An Israeli rabbi flying to New York from Tel Aviv twice fondled a female passenger as she slept

Rabbi Gavriel Bidany, 47, has been named in a criminal information charging him with misdemeanor assault. A complaint sworn by FBI Agent Janet Ambrisco provides a detailed account of the incident on Delta Airlines Flight 269. About 90 minutes into the 12-hour flight, Bidany reached over to the sleeping woman seated next to him and “placed his hand under her blanket, on her groin, and was groping her genital area.” When the victim, identified only as “Jane Doe” in the complaint, “jumped back,” Bidany “quickly removed his hand from her groin.” The woman told the FBI that she then “pulled her blanket back over her head and body.” But minutes later, Bidany again “reached under the passenger’s blanket, this time groping the passenger’s breasts.” “What are you doing, stop touching me,” she told Bidany. He replied, “It’s a mistake, I’m asleep,” according to Ambrisco. The female passenger “then left her seat to advise the flight crew of the incident.” Delta personnel confirmed to the FBI that the passenger had reported the inappropriate touching to them, and one crew member described the woman as “visibly shaken and frantic.”