Emory University has ended its investigation of a professor who the school said admitted to creating a fake identity in order to write letters to Jewish journals and gain access to a members-only listserv of an international, Orthodox rabbinic group.
An Emory committee made up of two faculty members from the law school and one from Emory’s College of Arts and Sciences concluded the actions of Michael Broyde, a prominent rabbi, were “exclusively for activities in his rabbinic capacities, not in his scholarly capacities connected with Emory University,” according to a statement released by the university. Broyde is identified on Emory’s website as professor of law and senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion.
“Nevertheless, candor is an extremely important value for the legal profession, the law school, and the university, and Professor Broyde has pledged that in the future he will not engage in any conduct that conflicts with this value,” according to the statement.
Emory declined to comment beyond the statement. Broyde could not be reached for comment.
In Emory’s statement, however, Broyde said he deeply regretted his actions “and I apologize that some of my rabbinic work has come to reflect adversely on Emory University, an institution that I have so proudly served since 1991.”
Broyde acknowledged that he created the fake identify, Hershel Goldwasser, which he used to write to Jewish journals, sometimes praising his own work. As Goldwasser, he also had access to the listserv of the International Rabbinic Fellowship.
According to report by the Jewish Channel TV newsdesk, “the Goldwasser character became a member of an upstart Orthodox rabbinical group … which was founded in 2008 as a more-liberal rival to the group of which Broyde is a member, the 90-year-old Rabbinical Council of America, or RCA.
“With that membership, the Goldwasser character gained access to a … listserv with which he could remain apprised of members’ plans and ideological arguments.”
Broyde is also the founding rabbi of Young Israel of Toco Hills in Atlanta.
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