Clergy Confidentiality Revisited

To the Editor:

Your recent article regarding the lawsuit against to Orthodox rabbis alleging improper breaches of confidentiality was somewhat sparse on the complexities of both the facts underlying this specific case and the issues of halakha and secular law implicated therein.

In the former category, a critical point of dispute in this case is whether a legal requirement to maintain confidentiality ever arose from the conversations between the respective rabbis and the plaintiff, since the rabbis allege that third parties were present during their meetings with the plaintiff. If that is true, confidentiality did not 'attach' under secular law's requirements.

As to the complex legal issues - Jewish and secular - your readers may be best referred to a written analysis produced by the Beit Din of America and the Orthodox Union's Institute for Public Affairs. This document is most easily accessible via the Internet at www.jewishlaw.com.

Nathan Diament

YC '88