Apology Offered in Sex Scandal

Four years after he resigned amid a sex scandal, the former rabbi of one of Northern California’s largest Jewish temples--who is now program director at a Jewish cultural center in Los Angeles--has publicly apologized to the women affected by his advances.

Robert Kirschner, former rabbi at San Francisco’s Temple Emanu-El, offered the apologies in an article published in the Jewish Bulletin. The incidents took place during his 10 years with the congregation, beginning in 1982. He was named senior rabbi in 1985.

“I hereby acknowledge, with sorrow and profound regret, that I engaged in sexual relations outside of my marriage,” Kirschner said in the Bulletin.

Kirschner resigned the post in 1992 after four women registered sexual misconduct complaints with the temple’s board.

The allegations caused an uproar in the tightly woven congregation. Eight other women later came forward with similar allegations, but not all of them belonged to Temple Emanu-El.

At least three of the women later reached settlements with the temple’s insurance company, the Bulletin reported.

Kirschner called his conduct indefensible and asked for the “forgiveness of anyone who was hurt by my actions, and of my Rabbinic colleagues, whose standards I breached.”

After his resignation, Kirschner split up with his wife, with whom he has four children.

Kirschner moved to Southern California in 1993 on a research fellowship with the Skirball Museum to help develop core exhibits for its facility then being built in the Sepulveda Pass. On Jan. 1, he was named program director of the Skirball Cultural Center and Museum, which opened to the public in April.

“I think Jewish tradition calls for second chances and new beginnings,” said Uri D. Herscher, president of the center. “He’s expressed profound regret for his actions, and he insisted that the staff and lay leadership be apprised of his past conduct before he accepted the fellowship.”

Kirschner is forbidden to serve any new congregations until 2000.