Leib Tropper
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Rabbi Leib Tropper (born 1950) is a Rosh Yeshiva and founder of the Kol Yaakov Yeshiva and Torah Center in Monsey, New York.
Education
Tropper was born in New York City to Rabbi Yehuda Tropper, a teacher at Rabbi Jacob Joseph Elementary School, and Rivka Tropper, the daughter of the Valbolneker Iluy, Rabbi Leib Forer. He was educated at the Rabbi Jacob Joseph school, the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia, the Telshe Yeshiva in Cleveland, and then at Yeshivas Torah Ore in Jerusalem, under the leadership of Rabbi Chaim Pinchus Scheinberg. He received four semichas: from Rabbi Serayah Deblitzky, a student of the Chazon Ish; Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, former Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel; Rabbi Betzalel Zolty, Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Jerusalem; and Rabbi Elazar Shach, a rosh yeshiva at Ponevezh Yeshiva.
Outreach
After leaving Torah Ore, Rabbi Tropper accepted a position at the nascent Ohr Sameach institutions. After five years in Jerusalem teaching baalei teshuva, Rabbi Tropper returned to the United States to become the educational director of Ohr Sameach, New York located in Yonkers and Monsey. In 1981, Tropper joined in founding a new yeshiva for baalei teshuva, the Kol Yaakov Torah Center, and became its rosh yeshivah.
In 1995, Tropper founded a new outreach program called Horizons, focusing on educating and inspiring the unaffiliated to experience a Torah lifestyle. As its director, Rabbi Tropper has traveled across the world lecturing and teaching. He has also written three books, including a halachic work based on the decisions of his mentor, Rabbi Scheinberg.
Eternal Jewish Family
Tropper founded the Eternal Jewish Family (EJF) project, which advocates tougher standards for conversion to Judaism, and also assists intermarried families with conversion issues. Until 2009 he was its director and chairman of its Rabbinic Committee.
In 2006, Rabbi Tropper is alleged to have revoked a woman’s conversion months after supervising it, upon learning that she occasionally wore trousers.[1]
On December 14, 2009, the EJF suddenly announced that Tropper had resigned two days earlier, and that he had been replaced by Rabbi Elya Ber Wachtfogel. No reason was given for the resignation.[2] Wachtfogel, however, issued a letter on December 18 denying that EJF is under his direction.[3]. The press release was then deleted from EJF's website. On December 20, EJF put out another press release announcing that Rabbi Chaim Blum would serve as interim director of EJF [4]
Soon after, bloggers circulated a recording of a conversation between a man alleged to be Tropper and a woman whose conversion he is alleged to have been supervising, and which appears to show that the two were having a sexual affair.[5]
Controversies
In 2004, Tropper was a main force behind the ban of Natan Slifkin's books which explore the relationship between traditional Judaism and modern science.[6][7]
In October 2009, Tropper was sued by philanthropist Guma Aguiar for allegedly misappropriating funds given to Tropper by Guma for charitable purposes. The lawsuit followed an altercation between Guma and Tropper in a Jerusalem hotel.[8] Tropper claims that Aguiar threatened to throw him out a window.[9]
References
- ^ http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c36_a17497/News/New_York.html 12/15/2009, New York Jewish Week
- ^ A copy of the EJF press release
- ^ Copy of the letter (English translation)
- ^ The EJF press release
- ^ Reuven Blau and Melissa Klein (December 20, 2009). "Sex-tape rabbi tries to 'share' hottie". New York Post.
- ^ Natan Slifkin, An Account of Events
- ^ "Outreach Rabbi Resigns Amid Cloud Of Scandal". The Jewish Week. December 15, 2009.
- ^ Baruch Gordon (8 October 2009). "Jewish Billionaire Sues Prominent US Rabbi". Arutz Sheva.
- ^ Yuval Goren (9 September 2009). "U.S. rabbi accuses Beitar patron of threatening to defenestrate him".
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