The FBI found him hiding in his bedroom. Rabbi Israel Weingarten, 58, was arrested in upstate New York on charges he sexually abused his own daughter. The abuse began when his daughter was 9 years old; it continued until she was 18. The former yeshiva schoolteacher molested his daughter on a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis. He moved her around from Belgium, Israel and the U.S. to avoid prosecution.
If this had been a Catholic priest, it would have been front-page news. But because it was a rabbi, it merited stories on p. 18 in the Daily News and p. 21 in the New York Post; both were short pieces. The New York Times ignored the story altogether, even though it was picked up by AP.
The Jewish Forward and the Jewish Week have had several stories lately about the efforts of Assemblyman Dov Hikind to still this problem in his community. The New York politician says that an “avalanche of people” have come forward with reports of the sexual abuse of minors at the hands of Orthodox Jews. We commend him for his efforts. But we also take note that these stories are ignored by the same New York media outlets that were all over the same crimes when committed by priests.
