He's a fallen Starr now:
"Longtime Sharon rabbi abruptly resigns; Led synagogue as it grew over 28 years" by David Abel | Globe staff May 11, 2014
SHARON — Over the years, Rabbi Barry Starr amassed accolades and built a national profile. He has served as president of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis, as well as the region’s Rabbinical Assembly, the umbrella group for Conservative rabbis. He has sat on the chancellor’s rabbinic cabinet of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism.
He had been best known as the beloved rabbi of Temple Israel of Sharon, where for the past 28 years he has presided over major renovations, seen his congregation grow to about 630 families, and delivered sermons about ethical standards and the value of tradition.
Starr’s reputation as a mensch — a person of integrity, someone to be looked up to — ended last week when he abruptly resigned from his position at Temple Israel, stunning people in this suburb south of Boston.
“I write this letter with a very heavy heart and a sense of shame and remorse that makes this the most difficult thing I have done in my life,” he told his congregants in a letter he sent by e-mail Tuesday. “As you know, sometimes people who try to be good people do things that are wrong, hurtful, and shameful.”
He e-mailed this in? What a coward!
The married father of two added: “It is with great remorse and deep regret that I acknowledge I have engaged in marital infidelity and other serious personal conduct which require me to resign.”
Oh, no. Not the Jews, too!
Starr went on to ask for forgiveness and implored congregants to allow his family to try to heal in private. Neither he nor officials of the congregation provided additional information about his decision to resign.
Aww, the poor, poor rabbi!
The rabbi, who according to public databases is 64 years old, declined to speak to a reporter Friday when he answered the door at his beige clapboard house in Sharon.
A separate e-mail sent to congregants from Benjamin Maron, executive director of Temple Israel, said some checks made payable to the rabbi’s discretionary fund over the past month may have been “compromised.”
Oh, no!! He not only committed adultery, he STOLE MONEY!
I just can't believe it!
“If the cheque [sic] has not cleared, we urge you to put a stop payment on that cheque [sic] and to notify the Temple Israel office,” he wrote.
Maron did not return calls seeking comment.
Arnie Freedman, president of Temple Israel, said in a telephone interview that the Norfolk district attorney’s office and local and State Police are investigating. Neither police nor prosecutors would confirm that an investigation is underway. They had no record of an arrest.
Freedman said he and many others here are grieving and trying to make sense of a turn of events that remains unfathomable to many congregants, hundreds of whom have long confided in Starr, looked to him for guidance, viewed him as a part of their family.
Yeah, the betrayal hurts worse when it is in a culture of superiority and supremacism.
“This is the most tragic thing that has happened in the life of this community,” said Freedman. “He’s always been the heart and soul of our community. We’re just grieving. We’re all very sad. We don’t know what’s going on.”
Poor Jews, always burdened, always the victims, poor, poor Jews.
He said he lacked details about the rabbi’s misdeeds.
“We, the community, would like to know why he resigned, as well,” he said. “I can tell you the temple has not made any allegations of any crime whatsoever against Rabbi Starr, about anything, on any level at all.”
He added: “At this point, all we have is each other to hold onto.”
Cue the violin music!
At the synagogue, other congregants declined to speak.
One woman who recently joined the congregation and declined to give her name would say only: “It’s upsetting.”
Jonathan Sarna, professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University and now a visiting professor at Harvard University, said Starr had been well regarded in the Conservative movement because of how he managed to expand his congregation.
See:
Somali Slut
Reinharz Received $5 Million From Brandeis
To Hell With Harvard
The $ynagogue of Satan?
But he noted it was not the first time a rabbi or other religious figures has betrayed the trust of his flock.
“These are some of the most difficult traumas that affect congregations,” he said.
In his letter, Starr blamed himself for the pain he has inflicted.
“I have hurt my wife and family the most,” he wrote. “Words cannot begin to express how I feel about that. I love them very much and have violated the basic decency that should govern such love relationships.”
He added: “I know I will have to bear the burden of guilt; I regret that they will have to bear the results of this throughout their lives.”
Starr wrote he planned to sell his house and would leave Sharon “as quickly as possible.”
He made one final request to his congregants.
