Molestation Case Is Dismissed By Rabbinical Court
JERUSALEM — The rabbinical court that was to hear testimony from American-born Rabbi Matis Weinberg regarding accusations of alleged molestation of yeshiva students has dismissed the case because of a lack of witnesses to recent alleged impropriety.
Rabbi Moshe Shternbuch, head of the three-rabbi beit din, or rabbinic tribunal, told the Forward that there was only one allegation relating to the past year and that the panel would not deal with the other accusations involving incidents alleged to have occurred in the early 1980s. “They’re not going to judge now what happened 20 years ago,” he said. “If there come witnesses in the last year or two, then they’ll decide if they are going to go and call him.”
Weinberg, 56, a charismatic, Baltimore-born Torah scholar, author and lecturer, has been accused of impropriety in his relations with students in the early 1980s at a yeshiva in California and more recently at another school in Jerusalem.
Weinberg, who has denied the allegations, declined to speak to the Forward for this story.
The decision by the Israeli rabbinic court was greeted with surprise by alleged victims, a rabbi who is advising them and the head of a rabbinic panel in New York that accepted written and oral testimony last spring and referred the case to Israel.
“I’m very surprised,” said Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetsky, who headed the panel that met in New York on May 1. “Is there a statute of limitations? I didn’t know there was such a thing in Halacha,” he said, using the Hebrew word for rabbinic canon law.
Kaminetsky said that he had agreed to convene the tribunal in New York in order to keep the matter within the rabbinic legal system but that there was nothing more for him to do now. He said he had no advice for the alleged victims who testified before his tribunal.
“We thought we’d prevent it going to [civil] court, but if we can’t do it, then it’s up to them; they have to do whatever they want to do,” he said.
One alleged victim in San Diego said that he and another complainant were considering whether to take further legal steps.
The alleged victim, who had submitted written testimony to the Kaminetsky tribunal, exclaimed, “I can’t believe it,” when told of the Jerusalem panel’s decision. “My question is, why did they decline to deal with it? What’s important is that people are made aware of the situation.”
Rabbi Eliezer Eidlitz, a former rabbi at the California yeshiva who has been advising the alleged victims, said: “By no means do I feel that at this point that things have concluded. We’ll see where it goes.”
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.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 2
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
- 3
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 4
Fast Forward Columbia staff receive texts asking if they’re Jewish, as government hunts antisemitic harassment on campus
In Case You Missed It
-
News These are the most influential Jews in Trump’s first 100 days
-
Fast Forward Nike apologizes for marathon ad using the Holocaust phrase ‘Never Again’
-
Opinion I wrote the book on Hitler’s first 100 days. Here’s how Trump’s compare
-
Fast Forward Ohio Applebee’s defaced with antisemitic graffiti reading ‘Jews work here’
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.