FEATURED JOBS
Comments (0)The head of an organization that oversees conversions to Judaism has resigned amid accusations of sexual improprieties.
Rabbi Leib Tropper, head of the Eternal Jewish Family based in New York, is leaving the independent organization he founded five years ago.
Tropper, in a statement released this week by the organization, said his desire to “pursue a variety of other interests” led him to resign.
Stories have surfaced recently of his sexual misconduct while overseeing the conversion process. A woman, whose name has not been released, told FailedMessiah.com that Tropper allegedly asked for sexual favors in return for completing her conversion process.
Tropper, the woman claims, also arranged for sexual encounters between herself and Tropper’s wife that the rabbi allegedly watched. Tropper also is accused of allegedly pressuring woman to engage in sexual encounters with other men.
According to FailedMessiah.com, the alleged female victim made unauthenticated video and audio tapes of sexual encounters with Tropper intended for leading rabbis involved with Eternal Jewish Family, yet the tapes were leaked through the Internet to various bloggers over the past few days.
“These tapes appear to support her claims,” FailedMessiah.com wrote.
Tropper did not address the accusations in the statement announcing his resignation.
Over the summer, billionaire EJF financier Guma Aguiar accused Tropper of embezzling funds from the organization, and the two since then have been engaged in an ongoing dispute.
Carter Offers Jewish Community ‘Al Het’
Jimmy Carter asked the Jewish community for forgiveness for any stigma he may have caused Israel.
In a letter released exclusively to JTA, the former U.S. president sent a seasonal message wishing for peace between Israel and its neighbors, and concluded: “We must recognize Israel’s achievements under difficult circumstances, even as we strive in a positive way to help Israel continue to improve its relations with its Arab populations, but we must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel. As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so.”
“Al Het” refers to the Yom Kippur prayer asking God forgiveness for sins committed against Him. In modern Hebrew it refers to any plea for forgiveness.
Carter has angered some U.S. Jews in recent years with writings and statements that place the burden of peacemaking on Israel, that have likened Israel’s settlement policies to apartheid, and that have blamed the pro-Israel lobby for inhibiting an evenhanded U.S. foreign policy.
Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League’s national director, welcomed the statement, calling it the “beginning of reconciliation.”
“We welcome any statement from a significant individual such as a former president who asks for Al Het,” Foxman said. “To what extent it is an epiphany, time will tell. There certainly is hurt which needs to be repaired.”
Israeli American FBI Contractor Pleads to Secrecy Charge
An Israeli American who did linguistic work for the FBI on contract pleaded guilty to leaking five secret documents to a blogger.
Shamai Kedem Leibowitz, also known as Samuel Shamai Leibowitz, faces up to 20 months in prison after his guilty plea in Greenbelt, Md., the Web site Politico reported.
The public record does not identify the information or the person who received the information further except to say that Leibowitz worked for an FBI task force in Calverton, Md. Politico notes that the FBI’s Innocent Images task force, which tackles child pornography, is located in Calverton.
Leibowitz ran two blogs: Israel-Law.org related to Israeli law; Pursuing Justice dealt with U.S. law. The most recent entry on Pursuing Justice, dated Nov. 9, deals with the rights of juveniles.
Leibowitz also has a past as a far-left Israeli peace activist who favored a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
His grandfather, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, was an Orthodox Israeli philosopher who spoke out against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.