you look at Guma Aguilar’s (Israeli billionaire who’s suing Rabbi Leib Tropper) profile, you see that though born Jewish, he was raised Christian, and in Houston he sought out a Christian congregation but met Rabbi Tuvia Singer and became turned on to his Jewish identity.
Shannon Orand lives in Houston. She used to work for Rabbi Tuvia Singer. Her domain name, Shannonorand.com promotes Rabbi Tuvia Singer.
Guma has a big fight with Leib Tropper.
This woman goes to work for Leib Tropper and has this affair and tapes the calls and disgraces Rabbi Tropper.
Orthodox Jews do not approve of rabbis abusing their power to have sex with women, but neither do they approve of women who are weak enough to allow rabbis to plook them. They shun such women.
Even the blogosphere is reluctant to write about Shannon Orand more than necessary. They see her as a victim of a dastardly rabbi.
I have a hard time regarding her as a victim. She consented to have sex with Rabbi Tropper. He’s a 59-year old man. He could not force her physically.
You say he had power over her? That he controlled her conversion?
Rabbi Tropper only had as much power as she gave him.
I’ve been in several conversion programs. Yeah, I’d easily slip into thinking that the rabbis have all the power and that I am a victim, but that’s because I’m sometimes weak and easily slip into feeling like a victim.
I know a lot of people who would never sleep with anyone they did not want to, even if it meant losing their conversion or their job or their home. Many, perhaps most, people I know would rather sleep on the streets than sleep with some creep.
I had a situation 14 months ago that threatened my conversion. The only rabbi in town, I thought at the time, who would sponsor my conversion and allow me to daven in his shul, said the only way he would sponsor me is if I removed this website, and started another one where he was my editor.
I thought, oh, I’m a victim. I have no choice. And I told the rabbi I’d go along with this option.
Then I thought about it some more and said to myself, buck up bronco. Nobody can tell you what to do. There’s no way you want to allow a rabbi with no experience in journalism to be your boss. There’s no way you’re going to pull down seven years of hard work on Lukeford.net. If this is what it takes to get a conversion to Judaism through an Orthodox Beit Din, then forget it. I believe in my work. I’m not going to give it up.
I didn’t give it up. After three months, I found another rabbi to sponsor me. I found other shuls to daven in. My conversion took a little longer. I had some anxious months. I had many sleepless nights. I felt vulnerable and scared. I had that nasty English bully Rabbi Y.Y. Rubenstein taunting me and manipulating my Wikipedia profile so I looked horrible. He was ready to pounce on my vulnerability. He wanted to sue me in secular and religious courts.
I felt like collapsing. I felt horrible. I didn’t want this fight.
I was so anxious that I went back to therapy. I learned to retake control of my life.
Rabbis are human. Most of them love the power they wield, particularly over converts, but they only have as much power as you allow them. Once you stand up to them, they tend to cower.
Before I had this blog, a lot of rabbis treated me like dirt. They thought I was powerless. I had no money. I had no influential friends. It was easy to throw me out of their shuls and to speak ill of me and to break up my friendships.
Once I developed the courage to describe what was happening, all the rabbis suddenly became a lot more circumspect in what they said to me and what they said about me. Once they realized I could not be bullied, they started acting better.
When I’ve had power, I’ve acted like a bully. I’m not better than these rabbis. When people allow you to bully them, it is very hard not to bully them. If I was a rabbi and I had Shannon Orand offering me sex, it would be very hard to turn it down.
I’m glad I have very little power or I’d be screwing everything in sight (except for my fear of God, and my other fears).
It’s hard for me to feel particularly bad for Shannon Orand. She posted so many pictures of herself online. She had so many online profiles. She had her whole resume online. She had her story online. If she was smart, she would’ve removed all this before getting into this mess. If she was smart, she would not have succumbed to Rabbi Tropper’s advances. If she was smart, she would not have agreed to take part in this sting.
I don’t see any animosity in the Jewish blogosphere towards her. That’s all reserved for Rabbi Leib Tropper, who appears to have acted like a creep.
The Jewish blogosphere just feels sorry for Shannon Orand for acting so stupidly.
I suspect but have no evidence that Shannon Orand was paid a nice amount of money by Guma Aguilar to set up Rabbi Leib Tropper.
While everyone hates Rabbi Tropper these days, and for good reason, it’s hard to have much admiration for Shannon Orand and for those who set up Rabbi Tropper.
If she is sincere in her desire to convert to Judaism, she’ll need to move to another city. She’ll find an Orthodox synagogue willing to give her a chance and an Orthodox Beit Din willing to give her a chance to convert.
I remember in 2001 when I was kicked out of Young Israel of Century City and then pleading to get back in, Rabbi Elazar Muskin (after phoning every Orthodox pulpit rabbi in town to warn them against me) advised me to leave town.
That’s the traditional Jewish approach to these things. Have a shanda? Move. Start anew.
This worked better before Google.
You can’t have great accomplishments (such as converting to Orthodox Judaism) without overcoming equally great obstacles. That’s the way of the world. You can’t play in the NFL without a lot of natural talent and a lot of hard work. You can’t join the elite — and make no mistake, Orthodox Jews have been an elite for thousands of years, yep, for millenia, the term “Orthodox Jew” has been a title of prestige — without demonstrating the right stuff.
Right now I am sacrificing to achieve teaching certification in Alexander Technique. It is a three year program. It costs about $23,000. That’s money I don’t have. I’m $30,000 in credit card debt. My cards are about maxed out.
So what do I do? I work as hard as I can. I blog my heart out. I borrow money from everyone who will lend it to me. I live on the edge. I live hand to mouth to accomplish my dream.
Through two more years of Alexander training, I will strengthen my health and my capacity to work. I will graduate with a marketable skill. Everybody I talk to about Alexander Technique is interested. I figure I’ll be able to build up a strong practice and pay off my credit cards and my other borrowings and start saving so I can marry and have children and live like a mentch.
From Shannon Orand’s MySpace profile:
Former Christian who was raised in the Evangelical and Messianic movements.
Since I left Christianity, I’ve had the privilege of watching many come out of the church and learn to worship the ONE G-d of Israel… including my father, an Assembly of God minister for nearly 35 years.
I praise G-d every day for organizations that work at bringing the un-molested Jewish scriptures to the world, and exposing the manipulation and horrific tactics used by Jewish Evangelists to steal Jewish souls.
Today, I dedicate all of my time and efforts to this cause… “Bringing precious Jewish souls back to the truth and beauty of the Jewish faith”.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Luke Ford on Tropper - Who Was R. Leib Tropper Talking To On Those Tapes? Shannon Orand – Outreach Administrator At The Eternal Jewish Family?
Here’s a moving video about the process of converting to Judaism, check out the inspiring words of Rabbi Leib Tropper:
The Eternal Jewish Family is an independent organization dedicated to the preservation of the authentic Jewish family, as is dictated by our Torah delivered to the Jewish nation on Mt. Sinai more than 3300 years ago. A primary focus of EJF is the halachic conversion of a non-Jewish spouse in an intermarriage. To assure that all conversions are based on the authentic dictates of Torah and halacha, the Eternal Jewish Family follows the halachic guidelines of such noted Torah authorities as Harav Moshe Feinstein zt”l, Harav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l, Harav Yosef Sholom Eliyashuv shlit”a, Harav Shmuel Wosner shlit”a, Harav Reuven Feinstein shlit”a, as well as leading Sephardic authorities shlit”a. The Eternal Jewish Family is affiliated with Horizons and the Kol Yaakov Torah Center of Monsey, New York. Founded 25 years ago under the inspiration of the late venerable sage Harav Yaakov Kaminetsky zt”l, Kol Yaakov has been a leading institution in the kiruv movement. Hundreds of its alumni have over the years assumed leadership positions in Jewish life throughout the world.
Dov Bear reports:
Absolute facts:
– In 2006 Leib Tropper revoked a woman’s conversion because of a breach of strict halachic tznius rules.
– In October 2009 Leib Tropper was sued by a billionaire Israeli for allegedly misappropriating 1 million dollars.
– In mid-December 2009 Leib Tropper resigned from his leadership role at EJF
– Pashkvelin in Israel, this month, denounced Leib Tropper as a Zimri playing like a Pinchas.
Facts Supported by strong circumstantial evidence:
– A woman who identifies herself as Shannon Orand, recorded a number of conversations between herself and a man who sounds like Leib Tropper and has intimate information about Leib Tropper’s associates and family.
– In the audio recording, Tropper speaks of a sexual relationship with the woman as well as setting her up for phone sex and actual sex acts with men identified only as “Amir” and the “Satmar guy.”
– Money is passing hands, although it is not clear if the funds were used as a quid pro quo for sex.
Information provided by Shmarya at FailedMessiah after a conversation with the woman (whom he does not identify):
– The audio was leaked and was not supposed to end up in the hands of bloggers and mainstream media.
– One of Shmarya’s sources for the audio was the billionaire Israeli.
– There were other women that were part of the sexual activities.
– The woman claims that Tropper was using her for sex and in return he was going to provide her with a conversion.
Investigative Reporting:
– The woman on the audio is from Texas. There is a Shannon Orand listed in Houston Texas. Her address is near the frum neighborhood.
– Ms. Orand claims on her Myspace page that she was raised Catholic and is now Jewish. This implies she has already converted.
– Ms. Orand has not logged into her Myspace account since August 2009.
– Ms. Orand had a Facebook account (which is still visible in google results if you click “cached”) it has been since deleted.
Here’s a comment to DovBear: Shannon Orand’s Linked In profile claims that her current position is “Outreach Administration at Eternal Jewish Family”. Thus, if it was her, I would assume Tropper would be familar with her background. And it indicates that her background includes many kiruv positions, which is not likely if she had not yet converted.
DINA COMMENTS: The conversion process requires living for at least a year as a Jew, so that would explain why she is saying she’s Jewish when she’s still technically not Jewish.
