In a totally bizarre meeting with Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto, rapper Kanye West – who has made countless blatantly antisemitic statements, including releasing a song titled “Heil Hitler” – apologized for his actions, claiming that it is due to his suffering from bipolar disorder.
In 2010, YWN reported that Pinto met with NBA player LeBron James on a yacht, where he paid Pinto a staggering six figures to give him “business advice”.
Pinto later did a year in prison and had since rebranded himself as a major Mekubal living in Manhattan.
Rabbi Pinto served ten months in an Israeli prison which was a part of a plea bargain agreement in a bribery trial. It is interesting to note, that Pinto initially stated “If I have bribed anyone I am willing to remove my fedora and from now on, I am not a rav.” A short time later, he pled guilty to bribery, and was sentenced to prison.
He admitted to his actions, offering a $200,000 bribe to Menashe Arbiv, the former Commander of Israel Police’s 433 Unit (known as Israel’s FBI) – in exchange for information pertaining to the Israel Police and FBI investigations against him. In light of his confession, the court convicted Rabbi Pinto of charges including attempted bribery and obstruction of justice.
Rabbi Pinto kept his word, and removed his fedora, and instead replaced it with a cap. He did continue being a Rav, and opened a Shul in Manhattan, where he continues sharing his Kabbalistic wisdom to people, many of whom continue to shower him with large sums of money. He later took off hias cap and replaced it with the clothing of a Moroccan Mekubal.
Years ago, NBA superstar player LeBron James paid Pinto six figures to sit in on a merchandising meeting on a yacht somewhere off the coast of New York.
Rabbi Pinto has tried to get accepted by the mainstream Chareidi community, and has donated large sums of money to the Peleg Yerushalmi. Pinto met with the Satmar Rebbe of Williamsburg, as well as Hagaon Harav Elya Ber Wachfogel and made hefty donations to the Peleg causes.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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16 Responses
Just privately telling the rabbi “I’m sorry” isn’t teshuva. His past public statements caused a lot of harm. If kanye is truly remorse he needs to put out a public statement retracting his former words.
what a strange pair! who’s using whom?
I’m not sure who’s helping who with Mechila.
very moving…why did the guy behind Rabbi Pinto put his hand there while Kanye was giving a hug? Strange move
With alll due respect to YWN, This article is complete LASHON HARA, it says in the Torah that if a Jewish person sinned, we must judge him favorably that he surely did Teshuva.
Even if Rabbi Pinto made a mistake in the past, it is absolutely in-excusable to post it on such a large scale public platform, as he already served his legal due, and is currently not engaging in publicly harmful or illegal activity.
I am MOCHA very strictly and urge you to take down or RE-word this article.
Thank you for your dedication to KOSHER news for Klal Yisrael. Zay G’bentched !
I don’t know anything about Rabbi Pinto,
But I do know that a Jew who shames another Jew in public is excluded from the next world.
It is not the way of Jewish nation to discredit another Jew and certainly not somebody who is a rabbi. An exception is someone who is a rebel against God.
Besides, just because secular law found fault with Rabbi Pinto, perhaps that isn’t so in the eyes of Jewish law?
While he claims his anti semitisim was not his real self but was instead due to his bipolar disorder its more likely that his asking mechila is the bipolar behavior. After all the way a person acted for years is much more likely to be his true self than one day of telling a rav that years of hating on Jews was not his real self speaking.
Interestingly, this isnt the first time, mr west apologized to the jews for his antiisemitic rhetoric…..look it up, so we’ll see…..
Also interestingly-is maybe his name described his actions-like he is an unfortunate product of the culture lacking full knowledge of Judaism info and culture of “esav soneh”. Henced His name is Kanye west-is translated in aramaic-
“the west- acquired Him”! 🙂
Wow! Such a great job YWN spreading gossip and slandering a rabbi that teaches Torah all day long and I gotta say you are doing such a great job at dividing the different communities of the holy Jewish nation. and of course, if somebody who went to a corrupt Israeli anti religious system prison must be is evil of course…….
Mark my words, you guys will be sitting in a chair opposite tHis rabbi asking for forgiveness. It’s just a matter of time.
danish305
You are 100$ spot on. I don’t know how the YWN editors can sleep at night. But then again; we’re not all made of the same cloth.
I second DidiEdit… Lashon Hara Gamur. And Because of this one article I Bli Neder will forever discontinue my use of this website and urge all that i know in my community of which I have significant pull to refrain as well. Moshav Rochlim…
I smell money…
DidiEdit, or Idiot, or whatever your name is: More than three people know about this, so it is not lashon hara. Further, Pinto should shame himself for meeting with such a rabid Sonei Yisra’el. Some “rabbi,” eh?
אָן געלט, ביסטו אַ נאַר; מיט געלט, אַ חכם
TRUE repentance would require at a bare minimum putting as much effort into making messages that disavow all the harm he did.
So:
1) making a song that disavows the “Heil (s)Hitler” song and preaches the opposite.
2) Making at least as many public comments disavowing the vile garbage he spewed and in at least as large a forum as the original messages. Blaming it all on mental illness is a cop out!! Do something meaningful and powerful bruh to demonstrate to the WORLD your sincerity and do it over and over until its washed away the memories of all the hate.
3) Charity – as the Yom Kippur prayer states, “Repentance, Prayer, and Charity nullify an evil decree”.
if a rabbi is hugging a goy let alone a nazi goy there is no way he’s a rabbi and there is no such טענה of forgiving a goy who said the nazi himself name!!!!
and hes not ok for doing this and bribery what kind of rabbi is this hes making worse then a chilil hashem this rabbi shud be ashemed of himself also hes so rich and hes bribing non jews its a disgrace and hes gona ‘ lose hes fedora oh no lord help us hes a mekuble as much as im a chabad shliach noooo theres something wrong if lebron james is giving money to a mekuble if a mekuble is taking your money hes fake u know what im becoming a chabad shliach so i can become as rich as a mekuble who lives muzt be niceeee to live and drive like ur god but at the end of the day i think hes asking jews for mechila not pinto so if this makes it out lesson is be as rich as pinto and not get caught
@DidiEdit @Danish 305
It is not Lashon Hara. If YWN feels they have objective reason and standing that Rabbi Pinto is fraudulent, they must make people aware.
YOU may not accept it as fact, but you must be “choshesh”.