In May 2022, several newspapers in Germany featured a series of in-depth reports on sexual misconduct by Homolka and his husband, including inappropriate behaviour that was targeted at students of the Abraham Geiger College he founded and where he served as rector. As a result, Homolka was forced to announce he was temporarily stepping down from all his roles.[4]
The results of an investigation by an independent commission of the University of Potsdam published in October 2022 confirmed the accusation of abuse of power at the Abraham Geiger Kolleg by Homolka, but no sexual harassment. Specifically, Homolka was found to have "exploited institutional power and dependency relationships". In the process, decisions had been made "which had a very negative impact on the further life and career of the persons concerned and for which Mr. Homolka was personally attributed responsibility due to the abundance of his direct and indirect possibilities of influence."
The investigative commission made recommendations for the unbundling of Homolka's management functions, the establishment of independent control bodies and a review of rules of procedure. Homolka was approved for a semester off for the 2022/23 winter semester. There were no criminal or civil service consequences for Homolka. He remains a civil servant and is on leave of absence.[5]
Since 2022, allegations of plagiarism against him have been investigated. According to research by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, in his English-language doctoral thesis, with which he received his doctorate from King's College in London in 1992, he took more than 60 pages, a quarter of the dissertation, from the unpublished exam paper "Normativity and History" (1986) by the Protestant theologian and later Freiburg PH professor Dorothee Schlenke, without citing the source. On 14 June 2022, King's College removed the writing from its online library.[6]
In January 2023, Homolka ceded ownership of both the Abraham Geiger College, aligned with the Reform movement, and the Zecharis Frankel College, aligned with the Conservative movement. The Abraham Geiger College was acquired by the Jewish Community of Berlin, which announced that Rabbi Homolka would have no role at the restructured institution.[7]