Marc Gafni

Marc Gafni

Marc Gafni in Rome
Born Marc Winiarz
1960 (age 55–56)
Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Nationality American
Other names Mordechai Gafni, Mark Gafni, Mordechai Winiarz, Mordechai Winyarz
Website http://www.marcgafni.com/

Marc Gafni (born Marc Winiarz) is an American author and spiritual teacher.[1][2][3] A former Modern Orthodox rabbi,[1] Gafni now self-identifies as a practitioner of world spirituality based on integral principles.[4] He has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women, and admitted to a sexual relationships with a 14-year-old girl.[5] He was also accused of molesting a 13-year-old girl over a period of nine months.[6]

Biography

Gafni, also known as Mordechai Gafni, was born in 1960[5] to Holocaust survivors in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.[3] Gafni was educated at Modern-Orthodox yeshivas in the New York City area. In the 1980s, while attending Yeshiva University,[3] Gafni worked with Jewish Public School Youth, an organization providing Jewish social clubs in public schools.[7] In 1988, Gafni also worked as a rabbi in Boca Raton, Florida.[1] After making aliyah Gafni served as rabbi of the West Bank settlement of Tzofim.[8] When Gafni moved to Israel he hebraicized his name. "Winiarz," Polish for "vintner," is related to the Hebrew word "gefen" for grape, thus the name "Gafni." Gafni has three children from previous marriages[3] and one child with Mariana Caplan.[9][10]

Teachings and prominent works

Gafni’s teachings are often described as integral or world spirituality, incorporating traditional religious studies to contemporary themes, and are aimed at spirituality for people who do not identify with one specific religion.[3][11] Gafni describes himself and his students as “dual citizens” of both their native traditional religion and the broader themes of "world spirituality".[3][12] He advocates a new set of teachings around eros, sexuality and relationships in his book Mystery of Love and CD set Erotic and the Holy.[13][14] At the core of his world spirituality message is what Gafni refers to as the "unique self, the idea that every human being has a unique story that needs to be lived".[15]

In 2010, Gafni and the mother of his son Zion, Mariana Caplan,[9] founded the Center for World Spirituality.[16] That year, Gafni and Ken Wilber founded a Wisdom Council to envision a world spirituality based on Integral Principles.[17] The Wisdom Council is part of the Center for World Spirituality and includes members such as Gafni, Wilber, Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, Warren Farrell, Lori Galperin, Sally Kempton and other leaders.[18] The co-chair of Center for World Spirituality is Whole Foods CEO John Mackey.[19]

Gafni was a Scholar in Residence at the Integral Institute, and the Director of the Integral Spiritual Experience, but left after the 2011 allegations of his sexual impropriety.[20]

Writing

Gafni is the author of eight books on spirituality and religion, including the 2001 Soul Prints.[2] Soul Prints included an introduction by Israeli poet Admiel Kosman and won the Napra Award for best Spirituality Book of 2001. Marc Gafni's second English-language book, The Mystery of Love, was later converted to an audio lecture series called The Erotic and the Holy, published by Sounds True. He also co-authored Who is Afraid of Lilith? Rereading the Kabbalah of the Feminine Shadow with Ohad Ezrachi.[21] He wrote Radical Kabbalah, a two-volume work published by Integral Publishers in 2012.[22] In 2012, he published Your Unique Self: The Radical Path to Personal Enlightenment with a foreword written by Wilber.[23] It won the 2012 USA Best Spirituality Book of the Year award from USA Book News.

Television and speaking

While in Israel, Gafni hosted Tahat Gafno ("under his vine"), a television program broadcast on Israel's Channel 2.[3][24] Gafni also did a series of weekly television spots with Israeli comedian Gil Kopatch on biblical wisdom for every day life.[25] Gafni also appeared in a series of spiritual public service announcements on Israeli television in the wake of several terrorist attacks.[26]

In 2008, Gafni spoke with the Dalai Lama about the perception of love.[2][24][27] In 2010 Gafni did a series with Chopra entitled Love and Evolution.[28] In 2013, Gafni and Eben Pagan founded an event called "Actualize: The Source Code of Success".[29]

