Rabbinical Council of America (RCA)
Dec 22, 2009 -- We are deeply appalled, saddened and pained by reports that have reached us concerning alleged inappropriate behavior on the part of the chairman of the rabbinic committee of the Eternal Jewish Family, Rabbi Leib Tropper. We need to wait for more complete information before we can react fully.
Nonetheless, at this time, we would make the following points clear:
1. What we have heard, if true, violates the fundamental elements of all that Judaism holds sacred.
2. We urge anyone who might have been victimized to seek appropriate counseling and we, at the Rabbinical Council of America, remain ready to refer anyone who needs such assistance to the appropriate professionals.
3. Anyone who may have any questions of Jewish Law regarding conversions should feel free to contact our Geirut administrator, Rabbi Michoel Zylberman, at 212-807-9000 ext. 3.
Dec 22, 2009 -- We are deeply appalled, saddened and pained by reports that have reached us concerning alleged inappropriate behavior on the part of the chairman of the rabbinic committee of the Eternal Jewish Family, Rabbi Leib Tropper. We need to wait for more complete information before we can react fully.
Nonetheless, at this time, we would make the following points clear:
1. What we have heard, if true, violates the fundamental elements of all that Judaism holds sacred.
2. We urge anyone who might have been victimized to seek appropriate counseling and we, at the Rabbinical Council of America, remain ready to refer anyone who needs such assistance to the appropriate professionals.
3. Anyone who may have any questions of Jewish Law regarding conversions should feel free to contact our Geirut administrator, Rabbi Michoel Zylberman, at 212-807-9000 ext. 3.
Do not worry, the RCA will find an other opportunity to submit to the haredis. I wonder if Basil Herring sent a condolence letter to Tropper.
ReplyDeleteIn the Tropper tapes aside from talking about sex had a reference to Malcolm Hoenlein asking Tropper to sit him next to Tom Kaplan in the upcoming chasuna.
I could not make it to the wedding so I do not know if Malcolm Hoenlein got his wish.
At least he did not ask Tropper to have what the Satmar guy had....
I think that the RCA gave a classy response.
ReplyDeleteThere isn't much to say at a time like this.
The offer of counseling and/or help seems genuine and well intended (they gave Rabbi Zylberman's ext.).
I am not a Tropper defender. I do not even know him. However, it should be obvious that this was a set up. The woman has connections to Evangelical circles. Also, she sounds very calm and methodical on the tapes. But the strongest point is that either she or whoever hired her put the tapes on the internet. They were NOT just sent to EJf rabbis as she falsely claimed. This does not excuse Troppers behavior. I am just making the point that this was a set up.
ReplyDeleteI like their offer re answers about halachic questions about geirus from EJF. They are not automatically defending all of them as EJF did. They are not assuming they are defective across the board which would sow panic. They are taking the correct halachic response of saying that questions need to be answered case-by-case.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jersey Girl. It is a classy response. Unlike others they are focusing on the victims. They are witholding final judgement on the evidence in terms of scope and implications until it can be fully evaluated in a timely fashion while they are adressing individual needs in the interim.
I expect and hope that the completion of their investigation will lead to a more powerful and far reaching statement. But in fairness that would be premature right now.
In agreement with Jersey Girl here.
ReplyDeleteIt's so pathetic, but that's what Tropper and his so-called charedi gedolim enablers-on-the-take have made the world come to.
This is a big win for the MO's as they gleefully watch Tropper self-destruct=implosion opf EJF. They were too busy looking for so-called "Christians" in an MO conversion and forgot to keep an eye on the possible Christians Tropper was cavorting with, oh well. There was probably a method to Basil Herring's madness in dealing with Tropper as if he were a toxic bomb ready to explode at any time.
Notice how not a peeps has been heard from Tropper's accomplice R Nochum Eisenstein in Yerushalayim through all this.
"American Rabbi said...I am not a Tropper defender."
ReplyDeleteRaP: Well, from the serious defense you offer in Tropper's favor, it sounds like you sure are one of his defenders. At a time when team Tropper is in overdrive with DAMAGE CONTROL, comments like yours in support of Tropper and basically blaming the victim are highly suspect.
"I do not even know him."
RaP: How can that be known? And if you are an Orthodox rabbi there is no way you could have missed Tropper. Have you not read in the Jewish papers all the work he was doing with his EJF? All the controversy it caused online? Tropper spent millions on PR and you claim not to know him? Sounds hard to believe.
"However, it should be obvious that this was a set up."
RaP: How is it "obvious"? because she worked and seems to still be working with Tovia Singers Outreach Judaism to lure in Christians to becoming Jews. And she was undergoing an Orthodox EJF-style conversion and was part of an Orthodox shull in Houston and was also working as an employee of EJF for Tropper, so EJF and Tropper himself must have checked her out before hiring her.
"The woman has connections to Evangelical circles."
RaP: Ok, so it's her background. She is not from China or Tahiti, she's from Texas.
"Also, she sounds very calm and methodical on the tapes."
RaP: Indeed she may have been working as a Matta Hari double agent spy all along, but so what? What's Tropper's excuse for having a steamy affair with her? He sounds very willing, able and eager to jump in and to even have his friends spend time with her. He likes this lady, it's obvious. He is not a naive kid getting seduced by the cunning shiksa as you imply, he is in it with her 100% as willing consenting adult partners. If anything, it raises questions about Tropper's own true inner "religious" beliefs and the obvious lack of any moral or value system he displays, in sociopathic fashion (meaning he is mentally and emotionally sick) or in the ways of the Sabbateans (which means he is a malignant ideological and hashkafic danger and enemy to normative Judaism.)
"But the strongest point is that either she or whoever hired her put the tapes on the internet."
RaP: This is speculation on your part. So far no one knows who got hold of those tapes and who put them on the Internet. You are blaming her as the probable victim again, and you have not proven that she was being directed by anyone in particular. Women nowadays are NOT stupid. They all carry cell phones with recording capabilities, or such devices are easy to buy and use. This woman was technicaally proficient and why wouldn't she want to have proof of her sexual liason/s with this lover rabbi of hers. People take and post all sorts of compromising videos of celebrities all the time, it's part of modern culture. In fact the celebrities often oblige in exhibitionistic fashion and maybe subconsciously Tropper was giving in to a lust to be an exhibitionist like Britanny Spears and Michael Jackson and other corrupt celebriies? Another strike against Tropper who should have known better than to be caught with his pants down, literally.
"They were NOT just sent to EJf rabbis as she falsely claimed."
RaP: Really? I thought the tapes were sent to the RCA rabbis and not to the EJF rabbis who would just back Tropper in any case, as we see now. This needs clarification.
"This does not excuse Troppers behavior."
RaP: Exactly!
"I am just making the point that this was a set up."
RaP: And that you are therefore and thereby defending Tropper to the hilt with the "best possible" argument that money can buy.