Rabbi Who Admitted Affair Resigns Post

The senior rabbi at one of the West Coast’s most prominent temples has resigned in the wake of his confession that he and a younger female rabbi had a brief affair eight years ago, the temple announced Wednesday.

Michael P. Sternfield, 46, submitted his resignation to Congregation Beth Israel on Wednesday, just days before the full congregation was to vote on his job status, a temple spokesman said.

“Those who have the best interests of the congregation at heart are really happy,” a source active in temple affairs said Wednesday. “Now we’re allowed to move on and clean our house.”

Sternfield had been a rabbi for 20 years at the 117-year-old temple, recognized nationwide for its progressive programs and its influence in the U.S. Reform Jewish movement. Its roster of 1,400 families includes many San Diego business and civic leaders, including the mayor.

Two weeks ago, at a dramatic meeting of the temple board that was open to members of the congregation, Sternfield and the younger rabbi, Laurie E. Coskey, 35, announced that they had been lovers for five months in 1985, just after Coskey arrived at the temple from rabbinical school. Both were married to other people at the time.

“I am here to confess to the worst sin I ever committed in my life,” Sternfield said at the March 18 meeting. “This, for me, is Yom Kippur,” the Jewish Day of Atonement.

It was announced at that meeting that Coskey would be leaving the temple in May, 1994. That turn of events rocked the congregation--with some members saying Sternfield deserved forgiveness and others saying that, to be fair, both rabbis would have to leave.

Under temple bylaws, it would take a vote of the full congregation to remove the senior rabbi. The temple board scheduled such a vote for April 4.

The temple board passed a resolution urging the congregation to keep Sternfield. It noted that he had said the affair with Coskey was his “one and only” extramarital “indiscretion” and added, “Forgiveness is in our Jewish tradition.”

Last week, however, the Central Conference of American Rabbis announced that it had launched an investigation to decide whether the two rabbis’ affair violated the group’s ethical code. The conference represents about 1,600 rabbis in North America.

As rumors of purported indiscretions at the temple--some bizarre--intensified this week, Sternfield offered to resign.

The board accepted his resignation with “deep regret,” Mary Ann Scher, temple president, said in a statement released Wednesday. The April 4 vote was canceled, she said, to “protect the congregation from the threat of any divisiveness or rancor that might result.”

“As they looked at that vote and at the kind of comments and the emotions of the congregation, it appeared to be a no-win situation for both Sternfield and the congregation,” temple spokesman Dick Daniels said Wednesday. “No matter what the vote would be, it was going to be a no-win situation.”

Sternfield and Coskey could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Negotiations are under way to buy out Coskey’s contract so she will leave the temple sooner, sources said.