and thereby be able to continue creating more harm. As a result Marc Gafni is neither trusted, respected, nor welcome to teach virtually anywhere in Judaism.
“In community after community, those who have trusted him have had their trust betrayed,” the petition continued. “Some of those who sign here were severely misled and [former] defenders of Gafni’s integrity” later came to see that they too “had been deceived. For decades now, Gafni has behaved in ways that violate every ethical and legal standard known to us; his misdeeds go far beyond what was reported in the New York Times.”
Donna Zerner of Portland, Ore., worked on a book with Gafni about a dozen years ago, when she was single and lived in Colorado. She told The Jewish Week their involvement progressed for a time and she is currently in close contact with eight women “who also felt traumatized by their experience” with Gafni.
In her comment on the petition she said she was writing “on behalf of those of us who have been exploited, manipulated and traumatized by our toxic entanglements with this man. After decades of attacking and discrediting his victims, and hoodwinking reputable leaders and organizations into trusting him as a man of integrity — just as we once fervently trusted and supported him — it is time for the truth to finally emerge so that no one else is hurt.”
Gary@jewishweek.org---------------------
The Jewish Week
1501 Broadway, Suite 505
New York, New York 10036, United States
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