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Last update - 16:34 24/12/2009
U.S. rabbi involved in sex scandal led fight against Israel conversions
By Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Israel news, Jewish world 
 

It is hard to imagine a more embarrassing situation in which to find an exclusive ultra-Orthodox organization - a group that was a standard-bearer in the fight against "breaches in the wall of conversion" and "the penetration of complete gentiles into the vineyard of Israel."

These breaches pale into insignificance in comparison with the accusations against the man who heads the organization itself: according to the claims, Rabbi Leib Tropper of Rockland County abandoned the apparently stringent Halakhic standards of his Haredi organization and established a conversion process based on his most private impulses.

A report in the New York Post earlier this week revealed a sensational story about "a prominent Orthodox rabbi has been caught on tape discussing his apparent love affair with a shiksa he was converting to Judaism."
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The woman involved is 32-year-old Shannon Orand of Houston, who still seeks to convert from Christianity to Judaism. The bulk of the report deals with embarrassing comments that the rabbi made during a phone call, during which he was recorded demanding the woman perform a number of sexual services for himself and his friends in exchange for granting her a conversion certificate.

Only at the very end of the Post report is it mentioned that at the start of the month, Rabbi Tropper resigned from his position as head of the Eternal Jewish Family organization, which dealt with conversions. But the connection to the group is in fact the story's punch line, making the affair another incident in the ongoing crisis in the world of conversion.

This connection also explains the extent to which an alleged case of blackmail has rocked the rabbinic world in Israel and the United States, and also has a complex relationship with the business dealings of the chairman of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer club, Brazilian Jewish entrepreneur Guma Aguiar.

Rabbi Tropper's stated goal in founding the Eternal Jewish Family was to "fortify the walls of conversion," amid an ideological debate between the Haredi and national camps in Israel. While functioning as a well-known rabbi in the New York area and head of the Kol Yaakov yeshiva, Rabbi Tropper enlisted wealthy Jews in the Haredi fight against to non- ultra-Orthodox conversions, especially those carried out by special conversion courts in Israel headed by Rabbi Haim Druckman.

As such, the doors of senior Haredi officals were thrown open to him, including that of Rabbi Shalom Elyashiv, a leader of the Lithuanian Haredi sect, and rabbi Tropper himself had the title of gaon ("most learned") bestowed upon him by the ultra-Orthodox press - all because of his efforts and comments against conversions by the Conversion Authority, against the "infiltration" of gentiles into the people of Israel.

When news of the affair began to emerge two weeks ago, posters denouncing Tropper were plastered across the Haredi city of Bnei Brak, whose title commanded: "Leave impurity." The text's anonymous authors threatened that if he did not quit the organization, "We will publicize our voice aloud, accompanied by pornographic pictures and shocking video clips." The rabbi did indeed announce his resignation, but failed in his efforts to hush up the affair.

It was leaked to American Jewish bloggers, the audio tape was posted on YouTube, and the Post published the story (under the headline "Tal-mood for love: Sex-tape rabbi tries to 'share' hottie," referring to one of Tropper's demands in the tape).

The current scandal is not the first in which the Eternal Jewish Family and Tropper have been involved. Tropper recently accused Aguiar of assaulting him in a Jerusalem hotel in April while the rabbi served as a prosecution witness against the businessman in a civil suit in Florida. Aguiar - who recently resigned from the organization - is accused of entering Rabbi Leib Tropper's room at the David Citadel Hotel, assaulting him and threatening to cause him further harm.

At the time of the alleged attack, Tropper was testifying at Aguiar's trial on embezzlement charges brought before a Florida court by the businessman's uncle, Thomas Kaplan.

As part of a war of slander between the pair, a notice was published in the Haredi newspaper Hamevaser, according to which rabbis close to Aguiar gave up their stringent halakhic demands with regard to his wife. The notice alleges that the businessman is "married to a woman who underwent a very dubious conversion."

Tropper's associates claim that Orand, the tape and the posters are all connected to this legal dispute. One of the associates told Haaretz that, "Guma Aguiar succeeded in throwing Rabbi Tropper to the trash."

