Matt Tropp, is a rabbi who worked for NCSY under Rabbi Baruch Lanner. He ran cover for Lanner. He failed to report allegations of Lanner's abuse, either to law enforcement or to his NCSY superiors. He claimed in court that he was not a mandatory reporter, even though by law he was. And, after NCSY's parent body the OU issued a directive to all employees to cut off all contact with the then-disgraced Rabbi Lanner, Rabbi Tropp kept contact and admitted it in court.
Where is this rabbi now?
He works for Aish HaTorah in NYC (where he teaches outreach skills) and he speaks for the OU (here's the brochure for the OU's West Coast convention as a pdf download), and he recently shared a platform with major OU leaders, including Rabbi Herschal Schachter. He is also still listed on the OU's website as director of the New Jersey / ETZ CHAIM region of NCSY.
Why is this man still working in Jewish outreach?
UPDATE – Here's where he will be speaking Wednesday:
20 Difficult Questions & 20 Easy Answers - "The Top Twenty Questions that come up in Kiruv Encounters and How to Handle Them and the People Asking Them" …Wednesday, February 21st, sponsored by Project Inspire/Aish HaTorah. Presenter: Rabbi Moshe Zeldman, charismatic and popular teacher of Jewish Philosophy at Aish Jerusalem and international lecturer for the world-famous Discovery Seminar. The goal of the talk is to provide a starting point to get the asker to be intrigued into looking deeper, rather than comprehensive answers, and to get a person to realize that there "are" answers and that often the question is based on a misconception. At Congregation Bnai Yeshurun at 8:00 PM. For information on event or about Project Inspire - the grassroots Kiruv movement, contact Rabbi Matt Tropp…
It goes on to give his Aish HaTorah email address and phone number. [In spirit of full disclosure, Moshe Zeldman is an old friend of mine from my student activist days.]
Thursday, February 22 finds Tropp and Zeldman at another New Jersey event, oned that plays the Holocaust card:
The JEC and Aish HaTorah's Project Inspire will present a lecture by Rabbi Moshe Zeldman for the greater Elizabeth/Hillside community on Thursday evening, February 22nd, at the home of Tova and Ira Shulman, 231 Exeter Way in Hillside, beginning at 8PM. Rabbi Zeldman intends to explain a lot about the mitzva of kiruv, including its source(s), what it's all about, and why it is/should be quite an urgent issue for us -- his talk is entitled "Facing the Crisis of the Spiritual Holocaust – Kiruv: What is the Mitzva?"
Please see my recent posts on haredim and the Holocaust. Also check out this recent post on Chabad's response to the Holocaust. (For more on Chabad and the Holocaust, read this, starting at the bottom of the page and working upward.)
I also posted an image above for an earlier joint Aish HaTorah-OU kiruv training seminar that lists Tropp as a contact. Please click on the image to enlarge.
David Kelsey posted the above OU-Aish jpeg on Jewschool tonight in response to this post.