Gavel and handcuffs on a leather surface. (David Talukdar/Getty Images)

(JTA) — To over 300,000 TikTok followers, Hayim Nissim Cohen was a rabbi who had taken in nine adoptive sons and documented their Jewish lives. But after one of the children spoke out about the sexual abuse that was happening off-camera, that illusion came crashing down.

On Monday, Cohen, 40, pleaded guilty in a Houston state court to four counts of sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child. He was sentenced to four 40-year sentences with no parole for the sexual assault charges and an additional 15 years for the indecency charge to be served concurrently, according to the Houston Chronicle.

“You realize you are never going to get out of prison, you’re going to die in prison?” Judge Danilo Lacayo asked Cohen in Court, according to local CBS affiliate KHOU.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The crimes came to light in February 2023 when Cohen’s 17-year-old adopted son called into a podcast and reported that he had been sexually abused by Cohen since age 11. CPS intervened, and the six youngest children were removed from the home, according to KHOU.

Cohen was arrested in 2023, at a time when he had allegedly been faking a chronic illness. In social media posts, he can be seen using supplemental oxygen and a wheelchair, but when detectives took him to two hospitals, they found nothing wrong with him.

Cohen had also claimed that he grew up speaking Yiddish as a Hasidic Jew in Williamsburg, but was actually born with the name Jeffrey Lujan Vejil in Odessa, Texas in 1984. He changed his name later in life, but there is no evidence that he ever converted, according to The Times of Israel.

At times, Cohen claimed to be a rabbi. He also said, despite evidence to the contrary, that his nine adopted sons came from Jewish families. At the trial, he was still sporting payos, the sidecurls grown by Hasidic men, though he did not appear to be wearing a kippah.

“He changed their names in the adoption process and had them grow their hair and dressed them. He claims they speak Hebrew or Yiddish but I don’t think any of them do,” Sherry Chandler, a lawyer for another child abused by Cohen in 2019, told the Times of Israel. “He’s clearly not a rabbi. I think he woke up one day and said, ‘I’m Jewish,’ and went to Dallas County and had his name changed.”

One of the sons, Avshalom Cohen, was also arrested in 2023 and charged with sexual assault and human smuggling.

“I know you understand everything I’ve said to you from the beginning to the end,” Lacayo said, “You ran an interesting con, sir. You violated all these boys and you’re here today facing justice.”

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re in the middle of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount