Conviction Jewish institutions and contexts Hasidic and Haredi communities Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, USA · 2012

USA: unlicensed Satmar 'religious therapist' convicted of sexually abusing a girl sent to him for religious counseling

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Disposition and response

Material that narrows or disputes the record

Appellate history

Conviction affirmed; sentence reduced from 103 to 50 years.

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Nechemya Weberman, an unlicensed counselor operating within the Satmar Hasidic community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to whom families sent children for religious/moral guidance at the direction of communal and rabbinic figures

Organization

Satmar Hasidic community, Williamsburg

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

Weberman's role as a religious counselor operating with the sanction of the community's rabbinic authority structure was the specific channel through which the victim's family placed her under his direction, and the position he used to isolate and abuse her over three years.

Guru or spiritual-teacher authority
Institutional obedience or isolation
Spiritual healing or treatment

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2012-12-10 · convicted at jury trial; sentence stands

New York State Supreme Court, Kings County (Justice John Ingram). Convicted by a jury on 59 counts, including sustained sexual conduct against a child, criminal sexual act, sexual abuse, and endangering the welfare of a child. The complainant testified she was sent to Weberman at age twelve for religious counseling after a school disciplinary matter, and that the abuse continued until she was fifteen. Sentenced 22 January 2013 to 103 years' imprisonment; the sentence was later reduced to 50 years on appeal, but the conviction itself was not disturbed.

Documented coercion mechanisms

his position as a community-sanctioned religious counselor, to whom the victim was sent at age twelve specifically for guidance framed as necessary to her standing within the community
the closed, self-policing structure of the Satmar community, in which the case became a flashpoint over communal pressure on the victim's family not to go to secular police

Cited record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting court verdict report Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 10 Dec. 2012: verdict report.: Reports the 59-count jury conviction.
national newspaper court reporting sentencing report CNN, 22 Jan. 2013: sentencing report.: Reports the original 103-year sentence.
local newspaper court reporting court verdict report Gothamist: sentencing coverage, including the victim's account of being sent to Weberman at age twelve for religious counseling.: Establishes the religious-counseling nexus through which the victim was placed under his authority.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis: https://www.jta.org/2012/12/10/united-states/nechemya-weberman-convicted-on-59-counts-of-sexual-abuse Corpus classification: national-newspaper-court-reporting; evidentiary role: court-verdict-report. SHA-256 b528290020011a7b2e3dab19edbc59b3808fe8e15eded7e87c2b2edfd3212a47
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://www.cnn.com/2013/01/22/justice/new-york-brooklyn-sexual-abuse Corpus classification: national-newspaper-court-reporting; evidentiary role: sentencing-report. SHA-256 625560f52d56e04be858dc426e18e1b01ae9373f391fa959ed57c2c4f63d68e4
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://gothamist.com/news/hasidic-sex-abuser-nechemya-weberman-sentenced-to-103-years-in-prison Corpus classification: local-newspaper-court-reporting; evidentiary role: court-verdict-report. SHA-256 c26451a2265a6ea591be8eddcd8f8bd533822ecd87abe4a7a70cf04782e8317c
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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