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Where the Rabbi Gets His Money

Exposé turns up sketchiness in Rabbi Pinto’s operations

by
Marc Tracy
March 17, 2011
LeBron James (L) and Rabbi Pinto (R).(TMZ)
LeBron James (L) and Rabbi Pinto (R).(TMZ)

Josh Nathan-Kazis at the Forward has done some digging into the finances of revered Rabbi Yoshiyayu Yosef Pinto, and, turns out, the heir to a prominent line of Moroccan rabbis who was weirdly associated with a weird death and who gives LeBron James “spiritual guidance” on how to make more money is—shockingly, I know!—kind of sketchy about money himself. It certainly seems odd that someone paid a “minimum” salary lives in a very nice house and flies first class to Israel and back. Not sure whether Kabbalah is supposed to help you with that sort of thing.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.