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Oy vey!
Rabbi Shmuley, an influential American rabbi and television personality, has allegedly likened $710 amenity space fees from his luxury Manhattan condominium to the Nazi regime.
Now, the self-styled “America’s Rabbi,” is being sued by his building, in part, for allegedly failing to pay rental and cleaning fees for a common room used for a memorial service for a victim of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.
The complaint, filed Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court by the board managers of Two Waterline Square, requested a permanent injunction against the rabbi — and accused him of private nuisance, defamation and breach of contract.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, whose legal name in Jacob Botach, purchased a $4.47 million condo in the luxury development in 2022, according to city records, as is cited in the complaint.
His wife, Deborah Botach, is also named in the complaint for breach of contract, as a co-owner of their condo unit.
Boteach did not immediately respond to The Post’s calls and messages seeking comment.
His present conflict with the condo’s board arose after Boteach held two gatherings in the building’s 18th-floor common room without making a reservation or paying the accompanying building fees, according to the court documents.
One of the gatherings, held in May, was in honor of Shani Louk, a 22-year-old German-Israeli woman who was murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. Boteach hosted Louk’s father, Nissim Louk, at the event, according to the documents.
Boteach was billed $710 for the May event and another one September, according to the complaint, in keeping with the building’s rules: A $500 rental fee and a $210 cleaning fee.
The total fees added to Boteach’s account amounted to $1,420, plus $400 in late fees.
Boteach has not only refused to pay the fees, the complaint says, he has also publicly accused the condo board and its members of antisemitism.
“I WILL NOT BE PUNISHED FOR HAVING A FEW FRIENDS OVER TO COMFORT A JEWISH FATHER WHOSE DAUGHTER WAS MURDERED BY HAMAS,” Boteach wrote in a September email circulated throughout Waterline, as documented in the complaint. “Waterline will be in the national news for their attempt to squash memorials for Jews murdered by Hamas, as is happening in other places all around the country and who are being sued for it.”
Boteach took to Facebook in September, as cited in the court documents, publicly calling out the board in fiery posts. In a Sept. 10 post, Boteach called the back-and-forth with the Board “a shameful saga.”
“Jews have long been punished not only for living, but for mourning,” Boteach wrote, as seen in the court documents. “In medieval Europe, rulers charged Jews exorbitant fees for burials — or denied them entirely. In Nazi Germany, Jewish funerals were forbidden; bodies were dumped into pits, families denied Kaddish. Now, in Manhattan, a rabbi is threatened with dire legal consequences for hosting a tiny memorial for Shani Louk.”
The board, in the complaint, called the contents of the Sept. 10 post “an objectively false comparison.”
In a subsequent October email circulated to the board, as also seen in court documents, Boteach referred the May 2025 charge as a “disgusting, abusive antisemitic, Israel-hating bill.”
In an interview with the Independent, Boteach reportedly denied using the room for a second time, and said he pays $3,000 in monthly fees that he believed included access to the room.
He alleged others use the room without paying, accused building management and board members of “spying.” He further accused the board members of keeping him from joining and higher-ups of mistreated a concierge.
Boteach told the outlet he was prepared to undertake “a catastrophic, massive counterclaim that will expose all the malfeasance in this building.”
“Their hatred of Israel and of and of Jewish residents [in the building] is so great that they are prepared to spend millions of dollars to recover $710 while our elevators do not work,” Boteach told the outlet. “Just to stop a Jew from commemorating a victim of October 7.”
The board managers of Two Waterline Square Condominium, represented by Adam Leitman Bailey, claimed that the rental and cleaning fees are uniformly charged to every resident that uses the common room.
Beyond resolving the alleged breach of contract, “They simply want him to stop bullying their residents and to cease from violating the building’s rules,” Leitman Bailey told The Post.
The complaint alleges further incidents of individual harassment against the board and building staff by Boteach, in publications and personal encounters.
“A majority of the Board members are Jewish,” Leitman Bailey added.
“This isn’t governance, it’s a corrupt coup led by Nancy Chen, Randi Wax, June Hu and absentee Dan Senor — and it comes wrapped in the same antisemitic whitewash we saw when they targeted us for honoring Shani Louk,” said Boteach in the September press release, as seen in the complaint.
Dan Senor, a condominium board member and prominent American columnist, and Randi Wax, the board’s president, were specifically called out by Boteach in an email as “supposed champions of Israel.”
Both Senor and Wax are outspoken supporters of Israel, according to the complaint.
Another board member, Shmuel Kliger, is an Israeli citizen and veteran of the Israeli Defense Force. Boteach accused him of being fraudulently elected to the board, according to an email cited by the complaint.
On Friday, Boteach took to Facebook, tagging Waterline and quoting a message of support for Boteach attributed to Nissim Louk.
“‘Instead of compassion, Rabbi Shmuley was confronted by a building manager, ignored by the manager’s superiors, and threatened with legal action by the company’s attorney,'” the posted statement said.
The statement shared by Boteach concludes: “How can a memorial for a young woman murdered by terrorists be turned into a legal issue?”
English (US)