WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (CN) - Yeshiva University High School covered up teachers' and administrators' "horrific abuse" of students for decades - including a principal who "preyed upon children of Holocaust survivors," 19 former students claim in a $380 million lawsuit.
Lead plaintiffs Mordechai Twersky and Barry Singer sued Yeshiva University, Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy - Yeshiva University High School for Boys, Rabbi Norman Lamm, Rabbi Robert Hirt, and unnamed members of the university's board of trustees and the high school's board of directors, in Federal Court.
The other 17 plaintiffs sued as John Does.
They live in Israel and the United States and attended Yeshiva University High School between 1969 and 1989, according to the complaint.
The men claim that Yeshiva administrators, including former Chancellor Lamm, "enclosed themselves in a 'cocoon of callousness' by allowing several known sexual predators to assume and remain in exalted positions in YUHS's administration and faculty."
Lamm, president of Yeshiva University between 1976 and 2003, resigned as chancellor on July 1. In his resignation letter, he acknowledged he mishandled accusations of sexual abuse of students years ago, according to the complaint.
Hirt was vice president of an affiliated seminary and special adviser to the president of the university.
Founded in 1886, Yeshiva University is a private research university with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. The Yeshiva University High School for Boys serves as the preparatory school for Yeshiva University's undergraduate school for men.
"Starting in 1971 and spanning several decades, George Finkelstein ('Finkelstein'), an assistant principal, associate principal, and then principal of YUHS, repeatedly sexually abused multiple student victims," the complaint states. "Yet YU and YUHS administrators refused to take action against Finkelstein, never reported him to law enforcement authorities, and - despite actual knowledge of his propensity to sexually and physically assault children - never took any measures to prevent Finkelstein's future abuse of children.
"Finkelstein, as a YUHS administrator, specifically targeted vulnerable boys for physical and sexual abuse. He preyed upon children of Holocaust survivors and - after he abused them - implored these children to not add to their parents' suffering by telling them about his assaults.
"Finkelstein also used his power as a YUHS administrator to try and keep his victims from reporting his physical and sexual assaults to their parents and other authorities.
"For instance, Finkelstein would threaten to accuse his victims of cheating, to lower their grades, or otherwise harm their scholastic futures, if they reported his assaults to their parents or other authorities. Numerous students nevertheless found the courage to report Finkelstein's physical and sexual abuse to YU and YUHS administrators, but their complaints always fell on deaf ears.
"At all material times, YU and YUHS administrators consistently and cravenly defrauded prospective students, students, and their parents, by falsely representing that YUHS (and its) campus was a safe haven for their intellectual, emotional and spiritual growth and enlightenment.
"YUHS Judaic Studies faculty member, Rabbi Macy Gordon ('Gordon'), also repeatedly sexually abused students at YUHS, but was not reported to law enforcement authorities even after various victims came forward (beginning, upon information and belief, in the early 1970s) with detailed (and horrifying) complaints of his sexual abuse of children.