Saul Sadka contributed to this article
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  1.   orthodox jews 13:29  |  Charles 24/12/09
  2.   EJF must be shut down/the Rabbis blocked. 14:06  |  EZ 24/12/09
  3.   I`m shocked I tell you, shocked! 14:07  |  Mark 24/12/09
  4.   tsk tsk tsk 14:12  |  SJ 24/12/09
  5.   Sex scandal Rabbi. 15:28  |  David Nigel Braham 24/12/09
  6.   Fanatism is not only jewish problem 16:10  |  Tony Silver 24/12/09
  7.   rabbis are also men! oalready be theretherwise 16:51  |  rich 24/12/09
  8.   anybody surprised??? 17:05  |  Danny Negedat 24/12/09
  9.   Baruch ha-ba 17:09  |  JK 24/12/09
  10.   Mafia!! 17:15  |  Dan 24/12/09
  11.   DISGUSTING....CALL YOURSELVES Men of God? 17:19  |  Esther 24/12/09
  12.   Horny rabbi 20:23  |  Richard Hode 24/12/09
  13.   BS 21:56  |  AK 24/12/09
  14.   These Penetrations Happened in a Vineyard? 21:57  |  Arik Silverman 24/12/09
  15.   There are rabbis and then there are rabbis 21:58  |  Reform Jews 24/12/09
  16.   Macabbees 22:24  |  Seth Weisberg 24/12/09
  17.   US rabbi 22:53  |  Harold 24/12/09
  18.   and than this gerotene goes to Intel to police faith 23:04  |  Miron 24/12/09
  19.   innocent until proven guilty 04:32  |  judith 25/12/09
  20.   the "rabbi"? 20:40  |  Bryna Weiss 25/12/09
  21.   #11 Esther - Don`t forget to mention Priests 00:44  |  *BEN JABO 26/12/09
  22.   #5 David Nigel Braham 00:48  |  *BEN JABO 26/12/09
  23.   That does it! 10:56  |  Danny 26/12/09
  24.   This man not worth his title Rabbi 11:56  |  Aaron 26/12/09
  25.   MISDIRECTED CONCERNS 03:06  |  *BEN JABO 27/12/09
  26.   rabbi involved in sex scandal 11:59  |  Ralph 27/12/09
  27.   #23 - jews are not the only victims of hate 18:57  |  Martha 27/12/09
  28.   Rabii Leib Trooper 15:47  |  Moshe Aron Kestnbaum 28/12/09
  29.   Wonder Who The Rabbi Friends Were That Got Fellated?? 17:01  |  Yaakov Sullivan 28/12/09
  30.   Re: "MISDIRECTED CONCERNS" 09:07  |  Miron 29/12/09
  31.   just orthodox?! 16:07  |  perturbed 29/12/09
  32.   to #27 israel is more theocracy State now 16:52  |  Tony Silver 29/12/09
  33.   Conversions 11:41  |  Anon 30/12/09
  34.   perturbed, no wonder attendance is down.. 14:17  |  Petra 30/12/09
  35.   to Tony Silver 19:25  |  James George 30/12/09
  36.   The exception proves the rule 19:30  |  James George 30/12/09
  37.   You have to be kidding me. 06:47  |  Michaela 31/12/09
  38.   Re: "... the exception..." 08:12  |  Miron 31/12/09
  39.   A Bent Stick 16:39  |  Letz B Frank 31/12/09
  40.   "re: the exception proves the rule" 16:10  |  Adam 01/01/10
  41.   Shocker 07:57  |  Navin Johnson 02/01/10
  42.   Re: "Thanks to the Israeli media" 15:46  |  Miron 03/01/10
  43.   SHAME on you BOTH- ? Rabbi & girl 22:14  |  Esther 04/01/10
  44.   Let`s get it straight... 18:18  |  Howard 05/01/10
  45.   review conversion 11:13  |  Jochai Rubinstein 06/01/10
  46.   Shannon, Houston Love you 19:13  |  THEMAN 12/01/10
  47.   horrible scandals in the holy city too 10:50  |  ruth cohen 18/01/10
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