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{{short description|Cult operating out of Morristown, New Jersey}}
'''Circle of Friends''' was a [[cult]] that operated in the 1970s, out of [[Morristown, New Jersey]] and Washington D.C.<ref name="NYT10dec1978">{{Cite news|date=December 10, 1978|title=The Enigma of Morristown's Capitalistic Commune (Published 1978)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/12/10/archives/new-jersey-weekly-the-enigma-of-morristowns-capitalistic-commune.html|access-date=October 16, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name="kahanerSM1991">{{Cite web|last=Kahaner|first=L|date=March 1991|title=Guarding Against Cults|url=https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=129033|access-date=October 16, 2020|website=[[Security Management]]|page=Volume:35 Issue:3 Pages:54–58|language=en}}</ref><ref name="grayWCP16dec1994" /> Its nominal head was George G. Jurscek, who was born in [[Hungary]] c. 1920 and emigrated to the United States, becoming naturalized around 1953.<ref name="NYT10dec1978" /> According to the testimony provided by former members, Jurscek gave [[Millenarianism|millenarianist]] lectures twice a week about "a great political and economic collapse (that) would occur before 2000."<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=December 8, 1988|title=Two Guilty in Scam: Student loans lined pockets of cult leaders|pages=783|agency=[[Associated Press]]|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61209046/daily-news/|access-date=October 16, 2020}}</ref>

In 1978, ''[[The New York Times]]'' reported that it appeared to be actually run by Margaret L. Reinauer, Dianne Deming Desiderio, Mary O'Rourke, and Lark Bergwin.<ref name="NYT10dec1978" /> The group called themselves a "capitalistic commune" with a mission of making its members "healthy, wealthy, and wise."<ref name="NYT10dec1978" /><ref name="kahanerSM1991" /> They were headquartered in the former Saltz Hotel at West Hanover Avenue and Sussex Turnpike in [[Mount Freedom, New Jersey|Mount Freedom]] in [[Randolph, New Jersey|Randolph Township]], which the group purchased in 1978 for $600,000.<ref>{{Cite news|date=September 8, 1983|title=Home of 'Circle of Friends' reportedly to be sold|pages=12|work=Bernardsville News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61208586/bernardsville-news/|access-date=October 16, 2020}}</ref><ref name="thompsonCN11nov1978">{{Cite news|last=Thompson|first=Janet|date=November 11, 1978|title=Circle of Friends purchases a resort hotel in Randolph|pages=3|work=The Courier-News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61210729/the-courier-news/|access-date=October 16, 2020}}</ref> At the time the group claimed assets of $6 million.<ref name="thompsonCN11nov1978" />

As of 1978, the group owned multiple properties and businesses, including a security guard service and a real‐estate investment, and construction companies.<ref name="NYT10dec1978" /> According to a 1991 article in the journal ''[[Security Management (magazine)|Security Management]]'', in the 1970s, the Cult drew on Gnostic Christian and anthroposophical teachings to inculcate, in Jurscek's lectures, that the endtime was near and that only the surviving "knowers" would survive. The Circle drew initiates into the cult with messages of special knowledge and a spiritual/racial theory that seduced members into believing that they would be among the surviving Gnostic elite after the apocalypse that was coming. Jursek drew on the popular spiritual teachings of [[Hal Lindsey]] and a variety of Hindu teachings about the Kali-Yuga regarding the end-time. More research might be done into the particular syncretic notions that were particular to Jursek's religious teachings within the Circle. Jews and Blacks were prize initiates but the racialist and Gnostic Christian teachings may have alienated minorities. How these theological and end-time teachings might have been integrated into a "capitalist commune" or into Jursek's economic theories remains unclear.

{{Blockquote|text=Members of the lower echelon of the group worked primarily as security officers with many working double shifts. Salaries were sent to the group's post office box. Members were encouraged to enroll in colleges, receive education loans, and then defer payment. When charges were brought against the group for the student loan scam, other frauds surfaced. Members would work for two different private security firms at the same time and have someone else sign in for them at one job while they worked another. Sex was used as a means to keep supervisors from revealing the practice to company heads.<ref name="kahanerSM1991" />|author=L. Kahaner|title=|source=}}In 1988, Jurscek and O'Rourke were tried for conspiracy and fraud on the student-loan defaults.<ref name=":0" /> Six former members of the group, including Bergwin and Desiderio, testified for the prosecution.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news|date=November 3, 1988|title=Official says former 'Friend' prompted indictment|pages=5|work=Daily Record|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61212689/daily-record/|access-date=October 16, 2020}}</ref> The two were convicted of fraud and conspiracy.<ref name="grayWCP16dec1994" /><ref name="NYT8dec1988">{{Cite news|date=December 8, 1988|title=2 Cult Leaders Guilty In College Loan Case (Published 1988)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/08/nyregion/2-cult-leaders-guilty-in-college-loan-case.html|access-date=October 16, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> They faced up to 20 years imprisonment and fines of up to $200,000 each.<ref name="NYT8dec1988" /> In September 1991 Jurscek was sentenced to seven years.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Campbell|first=Carol Ann|date=1991-10-02|title=A trip back to herself|pages=3|work=The Record|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/61283592/the-record/|access-date=2020-10-17}}</ref>

== Deprogrammer activities ==
[[Galen Kelly]] worked as a deprogrammer against the group starting in 1978, by offering "voluntary interventions" during which he would approach a member as they entered or left work and offer them the opportunity to see and talk to a trusted family member.<ref name="grayWCP16dec1994">{{Cite web|last=Gray|first=Lisa|date=December 16, 1994|title=Closing the Circle|url=https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/289901/closing-the-circle/|access-date=October 16, 2020|website=Washington City Paper|language=en-US}}</ref> In November 1978 the group filed a suit against Galen, asking for a court order forbidding "kidnappings such as the alleged abduction" of a member.<ref name="DRnov71978">{{Cite news|date=November 7, 1978|title=Cult Members Seeking Court Protection|pages=5|work=[[Daily Record (Morristown)|Daily Record]]|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30632350/1978-11-07-cult-members-seek-court/|access-date=October 16, 2020}}</ref> In 1990 he was convicted of kidnapping a member of Washington D.C. cell, Debra Dobkowski, and spent 16 months in prison before his conviction was overturned on appeal.<ref name="grayWCP16dec1994" /> Galen claimed Dobkowski and the cult had set him up by having Dobkowski switch guard shifts with her roommate, Beth Bruckert, the actual target of the intervention, that he had offered a voluntary intervention, and that Dobkowski had accompanied him willingly.<ref name="grayWCP16dec1994" /><ref>U.S. Seeks to Fire Prosecutor in Va. For Alleged Misconduct in Cult Kidnapping Case, Washington Post, October 4, 1994</ref><ref>[http://www.postgazette.com/win/day3_1a.asp Discovery violations have made evidence-gathering a shell game] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080518034042/http://www.postgazette.com/win/day3_1a.asp|date=May 18, 2008}}, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 24, 1998</ref> Dobkowski later pleaded guilty for [[money laundering]] crimes associated with her membership in the group and served a 21-month prison sentence.<ref>Gray, Lisa (September 23, 1994) "Return of the Cult Snatcher", Washington City Paper</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Circle of Friends, The}}
[[Category:Religious belief systems founded in the United States]]
[[Category:Organizations established in the 1970s]]
[[Category:Millenarianism]]
[[Category:New religious movements established in the 1970s]]

The Circle of Friends - Revision history

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