A series of email messages promoting Rabbi Michael Broyde’s candidacy
for the British chief rabbinate were sent to The Times of Israel last
fall from an email address linked to one of his alleged aliases. Some of those emails were quoted in the Times of Israel's reporting.
Rabbi Michael Broyde
The Times of Israel reports:
A series of email messages promoting Rabbi Michael Broyde’s candidacy for the British chief rabbinate were sent to The Times of Israel last fall from an email address linked to one of his alleged aliases.
Broyde, a professor of law at Emory University in Atlanta, is currently on a leave of absence from the Beth Din of America, where he was a religious judge, after he this month admitted publishing letters in scholarly journals and gaining access to a rabbinic organization’s email list using a fake persona which he said he shared with an anonymous writing partner.
According to the Jewish Channel, which first published the allegations, Broyde (or the alleged writing partner) may also have posted comments online praising his own writing, using the name David Weissman. Atlanta’s Broyde and “Weissman” reportedly shared a Comcast IP address [which does not match the IP address used for the Times of Israel emails].
Between August 2 and November 25, 2012, The Times of Israel received 15 emails from [email protected], all pertaining to the race for the next British chief rabbi, a position for which Broyde was at one time considered. The author of the emails claimed to be a member of staff at the United Synagogue, the organization which employs the chief rabbi, using a fake name. For proof of his bona fides, he quoted from Broyde’s application.
In the first email, the author declared that his agenda was anti-Broyde, because he considered his plans too radical for the United Synagogue. However, he consistently lauded Broyde’s intellect and talked up his chances of getting the job, while downplaying the credentials of some of the other candidates.…
Steven I. Weiss of the Jewish Channel, who broke the original story of Broyde's sockpuppeting and deception, adds:
The Jewish Channel has learned that Rabbi Michael Broyde sent e-mails to the Atlanta Jewish community about an article that touted him as a leading candidate for the search for a new chief rabbi of England in 2012, an article that The Times of Israel now says was sourced, at least in part, to an alias connected to Broyde by a previous investigation by The Jewish Channel.…
On August 9, 2012, Broyde sent one such article to the Atlanta Jewish community, warning “Stories like this come and go, and contain only some version of the truth — do not believe everything you read.”…
You just can't make this stuff up.
[Hat Tip: JK.]