CA POSTS: – If Ms. Orand had already converted why was she converting again? Was it a set-up? Or was she really converting (again)?
Perhaps the reason she was able to get converted was because she did the Rabbi’s bidding. But she continued becuase the rabbi has a track record of “revoking” conversions of people who don’t cooperate.
– A man with the means of the slighted billionaire Israeli could very well have orchestrated the demise of his nemesis by playing to Tropper’s weaknesses with an elaborate set-up.
You mean he’s so rich he has access to some sort of secret mind-control technology that makes a man do things he wouldn’t do otherwise?
– By recording conversations in which the woman admits to sexual activity with a married man and potential sexual activity with others, we can infer that there was a huge interest on her part to expose Tropper and indict herself.
Yeah, well lots of people succumb to extortion, that doesn’t mean they like it or like the person who’s doing it. Doesn’t surprise me in the least that she was collecting evidence that could be used against the guy.
– The things Tropper did would still be inexcusable but they shed new light on his predicament.
His predicament is self-made. If he wanted a life of kinky sex, he should have gone into show business, where that sort of activity isn’t such a career-killer, and he would have found lots of willing partners.
READER COMMENTS: Of course she was trying to get a response from him. She was TAPING the calls. She was obviously on her way out of the relationship and wanted to take proof with her.
Even if it was total entrapment, he still admitted to all sorts of sexual things and sure seems to admit to pimping her also.
Lots of people first convert Reform or Conservative and then decide they can make the commitment to converting Orthodox. It usually requires a bigger financial commitment like moving to a frum neighborhood where real estate is very expensive and you might even have to quit your job. It’s very common in the world of converts.
MJ COMMENTS: Listening to the recordings without any knowledge of the situation other than the assumption hat they are authentic, it is hard to come to any conclusion other than you have a married man who is in an alarmingly manipulative and seemingly coercive relationship with another woman.
The man cites the Torah as providing reason why he can be in love with multiple partners and seems to fault her for not being able to do the same. The man further admits to being sexually coercive with his spouse.
The question is not whether this is illegal, The question is how, once again, did this kind of person with a predatory nature rise to a position of power. The answer is, once again, with the complicity of a rabbinic establishment that depends on handlers like Tropper to funnel millions of dollars to their institutions.
I know plenty of lovely people in the kiruv business. But I’ve traced the origins of the kiruv movement and the major organizations it nearly always comes back to people with cult-like manipulative personalities and very shady financial arrangements. I spent time working at a kiruv organization that is very highly regarded (=not Aish). This organization did not turn into the vast financial scheme that others have, but it too was led by a person, now dead, who was emotionally abusive and its clients were across the board people of unstable emotional grounding.
VEGANOVICH COMMENTS: Below is Shannon Orand’s website, in case you’ve ever wondered “why does Judaism reject the Christian messiah.”
http://www.shannonorand.com/
And in an odd detail, below is link to a page where Shannon Orand requests the definition of the word “herpes” into Albanian. I wonder why she needs to know.
http://alb.proz.com/kudoz/ englis…tted_virus.html
RABBI YOSEF BLAU COMMENTS: “There is a campaign to besmirch Shannon Orland. My information from a most reliable source is that she is sincere and was working for Rabbi Tropper though her geirus had not been completed. She was misled about the public distribution of the tapes.
Unfortunately, the pattern of blaming women who have been manipulated by a rabbi, who was an authority figure, is being repeated in this case.
Attacking her won’t save Tropper but it will have a devastating effect on her life.”
YAHU COMMENTS: From the available evidence it seems that she was not a “plant,” or someone who “set him up,” but a sincere prospective convert who seems to be have been hit on, manipulated or abused by Tropper, and who then decided to record conversations and turn them over to his enemies, to try to get this guy out of his position of authority where he could potentially abuse others. I believe her that she didn’t want or expect her identity and the tapes to go public — what possible interest would she have in that? Her own reality show, as in that toddler UFO hoax? No way. She probably just trusted Tropper’s enemies not to publicly release the tapes, but things didn’t go according to plan — Tropper refused their demands — so they aired the tapes publicly.
HERE IS SOME INFO ON SHANNON ORAND FROM LINKED-IN:
#
Tomball College
1999
#
Harris County Community College
Photo Journalism 1997
#
Humble High School
Year Completed 1995
Shannon Orand’s Summary
Seeking a fulltime position that will take advantage of my marketing, public relations, journalism, event coordinating, administrative, and computer skills. I am trained in all Microsoft Office programs and have strong Microsoft administrative support skills. In addition, I have experience in web development and desktop publishing.
Shannon Orand’s Specialties:
accounts payable, administration, advertising, american sign language, counseling, customer service, database administration, editing, education, email, fundraising, grant writing, management, marketing, microsoft excel, microsoft powerpoint, microsoft publisher, microsoft word, newspaper, public relations, publicity, radio, real estate, research, retail, sales, scheduling, shipping, teaching, travel arrangements, web site production,
Shannon Orand’s Experience
*
Outreach Administration
Eternal Jewish Family
(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
July 2009 — Present (6 months)
The Eternal Jewish Family is an independent organization dedicated to the preservation of the authentic Jewish family, as is dictated by our Torah delivered to the Jewish nation on Mt. Sinai more than 3300 years ago. A primary focus of EJF is the halachic conversion of a non-Jewish spouse in an intermarriage.
To assure that all conversions are based on the authentic dictates of Torah and halacha, the Eternal Jewish Family follows the halachic guidelines of such noted Torah authorities as Harav Moshe Feinstein zt”l, Harav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l, Harav Yosef Sholom Eliyashuv shlit”a, Harav Shmuel Wosner shlit”a, Harav Reuven Feinstein shlit”a, as well as leading Sephardic authorities shlit”a.
The Eternal Jewish Family is affiliated with Horizons and the Kol Yaakov Torah Center of Monsey, New York. Founded 25 years ago under the inspiration of the late venerable sage Harav Yaakov Kaminetsky zt”l, Kol Yaakov has been a leading institution in the kiruv movement. Hundreds of its alumni have over the years assumed leadership positions in Jewish life throughout the world.
*
Administration
Chabad Jewish Center
(Non-Profit; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
2008 — 2009 (1 year )
*
Media Public Relations / Radio Program Producer
Arutz 7 – The Tovia Singer Show
(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
November 2007 — March 2009 (1 year 5 months)
Results driven Media Public Relations and Radio Program Producer. In this position I was responsible for producing LIVE event programming from generating ideas and researching, to writing and editing, and finding and scheduling high profile guest interviews.
During the live show my role required excellent interpersonal and communication skills, which were used in facilitating/moderating the live online virtual studio where I would stimulate debate and encourage callers to call into the show. A strong ability to deliver quick and precise instructions under intense time pressures was necessary in directing a successful program.
I left the company on good terms based on a request to relocate to Israel, which I declined due to a family decision to remain in the United States.
During the live show my role required excellent interpersonal and communication skills, which were used in facilitating/moderating the live online virtual studio where I would stimulate debate and encourage callers to call into the show. A strong ability to deliver quick and precise instructions under intense time pressures was necessary in directing a successful program.
I left the company on good terms based on a request to relocate to Israel, which I declined due to a family decision.
*
National Radio
Tovia Singer Show
(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
November 2007 — March 2009 (1 year 5 months)
*
Marketing/Operations & Project Manager
Outreach Judaism
(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
November 2007 — March 2009 (1 year 5 months)
Marketing, Project, and Operations Manager for this leading non-profit religious education organization. In this position I was responsible for managing a diverse range of projects as well as the daily administration. I was successful in implementing a high profile; image based marketing strategy using various outlets on the internet and in the media, within the organizations budget. Using my fundraising skills and experience with non-profit organizations, I was able to triple the sales, solicit donations, and strengthen the monthly commitments from donors to help ensure steady funds for continued operations.
Daily operations included managing Accounts Payable/Receivables, mailings, processing/shipping orders, inventory, booking lectures, making travel arrangements, and customer service.
Over the past year I was trained as an educator/counselor and began teaching weekly online classes, one on one studies, and taking basic counseling calls.
*
Marketing Assistant
Grubb & Ellis
(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Real Estate industry)
February 2006 — November 2007 (1 year 10 months)
Marketing Assistant for the Vice President of the Investment Group specializing in Commercial Retail Investments. In this position I implemented and executed a full marketing plan for each listing as well as the administrative process involved from the initial Listing Agreement to the contract and closing. Specializing in research, each Offering Memorandum is completed with a detailed description of the area, its demographics, surrounding retail, area development, and realistic potential in the market.
Executing the marketing plan includes:
Submitting the detailed listing to various listing sites including the Grubb & Ellis website, LoopNet, Property Line, CCIM.net, Commercial Gateway, BizSpace, and the individual Broker’s website.
Printed advertisements in various magazines including Red News, and Texas Real Estate Business. Printed advertisements also include mass mailings of post cards and flyer projects.
E-Mail Marketing – this is by far the most effective and cost efficient. Maintaining a good contact database for e-mail blasts is of high importance.
*
Marketing Assistant
Grubb & Ellis
(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Real Estate industry)
February 2006 — November 2007 (1 year 10 months)
*
Development and Operations Manager
Virtuosi of Houston
(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
May 2002 — January 2006 (3 years 9 months)
Marketing, Development, and Operations Manager for this non-profit Youth Chamber Orchestra. In this position I was responsible for the daily administration including website updates, financial reports, student records, promotional publications, mass mailings, meeting coordination, and communication with the executive committee/board. My responsibility was also to coordinate events such as concerts, black tie dinners, cocktail parties, luncheons, and the annual fundraising Gala.
To date I have been the Event Coordinator for eight (8) major concerts, four (4) gala fundraiser’s inviting the social elite of Houston and business/community leaders, two luncheons with well known actors, musicians, and two cocktail parties for high-profile politicians.
