NEW YORK, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- A rabbi, who is an advocate of child abuse victims in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect in New York City, said he was hurt when a man threw a chemical in his face.
Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg said he was walking down the street Tuesday in his Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn when the man -- whom he said he recognized -- came up to him.
"He has a cup of bleach," Rosenberg said. "And then he says 'whoops' and throws it in my face and walks off."
The name of the man who threw the bleach was not reported, but Rosenberg said he believes the motive was retaliation for his support of Monday's conviction of Nechemya Weberman on 59 counts of sexual abuse of a minor.
Weberman's trial and conviction has been a source of controversy in the Satmar Hasidic community, many members of which financially supported the man's legal costs and still say he is innocent, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
A New York Police Department spokesman told the Times there appears to be no connection between the bleach incident and the verdict, and so far, no arrest has been made.
Rosenberg was treated at Woodhull Medical Center for burns to his face, around his eye and a corneal abrasion. He is expected to recover fully, a relative said.
