More Non-existent Positions Claimed by Our Scandal-plagued Rabbi?

In this post I continue to dissect the claims made on the personal website of Walter Homolka. My previous post showed that his claim of taking and passing an exam as the culmination of rabbinical studies at Leo Baeck College is simply false. In addition, the implication from the layout that he received rabbinical ordination from LBC is also false. As a reminder for readers, here is the relevant CV page from the site before he cleaned it up due to the scandal that has exploded around him in the past year:

Princeton?

As can be seen, Homolka also claimed here to have served on the “Advisory Council of Princeton University.” This would be quite an honor were it true. The wording implies that he was a member of an advisory council to the university as a whole, a rather lofty appointment. The webpage asserts that he has served on this committee since 2000, again, an impressive tenure.

I contacted Princeton University. The Dean of Faculty, Gene Andrew Jarrett, a professor of English literature, wrote back a week or so ago:

“Homolka served on the Advisory Council for the Program in Judaic Studies at Princeton University between 2000 and 2002,” wrote Jarrett. Therefore, Homolka served not on some university-level council, and not for well over a decade, but on the advisory committee to the Judaic Studies Dept. and that only for two years. It seems his website’s description of this position represents yet another intentional misstatement intended to bolster Homolka’s credientials.

One former faculty member recalled that the decision to invite Homolka onto this board was made by the then director and that the department faculty “was surprised about it.” Two sources told me that Homolka never showed up for a meeting.

Ordination “Confirmed” by the European Beit Din?

Homolka claims that his rabbinic ordination was “confirmed” by several entities, including the European Beit Din. The European Beit Din (EBD) is a rabbinic court of the Liberal movement. (Rabbinic courts, made up of a minimum of three rabbis, officiate at and supervise various ritual functions, such as determining a person’s Jewish status, conversion, ruling in disputes, etc.) Rabbis intimately involved with the EBD deny that the body ever “certified” Homolka’s ordination. Here is an email stating this from Rabbi Emeritus Rodney Mariner, the EBD’s first Convenor:

I know the above image is difficult to read, so here is the relevant text:

On Thursday, November 17, 2022, 6:35 pm, Jonathan Schorsch jschorsch@uni-potsdam.de wrote:
Dear Rabbis Mariner and Lilienthal,
I write to you at the suggestion of Rabbi Walter Rothschild. He has told me that Walter Homolka’s claim, as reflected on his personal website’s Lebsenslauf (CV), that the European Beit Din “certified” his ordination, is false. Can you confirm Rabbi Rothschild’s statement?
I am the person who submitted early this year the official complaint to the University of Potsdam that finally brought the matter of Homolka’s years-long reign of misconduct into the public eye. I consider him a danger to the well-being of many individuals, to the institutions he himself founded, to the progressive Jewish community of Germany, and therefore, to Judaism as a whole.
Your assistance will be greatly appreciated, will be of much help, and in my opinion is a mitzva.
Kind regards,
Jonathan Schorsch

On 11/17/2022 3:47 PM, Rodmariner wrote:
Dear Jonathan Schorsch,
I can confirm Rabbi Rothschild’s statement regarding the ordination in question.
Kind regards,
Rodney Mariner

Why a rabbi would need “confirmation” of his ordination to begin with is unclear to me, especially if it were a kosher ordination from a recognized authority, whether that be an individual rabbi, a rabbinic seminary, or a yeshiva.

A Member of the European Beit Din?

Things regarding the European Beit Din get even fishier, however. Here is another version of Homolka’s CV on his personal website:

homolka-lebenslauf-p.-2Download

(The screenshot was taken by Rabbi Walter Rothschild, who marked his evaluation in pen. He provided me with the image.) Here Homolka claims to have been an actual member of the European Beit Din, and for quite some time. To be named as a member of this rabbinic court would mean having the approval and respect of the rabbinic authorities behind the EBD and of the Liberal movement as a whole.

This claim also turns out to be false, however, as stated by the rabbis of the EBD itself:

In short, two of the rabbis central to the European Beit Din deny that Homolka was ever a member.

I will end this post now. I hope the evidence I have presented speaks for itself. In my opinion, none of these cases can be a matter of unintentional error. In the next installment I will turn to other instances of misrepresentation beyond Homolka’s personal website.

I wish everyone a very meaningful and enjoyable chag shavuot sameach! On this celebration of the receiving of the Torah, let us meditate on the values this beloved Jewish canon should instill in a spiritual and community leader. It pains me deeply to see such worthy values willfully violated by someone who should instead be upholding and spreading them.