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(Cleveland Jewish Information by way of JTA) – A Cleveland-area rabbi was arrested and suspended from his congregation after allegedly partaking in specific on-line conversations and making an attempt to satisfy with an undercover investigator posing as a 15-year-old boy.
Rabbi Stephen Weiss, who has served as senior rabbi at B’nai Jeshurun Congregation in Pepper Pike, Ohio, since 2001, was arrested Monday night by regulation enforcement officers with the Ohio Web Crimes Towards Youngsters Process Pressure. The 60-year-old had traveled to a pre-arranged location to allegedly interact in sexual exercise with the purported little one, after speaking on a social networking app.
In response to the prosecutor’s workplace, the automobile he was driving was searched and regulation enforcement officers discovered a field of condoms and two bottles of lubricant. Weiss was charged with one depend of tried illegal sexual conduct with a minor, one depend of importuning (soliciting sexual companies) and one depend of possessing prison instruments, in line with the prosecutor’s workplace.
Courtroom data present Weiss posted a $50,000 bond. In response to the courtroom docket, as a situation of his jail launch, he’s required to put on a GPS commonplace monitoring machine.
The day after Weiss’s arrest, his congregation introduced in an electronic mail to congregants that it had suspended him from his place and barred him from the premises. B’nai Jeshurun President Rebekah Dorman and Senior Rabbi Hal Rudin-Luria, newly appointed to his place following Weiss’s suspension, additionally wrote that the synagogue was “unaware of another alleged prison incidents involving Rabbi Weiss.”
The synagogue mentioned it might make confidential counseling obtainable to congregants.
“Our synagogue has been robust and vibrant for 156 years and confronted many challenges alongside the best way,” Dorman and Rudin-Luria wrote. “We’ll proceed on in that custom as a synagogue household that helps and cares for one another in difficult occasions.”
Neither Weiss nor his legal professional returned a Cleveland Jewish Information request for remark.
The arrest comes amid a spate of latest revelations about misdeeds by rabbis in Ohio. Within the Toledo space final month, Rabbi David Kaufman was arrested after being accused of rape; he was fired by his synagogue, which mentioned in an announcement that the accusation didn’t contain a member of the congregation. And in Canton, Rabbi Jon Adland was named in a Reform motion report as having beforehand been engaged in misconduct involving a 14-year-old lady.
Within the latter case, congregants didn’t be taught in regards to the rabbi’s alleged misdeeds whereas he served them. The group severed ties to Adland after the discharge of the nationwide report.
This story was initially reported within the Cleveland Jewish Information. It’s tailored right here with permission.
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