82-year-old rabbi acquitted of decades-old sex-crime accusations in Montreal

Rabbi Shlomo Leib (Leon) Mund walked out of a Montreal courthouse a free man on Sept. 25, after a Court of Quebec judge acquitted the 82-year-old rabbi of two sex-crime charges dating back to when the high-profile religious leader taught at an Orthodox school and offered unlicensed marriage counselling in the 1980s and 1990s. The CJN can’t identify the complainant due to a court-ordered publication ban on their identity. But the case made headlines in Canada and Israel in the spring of 2022 after Mund was arrested at the Toronto airport. The widower has since been living under house arrest in Toronto for nearly two and a half years while his case wound through the Quebec legal system. The court heard the alleged victim testify how, when they were seven or eight years old, Mund allegedly sexually assaulted them in the back seat of his car near the rabbi’s former Montreal home in 1997. Mund always denied the accusations. In the 29-page ruling, the judge noted the complainant's “inconsistent statement to [their] husband” about what happened, which “undermines [their] credibility and the reliability of [their] testimony.” The court also heard suggestions the alleged victim hoped to get justice for other members of the family and for Jewish women in the city’s Orthodox community who say the rabbi had also sexually assaulted them. The CJN Daily‘s Ellin Bessner was at the courthouse for the verdict. On today’s episode, she speaks with lawyers for both sides, as well as officials with the ZA’AKAH organization, which supports child sexual abuse victims in the Orthodox community. You’ll also hear from Ruth Pinsky Krevsky, who approached Montreal police about her own allegations of inappropriated behaviour by Rabbi Mund years ago—but was never called to testify during this trial.

What we talked about

• Read our original story on the arrest and charges laid against Rabbi Shlomo Leib (Leon) Mund in April 2022, in The CJN.
• Hear our interview with the complainant in May 2022 on why she came forward after 25 years, on The CJN Daily
• Read what the judge wrote in the R. vs. Mund verdict and hear from the new survivor who has come forward now, in The CJN.

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
• Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
• Music: Dov Beck-Levine

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