Since I started at Virtuosi of Houston, I have established numerous large fundraising promotions and have played a key role in seeking corporate funding and support.
I assisted in the application for and was successfully approved for several significant grants. Including CACHH, Texas Commission of the Arts, The Rockwell Fund, and the Cullen Foundation for the Performing Arts.
The Eternal Jewish Family is an independent organization dedicated to the preservation of the authentic Jewish family, as is dictated by our Torah delivered to the Jewish nation on Mt. Sinai more than 3300 years ago. A primary focus of EJF is the halachic conversion of a non-Jewish spouse in an intermarriage. To assure that all conversions are based on the authentic dictates of Torah and halacha, the Eternal Jewish Family follows the halachic guidelines of such noted Torah authorities as Harav Moshe Feinstein zt”l, Harav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l, Harav Yosef Sholom Eliyashuv shlit”a, Harav Shmuel Wosner shlit”a, Harav Reuven Feinstein shlit”a, as well as leading Sephardic authorities shlit”a. The Eternal Jewish Family is affiliated with Horizons and the Kol Yaakov Torah Center of Monsey, New York. Founded 25 years ago under the inspiration of the late venerable sage Harav Yaakov Kaminetsky zt”l, Kol Yaakov has been a leading institution in the kiruv movement. Hundreds of its alumni have over the years assumed leadership positions in Jewish life throughout the world.
Dov Bear reports:
Absolute facts:
– In 2006 Leib Tropper revoked a woman’s conversion because of a breach of strict halachic tznius rules.
– In October 2009 Leib Tropper was sued by a billionaire Israeli for allegedly misappropriating 1 million dollars.
– In mid-December 2009 Leib Tropper resigned from his leadership role at EJF
– Pashkvelin in Israel, this month, denounced Leib Tropper as a Zimri playing like a Pinchas.
Facts Supported by strong circumstantial evidence:
– A woman who identifies herself as Shannon Orand, recorded a number of conversations between herself and a man who sounds like Leib Tropper and has intimate information about Leib Tropper’s associates and family.
– In the audio recording, Tropper speaks of a sexual relationship with the woman as well as setting her up for phone sex and actual sex acts with men identified only as “Amir” and the “Satmar guy.”
– Money is passing hands, although it is not clear if the funds were used as a quid pro quo for sex.
Information provided by Shmarya at FailedMessiah after a conversation with the woman (whom he does not identify):
– The audio was leaked and was not supposed to end up in the hands of bloggers and mainstream media.
– One of Shmarya’s sources for the audio was the billionaire Israeli.
– There were other women that were part of the sexual activities.
– The woman claims that Tropper was using her for sex and in return he was going to provide her with a conversion.
Investigative Reporting:
– The woman on the audio is from Texas. There is a Shannon Orand listed in Houston Texas. Her address is near the frum neighborhood.
– Ms. Orand claims on her Myspace page that she was raised Catholic and is now Jewish. This implies she has already converted.
– Ms. Orand has not logged into her Myspace account since August 2009.
– Ms. Orand had a Facebook account (which is still visible in google results if you click “cached”) it has been since deleted.
Here’s a comment to DovBear: Shannon Orand’s Linked In profile claims that her current position is “Outreach Administration at Eternal Jewish Family”. Thus, if it was her, I would assume Tropper would be familar with her background. And it indicates that her background includes many kiruv positions, which is not likely if she had not yet converted.
DINA COMMENTS: The conversion process requires living for at least a year as a Jew, so that would explain why she is saying she’s Jewish when she’s still technically not Jewish.
CA POSTS: – If Ms. Orand had already converted why was she converting again? Was it a set-up? Or was she really converting (again)?
Perhaps the reason she was able to get converted was because she did the Rabbi’s bidding. But she continued becuase the rabbi has a track record of “revoking” conversions of people who don’t cooperate.
– A man with the means of the slighted billionaire Israeli could very well have orchestrated the demise of his nemesis by playing to Tropper’s weaknesses with an elaborate set-up.
You mean he’s so rich he has access to some sort of secret mind-control technology that makes a man do things he wouldn’t do otherwise?
– By recording conversations in which the woman admits to sexual activity with a married man and potential sexual activity with others, we can infer that there was a huge interest on her part to expose Tropper and indict herself.
Yeah, well lots of people succumb to extortion, that doesn’t mean they like it or like the person who’s doing it. Doesn’t surprise me in the least that she was collecting evidence that could be used against the guy.
– The things Tropper did would still be inexcusable but they shed new light on his predicament.
His predicament is self-made. If he wanted a life of kinky sex, he should have gone into show business, where that sort of activity isn’t such a career-killer, and he would have found lots of willing partners.
READER COMMENTS: Of course she was trying to get a response from him. She was TAPING the calls. She was obviously on her way out of the relationship and wanted to take proof with her.
Even if it was total entrapment, he still admitted to all sorts of sexual things and sure seems to admit to pimping her also.
Lots of people first convert Reform or Conservative and then decide they can make the commitment to converting Orthodox. It usually requires a bigger financial commitment like moving to a frum neighborhood where real estate is very expensive and you might even have to quit your job. It’s very common in the world of converts.
MJ COMMENTS: Listening to the recordings without any knowledge of the situation other than the assumption hat they are authentic, it is hard to come to any conclusion other than you have a married man who is in an alarmingly manipulative and seemingly coercive relationship with another woman.
The man cites the Torah as providing reason why he can be in love with multiple partners and seems to fault her for not being able to do the same. The man further admits to being sexually coercive with his spouse.
The question is not whether this is illegal, The question is how, once again, did this kind of person with a predatory nature rise to a position of power. The answer is, once again, with the complicity of a rabbinic establishment that depends on handlers like Tropper to funnel millions of dollars to their institutions.
I know plenty of lovely people in the kiruv business. But I’ve traced the origins of the kiruv movement and the major organizations it nearly always comes back to people with cult-like manipulative personalities and very shady financial arrangements. I spent time working at a kiruv organization that is very highly regarded (=not Aish). This organization did not turn into the vast financial scheme that others have, but it too was led by a person, now dead, who was emotionally abusive and its clients were across the board people of unstable emotional grounding.
VEGANOVICH COMMENTS: Below is Shannon Orand’s website, in case you’ve ever wondered “why does Judaism reject the Christian messiah.”
http://www.shannonorand.com/
And in an odd detail, below is link to a page where Shannon Orand requests the definition of the word “herpes” into Albanian. I wonder why she needs to know.
http://alb.proz.com/kudoz/ englis…tted_virus.html
RABBI YOSEF BLAU COMMENTS: “There is a campaign to besmirch Shannon Orland. My information from a most reliable source is that she is sincere and was working for Rabbi Tropper though her geirus had not been completed. She was misled about the public distribution of the tapes.
Unfortunately, the pattern of blaming women who have been manipulated by a rabbi, who was an authority figure, is being repeated in this case.
Attacking her won’t save Tropper but it will have a devastating effect on her life.”
YAHU COMMENTS: From the available evidence it seems that she was not a “plant,” or someone who “set him up,” but a sincere prospective convert who seems to be have been hit on, manipulated or abused by Tropper, and who then decided to record conversations and turn them over to his enemies, to try to get this guy out of his position of authority where he could potentially abuse others. I believe her that she didn’t want or expect her identity and the tapes to go public — what possible interest would she have in that? Her own reality show, as in that toddler UFO hoax? No way. She probably just trusted Tropper’s enemies not to publicly release the tapes, but things didn’t go according to plan — Tropper refused their demands — so they aired the tapes publicly.
HERE IS SOME INFO ON SHANNON ORAND FROM LINKED-IN:
#
Tomball College
1999
#
Harris County Community College
Photo Journalism 1997
#
Humble High School
Year Completed 1995
Shannon Orand’s Summary
Seeking a fulltime position that will take advantage of my marketing, public relations, journalism, event coordinating, administrative, and computer skills. I am trained in all Microsoft Office programs and have strong Microsoft administrative support skills. In addition, I have experience in web development and desktop publishing.
Shannon Orand’s Specialties:
accounts payable, administration, advertising, american sign language, counseling, customer service, database administration, editing, education, email, fundraising, grant writing, management, marketing, microsoft excel, microsoft powerpoint, microsoft publisher, microsoft word, newspaper, public relations, publicity, radio, real estate, research, retail, sales, scheduling, shipping, teaching, travel arrangements, web site production,
Shannon Orand’s Experience
*
Outreach Administration
Eternal Jewish Family
(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
July 2009 — Present (6 months)
The Eternal Jewish Family is an independent organization dedicated to the preservation of the authentic Jewish family, as is dictated by our Torah delivered to the Jewish nation on Mt. Sinai more than 3300 years ago. A primary focus of EJF is the halachic conversion of a non-Jewish spouse in an intermarriage.
To assure that all conversions are based on the authentic dictates of Torah and halacha, the Eternal Jewish Family follows the halachic guidelines of such noted Torah authorities as Harav Moshe Feinstein zt”l, Harav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l, Harav Yosef Sholom Eliyashuv shlit”a, Harav Shmuel Wosner shlit”a, Harav Reuven Feinstein shlit”a, as well as leading Sephardic authorities shlit”a.
The Eternal Jewish Family is affiliated with Horizons and the Kol Yaakov Torah Center of Monsey, New York. Founded 25 years ago under the inspiration of the late venerable sage Harav Yaakov Kaminetsky zt”l, Kol Yaakov has been a leading institution in the kiruv movement. Hundreds of its alumni have over the years assumed leadership positions in Jewish life throughout the world.
