Founders of New Jersey gay conversion therapy practice lose appeal, must pay $3.5 million – NJ.com
The founders of a Jersey City-based gay conversion therapy firm reneged on a 2015 settlement agreement to never again engage in the discredited practices and must pay $3.5 million, a New Jersey appellate panel ruled, affirming a prior decision.
In 2012, four former clients sued Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), claiming they suffered psychological abuse during treatment sessions. Among the claims made in testimony was that the treatment included clients undressing in front of other each and pummeling effigies of their mothers as part of a program that promised it could eliminate same-sex attraction.
It was the first case in the nation to put the controversial and scientifically discredited practice on trial.
The 2015 settlement called for the four to receive $3.5 million, but they accepted $400,000 in exchange for the promise that JONAH would close and founders Arthur Goldberg and Elaine Berk would never again engage in conversion therapy.
The plaintiffs brought the case back to court in 2018 when they found that Goldberg and Berk were not abiding to the agreement. The trial court judge found the Goldberg and Berk violated the conditions of the settlement just two weeks after the agreement was signed.
Berk and Goldberg then appealed that decision, leading to the July 7 ruling by the appellate court panel.
“From late December 2015 to late May 2018, there were numerous email exchanges in which Goldberg, and to a lesser extent Berk, communicated with people seeking conversion therapy and therapists providing conversion therapy. They also followed up to ensure that they received referral fees,” the appellate ruling said.
The court also found that Goldberg and Berk established the Jewish Institute for Global Awareness (JIFGA), “which was a successor in interest and continuation of JONAH.”
According to the National Institutes of Health, gay conversion therapy has been repudiated by major mental health organizations because of increasing evidence that they are ineffective and may cause harm to patients and their families who fail to change. A number of states, including New Jersey, have laws banning the practice with minors.