Anglican Church Charges Jewish Apostate Of Illegally Selling Their Jerusalem Properties

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Two historic properties in the heart of Jerusalem, valued at tens of millions of shekels, are at the center of what Anglican associations operating in Israel are calling a serious and sophisticated fraud scheme. A key figure in the story is a former Chabad chasid who converted to Christianity. According to the associations, this man allegedly planned a years-long scheme to seize control of the properties.

To thwart the alleged takeover, the associations petitioned the Jerusalem District Court for temporary injunctions in a one-sided proceeding, and their request was granted, according to a Yisrael Hayom report.

According to the associations, the affair began in 2020, when Mordechai  Weberman began an unexpected rapprochement with the Anglican Church and was officially baptized as a Christian. During these years, Weberman found work with CMJ (Church’s Ministry among Jewish People), a British organization founded in 1809 that has operated in Jerusalem for nearly 200 years. CMJ is the parent organization of the Vincent Society and the Israeli Trust of the Anglican Church, which run the church’s school and own the historical properties.

According to the associations, over time, Weberman grew closer to Vincent’s CEO, Father Daryl, who recently left his position. Weberman managed to integrate himself into the community, expressed interest in joining the priesthood, worked with the associations, and built personal connections with key CMJ figures in Israel and abroad. The associations say that their trust in Werman was so deep that, because most of their representatives do not speak Hebrew, they signed documents in Hebrew at his request, without being given translations and relying solely on his explanations of the content.

According to them, last month the associations made a stunning discovery by chance: companies allegedly owned by Werman and his business partners hold documents that appear to be agreements for the sale of the two real estate properties — the Anglican School on 82 Nevi’im Street and the old Kol Israel building on 25 Petroska Street.

The school, purchased by the church in the 1840s, spans 15,058 square meters. Each year, about 230 students study there from kindergarten to high school, many of them children of diplomats living in Israel. According to the associations, this is a property of “immeasurable value.” The Kol Israel building on Petroska Street was purchased by the organization in the early 20th century.

Site of Anglican School in central Jerusalem

According to the documents uncovered by the associations, the Petroska building was allegedly sold for 7.5 million shekels, and the Anglican school for 60 million shekels.

The documents indicate that at the time of signing, companies owned by Weberman and his partners were supposed to pay the Vincent Society 9 million shekels for the school and 1 million shekels for the Petroska building. However, the associations claim that no such sales were ever discussed.

They assert that the sale of the Anglican school and the Petroska building was never on the table and, in any case, the transactions were not legally approved by the associations’ institutions or CMJ. Moreover, the signatures were allegedly accompanied by a forged stamp (the association claims it hasn’t had a stamp for the past five years), and the two people who supposedly signed the documents do not read Hebrew and never intended to sign sale agreements. According to the petition for the injunction, the signatures on the Hebrew sales agreements were obtained by deceiving the non-Hebrew-speaking officials.

In the petition, the associations claim that Mordechai Weberman and his attorney, Kobi Yifrach, used forged documents and fraudulent powers of attorney to create the false appearance of a properly approved sale process within the association’s institutions.

The associations also claim that Weberman “played a double game”: on one hand, he acted as a member of the community of believers and claimed he wanted to donate funds and help the associations; on the other hand, he allegedly planned to deceive and defraud them and take control of their assets. The associations stated that upon discovering the deals, they realized he was a “Trojan horse” and intend to file a complaint with the police.

Attorney Kobi Yifrach stated:
“First, I have no personal acquaintance with Mordechai Werman. I met him two years ago in a different transaction where I represented the other party. Second, I have never forged any documents or powers of attorney. Third, some of the signatories do speak Hebrew and are literate.Fourth, I have never presented any false document.

“I regret that a large and respected law firm is accusing a fellow attorney of serious misconduct and launching an unrestrained attack without fully checking the facts. I’m confident the court will rule that there was no wrongdoing in my conduct as the church’s legal representative.”

No response was received from Weberman by the time of publication, nor has he yet submitted a response to the court.

Ironically, just days before the associations discovered the alleged affair, the British Christian newspaper Evangelicals Now published a celebratory article about Weberman from the annual CMJ conference. In the article, Weberman was presented as a success story: a former IDF chaplain who converted to Christianity and told an audience of 400 how he had “come home” to Messianic Judaism. “I stand before you not as someone who left Judaism, but as someone who found its fulfillment,” Weberman was quoted as saying. Just days later, the associations uncovered the affair.