The daughter of an Orthodox rabbi convicted of groping a woman aboard a jetliner has urged a judge for leniency, saying that her father's absence will hurt matchmaking efforts to find a husband.
Gavriel Bidany, 48, a married father of 11 children, was found guilty last week of groping a female Israel Defense Forces officer during a trans-Atlantic flight aboard a commercial jetliner bound for New York.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday.
One of Bidany's daughters, Eden, wrote to Magistrate Judge Ramon Reyes, Jr., who will sentence the rabbi for his in-flight misbehavior in Brooklyn federal court.
"I am begging you your honor, I have reached an age (22) where I need to find a groom and start a family," she wrote. "And without my father it is very difficult."
"This could harm my matchmaking process - starting a home. My whole future depends on it," she wrote.
Her brother, Ariel, made a similar plea.
"Have pity on me. I have reached the age of 21, and need to find a bride, get married and have a family," Ariel Bidany wrote.
"When my father is not with me, it is going to be very hard and would hurt my matchmaking," he wrote. "I would like to get married properly with my father at my side please."
Another sibling, Avishar, also laments in a letter how their father's absence will "hurt my matchmaking possibilities.'
Bidany, his wife, and children, all live in Israel in a close-knit neighborhood near the Tel Aviv airport.
Friends who attended the trial said Bidany was a respected fixture in the local Orthodox community, where interactions between unmarried men and women are restricted.
Bidany was trained as a rabbi, but does not serve as one, and instead studies at a yeshiva and runs a soup kitchen, said his attorney, Saul Bienenfeld.
He was convicted of groping the female Israel Defense Forces officer as she slept in her seat. The two were seated next to each other on a Delta flight from Tel Aviv, when the young woman fell asleep.
She testified at the trial last week that she had awaken to find Bidany's hand massaging her crotch and then her breasts.
After she accused him of molesting her, the rabbi pretended to be dozing and feigned innocence, the woman testified.
The woman, a 23-year-old career military officer, who holds the rank of lieutenant, said she then stood up and reported the assault to a flight attendant.
Bidany apparently fled to the back of the plane, and the attendants found him there.
Magistrate Judge Ramon Reyes Jr., said he found the woman's testimony to be "compelling and wholly believable."
Bidany, an Israeli national, faces up to six months in jail when he is sentenced tomorrow.
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