Please reconsider your efforts to exonerate and mainstream Rabbi Mordecai Tendler ["Expelled by the RCA, Fired by His Shul, Slaughtered on the Blogs, Rabbi Mordecai Tendler Is Cleaning Their Clocks in Court, July 2008]. It is a tremendous tragedy what occurred, but he severely violated halacha and deeply hurt many single and married women, most of whom have enough emotional problems to start with.

Your article could not have come from you, as it is deceptively inaccurate on almost all the facts. As to the legal rulings for Rabbi Tendler, all causes of action in the Kehillat New Hempstead case were dismissed with the exception of one in the Derivative Action and one in the Contract. The rulings were only that they are willing to hear the case in court. We have tried to avoid court to because the outcome will further damage your friends. Hardly a win for him or his family.

As for Adina Marmelstein, he did not win. He just avoided having to go to court. And thereby avoided having to submit to a DNA test.

The board of KNH is trying its utmost of keep a respectful low-keyed resolution to this issue. Our regard for [Rabbi Tendler’s grandfather] Rabbi Moshe Feinstein is always utmost in our deliberations and in our actions.

I do not understand why you owe the Tendler family so much as to betray your honor and personal quest for truth. From what I have read from your other articles, you are a deeply passionate Jewess. Please do not let that passion misdirect the Jewish people.

After reading the story about Rabbi Tendler, I was just thrilled for the family. Perhaps now he will get his jobs back in his community and at Yeshiva University.

Rabbi Tendler’s lawyer said that his client was "vindicat[ed]" by the two recent New York State court decisions to which he was a party. While Rabbi Tendler was, indeed, overwhelmingly victorious in both cases, saying that he was vindicated seems to be an overstatement.

The Court of Appeals decision dismissing Ms. Marmelstein’s case did not rule on the facts of the case. Rather, the Court held that even if the facts alleged in Ms. Marmelstein's complaint were true—that is, that Rabbi Tendler had a four-year sexual relationship with Ms. Marmelstein—Ms. Marmelstein has no legal claim in New York.

The only way for Rabbi Tendler to be vindicated—that is, to be cleared of accusation or blame—would be to have some court, jury, or beit din hear evidence and make a decision based on that evidence. The Court of Appeals did not, however, make such a decision and, apparently, no court will ever make such a decision.

The Appellate Division decision granting Rabbi Tendler summary judgment on his claim against his former shul for wrongful termination was also not a complete vindication. While the Court held in Rabbi Tendler’s favor that the shul breached its contract with him by not having a rabbinical court authorize his termination before such termination took place, it noted that the Congregation claimed it received such authorization after the termination.

While that was not sufficient under New York law, the Court did not find that Rabbi Tendler was "fir[ed] without the benefit of a beit din." It found only that he was fired without the prior benefit of a beit din since the alleged subsequent authorization, while perhaps significant under Jewish law, had no relevance under New York law.

Courts of law can do only so much. In this case, as is often true, the two courts decided the cases without vindicating either party.

I wish to salute editor Susan Rosenbluth for her dogged investigative reporting on the Tendler situation. What happened to Rabbi Mordecai Tendler and his family was the worst miscarriage of justice I have ever seen .The blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the RCA and the malicious individuals who run it.

The leaders of the RCA personally made slanderous insinuations regarding Rabbi Tendler and caused him to lose his good name and livelihood. It is a great irony that those women who sought to ruin Rabbi Tendler with their fairy tales were offered anonymity by the RCA .The women involved claimed they needed to have their identities protected for fear of retaliation.(What they feared were actually lawsuits for slander and defamation).

As fate would have it the RCA betrayed them as well by sending a list of the "anonymous" accusers to Rabbi Tendler.

I have no explanation for this insane behavior. The accusers sent out anonymous circulars to cause the destruction (G-d forbid) of an innocent man. How can the rabbi defend himself if he doesn't know who is accusing him? The tactic of sending anonymous letters is underhanded and intentional. The Tendlers have identified the culprit. I believe this will all come out in court.

The Tendlers spent everything to defend themselves. Once accusations are made people tend to believe them. However, the situation is now reversed. The RCA , the accusers, as well as the congregation that breached the rabbi’s contract are the ones who are now on the defensive. The payout from future lawsuits will be huge and devastating.

People can defame, slander, and destroy. But we have laws in this country to defend the innocent. When you destroy a person’s good name, you will indeed end up "paying the piper."

Between its inaction on the Lanner scandal and its persecution of the innocent Rabbi Tendler, the RCA is a blot on our community. The only way they have half a chance of saving their organization is a change of leadership at the top. The RCA has besmirched our sacred Torah values and is a complete disgrace to the Jewish religion.