*
Administration
Chabad Jewish Center
(Non-Profit; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
2008 — 2009 (1 year )
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Media Public Relations / Radio Program Producer
Arutz 7 – The Tovia Singer Show
(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
November 2007 — March 2009 (1 year 5 months)
Results driven Media Public Relations and Radio Program Producer. In this position I was responsible for producing LIVE event programming from generating ideas and researching, to writing and editing, and finding and scheduling high profile guest interviews.
During the live show my role required excellent interpersonal and communication skills, which were used in facilitating/moderating the live online virtual studio where I would stimulate debate and encourage callers to call into the show. A strong ability to deliver quick and precise instructions under intense time pressures was necessary in directing a successful program.
I left the company on good terms based on a request to relocate to Israel, which I declined due to a family decision to remain in the United States.
During the live show my role required excellent interpersonal and communication skills, which were used in facilitating/moderating the live online virtual studio where I would stimulate debate and encourage callers to call into the show. A strong ability to deliver quick and precise instructions under intense time pressures was necessary in directing a successful program.
I left the company on good terms based on a request to relocate to Israel, which I declined due to a family decision.
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National Radio
Tovia Singer Show
(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
November 2007 — March 2009 (1 year 5 months)
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Marketing/Operations & Project Manager
Outreach Judaism
(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
November 2007 — March 2009 (1 year 5 months)
Marketing, Project, and Operations Manager for this leading non-profit religious education organization. In this position I was responsible for managing a diverse range of projects as well as the daily administration. I was successful in implementing a high profile; image based marketing strategy using various outlets on the internet and in the media, within the organizations budget. Using my fundraising skills and experience with non-profit organizations, I was able to triple the sales, solicit donations, and strengthen the monthly commitments from donors to help ensure steady funds for continued operations.
Daily operations included managing Accounts Payable/Receivables, mailings, processing/shipping orders, inventory, booking lectures, making travel arrangements, and customer service.
Over the past year I was trained as an educator/counselor and began teaching weekly online classes, one on one studies, and taking basic counseling calls.
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Marketing Assistant
Grubb & Ellis
(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Real Estate industry)
February 2006 — November 2007 (1 year 10 months)
Marketing Assistant for the Vice President of the Investment Group specializing in Commercial Retail Investments. In this position I implemented and executed a full marketing plan for each listing as well as the administrative process involved from the initial Listing Agreement to the contract and closing. Specializing in research, each Offering Memorandum is completed with a detailed description of the area, its demographics, surrounding retail, area development, and realistic potential in the market.
Executing the marketing plan includes:
Submitting the detailed listing to various listing sites including the Grubb & Ellis website, LoopNet, Property Line, CCIM.net, Commercial Gateway, BizSpace, and the individual Broker’s website.
Printed advertisements in various magazines including Red News, and Texas Real Estate Business. Printed advertisements also include mass mailings of post cards and flyer projects.
E-Mail Marketing – this is by far the most effective and cost efficient. Maintaining a good contact database for e-mail blasts is of high importance.
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Marketing Assistant
Grubb & Ellis
(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Real Estate industry)
February 2006 — November 2007 (1 year 10 months)
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Development and Operations Manager
Virtuosi of Houston
(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
May 2002 — January 2006 (3 years 9 months)
Marketing, Development, and Operations Manager for this non-profit Youth Chamber Orchestra. In this position I was responsible for the daily administration including website updates, financial reports, student records, promotional publications, mass mailings, meeting coordination, and communication with the executive committee/board. My responsibility was also to coordinate events such as concerts, black tie dinners, cocktail parties, luncheons, and the annual fundraising Gala.
To date I have been the Event Coordinator for eight (8) major concerts, four (4) gala fundraiser’s inviting the social elite of Houston and business/community leaders, two luncheons with well known actors, musicians, and two cocktail parties for high-profile politicians.
Since I started at Virtuosi of Houston, I have established numerous large fundraising promotions and have played a key role in seeking corporate funding and support.
I assisted in the application for and was successfully approved for several significant grants. Including CACHH, Texas Commission of the Arts, The Rockwell Fund, and the Cullen Foundation for the Performing Arts.
Old News on Tropper From Jewcy
Name:
Rabbi Leib Tropper
Age:
57 or 58
Last Seen:
Revoking his own conversions.
A follower of Elyashiv, Tropper heads EJF, which seeks to convert non-Jewish spouses of mixed marriages to ultra-Orthodox Judaism—while at the same time marginalizing Orthodox rabbis who don’t march to Rabbi Elyashiv’s tune.Originally a North American organization, EJF is slated to have a couples seminar this November in Israel.Tropper told potential converts already in the conversion process with Modern Orthodox rabbis that they should move their conversions to EJF to “ensure” acceptance by Israel’s state rabbinate.
Like Elyashiv’s Israeli acolytes, Tropper has also revoked at least one conversion.Tropper (together with another haredi rabbi, Leib Pinter, who is now on trial for his alleged role in a $44 million mortgage fraud) is said to have spearheaded the 2004 ban against the Zoo Rabbi, Natan Slifkin, and his books.Slifkin’s “crimes”? Following the lead of medieval rabbis and modern savants like Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Slifkin wrote that the scientific and medical opinions of ancient Jewish sages may have been in error. He also attempted to show that the opening chapters of Genesis can jibe with a universe far older than the 5768 years Orthodoxy commonly holds. Both positions are frequently held by Modern Orthodox rabbis, and were—before the ban—a mainstay of the ultra-Orthodox kiruv movement.(The kiruv movement is, in effect, made up of ultra-Orthodox missionaries out to “convert” Jews to ultra-Orthodoxy. Its main players internationally are Aish HaTorah and Ohr Somayach. Chabad functions in a similar fashion, but has been opposed to anything but a literal understanding of Genesis from the get go.)The ban against Slifkin was signed by dozens of ultra-Orthodox rabbis. Who was the lead signatory?The Gadol Hador, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv.
Rabbi Leib Tropper
Age:
57 or 58
Last Seen:
Revoking his own conversions.
A follower of Elyashiv, Tropper heads EJF, which seeks to convert non-Jewish spouses of mixed marriages to ultra-Orthodox Judaism—while at the same time marginalizing Orthodox rabbis who don’t march to Rabbi Elyashiv’s tune.Originally a North American organization, EJF is slated to have a couples seminar this November in Israel.Tropper told potential converts already in the conversion process with Modern Orthodox rabbis that they should move their conversions to EJF to “ensure” acceptance by Israel’s state rabbinate.
Like Elyashiv’s Israeli acolytes, Tropper has also revoked at least one conversion.Tropper (together with another haredi rabbi, Leib Pinter, who is now on trial for his alleged role in a $44 million mortgage fraud) is said to have spearheaded the 2004 ban against the Zoo Rabbi, Natan Slifkin, and his books.Slifkin’s “crimes”? Following the lead of medieval rabbis and modern savants like Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Slifkin wrote that the scientific and medical opinions of ancient Jewish sages may have been in error. He also attempted to show that the opening chapters of Genesis can jibe with a universe far older than the 5768 years Orthodoxy commonly holds. Both positions are frequently held by Modern Orthodox rabbis, and were—before the ban—a mainstay of the ultra-Orthodox kiruv movement.(The kiruv movement is, in effect, made up of ultra-Orthodox missionaries out to “convert” Jews to ultra-Orthodoxy. Its main players internationally are Aish HaTorah and Ohr Somayach. Chabad functions in a similar fashion, but has been opposed to anything but a literal understanding of Genesis from the get go.)The ban against Slifkin was signed by dozens of ultra-Orthodox rabbis. Who was the lead signatory?The Gadol Hador, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv.
FM: Tropper Sex And Abuse Of Power Scandal Makes The NY Post
Rabbi Leib Tropper of Rockland County is heard encouraging pretty, blond woman to participate in phone sex and actual sex with men the rabbi knows, including one he calls "the Satmar guy."
Tal-mood for love
Sex-tape rabbi tries to 'share' hottie
By REUVEN BLAU and MELISSA KLEIN
Eww, that's not kosher!
A prominent Orthodox rabbi has been caught on tape discussing his apparent love affair with a shiksa he was converting to Judaism -- whom he allegedly also pushed to have sex with his friends.
Rabbi Leib Tropper of Rockland County is heard encouraging pretty, blond Shannon Orand of Houston to participate in phone sex and actual sex with men the rabbi knows, including one he calls "the Satmar guy."
Tropper, who calls the woman "darling" and "cutie pie," talks about his own love affair with her at one point, saying: "I want to squeeze you."
He also fantasized about rape. "I could role-play a rape with you but I couldn't actually rape you -- you know what I'm saying, darling -- does that make sense?" he asks.
The scandal has rocked the Orthodox community from Rockland to Israel, and transcripts of the sex tapes are circulating on Jewish blogs, with the audio posted on YouTube.
The rabbi talks about paying Orand money for a lawyer and a stipend of $1,300 for the month of November. He also mentions putting in writing an agreement between the two.
"Why would you want to document that kind of agreement on an e-mail?" an upset Orand asks.
Orand, who identifies herself on the tape, apparently recorded the phone conversations. "It was only supposed to go to a few leading rabbis," Orand, 32, told The Post.
She refused to comment further, and later released a statement saying, "While an individual 'rabbi' acted in an inappropriate manner, my desire to become a bona fide Jew is undeterred."
Orand reportedly told a Jewish blog, failedmessiah.com, that Tropper would tell her: "If you fulfill my needs, I'll fulfill yours -- and you need a conversion."
The blog reported that Orand's conversion was to have been finalized last week, but was canceled at the last minute by a religious court.
Tropper declined to comment, but a source close to him said the rabbi feels like he's a victim and was used by Orand.
He resigned effective Dec. 12 from Eternal Jewish Family, a Monsey-based organization that primarily works to convert gentiles in interfaith marriages to Judaism.
The 59-year-old rabbi is the founder of Eternal Jewish Family and sought to create strict universal guidelines for conversion, which are handled differently by various Jewish sects.
