Former USY Director Admits To Sexual Misconduct

Robert Fisher was a highly popular regional director of USY three decades ago in California. He admitted to sexually inappropriate behavior with teenage boys. Image by Bobfishernv.com

By Aiden Pink December 6, 2017

A popular former regional director of Conservative Judaism’s youth group admitted to “improper behavior” with teenage boys in an interview with the New York Jewish Week.

Two former youth group leaders accused Robert D. Fisher, who ran the Pacific Southwest Region of United Synagogue Youth, of coercing them into sleeping in his bed in the 1980s. One person said that when he was staying at Fisher’s house he woke up to feel Fisher massaging his legs and working his way up his body.

Fisher said that he “carr[ies] shame and regret” about his past actions, which also included inappropriate behavior with high school students in the youth group he led in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Fisher told Jewish Week editor Gary Rosenblatt that he himself was raped twice, including as a five-year-old. Fisher said that he has been able to control his behavior with the help of therapy. He claimed that he was never alone with a child in the 26 years that he has lived in Las Vegas, including when he worked with bar mitzvah students.

The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism says that Fisher resigned from the organization in 2002.

“We are devastated to learn that incidents of this nature took place, and that USY members were victimized,” USCJ CEO Rabbi Steven Wernick said in a statement.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

Aiden Pink is the Deputy News Editor for the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO