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Cleveland rabbi sentenced to prison for soliciting underage sex had a prominent Conservative rabbi as his character witness
(JTA) – A Cleveland-area rabbi was sentenced to six months in prison on Monday for soliciting underage sex, capping a sad and shocking saga for the area’s Jewish community.
Among those who testified on Stephen Weiss’ behalf in a bid for leniency was a prominent rabbi in the Conservative movement.
Weiss, formerly senior rabbi at B’nai Jeshurun Congregation in Pepper Pike, was sentenced for the crimes of attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and possessing criminal tools. He had been arrested and charged after a sting operation last April and pleaded guilty to the two felony charges in January. Weiss, 61, will be required to register as a sex offender for 25 years.
Appearing as a character witness for Weiss at his sentencing hearing was Rabbi William Lebeau, a former dean of the rabbinical school and former vice chancellor at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Lebeau currently serves as a senior consultant for rabbinic and institutional leadership with the Rabbinical Assembly, the professional association for Conservative rabbis.
“I first met Rabbi Weiss when he was a rabbinical student and I’ve maintained a close relationship with him to this day. I’ve come from New York City this morning because I wanted to share with you in court my experiences with Rabbi Weiss over the more than three decades that I’ve known him,” Lebeau said as he opened a three-minute statement on Weiss’ behalf, according to a recording of the hearing.
In the rest of the statement, he described “the Rabbi Weiss that I know” as “beloved by his classmates and respected by his teachers,” “especially admired for his qualities of kindness and sensitivity,” “his inspirational teaching of children and adults” and his support for congregants experiencing trouble.
Lebeau noted that Weiss felt remorse and had sought professional help in the wake of his arrest.
“Significantly, over more than 30 years as a rabbi there was nothing close to a grievance about his rabbinic service or his personal conduct,” Lebeau said. “There was nothing that would have predicted this aberrant moment in his life. I respectfully ask you your honor to consider the case of Rabbi Weiss in the context of the life of devotion to his family and to his community that he lived prior to this tragic event.”
Weiss had already pleaded guilty to the crimes; Lebeau and Weiss’ daughter appeared as character witnesses as part of his attorney’s effort to secure a more lenient sentence. Weiss’ legal team had argued that his 2022 solicitation of an undercover police officer posing as an underaged boy was an aberration in Weiss’s three decades of rabbinical activities. His lawyer also cited a 2018 brain injury as a relevant factor in his behavior.
Some in the community questioned the decision of Lebeau, a widely admired mentor in the Conservative movement, to testify on Weiss’ behalf.
“I have a great deal of respect for Rabbi Lebeau. He’s a very important person in the movement,” Rabbi Noah Bickart, an endowed professor of Jewish studies at John Carroll University in Cleveland, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Bickart had been a student at JTS when Lebeau was its dean.
But, Bickart said, “Choosing to support and defend Rabbi Weiss here, as opposed to the community that was victimized or potentially victimized, was the wrong decision to make.”
In an email to JTA, Lebeau said, “I chose to make a personal statement referring to the Stephen Weiss I have known for 35 years and the qualities that defined him, as I said in the courtroom, ‘prior to this tragic event.’”
The Rabbinical Assembly, with which Lebeau is currently associated, had harshly condemned Weiss’ alleged behavior upon his initial arrest in April 2022 and suspended his membership, making him ineligible to apply for jobs or participate in other activities.
“These deeply disturbing accusations betray the sacred trust our communities put in their clergy and must be fully and immediately investigated and dealt with appropriately,” the group said in a joint statement with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism at the time.
The Rabbinical Assembly began publicizing a list of suspended and expelled rabbis in 2021, amid a widespread reckoning over whether Jewish organizations had inappropriately obscured misconduct by rabbis and other leaders.
“Rabbi Lebeau’s testimony was not on behalf of the Rabbinical Assembly,” a Rabbinical Assembly spokesperson said in a statement this week, which noted that the group is now in the process of expelling Weiss permanently. “And his testimony did not seek to justify nor excuse the behavior for which Steven Weiss was convicted.
Lebeau had previously defended a different rabbi accused of inappropriate behavior towards children. In 2014, according to the Forward, he had supported a rabbi in Savannah, Georgia, who had given a lesson to a class of 9-year-olds about child sex trafficking filled with explicit language, alarming many parents.
Back then, Lebeau told the Forward the accused rabbi was “one of the kindest, most sensitive, caring people among all the students I met,” and expressed particular concern about the damage the incident could do to the rabbi’s reputation, saying, “This is a man’s life and a man’s reputation.” No crime was ever alleged to have taken place with the rabbi in Savannah.
Bickart said he was unfamiliar with the Savannah case but had a theory about why Lebeau spoke on behalf of the rabbis in both cases.
“I think Rabbi Lebeau honestly just wants to defend rabbis,” he said. “My sense is that Rabbi Lebeau is probably the go-to person to be a character witness for anybody.”
Still, Bickart said, he found the choice to testify on Weiss’ behalf meaningful.
“As somebody who’s a parent of a boy precisely the same age as the fictitious victim in this case, it’s hard for me to see an important rabbinic mentor seemingly take more seriously the concerns of a convicted sex offender than of the community,” Bickart said.
Prosecutors for Ohio’s task force on internet crimes against children disputed the arguments of Lebeau and Weiss’ attorney that Weiss’ conduct was a brief irregularity, saying that he had shown evidence of premeditated action. Weiss had previously sent explicit messages to an undercover officer posing as an underaged boy in 2020, and waited for hours in order to separate his target from his parents in 2022, when he was arrested.
B’nai Jeshurun, where Weiss had served since 2001, suspended the rabbi immediately upon his arrest in 2022, and he resigned days later. The congregation had determined in its own investigation that Weiss had not engaged in any illegal or illicit activity at the congregation itself. After Weiss’ sentencing was announced, the congregation’s president and senior rabbi emailed congregants to offer counseling services.
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22 arrested in Amsterdam protest over contentious Hanukkah concert featuring IDF cantor
(JTA) — Dozens of people were arrested on Sunday after protesting outside Amsterdam’s Royal Concert Hall, where multiple Hanukkah concerts were taking place.
The day’s concert lineup came under scrutiny last month after the concert hall, known as the Concertgebouw, announced that it was canceling a planned Hanukkah concert featuring an Israeli performer over his ties to the Israeli army. Shai Abramson is the chief cantor of the Israel Defense Forces.
After an uproar, the concert hall and Hanukkah concert organizer struck a deal: A public Hanukkah concert would take place on Sunday evening without Abramson on the docket, while smaller, private performances featuring Abramson would take place inside the building earlier in the day.
Pro-Palestinian protesters were not deterred by the detente. Dozens gathered outside the Concertgebouw on Sunday evening, where there was also a large police presence as well as a sizable pro-Israel contingent of demonstrators.
Footage from the scene showed clashes between pro-Palestinian protesters and police. The Dutch Police said in a statement that the demonstrations had largely “proceeded smoothly,” with 22 arrests on mostly minor charges.
“Police intervened several times to keep the protesters at bay and maintain public order. Riot police used batons,” the statement said. “Protesters also set off several smoke bombs. One police officer sustained minor injuries during the action.”
Amsterdam is home to a strong pro-Palestinian activist movement that has clashed before with police, including during the 2024 student encampments and surrounding a Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer match last year in which Jewish fans were targeted with street violence.
The post 22 arrested in Amsterdam protest over contentious Hanukkah concert featuring IDF cantor appeared first on The Forward.
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Drive-by shooting targets Jewish family’s Hanukkah display, police in California town say
(JTA) — A California home decorated for Hanukkah was targeted Friday night in a drive-by shooting, with police saying the assailants fired what appeared to be an airsoft gun from a car.
During the attack on the home, which had several inflatable Hanukkah decorations in its yard, the assailants drove by in a vehicle and allegedly unloaded 20 shots.
Later, the occupants of the vehicle allegedly shouted “F–ck the Jews” and “Free Palestine, N–ger,” according to an account of the incident posted to X by a resident of the home, Rodgir Cohen.
“Just as a reaction, people just, through ignorance and hate, respond with negativity and violence,” Cohen told CBS News. “For random acts of hate crimes, it’s scary to be in the midst of a victim and it’s scary.”
Cohen told a different local news outlet that he and his son had encountered the alleged assailants in person shortly before the shooting.
The City of Redlands said no injuries or damage was reported, and the weapon used was believed to be an airsoft gun after an investigation found no shell casings and the surveillance video of the incident showed no muzzle flash.
Local officials condemned the incident, which came during the same weekend as a major antisemitic attack on Jews celebrating Hanukkah in Sydney, Australia.
“As our friends in the Jewish community begin their celebration of Hanukkah, several tragic incidents have occurred across the globe, targeting people simply because of their faith,” the City of Redlands wrote in a statement. “Unfortunately, Redlands is not immune to these hateful acts, as a local family was targeted because of their festive home decorations celebrating Hanukkah. ”
The incident is currently being investigated as a hate crime, and Redlands Police said they believed the family was targeted because of the Hanukkah decorations. They also said they would provide additional patrols in the area and around local places of worship.
The Los Angeles chapter of the Anti-Defamation League decried the incident. “Last night’s shooting into the home of a Jewish family on Shabbat in Redlands, CA is another dangerous and despicable act of violence impacting the Jewish community in Southern California,” David Englin, the group’s senior regional director, said in a statement. “This cannot be tolerated or accepted as normal.”
Last year, the ADL reported that California had 1,344 antisemitic incidents, the second-highest number of any state besides New York. Of those incidents, 1,000 were antisemitic harassment, while 311 were vandalism and 33 were assault.
Congregation Emanu El, a Reform synagogue in Redlands, wrote on Facebook Sunday that it was in communication with the family, who were past members, as well as with Redlands Police.
“Please know that the safety and well-being of our community remains our highest priority,” wrote Congregation Emanu El President Greg Weissman. “We will continue to stay in close contact with local authorities and share updates as appropriate. Thank you for your care for one another and for our community.”
Cohen is a lecturer in religion at Cal State Fullerton and a former political candidate in Redlands who ran on a tough-on-crime platform. His wife Heftsibah Cohen told a local news outside that she initially thought fireworks were going off before checking a surveillance tape.
“We always know there’s antisemitism and hate and racism out there. It’s always out there,” she said. “But when it comes by your house, it’s that reminder of how real it is.”
The post Drive-by shooting targets Jewish family’s Hanukkah display, police in California town say appeared first on The Forward.
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Alyssa Katz Named Next Editor-in-Chief of the Forward
Alyssa Katz has been named Editor-in-Chief of the Forward, the nation’s most influential and widely-read Jewish publication. The appointment was announced today by Forward Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen. Katz will join the Forward in January 2026.
Katz is an award-winning journalist who has worked at THE CITY since 2019, first as Deputy Editor and currently as Executive Editor. In these roles, she has managed the investigative reporting team while guiding coverage of labor, housing, politics, government and social services. She has led interactive projects and data investigations, including collaborations with ProPublica and the Guardian. Prior to joining THE CITY, she served in editorial roles at the New York Daily News, The Village Voice and other publications.
Katz said, “I am thrilled and inspired to be joining the Forward to provide editorial leadership at this critical moment. In a world that continues to test Jewish safety, identity and values, the Forward celebrates what makes us who we are while taking a critical journalistic eye to our challenges.”
“We’re so proud to welcome Alyssa to the Forward as our next Editor-in-Chief,” said Fishman Feddersen. “She brings formidable journalistic expertise as an editor and reporter, as well as deep experience managing an ambitious nonprofit newsroom. She has produced groundbreaking work that demonstrates courage, accountability and integrity — the same values on which the Forward was founded 128 years ago and upholds today.”
Katz is the author of the 2015 book, The Influence Machine: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Corporate Capture of American Life (Spiegel & Grau) and 2009’s Our Lot: How Real Estate Came to Own Us (Bloomsbury). She has taught journalism at New York University, Hunter College and Brooklyn College, is a graduate of the University of Michigan and was selected for Columbia University’s Charles H. Revson Fellowship for New York City leaders.
Katz has spent many years as an active lay leader at the East Midwood Jewish Center, a historic synagogue and community center in Brooklyn, NY. She is also involved in research and advocacy for preservation of Jewish historic memory in Warsaw, Poland.
The post Alyssa Katz Named Next Editor-in-Chief of the Forward appeared first on The Forward.