Touro University is accused of ignoring sex-related allegations against a professor whose mother-in-law chairs the department where he works, The Post has learned.
An adjunct professor in mental health counseling, Menachem Kiwak was allowed to remain in the classroom even after students complained in March 2023 that he quizzed them about sex, used profanity and slang to discuss sex, and argued that people who don’t like sex are sick, sources said.
Kiwak, 38, remained on staff even after an advocate for Jewish sexual-abuse victims, Asher Lovy, wrote to Kiwak’s mother-in-law, Faye Walkenfeld, and other Touro officials in March, alerting them to an allegation that Kiwak had sexually abused one of his patients.
Lovy questioned Kiwak’s fitness to teach aspiring counselors.
Kiwak was arrested for the alleged abuse in May — but Touro apparently let him finish the school year, sources said.
The university’s handling of the scandal has raised alarm among victim advocates, who question whether college officials protected Kiwak because of his mother-in-law’s position.
The private Jewish university, with campuses in Times Square, Brooklyn and Long Island, touts
itself as “a leader in health-care education.”
Walkenfeld, chair of Touro’s behavioral science department, is a well known mental-health
expert for the orthodox Jewish community, which Kiwak and his alleged victim are part of.
It’s unknown what actions, if any, Walkenfield took in response.
She declined to comment.
It was only after Kiwak was arrested and the Post inquired about his status that Touro revealed
they had removed him from teaching.
“Mr. Kiwak is currently on administrative leave and Touro is reviewing this matter internally,” Matthew Lieberman, a lawyer for the university, said Friday.
Lovy, who heads the anti-abuse organization Za’akah, accompanied the alleged victim to the NYPD’s Special Victims Unit, he told Walkenfeld in a March 5 email.
The patient described to police “in excruciating detail” Kiwak’s “using the authority of his position to coerce her to have sex with him against her will and without her consent,” the letter said.
Lovy also cited the March 2023 complaints by Touro students to his program director “about the inappropriate nature of Kiwak’s [classroom] discussions about sex, porn, sexuality, and sexual assault.”
Kiwak shocked the students by arguing that there is no such thing as marital rape. Days after they lodged their complaints, Kiwak “clarified” in an email to his class that “intimate partner violence, including marital rape, is illegal in the United States.”
“It’s impossible to overstate what a thorough failure Touro’s handling of Mr. Kiwak’s alleged predation has been,” Shulim Leifer, a victim advocate in the orthodox community, told The Post
“The fact that Mr. Kiwak’s own mother in law chairs his department raises serious questions about what role nepotism played in Touro’s essentially sweeping it under the rug when students complained or when they were made aware of criminal accusations by a patient, and whether Ms. Walkenfeld and her family of therapists should be trusted to work in this space going forward.”
Kiwak referred questions to his lawyer, Michael Farkas, who said, “Mr. Kiwak will handle this matter and any inquiries about it in court, not in the press.”
The criminal charges against Kiwak — forcible touching, sex abuse and harassment — are misdemeanors.
The charges would have been felonies under a bill passed by the state Legislature and awaiting the governor’s signature that cracks down on sex abuse by licensed counselors.