Here's Shannon's full statement, which she released early Friday afternoon, apparently after realizing the Post was outing her:
While an individual “rabbi” acted in an inappropriate manner, my desire to become a bona fide Jew is undeterred.
I remain inspired by the beauty and wholesomeness of authentic Judaism. One unhealthy person cannot and will not interfere with my quest to become a fully committed observant Jew.
I want nothing more than to focus on my family at this time.
Tal-mood for love
Sex-tape rabbi tries to 'share' hottie
By REUVEN BLAU and MELISSA KLEIN
Eww, that's not kosher!
A prominent Orthodox rabbi has been caught on tape discussing his apparent love affair with a shiksa he was converting to Judaism -- whom he allegedly also pushed to have sex with his friends.
Rabbi Leib Tropper of Rockland County is heard encouraging pretty, blond Shannon Orand of Houston to participate in phone sex and actual sex with men the rabbi knows, including one he calls "the Satmar guy."
Tropper, who calls the woman "darling" and "cutie pie," talks about his own love affair with her at one point, saying: "I want to squeeze you."
He also fantasized about rape. "I could role-play a rape with you but I couldn't actually rape you -- you know what I'm saying, darling -- does that make sense?" he asks.
The scandal has rocked the Orthodox community from Rockland to Israel, and transcripts of the sex tapes are circulating on Jewish blogs, with the audio posted on YouTube.
The rabbi talks about paying Orand money for a lawyer and a stipend of $1,300 for the month of November. He also mentions putting in writing an agreement between the two.
"Why would you want to document that kind of agreement on an e-mail?" an upset Orand asks.
Orand, who identifies herself on the tape, apparently recorded the phone conversations. "It was only supposed to go to a few leading rabbis," Orand, 32, told The Post.
She refused to comment further, and later released a statement saying, "While an individual 'rabbi' acted in an inappropriate manner, my desire to become a bona fide Jew is undeterred."
Orand reportedly told a Jewish blog, failedmessiah.com, that Tropper would tell her: "If you fulfill my needs, I'll fulfill yours -- and you need a conversion."
The blog reported that Orand's conversion was to have been finalized last week, but was canceled at the last minute by a religious court.
Tropper declined to comment, but a source close to him said the rabbi feels like he's a victim and was used by Orand.
He resigned effective Dec. 12 from Eternal Jewish Family, a Monsey-based organization that primarily works to convert gentiles in interfaith marriages to Judaism.
The 59-year-old rabbi is the founder of Eternal Jewish Family and sought to create strict universal guidelines for conversion, which are handled differently by various Jewish sects.
Here's Shannon's full statement, which she released early Friday afternoon, apparently after realizing the Post was outing her:
While an individual “rabbi” acted in an inappropriate manner, my desire to become a bona fide Jew is undeterred.
I remain inspired by the beauty and wholesomeness of authentic Judaism. One unhealthy person cannot and will not interfere with my quest to become a fully committed observant Jew.
I want nothing more than to focus on my family at this time.
FM: TROPPER: Outreach Rabbi Resigns Amid Cloud Of Scandal
An influential ultra-Orthodox rabbi who supervises conversions has stepped down abruptly from the organization he founded.
Outreach Rabbi Resigns Amid Cloud Of Scandal
Rabbi Leib Tropper gave no reason for his resignation but said he would “pursue a variety of different interests.”
New York Jewish Week Staff Report
An influential ultra-Orthodox rabbi who supervises conversions has stepped down abruptly from the organization he has led for about five years.
Rabbi Leib Tropper resigned this week as head of Eternal Jewish Family, the Monsey-based conversion group he founded. In an official EJF press release issued late Monday, two days after Rabbi Tropper’s resignation took effect, the rabbi cited a desire to pursue “a variety of other interests.
“I have decided to resign my position at the Eternal Jewish Family (EJF) effective December 12, 2009,” the statement read in part. “As a founder of EJF, I am proud of my role of being an architect of a very dynamic and important movement in our community. I will in the coming months do my utmost to be of service to the Jewish community in any way I can.”
Rabbi Tropper’s resignation comes amid reports that he was involved in sexual improprieties with a woman whose conversion he was supervising, according to Shmarya Rosenberg of the blog failedmessiah.com.
Posters in Orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem decried Rabbi Tropper for improper behavior, according to the Da’as Torah blog.
Calls to Rabbi Tropper’s home were answered by a recording announcing that his voicemail box was full. Eternal Jewish Family refused comment, and calls to Yeshivas Kol Yaakov, a yeshiva for returnees to Orthodox Judaism that Rabbi Tropper still heads in Monsey, were not returned. Rabbi Elya Ber Wachtfogel, named Monday as the new head of EJF’s rabbinic committee, did not return a call for comment.
Rabbis Tropper and Wachtfogel were instrumental in a 2005 ban issued by leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis against Rabbi Natan Slifkin, who writes on the interface of Torah and modern science. Rabbi Slifkin was labeled a heretic, and his books were banned, in part for suggesting the universe is older than 5,770 years.
In 2006, after Israel’s chief rabbis issued demands tightening the conversion process and regulating which Orthodox rabbis would be allowed to supervise conversions, Rabbi Tropper’s influence increased. That same year Rabbi Tropper is alleged to have revoked a woman’s conversion months after supervising it, upon learning that she occasionally wore pants.
A wealthy energy industrialist, Guma Aguiar, filed a suit against Rabbi Tropper in the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court recently, according to Arutz Sheva/Israel National News, claiming that he “misallocated funds intended for poor people in Israel.”
Rabbi Tropper’s online biography says he served as educational director at Ohr Sameach, a well-known yeshiva in Monsey for returnees to the faith. In 1990, Rabbi Tropper began an outreach program called Horizons, focusing on educating and inspiring the unaffiliated to experience a Torah lifestyle.
Outreach Rabbi Resigns Amid Cloud Of Scandal
Rabbi Leib Tropper gave no reason for his resignation but said he would “pursue a variety of different interests.”
New York Jewish Week Staff Report
An influential ultra-Orthodox rabbi who supervises conversions has stepped down abruptly from the organization he has led for about five years.
Rabbi Leib Tropper resigned this week as head of Eternal Jewish Family, the Monsey-based conversion group he founded. In an official EJF press release issued late Monday, two days after Rabbi Tropper’s resignation took effect, the rabbi cited a desire to pursue “a variety of other interests.
“I have decided to resign my position at the Eternal Jewish Family (EJF) effective December 12, 2009,” the statement read in part. “As a founder of EJF, I am proud of my role of being an architect of a very dynamic and important movement in our community. I will in the coming months do my utmost to be of service to the Jewish community in any way I can.”
Rabbi Tropper’s resignation comes amid reports that he was involved in sexual improprieties with a woman whose conversion he was supervising, according to Shmarya Rosenberg of the blog failedmessiah.com.
Posters in Orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem decried Rabbi Tropper for improper behavior, according to the Da’as Torah blog.
Calls to Rabbi Tropper’s home were answered by a recording announcing that his voicemail box was full. Eternal Jewish Family refused comment, and calls to Yeshivas Kol Yaakov, a yeshiva for returnees to Orthodox Judaism that Rabbi Tropper still heads in Monsey, were not returned. Rabbi Elya Ber Wachtfogel, named Monday as the new head of EJF’s rabbinic committee, did not return a call for comment.
Rabbis Tropper and Wachtfogel were instrumental in a 2005 ban issued by leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis against Rabbi Natan Slifkin, who writes on the interface of Torah and modern science. Rabbi Slifkin was labeled a heretic, and his books were banned, in part for suggesting the universe is older than 5,770 years.
In 2006, after Israel’s chief rabbis issued demands tightening the conversion process and regulating which Orthodox rabbis would be allowed to supervise conversions, Rabbi Tropper’s influence increased. That same year Rabbi Tropper is alleged to have revoked a woman’s conversion months after supervising it, upon learning that she occasionally wore pants.
A wealthy energy industrialist, Guma Aguiar, filed a suit against Rabbi Tropper in the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court recently, according to Arutz Sheva/Israel National News, claiming that he “misallocated funds intended for poor people in Israel.”
Rabbi Tropper’s online biography says he served as educational director at Ohr Sameach, a well-known yeshiva in Monsey for returnees to the faith. In 1990, Rabbi Tropper began an outreach program called Horizons, focusing on educating and inspiring the unaffiliated to experience a Torah lifestyle.
FM: Tropper Scandal Takes New Turns
New rabbinic leader announced by EJF Monday now says he never agreed to head EJF, while woman in scandal claims reprisals and Tropper threatens to sue blogger.
After days of rumors, in a terse handwritten note released early this morning New York time, Rabbi Elya Ber Wachtfogel announced that he has not taken over leadership of Eternal Jewish Family, the conversion organization founded by Rabbi Leib Tropper, despite a press release issued by EJF late Monday announcing that Wachtfogel had taken over as EJF's rabbinic leader:
The rumors that were spread of late regarding the EJF organization, which alleged that it is under my direction, are in error and baseless.
Repeated attempts earlier in the week to reach Rabbi Wachtfogel were unsuccessful and messages, one left as recently as yesterday afternoon, have not been returned.
By mid-week, in private conversations sources close to leading haredi rabbis began claiming Wachtfogel had not agreed to assume rabbinic leadership of Eternal Jewish Family. EJF's founder and previous leader, Rabbi Leib Tropper, abruptly resigned over the weekend after audio tapes and a video of Tropper surfaced on the Internet.
The recordings, as yet unauthenticated, appear to chronicle Tropper discussing sexual liaisons with a woman whose conversion he was supervising. Tropper can be heard asking her to sleep with other men and to perform phone sex with them. One tape appears to capture phone sex between Tropper and the woman. Another purports to show the aftermath of a sexual encounter between this woman, Tropper and Tropper's wife.
