A Vancouver mikvah will be swept by a security expert for hidden electronic equipment to assuage women’s concerns after a U.S. rabbi was recently charged with voyeurism.

Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt, leader of Vancouver’s Schara Tzedek Congregation, says it is unfortunate, but necessary that the community needs to take this step.

“It’s very sad. The mikvah for centuries has been built on a certain amount of trust,” said Rabbi Rosenblatt. “My fears are that it will create a lot of anxiety.”

Earlier this month, Rabbi Barry Freundel, an Orthodox rabbi in Washington D.C., was arrested after he allegedly used a hidden camera to spy on women in the mikvah. He has pleaded not guilty to six charges of voyeurism.

While no other mikvahs in Canada are known to be going to the same lengths as the one in Vancouver, the arrest in Washington has caused them to reflect on their procedures and to reassure their users.

In a letter sent to his synagogue’s membership, Rabbi Daniel Korobkin, senior rabbi at Beth Avraham Yosef of Toronto Congregation, which has a mikvah in its building, emphasized that “there are not, nor have there have ever been, any cameras or surveillance equipment inside the mikvah.”

In an interview, Rabbi Korobkin said the mikvah has to walk a fine line between being accessible to patrons while maintaining privacy.

The mikvah already has many safeguards in place, chief of which is “we are dealing with people of integrity.”

As well, “no one has a monopoly on governance of the mikvah. No one person can feel at liberty to go into the mikvah to do whatever they want,” he said.

At both the Toronto and Montreal community mikvahs, the women who run the buildings insist they are in firm control of the institutions.

“If something went in, I would know. Everything here has to go through me,” said Kayla Richter, mikvah co-ordinator for the Toronto Mikvah on Sheppard Avenue.

 Chani Mockin, who “takes care” of Mikveh Israel on Kildare Road in Montreal, concurs. “Just a few people have keys. We’re very careful.” The Washington situation “will definitely make women more aware, more alert… but it’s not going to stop women from going to the mikvah.”

The arrest of Rabbi Freundel also raises serious questions about the potential for rabbinic abuses of power, especially during the conversion process, when candidates are especially vulnerable. Allegations about the rabbi’s inappropriate dealings with converts have emerged as rabbinic authorities investigate the case.

Last week, the Rabbinic Council of America, the U.S. association for modern Orthodox rabbis, announced that a female ombudsman will be assigned to every beit din (rabbinical court) to receive concerns from female candidates in the conversion process. The RCA is also appointing a commission to review the current conversion process and suggest safeguards against possible abuses.

Toronto’s beit din will discuss some of the issues raised by the RCA, but is unlikely to make any significant changes, said Rabbi Asher Vale, director of the beit din of the Orthodox Va’ad Harabonim of Toronto. 

“This is something that came from left field. It’s not the procedures, it’s the person,” Rabbi Vale said. “Our beit din has a process that is fair, compassionate and sensitive to people, and at the same time tries to uphold standards.”

Rabbi Korobkin agrees that the Freundel situation is an aberration. “It’s a gross violation of rabbinic privilege,” he said. “Such a sociopathic violation of human decency. I don’t think we could have seen it coming from the rabbinate.”

While he said there is no reason to doubt the integrity of the rabbis involved with conversions in the city, it would be wise to look at the RCA’s recommendations. “They’re going about in a very responsible, methodical way. We will see if we can apply it to the local beit din.”

The Conservative and Reform movements are also watching the fallout from the Freundel case, but Rabbi Michal Shekel, rabbinic director of Toronto’s Reform beit din, says changes are unlikely to be made in its process. 

The Washington allegations arose from a situation where one individual had total control of the conversion process, she said.

In Toronto, the year-long conversion course is taught by a number of rabbis, and while individuals need a sponsoring rabbi, they can change rabbis if they are uncomfortable.

The mikvah used for Reform, and some Conservative, conversions is run by a committee of laypeople, she said. “I don’t control the mikvah.”

But the allegations in Washington certainly has made it more difficult for rabbis promoting the idea of mikvah, she said. 

Immersing in the mikvah “is such a powerful, meaningful, spiritual experience,” Rabbi Shekel said. “That people feel they have to look over their shoulder should be beyond their imagination.”