Luke Ford

Rabbi Tovia Singer has lived on the edge for decades. He speaks from the heart, confesses his foibles, turns hundreds of people on to Judaism, and makes some powerful enemies in the process. He is one Orthodox rabbi who’s not afraid to do outreach among Jews who’ve converted to Christianity. He’s not afraid to do outreach period.

Tovia has always seemed aware of not crossing the line that would end his career as an outreach rabbi.

Rabbi Tovia Singer and Shannon Orand had a close working relationship for years. They had a close personal relationship.

I emailed Rabbi Tovia Singer for comment about whether or not he ever had a physical relationship with Shannon Orand and he told me they did not.

Rabbi Tovia Singer, 49, has been divorced twice. He lives in Jerusalem. His father, Shlomo Singer, has a yeshiva for older baalei teshuva (returnees to Orthodox Judaism) in New Jersey called Yeshiva Passaic Torah Institute. He has a cult following, much like his son.

From PTIWeb.org:

Rabbi Shlomo Singer was born in the state of Pennsylvania. During his Yeshiva years he had the privilege to know and study under the close tutelage of HaGaon Rav Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, HaGaon Rav Aharon Kotler and HaGaon Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky. From them, Rabbi Singer internalized the absolute need that every single Jew belongs in a Yeshiva. He developed a unique and enthusiastic approach to his Shiurim, that combines the strength and character to expose Torah learning, and the sensitivity to deal with those newly exposed to learning.

Starting in his own living room, Yeshiva Bnei Torah was built up and now has its own building located at 441 Passaic Avenue, in Passaic New Jersey. There, in-depth learning of Gemara and many different Shiurim are provided every single day!

Rabbi Tovia Singer is a mesmerizing speaker. He has piercing blue eyes. He’s active in helping Jews leave Christianity. He’s a caring man and he devotes enormous amounts of time to help people. When he connects with you, he surrounds you with love and creates intimate bonds through his outreach work. Many women have been crazy about him, including, apparently, Shannon Orand.

Tovia Singer has a B.A. in Social Work and a low-level semicha (rabbinic ordination).

Israel National News.com reported Jan. 28, 2009 about Israeli billionaire Guma Aguiar:

Despite having been born Jewish, Aguiar was raised as an Evangelical Christian, encouraged to participate in Christian youth groups and church events throughout his young life. At the age of 26, Aguiar moved to Houston, Texas with the determination to find oil beneath the soil. Seeking out a Christian congregation to join, he encountered Rabbi Tovia Singer who has devoted his life to helping Jews in the church return back to the truth and beauty of the Jewish faith. Rabbi Singer is the founder of Outreach Judaism and popular talk show host on Israel National Radio.

“Initially, when I first heard about Rabbi Singer’s efforts I thought that he must be some sort of anti-Christ, and I was really upset about his mission. So I decided to call him and argue with him. As a devout Christian, I couldn’t fathom why he was doing this work! I asked him “What are you doing? You’re trying to pull Jews out of the church? That’s the worst thing you could possibly do,” I argued. “Within 5 minutes of talking to Tovia, he entirely disassembled my entire belief system, and all the pieces of the puzzle came together within that first conversation. I repented during that first conversation, and I returned immediately to my true heritage, the Jewish faith.”

I blogged Dec. 20:

When you look at Guma Aguilar’s (Israeli billionaire who’s suing Rabbi Leib Tropper) profile, you see that though born Jewish, he was raised Christian, and in Houston he sought out a Christian congregation but met Rabbi Tuvia Singer and became turned on to his Jewish identity.

Shannon Orand lives in Houston. She used to work for Rabbi Tuvia Singer. Her domain name, Shannonorand.com promotes Rabbi Tuvia Singer.

Guma has a big fight with Leib Tropper.

From FailedMessiah:

Although not the first person to do so, Guma Aguiar, a billionaire former backer of EJF who has been in a long running dispute with Tropper, sent some of those tapes to FailedMessiah.com. Aguiar has long contended that Tropper has embezzled money from EJF, and launched a court case against Tropper in Israel over the summer in an attempt to recoup money he says he personally gave Tropper to distribute to various Israeli charities. It is unclear how Aguiar got the tapes.

This woman goes to work for Leib Tropper and has this affair and tapes the calls and disgraces Rabbi Tropper.

I blogged Dec. 17, 2009:

VEGANOVICH COMMENTS: Below is Shannon Orand