Early this week, posters condemning Tropper were posted in haredi neighborhoods of Jerusalem:
…Leib Tropper from America who stands, so to speak, as the head of the conversion organization…he does the acts of Zimri and seeks a reward like Pinchas.…if he does not cease from this filth and from these actions, if he will not stop his work and instead will continue lying about our holy Rabbis, we will publish his disgrace publicly accompanied by terrifying pictures, photographs and video.
Reached at home yesterday, Rabbi Tropper declined to comment for this story.
Besides founding and heading EJF, Tropper also founded and led Horizons, an ultra-Orthodox outreach organization, and Kol Yaakov, a yeshiva for baal teshuvas, newly ultra-Orthodox men, in Monsey, NY. Tropper continues to lead Horizons and Kol Yaakov.
The woman Tropper was scheduled to have her conversion finalized yesterday. However, she told FalidMessiah.com that early this week she received an email from the beit din (religious court) notifying her that her conversion had been cancelled in what could be construed as retaliation.
Yesterday, the beit din's head rabbi refused to discuss the woman's case other than to tell FailedMessiah.com the woman had been "in the process [of converting] for 2 1/2 years," and that the current scandal was not a factor in the beit din's decision. "One has nothing to do with the other," the rabbi said.
The woman also says she has been banned from her children's school and from the Orthodox synagogue she has been attending during her conversion process. Along with his role as head of the beit din, the beit din's head rabbi also holds leadership positions in both organizations.
The woman maintains the tapes released on the Internet were only meant to be given to EJF's rabbinic leaders. She says she was shocked to learn some of these recordings had been released on the Internet and had become the focus of a public sex scandal. The woman can be heard on one of those recordings resisting Tropper's attempts to have her sleep with other men or perform phone sex with them.
Activists fighting sex abuse in the Jewish community contend the scandal highlights a common pattern of clergy abuse. “This is just one of many cases in which a member of the clergy uses their authority to lure in…unsuspecting adult women for their own personal pleasure," Vicki Polin, head of The Awareness Center, The International Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault noted.
The woman told FailedMessiah.com Tropper was “holding things over me.” Tropper can be heard on one of the tapes asking the woman to have sex or phone sex with other men. She said Tropper would tell her, “If you fulfill my needs, I’ll fulfill yours – and you need a conversion.”
Tropper can be heard on the tapes saying, “I’m not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to…you own your body, I don’t own your body.”
The woman says Tropper asked her to role play certain sexual scenarios with these men, either capturing the encounter on tape or describing the encounter in detail to him afterward, but she refused. “He likes to see women raped,” the woman said. While sometimes Tropper suggested men for her to have encounters with, he encouraged her to find men on her own and then report back to him. “He wanted someone who would be very rough.”
She says other women were also recruited by Tropper to fulfill these fantasies.
One of those other women, she claims, is Tropper’s wife Leba, who the woman says engaged in a sexual relationship with her as Tropper watched. In one of the audio tapes made available to FailedMessiah.com, the woman refuses sex with other men. As Tropper persists, she tells him that she says pleadingly that she “just wants everything to stay the same,” and says she likes "what she did with Leba.”
At one point, the woman claims she cried and told Tropper, “This feels like prostitution,” and tried to put an end to Tropper’s demands for sex with other men. She says Tropper defended his actions and continued unabated.
Tropper has been embroiled in a dispute with a former financial backer, billionaire philanthropist Guma Aguiar.
Although not the first to do so, some of the recordings sent to FailedMessiah.com came from an email address associated with Aguiar.
Aguiar has accused Tropper of embezzling money from charity funds meant for poor Israelis, charges Tropper denies.
Over the summer, Tropper accused Aguiar of assaulting him in a Jerusalem hotel room. Aguiar claims he went to Tropper's hotel room to confront Tropper about the embezzlement, and he denies assaulting Tropper.
Early this morning a spokesperson for Tropper, attorney Samuel A. Abady, threatened Israeli blogger Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn with a defamation lawsuit:
Mr. Eidensohn,
…Your postings about Rabbi Tropper are libelous and outrageous. I presume you are familiar with the common law doctrine of universal Internet jurisdiction which permits non-resident plaintiffs to sue non-resident defendants for publishing libelous materials accessible over the Internet.…Unless you immediately take down all your posts about Rabbi Tropper, I will advise him to engage counsel inside and outside Israel to sue you; Be advised that, under the doctrine of comity, Israel will enforce foreign money judgments against you, especially judgments rendered by common law courts in Britain, Australia, Canada, the U.S., etc. I won't wait until Sunday to give Rabbi Tropper that advice.…
Mr. Abady has coauthored articles condemning the phenomenon of "libel tourism" and the Islamists who use it to harass reporters and scholars who report on Islamic terror.
Abady was disbarred by the US Supreme Court in 2008:
D-2450 IN THE MATTER OF DISBARMENT OF SAMUEL AARON ABADY
Samuel Aaron Abady, of Bronxville, New York, having been suspended from the practice of law in this Court by order of February 19, 2008; and a rule having been issued and served upon him requiring him to show cause why he should not be disbarred; and the time to file a response having expired; It is ordered that Samuel Aaron Abady is disbarred from the practice of law in this Court.
In June 2005, Abady was suspended from the practice of law in New York State for a period of five years. The New York Supreme Court's Appellate Division found Abady:
engaged in a pattern of serious professional misconduct, all the while demonstrating an astonishing insensitivity to his legal and ethical obligations.
Meanwhile, in May, Guma Aguiar threatened to sue Eidensohn over posts Eidensohn authored about Aguiar and his wife. Eidensohn responded by removing all related posts from his blog.
After days of rumors, in a terse handwritten note released early this morning New York time, Rabbi Elya Ber Wachtfogel announced that he has not taken over leadership of Eternal Jewish Family, the conversion organization founded by Rabbi Leib Tropper, despite a press release issued by EJF late Monday announcing that Wachtfogel had taken over as EJF's rabbinic leader:
The rumors that were spread of late regarding the EJF organization, which alleged that it is under my direction, are in error and baseless.
Repeated attempts earlier in the week to reach Rabbi Wachtfogel were unsuccessful and messages, one left as recently as yesterday afternoon, have not been returned.
By mid-week, in private conversations sources close to leading haredi rabbis began claiming Wachtfogel had not agreed to assume rabbinic leadership of Eternal Jewish Family. EJF's founder and previous leader, Rabbi Leib Tropper, abruptly resigned over the weekend after audio tapes and a video of Tropper surfaced on the Internet.
The recordings, as yet unauthenticated, appear to chronicle Tropper discussing sexual liaisons with a woman whose conversion he was supervising. Tropper can be heard asking her to sleep with other men and to perform phone sex with them. One tape appears to capture phone sex between Tropper and the woman. Another purports to show the aftermath of a sexual encounter between this woman, Tropper and Tropper's wife.
Early this week, posters condemning Tropper were posted in haredi neighborhoods of Jerusalem:
…Leib Tropper from America who stands, so to speak, as the head of the conversion organization…he does the acts of Zimri and seeks a reward like Pinchas.…if he does not cease from this filth and from these actions, if he will not stop his work and instead will continue lying about our holy Rabbis, we will publish his disgrace publicly accompanied by terrifying pictures, photographs and video.
Reached at home yesterday, Rabbi Tropper declined to comment for this story.
Besides founding and heading EJF, Tropper also founded and led Horizons, an ultra-Orthodox outreach organization, and Kol Yaakov, a yeshiva for baal teshuvas, newly ultra-Orthodox men, in Monsey, NY. Tropper continues to lead Horizons and Kol Yaakov.
The woman Tropper was scheduled to have her conversion finalized yesterday. However, she told FalidMessiah.com that early this week she received an email from the beit din (religious court) notifying her that her conversion had been cancelled in what could be construed as retaliation.
Yesterday, the beit din's head rabbi refused to discuss the woman's case other than to tell FailedMessiah.com the woman had been "in the process [of converting] for 2 1/2 years," and that the current scandal was not a factor in the beit din's decision. "One has nothing to do with the other," the rabbi said.
The woman also says she has been banned from her children's school and from the Orthodox synagogue she has been attending during her conversion process. Along with his role as head of the beit din, the beit din's head rabbi also holds leadership positions in both organizations.
The woman maintains the tapes released on the Internet were only meant to be given to EJF's rabbinic leaders. She says she was shocked to learn some of these recordings had been released on the Internet and had become the focus of a public sex scandal. The woman can be heard on one of those recordings resisting Tropper's attempts to have her sleep with other men or perform phone sex with them.
Activists fighting sex abuse in the Jewish community contend the scandal highlights a common pattern of clergy abuse. “This is just one of many cases in which a member of the clergy uses their authority to lure in…unsuspecting adult women for their own personal pleasure," Vicki Polin, head of The Awareness Center, The International Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault noted.
The woman told FailedMessiah.com Tropper was “holding things over me.” Tropper can be heard on one of the tapes asking the woman to have sex or phone sex with other men. She said Tropper would tell her, “If you fulfill my needs, I’ll fulfill yours – and you need a conversion.”
Tropper can be heard on the tapes saying, “I’m not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to…you own your body, I don’t own your body.”
The woman says Tropper asked her to role play certain sexual scenarios with these men, either capturing the encounter on tape or describing the encounter in detail to him afterward, but she refused. “He likes to see women raped,” the woman said. While sometimes Tropper suggested men for her to have encounters with, he encouraged her to find men on her own and then report back to him. “He wanted someone who would be very rough.”
She says other women were also recruited by Tropper to fulfill these fantasies.
One of those other women, she claims, is Tropper’s wife Leba, who the woman says engaged in a sexual relationship with her as Tropper watched. In one of the audio tapes made available to FailedMessiah.com, the woman refuses sex with other men. As Tropper persists, she tells him that she says pleadingly that she “just wants everything to stay the same,” and says she likes "what she did with Leba.”
