Shalom Hartman Institute hires ex-Ramah Berkshires director for education position

(JTA) — Six months after a lawsuit claimed that he mishandled an allegation of sexual assault between campers at Camp Ramah within the Berkshires, the camp’s former director, Rabbi Ethan Linden, has a brand new job.

Linden started a task as director of instructional operations and design for the Shalom Hartman Institute on Monday, the Jewish education nonprofit confirmed. The job entails supporting Hartman’s instructional packages all year long in a “vital internal coordination and consultative role,” in accordance with a Hartman spokesperson.

The Shalom Hartman Institute runs greater than a thousand packages over the course of the 12 months, starting from one-off lectures to convenings of thought leaders to a niche 12 months program in Israel. It additionally operates two excessive colleges, one within the United States and one in Israel.

The spokesperson declined to say whether or not Linden would have any contact with the kids concerned in Hartman’s packages however stated in a press release, “We maintain rigorous processes for screening and evaluating prospective employees for competence and character in our commitment to the excellence of our work.”

The new job caps a tumultuous interval for Linden, who was certainly one of three events named in a lawsuit filed in early May by a former camper at Ramah within the Berkshires, the place he had been director since 2016. The camp and Linden informed the court docket in August that they’d reached a settlement with the previous camper, which was finalized final month.

The lawsuit alleged that Linden and others overseeing the camp had “acted with deliberate indifference” in the summertime of 2018 after the camper alleged that she had been sexually assaulted by a male camper. The lawsuit alleged that Linden didn’t inform the camper’s household of the assault, and as an alternative pressured her to not inform her mother and father and concerned the police solely after her mother and father realized in regards to the alleged assault.

The swimsuit additionally claimed that Camp Ramah and National Ramah Commission, the group that oversees the entire Ramah camps, was conscious of the alleged assault and the way it was dealt with by not less than January 2019, and that they allowed Linden to stay in cost. Both teams stated in a press release in May that the camp had beforehand cooperated with legislation enforcement.

Linden was positioned on depart one week after the lawsuit was filed, and National Ramah Commission Director Amy Skopp Cooper led Camp Ramah within the Berkshires final summer season. On Nov. 1, Susie Charendoff took over as its interim director.

The camp knowledgeable households on Oct. 16 that Linden had resigned from his position, saying, “We wish him all the best and know that we will miss his many talents, his energy and spirit, his warmth, and his passion for Jewish camping.”

Linden had beforehand labored as a rabbi at Shir Chadash Conservative Congregation in Metairie, Louisiana, close to New Orleans, and at three different Ramah camps.

A lawyer for Ethan Linden didn’t return a request for remark by publication time.