Remember those popular mysteries about the fictitious Rabbi Small: Wednesday the Rabbi Got Wet; Monday the Rabbi Took Off, Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry, and others in the series?

Well, perhaps somebody ought to write a story entitled "Sunday the Rabbi Got Smeared."

The Rabbi involved is Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblatt, a prominent Modern Orthodox clergyman in Riverdale, NY, a grandson of the ultra-famous cantor Yossele Rosenblatt. In its Sunday-dated edition Rabbi Rosenblatt  receives the not so gentle attentions of the New York Times. The article is headed (in the print edition) "The Rabbi and the Sauna," but has its heading changed for the online version to "Debate Over the Rabbi and the Sauna" -- giving appropriate notice that there are at least two sides to the matters described here.

The article, bylined by two Timesers with the names Newman and Otterman devotes an entire page plus an extra two column inches to reviewing the rabbi's love of racquetball and the schvitz and sauna to which he regularly invited young men to accompany him -- naked for the most part in the showers and steam.

There has been, as far as one can determine from the Times piece, no accusations of sexual impropriety, either physical or verbal by any of those involved at any time.

Nevertheless, where there's steam there must be steaminess, and this recounting in public of what had heretofore been private behavior, known only to those involved with the rabbi as students, interns, and congregants will probably completely ruin the man.

It appears that last fall, a man named Kurtzer that Rabbi Rosenblatt once took to the sauna learned that the rabbi had spoken to sixth graders at the school the man’s son attends. “The father posted an email to a Jewish discussion group with about 500 members, who turned out to include at least six veterans of the sauna sessions.”

Somehow, the news reached the nostrils of the Gray Lady, who promptly sought comments and email copies from others and permission to quote them. In a couple of the last paragraphs, however, there is a favorable quote to follow all the very negative ones  elicited by the Times writing team:

Yaacob Dweck, an assistant professor of Jewish history at Princeton University who often played squash with the rabbi as an undergraduate at Columbia, called the discussion on the Wexner email list a smear campaign.

“I think this is character assassination of someone who has spent his entire life in the service of the Jewish community, full stop,” he said, describing Rabbi Rosenblatt as “an incredible rabbinic presence in my life” who introduced him to some of his closest friends through the game of squash. He said the rabbi had never invited him to the sauna.

Considering the lack of any complaint of criminality at any time, the absence of any incriminating evidence, as well as the Rabbi's many scholarly and clerical achievements, one might well conclude that Prof. Deck's assessment is correct. Read the story and see what you think.