How about the insistence that Leib Tropper and the multiple recent scandals are the perversions of the Jewish religious legacy? Someone said: “I want my Judaism back”. And what Judaism would that be, as it exists in the imagination and books or as it lived in real life? This is like saying that the glossy presentations to the BTs and the goyim at the fancy retreats (from reality) is the truth but the way Tropper conducted himself with the whores, the oligarchs and the gdolim is a lie. This is like saying that communism that was practiced in the good old CCCP was the perversion, but the communism that exists in Rabeynu Carl Marx’s books is the reality.
Leib Tropper articulates the Judaic culture rather perfectly; he takes it to the ultimate conclusion. Chassidim are not the ceramic dancing tchotchkes, nor are they Buber bobe mayses, the Chasidic conquest was fueled by the collusion between the Rebbes and the rising merchant class. The currency of money and communal stature are interchangeable and trade-able. And this in nutshell was Tropper’s game, the game as old as this world.
If you strip Tropper from the lurid predilections, the mechanics are no different from that of all the “outreach professionals”. What they all do is sell the Jewish nostalgia back to rich Jews who are one or two generations removed from the abominable reality of the Jewish communal life, long enough to forget the bad and but not too long to still remember some good. What the benefactors can’t readily understand is that people who fall in the sphere of influence of the “leaders” are treated like pawns or props, they are deprived of humanity or even abused. The victim and the pawn on the tapes can’t realize that she is dealing with the law abiding citizen, it’s in his interest to delay the actual conversion indefinitely, so she can continue to be used for the “treatments”, in full compliance with the holy Torah. Notice how the man says on the second tape: “I can love anybody”. This is the code word for the exactly the opposite and just few sentences later; he inevitably evokes the rape.
The comparison of Leib Tropper to Tiger Woods is plain wrong. Tiger in his texts is still looking for the elusive meaningful connection. He didn’t pimp his women and he actually made his money through the hard work and the incredible talent. But you can comrade Leib Tropper to Bernie Madoff (although Bernie was a legit star trader at some point). Bernie sold the perceptions and the myth, his Ponzi Scheme was basically the same as Tropper’s. Stir imagination, trap the investors, the false reports, buy influence and hope to have a genuine business one day. Leib Tropper is Bernie Madoff plus the pimping (see The Chasidic Court of Bernard Madoff).
- Further Reading:
- Rabbi Leib Tropper and the age of Oligarchy
- Rabbi Reuven Feinstein will not take a stand on Leib Tropper to the Tune of $3m
- Rabbi Reuven Feinstein and Leib Tropper Trope
consider free RSS subscription