The Jewish Voice and Opinion has always advocated for a fair and impartial evaluation of the accusations leveled against Rabbi Mordecai Tendler. Kudos for taking the lead in reporting on the status of the various lawsuits to which Rabbi Tendler is a party. Needless to say, coverage of these cases was at its highest when these various actions had not yet played out. I do feel, however, that your article did not convey the sheer magnitude of the accomplishments Rabbi Tendler has achieved in a number of different venues.

Undoubtedly, any litigant seeks success at the trial court level. The odds of prevailing dramatically drop at the appellate level, and in all of the actions to which Rabbi Tendler was or is a party, the trial courts proved to be challenging province.

In California, Rabbi Tendler was facing judgment of tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to compensate the anonymous bloggers so that they could remain anonymous. The bloggers themselves were counting their money, and were concerned not with how much they would get, but which of Rabbi Tendler’s assets they would attach their judgment to.

Yet in a decision of landmark significance, the appellate justices in San Jose delivered the bloggers a very clear message: they could certainly defend their First Amendment rights, but they wouldn’t get a penny from Rabbi Tendler to help them do so.

The Marmelstein action, which generated much of the blog fodder, also failed at the appellate level after it was decided in Manhattan Supreme Court that the case would go to trial on two of the causes of action set forth in the complaint. Bloggers ran amok with glee at the mere thought of Rabbi Tendler giving depositions.

Blog post after blog post disgracefully and inexcusably portrayed not only Rabbi Tendler, but sadly, his wife and family, in ways generally reserved for the worst of our society. Yet depositions will never come. None of the proofs the blogs ranted about, from tapes to covertly procured hair follicles, were ever produced, if they exist anywhere except in the minds of the bloggers themselves.

Granted, the case was not tried on the merits. But the very essence of the litigation process is adversarial in nature. No one faced with the same allegations would have fought them any differently. In the end, Rabbi Tendler was absolutely victorious, against the odds, at the appellate level.

Yet the most stunning success came from the Appellate Division that sits in Brooklyn over Rockland Supreme. There, not only did Rabbi Tendler see a reversal of the lower court’s dismissal, he received a decision on the merits of his complaints against Kehillat New Hempstead. Again, success of this kind at this level is the legal equivalent of a royal flush; you know it’s possible, but you just don’t see it that often.

As a former member and officer of KNH, I only hope for the success of the shul, and have no doubt that those now in control acted in a manner they felt was consistent with the shul’s best interests. But the mere fact that the shul is still engaged in litigation bodes poorly for the future of the congregation.

The venomous blog attacks were a disgrace on so many levels as to defy reasonable understanding. Today, thankfully, they are silent. No surprise there really. In the face of these unlikely and remarkable victories, what more could we expect from people who hide behind their keyboards and take pot shots at someone who has maintained his innocence from day one, has not buckled under intense pressure, and has called upon the legal system to provide him relief from an onslaught of unimaginable proportion.

I have been fortunate for many years now to call Rabbi Tendler not only my rav, but my friend. Guilty or innocent, friends stand by each other, help each other through life’s challenges, and appreciate each other’s support and understanding.

Essentially, all Rabbi Tendler has ever asked was for cooler heads to prevail, to objectively address the allegations brought against him.

Fortunately, he has found those cooler heads, some as far away as California, and others a bit closer to home. On two fronts, the litigation is over. Hopefully, the final actions left will be resolved in a manner that restores some dignity to a once thriving community, and more importantly, to a dear friend of mine.

I have no direct interest in the Tendler case other than as a reader of the news and as a human being. One of the many sources of news regarding that case that I have reviewed is your publication. I find that your relentless defense of Mordecai Tendler appears blind, ludicrous, without merit, and serves to devalue the rest of the critically important information the Jewish Voice and Opinion brings to its Jewish readers.

To be sure, our illustrious court system has a history of being grossly unfair to women. Basing your arguments on that historically questionable authority as being the oracle of all that is right with the world, it appears that you have chosen to ignore all the evidence to the contrary. Your unabashed support of Tendler appears to come from a person who chooses to support the veracity of a title regardless of the preponderance of evidence that indicates that title is no longer deserved.

To be sure, there are too many abusers of women and children who are either ignored or freed by the court system due to misguided historical legal precedent. The results of this miscarriage of justice is evident by the visibly horrific results that have been making the news as a direct result of the judicial system’s malfeasance.

While the criminal court claimed OJ was innocent of murder, who believes that? The same is true of hundreds of clear abusers of women and children who are freed by this highly flawed system each year—a system that continues to give more rights to rapist than to the victims of rape; to abusers than to victims of abuse.

The problem is so egregious and pervasive that it requires a special kind of person not to recognize that the legal system is broken when it comes to protecting the basic human rights of women and children.

I implore you to consider the plethora of judicious review, conclusions, and actions taken by reputable Jewish authorities in this context. The track record of these organizations, while certainly not perfect, has been significantly more consistent with what is right than the court system.