LF: Connecting The Dots In The Rabbi Leib Tropper Story

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”.