Education

Gafni majored in philosophy as an undergraduate.[3] He claims to hold rabbinic certification from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel,[4] but Gafni has since returned his semikhah to "spare his former teacher any further embarrassment".[1]

Sexual assault claims

Gafni has been accused of sexual assault multiple times, both privately and publicly, dating back to the 1980s when he lived in the United States.[1][5][7][30][31] In 2006, after he had moved to Israel, Gafni was accused by three women who attended the Bayit Hadash ("new home") spiritual center in Jaffa, which Gafni opened in the late 1990s. There was a formal police investigation, which was made public.[8] Gafni acknowledged relationships with some of the women.[7] However, he characterized the relationships as consensual and bolstered his claim by posting polygraph results on his website.[2][32] Because of the allegations and because Gafni fled the country to avoid prosecution,[11][33] he was dismissed from Bayit Hadash,[34] which closed within days.[35] Back in the United States, Gafni sent a remorseful letter to his congregation saying he regretted his actions.[34][36] Gafni later claimed the letter was not an admission of guilt but an attempt to cool the controversy.[37]

Gafni was the subject of new allegations of sexual misconduct in 2011.[20] As a result, Integral Life, one of Gafni's promoters, announced they were deleting his contributions from their website and distancing themselves from him.[20] Tami Simon, CEO of Sounds True, canceled her planned publication of Gafni's book, Your Unique Self, and issued a statement denouncing him.[38] The board of directors of the Center for World Spirituality, an organization co-founded by Gafni and of which he is CEO, issued a statement of "unequivocal support" for Gafni.[39] Wilber initially separated from Gafni,[40] but the two eventually reconciled and Wilber rejoined Gafni at the Center for World Spirituality.[41] Your Unique Self was ultimately published by Integral Publishers.[42] Gafni said that he was a victim of "pseudofeminist witch hunts", invoking a phrase from Alan Dershowitz's Sexual McCarthyism.[5]

In January 2016, an unnamed woman who wrote that she was married to Gafni from 1999 to 2004 published an opinion piece in The Times of Israel in response to a New York Times article about Gafni the preceding week.[5] She cataloged what she described as her "story of abuse" and wrote that she had gone public, albeit anonymously, to "Protect some girl. Protect some woman. Some student. Some unsuspecting soul."[43] Within two weeks, Sara Kabakov wrote in The Forward that she had been abused by Gafni in the early 1980s, beginning when she was thirteen years old.[44]

Bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Rosenblatt, Gary (September 24, 2004). "The Re-Invented Rabbi". Between the Lines. The Jewish Week. Archived from the original on 2004-09-25. Retrieved January 11, 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Bell, Jeff; Greta Belanger deJong (July 2008). "Trial by Internet: An archetypal spiritual drama". Catalyst Magazine. Salt Lake City, Utah: Catalyst Magazine. 27 (7): 20–25. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 5, 2011. Retrieved July 25, 2008.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Livneh, Neri (March 4, 2004), "Post-Orthodoxy Journey", Haaretz
  4. 1 2 "Dr. Marc Gafni's Biography". Marc Gafni. 2013. Retrieved March 7, 2013.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Oppenheimer, Marc (December 25, 2015). "A Spiritual Leader Gains Stature, Trailed by a Troubled Past". The New York Times. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  6. ↑ Friedman, Gabe (December 29, 2015). "4 quotes by ex-Orthodox rabbi Marc Gafni not in The NY Times article". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 Montefinise, Angela (May 21, 2006). "Fiend Rabbi On Run". New York Post. p. 25. Archived from the original on 2006-06-14. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
  8. 1 2 Raved, Ahiya; Avi Cohen (May 18, 2006). "Rabbi Gafni accused of sexual assault". Ynetnews. Retrieved 2008-07-25.
  9. 1 2 "About the Founders". Center for Integral Wisdom. 2015. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Marc Gafni, D.Phil.". Executive Officers. Center for World Spirituality. 2013. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  11. 1 2 Ganihar, Tomer (June 7, 2011). "Death of the spirit". Haaretz.
  12. ↑ "A Passport for Dual Citizenship with Michael Murphy & Marc Gafni". Center for World Spirituality. August 8, 2011.
  13. ↑ Wall, Alexandra (May 9, 2003). "Let love, sex and holiness make your life full, says rabbi". J Weekly.
  14. ↑ Rosenblum, Jonathan (July 14, 2006). "'Sexualizing' the public square". The Jerusalem Post. p. 10. Archived from the original (convenience link) on March 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-11. See also Gafni, The Erotic And The Holy: Kabbalistic Tantra for Everyday Living
  15. ↑ [http://uniqueself.com/unique-self-timeline/>; Timeline] "The Emergence of Unique Self Teaching" Uniqueself.com
  16. ↑ http://centerforintegralwisdom.org/ciw-founders/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  17. ↑ http://www.ievolve.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Mariana-Caplan-San-Francisco-Makes-Movements-World-Spirituality.pdf Common Ground Magazine
  18. ↑ "Wisdom Council". iEvolve.
  19. ↑ "What is a purpose-driven business?: John Mackey and Marc Gafni in Dialogue, Part 2". iEvolve. October 19, 2012.
  20. 1 2 3 Rosenblatt, Gary (September 13, 2011). "New Sexual Complaints Against Marc Gafni". The Jewish Week. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  21. ↑ http://www.thefreelibrary.com/When+the+Rabbi+Met+Lilith.-a0133901938
  22. ↑ "Integral Publishers".
  23. ↑ "Take a Look at the Table of Contents". Unique Self. Center for Integral Wisdom. 2016. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  24. 1 2 Haggai, Judih (June 4, 2005). "judih's observations from kibbutz: Why I am not a Buddhist - meeting between 3 Israelis and H.H. the Dalai Lama". New Civ.
  25. ↑ "Gil Kopatch - Marc Gafni Biblical Wisdom VI". YouTube.
  26. ↑ "These four videos (in Hebrew with English subtitles) are part of a series of seven spots made for Israel’s leading television station in the middle of a wave of terrorist bombings." MarcGafni.com Retrieved March 2013
  27. ↑ "Marc Gafni In Dialogue With The Dalai Lama III". Marc Gafni. August 13, 2008.
  28. ↑ Gafni, Marc (May 13, 2010). "Join Deepak Chopra and Dr. Marc Gafni on the Future of Love". Marc Gafni.
  29. ↑ "Actualize: The Source Code of Success". iEvolve.
  30. ↑ "The Jewish Week | Connecting the World to Jewish News, Culture, and Opinion". The Jewish Week. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
  31. ↑ "UNFORGIVEN | Community Briefs". Jewish Journal. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
  32. ↑ "Regarding Mark Gafni". Catalyst Magazine. August 8, 2008.
  33. ↑ "Rabbi Gafni accused of sexual assault". ynet. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
  34. 1 2 Singer-Heruti, Roni (May 19, 2006). "New-age Rabbi Mordechi Gafni accused of sex crimes". Haaretz. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
  35. ↑ Ner-David, Jacob (December 2006). "Genug: Time for a Change". Sh'ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility. Boston: Sh'ma Institute. Archived from the original on October 8, 2008. Retrieved January 13, 2008.
  36. ↑ Siegal, Jennifer (May 19, 2006). "Rabbi Fired Over Sex Claims, Defenders Offer Mea Culpa". The Forward. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
  37. ↑ Gafni, Marc (May 27, 2008). "Why I Signed the Letter". Retrieved March 11, 2013.
  38. ↑ Rosenblatt, Gary (September 14, 2011). "Marc Gafni, Again". The Jewish Week. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  39. ↑ "A CWS Board Statement of Unequivocal Support for Dr. Marc Gafni".
  40. ↑ Wilber, Ken (October 17, 2011). "Ken Wilber's Response to the Marc Gafni Debacle". Ken Wilber.
  41. ↑ Wilber, Ken (December 27, 2011). "Ken Wilber Statement on Marc Gafni and the Center for World Spirituality". Ken Wilber.
  42. ↑ "Your Unique Self". Integral Publishers.
  43. ↑ "A voice for Gafni's victims, from one who was there". The Times of Israel. January 1, 2016. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  44. ↑ Kabakov, Sara (January 12, 2016). "'I Was 13 When Marc Gafni's Abuse Began'". The Forward. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
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