Last night he livestreamed a hugely antisemitic video - already seen by tens of thousands.
Outside of videos, I cannot find any evidence of Rabbi Reuven's scholarship. His main written record is from his days as a money manager, not as a rabbi. His other accomplishment was to harass a Boca Raton Orthodox rabbi and his wife.
The centerpiece of his video is showing another video, by Rabbi Yaron Reuven of Florida. The rapper bases his hate for Jews on the stupidity that Reuven says.
First, a little about Rabbi Reuven. I do not like to denigrate my fellow Jews, but Reuven is a scam artist.
His biography on his organization's website says:
Born in Netanya, Israel, Rabbi Yaron Reuven began his American Dream as a little boy, when his family immigrated to the United States. He went from a newspaper boy at the age of 10, to a well known self made Wall Street multimillionaire by the age of 23. During his time in Wall Street he owned his own private brokerage firm, as well as a hedge fund and international insurance agency.At age 26 he faced a 7-year battle for his life when a simple surgery went wrong. From that moment his life would never be the same. This moment marked the start of a series of miraculous events and an exciting pursuit of truth, ultimately resulting in Rabbi Reuven renouncing his lofty position and success in Wall Street, after 16 years, to become a full time kiruv rabbi. His Teshuva story is sure to catch the heart of every listener.
Reuven, who claims to be dedicated to telling the truth, is certainly stretching the truth here. His Wall Street firm had assets of only $250,000 in 2008 and $132,000 in 2011. It (and he) was expelled from FINRA in 2014. Apparently he has a relatively small dispute with two employees, who demanded that he pay them about $5000 they felt he owed them. This esteemed, moral man tried to intimidate them by countersuing them for $11 million. In the end, the court ruled in their favor for him to pay $155,000, he refused, and therefore FINRA expelled his firm.
So he went on to his next scam - being a rabbi. And as a rabbi, he likes to call other far more learned Orthodox rabbis "heretics," deserving of the death penalty.
When he is shown that his libels about these other rabbis (like the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks or Rabbi Natan Slifkin, both of whom I hold in great esteem) are false, Reuven berates the people pointing out the facts and says they need to learn more Torah. Truth is obviously not one of his strengths.
Outside of videos, I cannot find any evidence of Rabbi Reuven's scholarship. His main written record is from his days as a money manager, not as a rabbi. His other accomplishment was to harass a Boca Raton Orthodox rabbi and his wife.
Reuven made a bizarre video a couple of years ago that claims that Hitler was essentially correct in blaming Jews for Communism, pornography, homosexuality and high interest rates that hurt Germany's economy during the Great Depression. Reuven says that when Hitler finally privatized small businesses and restrained interest rates, that kickstarted Germany's economy to grow incredibly fast. This is of course absurd - Germany's economy grew by investing heavily in military spending that Hitler intended to pay for by invading and taking resources from other countries.
Young Pharaoh claims that Reuven is a major figure in Judaism today. He then uses Reuven's patently offensive and false video to say that Jews really are responsible for the evils of the world, controlling the banks, being behind Communism, and at one point he even says that Communist China learned terrorism from Israel (proving yet again that antisemitism and anti-Zionism are peas in a pod.)
YP is thrilled - he has a Jew, a "top rabbi," who agrees with his hatred of Jews! And the rapper goes even beyond Reuven's rants, blaming the Jews for keeping Blacks in poverty. He emphasizes that Reuven's idiocy justifies his own Jew-hatred, since here is a "top Jew" agreeing with him.
The rapper also said he is working on a video about the relationship between Jews and satanism.
Here is a ten minute clip where Young Pharaoh goes on his profane support of Rabbi Reuven's own defense of Hitler.
At the end, Pharaoh says "rest in peace to Adolf" - and then says he won't say which Adolf he is referring to.
Both Young Pharaoh and Rabbi Reuven are more interested in self-promotion than in doing anything moral. They gain fans by spouting out bigoted nonsense and pretending that they are straight-talking truthtellers.
It is disgusting.
Young Pharaoh's vile ravings are mainstream antisemitism in America today, eagerly consumed by hundreds of thousands of people, and excused or downplayed because the person spouting the filth is Black. Pharaoh's opinions of Jews is not much different than that of Professor Griff or the other Black entertainers who briefly enjoyed their notoriety last summer, even though YP comes from a purportedly conservative viewpoint and they came from a different place entirely. It doesn't seem to matter - Black people attacking Jews gives them credibility in their communities as being brave, and the actual content is secondary.
(h/t Ethan)