At one point, the woman claims she cried and told Tropper, “This feels like prostitution,” and tried to put an end to Tropper’s demands for sex with other men. She says Tropper defended his actions and continued unabated.
Tropper has been embroiled in a dispute with a former financial backer, billionaire philanthropist Guma Aguiar.
Although not the first to do so, some of the recordings sent to FailedMessiah.com came from an email address associated with Aguiar.
Aguiar has accused Tropper of embezzling money from charity funds meant for poor Israelis, charges Tropper denies.
Over the summer, Tropper accused Aguiar of assaulting him in a Jerusalem hotel room. Aguiar claims he went to Tropper's hotel room to confront Tropper about the embezzlement, and he denies assaulting Tropper.
Early this morning a spokesperson for Tropper, attorney Samuel A. Abady, threatened Israeli blogger Rabbi Daniel Eidensohn with a defamation lawsuit:
Mr. Eidensohn,
…Your postings about Rabbi Tropper are libelous and outrageous. I presume you are familiar with the common law doctrine of universal Internet jurisdiction which permits non-resident plaintiffs to sue non-resident defendants for publishing libelous materials accessible over the Internet.…Unless you immediately take down all your posts about Rabbi Tropper, I will advise him to engage counsel inside and outside Israel to sue you; Be advised that, under the doctrine of comity, Israel will enforce foreign money judgments against you, especially judgments rendered by common law courts in Britain, Australia, Canada, the U.S., etc. I won't wait until Sunday to give Rabbi Tropper that advice.…
Mr. Abady has coauthored articles condemning the phenomenon of "libel tourism" and the Islamists who use it to harass reporters and scholars who report on Islamic terror.
Abady was disbarred by the US Supreme Court in 2008:
D-2450 IN THE MATTER OF DISBARMENT OF SAMUEL AARON ABADY
Samuel Aaron Abady, of Bronxville, New York, having been suspended from the practice of law in this Court by order of February 19, 2008; and a rule having been issued and served upon him requiring him to show cause why he should not be disbarred; and the time to file a response having expired; It is ordered that Samuel Aaron Abady is disbarred from the practice of law in this Court.
In June 2005, Abady was suspended from the practice of law in New York State for a period of five years. The New York Supreme Court's Appellate Division found Abady:
engaged in a pattern of serious professional misconduct, all the while demonstrating an astonishing insensitivity to his legal and ethical obligations.
Meanwhile, in May, Guma Aguiar threatened to sue Eidensohn over posts Eidensohn authored about Aguiar and his wife. Eidensohn responded by removing all related posts from his blog.
FM: New York Conversion Rabbi Resigns Amid Scandal
The founder of a powerful American group that seeks to enforce a tough stance on conversions has abruptly resigned.
New York 'tight conversions' rabbi resigns
By Paul Berger • London Jewish Chronicle
The founder of a powerful American group that seeks to enforce a tough stance on conversions has abruptly resigned.
Leib Tropper, a strictly Orthodox rabbi who founded the New York-based Eternal Jewish Family, said he was stepping down last weekend to “pursue a variety of other interests”.
In the past week, images appeared on several Jewish blogs showing posters on display in Orthodox neighbourhoods of Jerusalem accusing him of indiscretions.
The posters demanded that Rabbi Tropper resign from the EJF or photographs and videos of “his disgrace” would be published. No evidence has been produced. An EJF spokesman did not return calls for comment.
However, EJF did release a statement from Rabbi Tropper, which read: “As a founder of EJF, I am proud of my role of being an architect of a very dynamic and important movement in our community. I will in the coming months do my utmost to be of service to the Jewish community in any way I can.”
The EJF focuses on the halachic conversion of non-Jewish spouses. Since its inception about five years ago, it has played a muscular role in the battle over Orthodox conversion, advocating one accepted standard for Orthodox conversion in North America.
By refusing to recognise many members of the Rabbinical Council of America, the largest Orthodox rabbinical organisation in the world, it has cast doubt on numerous conversions.
Rabbi Seth Farber, the director of ITIM, an Israeli-based organisation that supports people going through conversion, said: “Rabbi Tropper was an important force because he got the ultra Orthodox community to recognise that conversion is a legitimate way of addressing the challenges of intermarriage and assimilation in the US. For that, he will be missed.
“But at the same time, a lot of Rabbi Tropper’s tactics were negative in orientation. The EJF often felt the need to delegitimise other Orthodox rabbis and their conversions and this endangered the identity, or threw into question the identity, of thousands of Orthodox converts in North America.”
Rabbi Tropper has been a controversial figure for some time. In 2005, he allegedly played a key role in getting the books of Rabbi Natan Slifkin banned by leading strictly Orthodox rabbis. The Manchester-born rabbi’s works reconcile scripture and science.
In 2006, he nullified the conversion of a married woman — which he had overseen — after he learned she had occasionally worn trousers and left her hair uncovered in public.
More recently, he has been embroiled in a legal battle and a war of words with Israeli energy billionaire Guma Aguiar.
Mr Aguiar claims he gave the rabbi millions of dollars to donate to other rabbis and to Jewish causes. But he says the money was not passed on to all of its intended recipients — a claim Rabbi Tropper denies — and in October, reportedly filed suit in the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court.
Rabbi Tropper claims Mr Aguiar confronted him at a Jerusalem hotel earlier this year and threatened to throw him out of a window. Mr Aguiar denies the claim.
It is unclear what effect Rabbi Tropper’s resignation, and the manner of his departure, will have on the EJF’s conversion policy or its power.
Said Rabbi Farber: “I am hoping the leadership will enter into a dialogue with various brands of Orthodoxy in America, so that there is greater accountability and understanding and a more positive conversation can emerge.”
New York 'tight conversions' rabbi resigns
By Paul Berger • London Jewish Chronicle
The founder of a powerful American group that seeks to enforce a tough stance on conversions has abruptly resigned.
Leib Tropper, a strictly Orthodox rabbi who founded the New York-based Eternal Jewish Family, said he was stepping down last weekend to “pursue a variety of other interests”.
In the past week, images appeared on several Jewish blogs showing posters on display in Orthodox neighbourhoods of Jerusalem accusing him of indiscretions.
The posters demanded that Rabbi Tropper resign from the EJF or photographs and videos of “his disgrace” would be published. No evidence has been produced. An EJF spokesman did not return calls for comment.
However, EJF did release a statement from Rabbi Tropper, which read: “As a founder of EJF, I am proud of my role of being an architect of a very dynamic and important movement in our community. I will in the coming months do my utmost to be of service to the Jewish community in any way I can.”
The EJF focuses on the halachic conversion of non-Jewish spouses. Since its inception about five years ago, it has played a muscular role in the battle over Orthodox conversion, advocating one accepted standard for Orthodox conversion in North America.
By refusing to recognise many members of the Rabbinical Council of America, the largest Orthodox rabbinical organisation in the world, it has cast doubt on numerous conversions.
Rabbi Seth Farber, the director of ITIM, an Israeli-based organisation that supports people going through conversion, said: “Rabbi Tropper was an important force because he got the ultra Orthodox community to recognise that conversion is a legitimate way of addressing the challenges of intermarriage and assimilation in the US. For that, he will be missed.
“But at the same time, a lot of Rabbi Tropper’s tactics were negative in orientation. The EJF often felt the need to delegitimise other Orthodox rabbis and their conversions and this endangered the identity, or threw into question the identity, of thousands of Orthodox converts in North America.”
Rabbi Tropper has been a controversial figure for some time. In 2005, he allegedly played a key role in getting the books of Rabbi Natan Slifkin banned by leading strictly Orthodox rabbis. The Manchester-born rabbi’s works reconcile scripture and science.
In 2006, he nullified the conversion of a married woman — which he had overseen — after he learned she had occasionally worn trousers and left her hair uncovered in public.
More recently, he has been embroiled in a legal battle and a war of words with Israeli energy billionaire Guma Aguiar.
Mr Aguiar claims he gave the rabbi millions of dollars to donate to other rabbis and to Jewish causes. But he says the money was not passed on to all of its intended recipients — a claim Rabbi Tropper denies — and in October, reportedly filed suit in the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court.
Rabbi Tropper claims Mr Aguiar confronted him at a Jerusalem hotel earlier this year and threatened to throw him out of a window. Mr Aguiar denies the claim.
It is unclear what effect Rabbi Tropper’s resignation, and the manner of his departure, will have on the EJF’s conversion policy or its power.
Said Rabbi Farber: “I am hoping the leadership will enter into a dialogue with various brands of Orthodoxy in America, so that there is greater accountability and understanding and a more positive conversation can emerge.”
Failed Messiah Original Post
Exclusive: The Story Behind The Tropper Scandal
A woman in the process of converting to Judaism told FailedMessiah.com a well known and powerful ultra-Orthodox rabbi who supervises conversions worldwide asked her for sexual favors in return for completing her conversion.
A woman in the process of converting to Judaism told FailedMessiah.com that a well known and powerful ultra-Orthodox rabbi who supervises conversions worldwide asked her for sexual favors in return for completing her conversion. The woman alleges the rabbi, Leib Tropper, founder of Eternal Jewish Family, arranged sexual encounters between her and and his wife – encounters Tropper watched. She also alleges Tropper asked her to engage in sexual encounters and have phone sex with other men.
Unauthenticated video and audio tapes were anonymously sent to Jewish bloggers over the past few days. These tapes appear to support her claims.
Tropper abruptly resigned over the weekend from Eternal Jewish Family, the conversion organization he founded, citing a desire to pursue “a variety of other interests.”
“I have decided to resign my position at the Eternal Jewish Family (EJF) effective December 12, 2009…. As a founder of EJF, I am proud of my role of being an architect of a very dynamic and important movement in our community. I will in the coming months do my utmost to be of service to the Jewish community in any way I can.”
The resignation, made in an official EJF press release late Monday, two days after Tropper’s resignation took effect, made no mention of the allegations.
