Former Atlanta Rabbi Pleads Guilty to Sex Charges
Rabbi Stephen Weiss to be sentenced Feb. 27 in Ohio court; faces possible 30 months in prison.
Dave Schechter is a veteran journalist whose career includes writing and producing reports from Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East.
A former Atlanta rabbi has pleaded guilty to two sex-related charges in suburban Cleveland and is awaiting sentencing.
Rabbi Stephen Weiss pleaded guilty Jan. 26 in Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Common Pleas Court to attempted sexual contact with a minor and possessing criminal tools, both felony charges.
Weiss, an assistant rabbi at the Ahavath Achim synagogue from July 1990 to June 1997, and was the longtime rabbi at Congregation B’Nai Jeshrun in the Cleveland suburb of Pepper Pike until his arrest last April.
By accepting a plea deal, the 61-year-old Weiss must register as a sex offender every six months for the next 25 years. His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 27. According to local news reports, the maximum sentence possible is 30 months in prison. He is eligible to receive probation. Weiss has been free on $50,000 bond.
Defense attorney Michael Goldberg told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer newspaper that Weiss takes responsibility for his actions and that, at the sentencing hearing, he will frame his client’s actions “in the context of a lifetime of good works and leadership” and provide a “neurological explanation” for the crimes.
Weiss “is deeply remorseful for the harm he has caused to his family and his former congregation and hopes today’s plea can help toward renewal and closure for everyone,” Goldberg said.
Weiss, the senior rabbi at B’nai Jeshrun since 2001, was arrested April 18, 2022, by the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children task force. The criminal complaint alleged that he communicated on a social networking app with an undercover investigator posing as a 15-year-old boy and then traveled to a location in Newburgh Heights, Ohio, to meet what he thought was a teenager. The Cleveland Jewish News reported: “According to the prosecutor’s office, the vehicle he was driving was searched and law enforcement officers found a box of condoms and two bottles of lubricant.”
Weiss initially was charged with one count of attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, one count of importuning and one count of possessing criminal tools. The importuning count was dismissed.
B’nai Jeshrun suspended Weiss immediately following his arrest. He was suspended April 25 by the Rabbinical Assembly, the international Conservative/Masorti movement’s rabbinic body.
comments