“I beg of you do not call, write, or come to visit,” he wrote. “At present, I cannot face you, even though I care about you deeply. It is too painful, and I need time to work through the issues I face.”
What a cowardly f***!!!
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Wow, talk about a self-centered jerk. Seems to be a characteristic of certain tribal members.
"Rabbi at Sharon temple faces suit; Congregant says loan not paid back; Litigation filed in Stoughton court" by David Abel and Ellen Ishkanian | Globe staff and Globe correspondent May 12, 2014
The long-serving rabbi of Temple Israel in Sharon, who resigned last week after admitting marital infidelity and other misconduct, is facing legal action by an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, who said his spiritual adviser failed to repay him a $50,000 loan.
In litigation filed last week in Stoughton District Court, Morris Kesselman, a congregant of the temple for decades, said Rabbi Barry Starr came to his house in Sharon last fall and pleaded with him for money.
Oh, what a $cum!
“Rabbi Starr stated to me and my wife that he had a severe personal problem and said that he could go to no one else and asked if he could borrow the money, which he promised and swore that he would repay with interest,” Kesselman said in a sworn statement.
Hush money for his mistress?
He added: “Relying [on] our 28-year relationship with the rabbi, our spiritual counselor, and his promise, I wrote and gave a check for $50,000.”
Last week, Kesselman and hundreds of other members of the Conservative temple received a letter from the rabbi, in which he acknowledged his wrongdoing.
“Sometimes people who try to be good people do things that are wrong, hurtful, and shameful,” wrote Starr, 64, who is married with two children. “It is with great remorse and deep regret that I acknowledge I have engaged in marital infidelity and other serious personal conduct which require me to resign.”
In the letter, the rabbi told his congregants that he planned to leave Sharon “immediately” and that he planned to sell his two-story beige house as quickly as possible.
As a result, Kesselman asked the court to attach a lien to Starr’s home, which would require the rabbi to repay him with any proceeds from the sale.
Kesselman’s daughter said in a telephone interview Monday that her father declined to comment.
It was not clear why Starr needed the money, and he did not elaborate on his personal problems in the letter.
On Friday, Starr declined to comment.
Members of Temple Israel gathered Monday night at the synagogue to discuss the controversy; police escorted a Globe reporter off the premises.
And you thought you were welcome!
Police said they were told that most of the temple’s approximately 630 families were expected to attend.
After the meeting concluded more than two hours later, Paul Maltzman, who has been a member since 1958, said he was as shocked as when he arrived.
“We know something bad happened,” he said as he walked to his car. “That’s all we know.”
Maltzman said they were told that “things are now in the hands of the authorities.”
Maltzman called Rabbi Starr, “my rabbi, my clergy, my friend.”
“What could have caused him to do the things he is accused of? I’m shocked. I’m so upset that a man I loved, a man I still love, could do this. It’s like a bad dream.”
It's Bernie Madoff all over again!!
An e-mail sent last week to congregants from Benjamin Maron, executive director of Temple Israel, said some checks made payable to the rabbi’s discretionary fund over the past month may have been “compromised.”
A discretionary fund generally accepts donations to be used by the rabbi to help members of the community.
“If the cheque [sic] has not cleared, we urge you to put a stop payment on that cheque [sic] and to notify the Temple Israel office,” he wrote.
So not only did he use the fund to pay off his lover, he had to scrounge for more from his flock. What $cum.
Maron did not return calls seeking comment about the nature of the fund and how the checks had been compromised.
Arnie Freedman, president of Temple Israel, said in a telephone interview last week that the Norfolk district attorney’s office and local and state police are investigating. Neither police nor prosecutors would confirm that an investigation is underway.
Freedman did not return calls Monday afternoon.
Last week, he described how much Starr meant to the congregation and how much members looked up to a man who served as president of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis and the region’s Rabbinical Assembly, the umbrella group for Conservative rabbis.
In other words, he was/is one of those hard-line, Zionist settler jerks.
“This is the most tragic thing that has happened in the life of this community,” Freedman told the Globe. “He’s always been the heart and soul of our community. We’re just grieving. We’re all very sad. We don’t know what’s going on.”
Violin music fades.....
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Related: So Long, Sharon
And so long to the other sack of shit from Sharon.
