Rabbi Sarah Bassin speaks out on the sexual harassment she experienced at HUC

Editor’s note: SoCal Jewish News has compiled a summary of the 33-page report. It is available to read here.

On Nov. 4, Hebrew Union College — the seminary at which I was ordained as a rabbi — released a report detailing a pervasive culture of sexual harassment and assault. As one of more than 100 current and former students interviewed, I shared my experience of enduring weekly harassment in an independent study with a professor. Ultimately, I filed a formal harassment complaint that became the first time this professor was held measurably accountable for his known abuse that lasted almost 40 years.

Forty years.

People have commended me for my courage in stepping forward. But let me say this: I was just as terrified as every other woman who endured this in the decades before me. I was scared of the power he had over my academic record. I was scared of lasting professional retribution. I was scared that this incident would become the totality of my reputation. What made the difference in my ability to come forward had little to do with me and everything to do with the support people gave.

I was able to come forward because professor Beatrice Wallins was a witness and filed her own formal complaint to validate mine.

I was able to come forward because Rabbi Dvora Weisberg made it clear that under no circumstances would I ever have to take another class with this professor. She created and taught an independent study for me to meet my core curricular needs without him.

I was able to come forward because Madelyn Katz (director of student life and later associate dean) walked me through every step of the complaint process and checked in on me almost daily for months.

I was able to come forward because my friend Rabbi Adam Wright accompanied me to the formal hearing just to be there in support.

I was able to come forward because Rabbi Rachel Adler’s compassionate, thoughtful questions and presence overseeing the formal hearing made an otherwise unbearable experience endurable.

All of us hope that this reckoning will transform a broken culture at HUC, but many institutions have not and will not have such a reckoning for the foreseeable future. Institutions will continue to fall into conspiracies of silence. But we are not powerless.

I was able to come forward because the classmates and friends who knew  — Stephanie Kramer, Jessy Gross Dressin, Ilana Mills, Samantha Orshan Kahn and others — had my back every time I struggled to walk through the front door of the building while the investigation was ongoing and he roamed the halls.

I was able to come forward because the whisper network did its thing and messages of encouragement from other people who said they were victims, too, made their way back to me, telling me I was not alone.

It has been cathartic for the name of the perpetrator to be made public in this report (see page 26). But more than making his name known, I want to make known the names and actions of the people who made it possible for me to come forward.

All of us hope that this reckoning will transform a broken culture at HUC, but many institutions have not and will not have such a reckoning for the foreseeable future. Institutions will continue to fall into conspiracies of silence. But we are not powerless. Conspiracies of support can reach a tipping point and dismantle the conspiracies of silence if enough people choose to step up.

The report is available to download here.

 Rabbi Sarah Bassin is the associate rabbi at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills.