Study: Many students at Los Angeles rabbinical school experienced sexism and homophobia, but not ‘systematically’ – The Forward

The American Jewish University’s Family Campus is a 22-acre site that has housed the Ziegler School of Rabbinical Studies since 1996. The school sold the property earlier this year and Ziegler moved to a smaller campus off-site. Photo by Cbl62/Wikicommons

By Louis Keene
June 18, 2024

A law firm hired to investigate complaints from former graduates about sexism and harassment at the Ziegler School of Rabbinical Studies found that these concerns were not shared by the majority of graduates but were largely echoed by those who did not complete the program.

The firm Cozen O’Connor said nearly 90 percent of the roughly 150 graduates of Ziegler, a conservative seminary that is part of the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, said there was no “culture or atmosphere of discrimination or harassment” at the school. But the firm also surveyed more than a dozen former students, 80 percent of whom said such an environment existed and “reported experiencing deep and lasting pain during and after their time at Ziegler,” the university wrote in a letter to its community.

The investigation was prompted by a letter from 13 former Ziegler students in April 2023 to the Rabbinical Assembly, a branch of the Conservative movement, in which they alleged a number of abuses. The school said it had learned of the letter through a Article it in the Forward.

The letter accused the university of “enforcing double standards toward women, tolerating or promoting homophobia and transphobia in the curriculum, and ignoring students’ concerns that the environment is toxic.”

The university said Monday that the law firm had interviewed 12 of the 13 signatories of the letter and that some of the events described by the students occurred as described, “but others either did not or lacked the necessary context.”

The report “does not conclude” that sexism and homophobia are “widespread or systematic,” the university said.

Rather, investigators attributed gender concerns to the historically patriarchal nature of Judaism.

“We are deeply saddened and dismayed to hear of the pain these individuals have expressed,” the university’s letter continues. “Our message to them: ‘We are listening to you and promise to do better.'”

The university said it would implement all of the company’s recommendations, including redesigning its Title IX program and improving student support.

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, one of the signatories of the first letter, said she now knows of at least 40 former students who have had negative experiences with abuse of power.

Many of those former students, Ruttenberg said in an interview, “are angry, though not surprised, that this statement from AJU so blatantly obscures what former students reported.” She called on the university to release the law firm’s full report.

Cozen O’Connor did not respond to a request for comment.

The Rabbinical Assembly’s ethics committee, known as Va’ad HaKavod, investigates rabbis accused of misconduct, but after receiving the first letter, it said it could not investigate an entire school. The signatories then called for ethics investigations into Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson and Rabbi Cheryl Peretz, dean and associate dean of Ziegler; the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported in March that the law firm is also conducting a separate investigation into her conduct.

The assembly said on Monday that the investigation was still ongoing.

“Although Cozen O’Connor’s report has not been provided to the RA or the RA’s Ethics Committee, today’s announcement by AJU clearly recognizes that some students have been poorly treated and that there are specific areas where improvement is possible,” the group said in a statement. “The RA supports its leadership in taking responsibility and addressing the concerns raised in the report.”

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