Calls to Tropper’s home were answered by a voicemail system announcing his voicemail box is full. Eternal Jewish Family refused comment, and calls to Yeshvas Kol Yaakov, a yeshiva for returnees to Orthodox Judaism Tropper still heads in Monsey, NY, were not returned. Rabbi Elya Ber Wachtfogel, named yesterday as the new head of EJF’s rabbinic committee, did not return a call left for comment.
FailedMessiah.com obtained an exclusive interview with the woman making the allegations, whose name is being withheld due to fear of reprisal. She claims to have made the tapes after Tropper allegedly pressured her to have sex with other men.
The woman says she intended for the tapes she made to be played only for leading rabbis involved with EJF. Instead, the tapes were leaked through email and on the Internet.
Although not the first person to do so, Guma Aguiar, a billionaire former backer of EJF who has been in a long running dispute with Tropper, sent some of those tapes to FailedMessiah.com. Aguiar has long contended that Tropper has embezzled money from EJF, and launched a court case against Tropper in Israel over the summer in an attempt to recoup money he says he personally gave Tropper to distribute to various Israeli charities. It is unclear how Aguiar got the tapes.
The woman told FailedMessiah.com Tropper was “holding things over me.” Tropper can be heard on one of the tapes asking the woman to have sex or phone sex with other men, and explaining to the woman that some of the money he sent her is for lawyers, while the rest is for her. He used to tell me, she said, “If you fulfill my needs, I’ll fulfill yours – and you need a conversion.”
According to the woman, the motivation for Tropper’s actions was sexual. She says Tropper asked her to role play certain sexual scenarios with these men, either capturing the encounter on tape or describing the encounter in detail to him afterward, which she says she refused/. “He likes to see women raped,” she said. While sometimes Tropper suggested men for her to have encounters with, he encouraged her to find men on her own and then report back to him. “He wanted someone who would be very rough.”
She says other women were also recruited by Tropper to fulfill these fantasies. One of those other women, she claims, is Tropper’s own wife Leba, who the woman says engaged in a sexual relationship with her as Tropper watched. In one of the audio tapes made available to FailedMessiah.com, the woman refuses sex with other men. As Tropper persists, she tells him that she “just wants everything to stay the same,” and says she “likes what she did with Leba.”
Tropper can also be heard on the tapes saying, “I’m not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to…you own your body, I don’t own your body.”
At one point in the relationship, the woman claims she cried and told Tropper, “This feels like prostitution,” and tried to put an end to Tropper’s sexual demands. She says Tropper defended his actions and continued unabated.
Repeated calls for comment to Rabbi Tropper’s home and his yeshiva were not returned.
Vicki Polin, the head of The Awareness Center, The International Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault, noted that adult women are more likely to be victims of clergy sexual abuse than are children. “This is just one of many cases in which a member of the clergy uses their authority to lure in…unsuspecting adult women for their own personal pleasure.”
Tropper and Wachtfogel, the new head of Eternal Jewish Family’s rabbinic committee, were both instrumental in arranging the 2005 ban issued by leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis against Rabbi Natan Slifkin. Slifkin, who writes on the interface of Torah and modern science, was labelled a heretic, and his books were banned, in part for suggesting the universe is older than 5770 years.
In 2006, after Israel’s chief rabbis issued demands tightening the conversion process and regulating which Orthodox rabbis would be allowed to supervise conversions, Tropper was able to position EJF as the leading moderator of Orthodox conversions outside of Israel.
In what may be the first documented case of its kind in America, in 2006 Tropper revoked a woman’s conversion months after supervising it because Tropper was told the woman sometimes wore pants. Tropper told the woman she and her child born post-conversion are no longer Jewish and said he had the woman’s file at the Israeli chief rabbinate amended to reflect that, effectively barring her from living in Israel as Jew if she so chose, and effectively revoking her conversion worldwide. Tropper’s actions contributed to the woman’s divorce. She and her child now live as non-Jews.
When asked if she still wanted to convert to Judaism, the woman making the current allegations against Tropper said she does. “Yes, I do. Very much so…somehow I will do it.”
* Parts of this post may appear to be similar to the New York Jewish Week's story posted last night. That resemblance exists because I wrote the Jewish Week story. The Jewish Week removed my byline at last minute, because editors said they needed to quote me about Tropper's significance for Orthodox conversions to Judaism.
A woman in the process of converting to Judaism told FailedMessiah.com a well known and powerful ultra-Orthodox rabbi who supervises conversions worldwide asked her for sexual favors in return for completing her conversion.
A woman in the process of converting to Judaism told FailedMessiah.com that a well known and powerful ultra-Orthodox rabbi who supervises conversions worldwide asked her for sexual favors in return for completing her conversion. The woman alleges the rabbi, Leib Tropper, founder of Eternal Jewish Family, arranged sexual encounters between her and and his wife – encounters Tropper watched. She also alleges Tropper asked her to engage in sexual encounters and have phone sex with other men.
Unauthenticated video and audio tapes were anonymously sent to Jewish bloggers over the past few days. These tapes appear to support her claims.
Tropper abruptly resigned over the weekend from Eternal Jewish Family, the conversion organization he founded, citing a desire to pursue “a variety of other interests.”
“I have decided to resign my position at the Eternal Jewish Family (EJF) effective December 12, 2009…. As a founder of EJF, I am proud of my role of being an architect of a very dynamic and important movement in our community. I will in the coming months do my utmost to be of service to the Jewish community in any way I can.”
The resignation, made in an official EJF press release late Monday, two days after Tropper’s resignation took effect, made no mention of the allegations.
Calls to Tropper’s home were answered by a voicemail system announcing his voicemail box is full. Eternal Jewish Family refused comment, and calls to Yeshvas Kol Yaakov, a yeshiva for returnees to Orthodox Judaism Tropper still heads in Monsey, NY, were not returned. Rabbi Elya Ber Wachtfogel, named yesterday as the new head of EJF’s rabbinic committee, did not return a call left for comment.
FailedMessiah.com obtained an exclusive interview with the woman making the allegations, whose name is being withheld due to fear of reprisal. She claims to have made the tapes after Tropper allegedly pressured her to have sex with other men.
The woman says she intended for the tapes she made to be played only for leading rabbis involved with EJF. Instead, the tapes were leaked through email and on the Internet.
Although not the first person to do so, Guma Aguiar, a billionaire former backer of EJF who has been in a long running dispute with Tropper, sent some of those tapes to FailedMessiah.com. Aguiar has long contended that Tropper has embezzled money from EJF, and launched a court case against Tropper in Israel over the summer in an attempt to recoup money he says he personally gave Tropper to distribute to various Israeli charities. It is unclear how Aguiar got the tapes.
The woman told FailedMessiah.com Tropper was “holding things over me.” Tropper can be heard on one of the tapes asking the woman to have sex or phone sex with other men, and explaining to the woman that some of the money he sent her is for lawyers, while the rest is for her. He used to tell me, she said, “If you fulfill my needs, I’ll fulfill yours – and you need a conversion.”
According to the woman, the motivation for Tropper’s actions was sexual. She says Tropper asked her to role play certain sexual scenarios with these men, either capturing the encounter on tape or describing the encounter in detail to him afterward, which she says she refused/. “He likes to see women raped,” she said. While sometimes Tropper suggested men for her to have encounters with, he encouraged her to find men on her own and then report back to him. “He wanted someone who would be very rough.”
She says other women were also recruited by Tropper to fulfill these fantasies. One of those other women, she claims, is Tropper’s own wife Leba, who the woman says engaged in a sexual relationship with her as Tropper watched. In one of the audio tapes made available to FailedMessiah.com, the woman refuses sex with other men. As Tropper persists, she tells him that she “just wants everything to stay the same,” and says she “likes what she did with Leba.”
Tropper can also be heard on the tapes saying, “I’m not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to…you own your body, I don’t own your body.”
At one point in the relationship, the woman claims she cried and told Tropper, “This feels like prostitution,” and tried to put an end to Tropper’s sexual demands. She says Tropper defended his actions and continued unabated.
Repeated calls for comment to Rabbi Tropper’s home and his yeshiva were not returned.
Vicki Polin, the head of The Awareness Center, The International Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault, noted that adult women are more likely to be victims of clergy sexual abuse than are children. “This is just one of many cases in which a member of the clergy uses their authority to lure in…unsuspecting adult women for their own personal pleasure.”
Tropper and Wachtfogel, the new head of Eternal Jewish Family’s rabbinic committee, were both instrumental in arranging the 2005 ban issued by leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis against Rabbi Natan Slifkin. Slifkin, who writes on the interface of Torah and modern science, was labelled a heretic, and his books were banned, in part for suggesting the universe is older than 5770 years.
In 2006, after Israel’s chief rabbis issued demands tightening the conversion process and regulating which Orthodox rabbis would be allowed to supervise conversions, Tropper was able to position EJF as the leading moderator of Orthodox conversions outside of Israel.
In what may be the first documented case of its kind in America, in 2006 Tropper revoked a woman’s conversion months after supervising it because Tropper was told the woman sometimes wore pants. Tropper told the woman she and her child born post-conversion are no longer Jewish and said he had the woman’s file at the Israeli chief rabbinate amended to reflect that, effectively barring her from living in Israel as Jew if she so chose, and effectively revoking her conversion worldwide. Tropper’s actions contributed to the woman’s divorce. She and her child now live as non-Jews.
When asked if she still wanted to convert to Judaism, the woman making the current allegations against Tropper said she does. “Yes, I do. Very much so…somehow I will do it.”
* Parts of this post may appear to be similar to the New York Jewish Week's story posted last night. That resemblance exists because I wrote the Jewish Week story. The Jewish Week removed my byline at last minute, because editors said they needed to quote me about Tropper's significance for Orthodox conversions to Judaism.
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