A well-known American family living in the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem has been revealed as Christian missionaries, B’Chadrei Chareidim reported on Sunday morning.
The father of the family served as a Sofer Stam, writing tefillin, mezuzos, and Sifrei Torah, and identified as a Kohen, even serving as the Kohen for firstborn babies, and has even married couples.
The children of the family were enrolled in neighborhood chadarim and Bais Yaakov schools. In fact, apparently, people first became suspicious of the family when one of the children began speaking about Christianity in school.
Following a thorough investigation by askanim it’s been revealed that the family made aliyah to Israel from the US with forged documents. The family first settled in the Nachlaot neighborhood in Jerusalem but after someone there uncovered their story, they relocated to French Hill.
They settled into the Chareidi community there but their goal of missionizing fell to the wayside after the mother became seriously ill with cancer. Of course, the community rose to the occasion, providing substantial assistance to the family, raising tzedaka for them and helping them in many other ways. The mother eventually passed away and one tzedaka fund to assist the family raised over $30,000 and another one raised over NIS 52,000.
After the father was confronted by the askanim, he admitted that his goal was to integrate into the Chareidi community and spread Christianity.
“They kept it secret until now because they didn’t want the father to run away again to another neighborhood,” Yoni Kaiman, a French Hill resident, told B’Chadrei. “They wanted to first work toward revoking his citizenship.”
“But the father began to cover his steps and stopped sending his daughters to Bais Yaakov so we decided to publicize it in the neighborhood so that everyone will know the real story and he won’t run away to another neighborhood.”
“When he was asked, he admitted that he was a missionary. We now have other askanim involved in order to take steps against the family.”
On Sunday morning, the father began to delete posts from his gentile Facebook profile.
“The investigators found that contrary to what the wife said before she passed away, that she was a child of Holocaust survivors, she was born to Christian parents and they have the documents to prove it,” Meir Eisenshtat, another French Hill resident, told B’Chadrei.
“Fortunately, we discovered the fraud now so we froze the donations that the Kupas Tzedaka collected to support the family. We’re in total shock.”
סיפור מטורף. האיש הזה מסתובב בינינו בשכונת הגבעה הצרפתית. ילדיו לומדים במוסדות חרדים, מציג את עצמו כסופר סת"ם, כתב ספרי תורה ומזוזות ואף הזדהה ככהן ופדה ילדים. אשתו מתה לא מזמן מסרטן, הקהילה פתחה מגבית עבורו. לאחר תחקיר מעמיק של מספר עסקנים התברר: האיש ומשפחתו אינם יהודיים pic.twitter.com/wHG06LCYP4
— אבי רבינא Avi Ravina (@AviRabina) April 25, 2021
All of his work as a sofer, cohen and rabbi were invalid. Has to be hundreds of thousands in damages.
Pain and suffering hundreds of millions.
IIRC it’s all to be burned.
I don’t understand why they don’t leave us alone. Jews never proselytize…just leave us alone…
I am more upset for genuine converts whose lives are made a misery by the rabbanut.
and it is with good reason, there are many frauds. We must suspect all converts and many so-called Baalei teshuva till they prove themselves genuine
You mean the rabbanut now in modern day Israel or the rabbanut in the time of the bais hamikdash?
אָמְרוּ חֲכָמִים קָשִׁים לָהֶם גֵּרִים לְיִשְׂרָאֵל כְּנֶגַע צָרַעַת שֶׁרֻבָּן חוֹזְרִין בִּשְׁבִיל דָּבָר וּמַטְעִין אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל. וְקָשֶׁה הַדָּבָר לִפְרשׁ מֵהֶם אַחַר שֶׁנִּתְגַּיְּרוּ. צֵא וּלְמַד מָה אֵרַע בַּמִּדְבָּר בְּמַעֲשֵׂה הָעֵגֶל וּבְקִבְרוֹת הַתַּאֲוָה וְכֵן רֹב הַנִּסְיוֹנוֹת הָאֲסַפְסוּף הָיוּ בָּהֶן
My wife is a gioret. The truth is that Israel is the easiest country to convert in, America perhaps second. Even Modern Orthodox rabbis in the US won’t let you convert if you have any connection that might appear to be for purposes of marriage. And other countries are harder.
This is an unfair comment about the Rabbanut.
what name he had? Both as a Jew and as a Christian to keep an eye on our communities!
gotta make sure this is a 1 time thing
Where were the mezuzos and sifrei Torah sold?
It would be miraculous to find out that maybe he was a Jew anyway. I wonder if there is the possibility if his mezuzahs and STaM that he wrote may be kosher if he was actually a Yid and he could have had the right kavanah. But there are nearly 5000 laws. How could he know enough to make a kosher mezuza even if that was true? Scary. How to prevent this??
That’s not how it works. Even if he was born Jewish (seems he wasn’t), as a koifer and meshumad, anything he wrote would certainly be invalid.
Check you Teffillin Mezuzos and Sifrei Torah
Be sure it’s not coming from him via other Sofrim (not knowing)!
Welcome to the new Christianity wrapped in a tallit! This is the freshly painted deceptive face of the messianic Jews so-called. In the name of their truth, they lie. I feel bad for the five children of this family, already in pain for the loss of their mother. They were coopted into this web of deceit by parents justifying their actions by their misguided zeal to “reach Jews”. I hope this sets the Israeli messianic community (now some 30k strong by recent estimates) on their backsides. And I hope the Ministry of Interior revokes their citizenship.
AKA Open Orthodox rabbis
All the firstborns who were redeemed by him now hve to find another Cohen- it must be pubicized far and wide so that the parents discover this fraud
The stam is a major problem. They could have been sold to wholesalers, r”l. Every effort must be made to trace and recall these fraudulent items.
Were these people acting alone? Where did the man learn to write Stam? How were documents forged to allow them to make aliya – if this was through nefesh b’nefesh, they should be contacted and scrutinize documents more. Is there an Israeli commission or something to certify soferim – if not there should be.
Why isn’t the man’s name being publicized so stores can review the sources of their mezuzos and tefillin?
How long did this go on for?
It must be traced whoever sent him and to weed out similar missionaries in disguise
I now appreciate even more the directive of the Rebbe for one to check Teffillin and Mezuzos
Even if checked by computer check one must check where the Mezuzah or Teffillin is coming from
Far from a joke!
Shocking that he was up to where he could integrate into an Israeli frum community and practice as a soifer.
That must be really rare.
He was also mesader kiddishin at alot of chasunos
Is that he should be asked to say all the truth and give information who and how he got there
Who taught him. Who sponsored who payed him and his familiy
If only there was a genuine interest on this type of ‘religious’ things coming from the people in charge (governors instituitions askanim etc) like there is with terroristss or tax scammers etc this thing shouldnt even happened and avoid for the future
Why isn’t his name being published??
What is his name??