UK
United Synagogue minister sacked after arrest loses employment tribunal claim
Rabbi Dr Moshe Freedman of New West End Synagogue was dismissed for inappropriate touching and posting violent videos
August 12, 2025 09:39
Rabbi Dr Moshe Freedman of New West End Synagogue was dismissed for inappropriate touching and posting violent videos
August 12, 2025 09:39A former United Synagogue rabbi who was sacked after being arrested has lost his employment tribunal claim against the organisation for unfair dismissal.
Rabbi Dr Moshe Freedman was dismissed in January 2023 from the New West End Synagogue for gross misconduct by “transgressing appropriate physical boundaries” and “producing and uploading violent and sadistic videos to YouTube”, central London employment tribunal found.
He had believed the sanction “unduly excessive’ and also that the US had failed to take into account his diagnosis on the autism spectrum disorder.
But the tribunal, in a decision published this month, said they were “satisfied that the reason for dismissal related to the claimant’s conduct, which was a potentially fair reason to dismiss. We have not found a discriminatory reason for dismissal.”
They ordered Rabbi Freedman to pay the US £20,000 in costs.
The rabbi, who came to New West End in 2015, was arrested by police on May 18 2022 and released on bail the following day – but was never charged. Because of reporting restrictions, details of the incident have been redacted from the published tribunal decision.
On May 20, he emailed the then chief executive of the US and its director of legal and external services: “There are no words to express the regret that I feel for what I have done and the catastrophic consequences this will have for everyone and everything that is dear to me. I can't say more now.”
The US began disciplinary proceedings after an allegation was upheld by Westminster Council’s LADO (local authority designated officer) committee.
A note from a US official to its investigator reported, “The rabbi admitted to touching [redacted] in a way which caused her to feel violated regardless of his own motivation”.
Professor Andrew Eder, who chaired a US panel which heard Rabbi Freedman’s appeal against his dismissal, “did not find that there was a sexual motive”, the employment tribunal noted.
On July 19 and 20 2022, the rabbi “posted four videos entitled ‘Nursery Crimes’ on YouTube”. He had prepared the cartoons himself, using his own voice as a voiceover.
The videos, the tribunal said, “contained cartoon violence. Each was a take on a classic nursery rhyme with a twist. For example, one video was of ‘Incy Wincy Spider’. The ending of the rhyme was changed so that the spider stabbed a man in the head.”
He had marked the videos as not suitable for children. The tribunal accepted Rabbi Freedman’s evidence that the intended audience was for his older sons.
The children forwarded the videos to at least one friend, the son of a rabbi who then drew them to the attention of other rabbis.
In a statement to the US investigation, the Chief Rabbi had thought the cartoon violence in one video shown to him was dangerous.
The US was told by Westminster Lado that no further action would be taken by police as Rabbi Freedman had taken down the videos immediately when the matter was raised with him.
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