Billionaire developer Jeffrey Soffer is accusing a popular Jewish religious leader of desecrating his Fontainebleau Miami Beach resort with a weekslong smear campaign designed to extort him.
Last week — days before the start of Hanukkah — the iconic hotel’s ownership entity sued Shmuley Boteach for defamation and tortious interference in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.
Boteach, whose real name is Jacob Shmuel Botach, is a book author and social media influencer with 1.2 million followers on multiple platforms. On his Instagram and X profiles, Boteach bills himself as “America’s Rabbi” and “the most famous rabbi in America.”
Fontainebleau Miami Beach’s lawsuit alleges Boteach of posting a barrage of video clips and images on his social media accounts falsely accusing Soffer, who is Jewish, and Fontainebleau security staff of condoning anti-Semitism.
Soffer leads Aventura-based Fontainebleau Development, which recently snagged a $1.2 billion refinancing for the Miami Beach hotel at 4441 Collins Avenue, as well as a $550 million refinancing for JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort & Spa in Aventura.
Boteach is whipping up his followers to denounce the hotel’s owner and employees as part of a concerted effort to extort millions of dollars from Soffer, the complaint alleges. In some of his social media posts, Boteach also attacked Fontainebleau Miami Beach’s longtime legal counsel and Orthodox Jew, Sean Burstyn.
“Weeks of outrageous and false attacks on our hotel and personnel, combined with demands for payment, have forced us to seek judicial relief,” Fontainebleau Miami Beach said in a statement.
Benjamin Brafman, Boteach’s lawyer who is widely known as high-profile celebrity criminal defense attorney, told The Real Deal that he is “hopeful that the parties will both recognize that it is in their respective interests to resolve this dispute with a complete settlement.”
Dec. 2 incident ignites Boteach’s campaign
On Dec. 2, while staying at the Fontainebleu, Boteach got into a verbal altercation with another hotel guest, a man of Arab descent. On his Instagram account, Boteach posted a short, edited clip of the confrontation that became fodder for a local television news report.
In the video, the other hotel guest is also filming Boteach with his phone while hurling slurs at the rabbi. “F*king baby killer,” the man shouts. “Son of a bitch. Get out of here…F*ck you man. Palestine all day. Free Palestine.”
In an interview with a WPLG 10 reporter about the incident, Boteach said “I will file a $100 million lawsuit, God willing, against the Fontainebleau.” The money would be “channeled into groups that fight racism, bigotry and anti-semitism,” Boteach added.
This week, the same reporter interviewed Boteach about Fontainebleau suing him. “I am prepared to settle for nothing, zero, not a penny, if they apologize for what happened and they retain security,” Boteach said, adding that his threat of $100 million was to “get their attention.”
In its complaint, Fontainebleau alleges Boteach’s clip doesn’t show everything that transpired between Boteach and the other guest, including the rabbi making comments about suicide bombers and telling the man, “Allahu Akbar? Are you going to blow yourself up or something?”
The complaint acknowledged that the other guest made heinous comments and “other words that are easily interpreted as anti-Semitic.”
Fontainebleau’s management condemned the other man’s behavior with a public statement shortly after the incident happened, the lawsuit noted. “During this isolated incident, one of the individuals used abhorrent language, which we find horrific and will not be tolerated on our property,” the statement said. “We sincerely apologize to those impacted by this individual’s words, which in no way represent our company’s views.”
Boteach and the other man were both banned from the Fontainebleau as a result of the incident. But in his social media posts, Boteach accuses hotel security staff of being friendly with the other man, and that only Boteach was barred from entering the Fontainebleau again.
Boteach allegedly attempts a shakedown
As he created a firestorm of outrage against Fontainebleau among his followers, Boteach was communicating with the hotel’s representatives in an apparent shakedown attempt, the lawsuit alleges.
Boteach allegedly promised to “de-escalate his campaign of harassment in exchange
for a $1 million donation” to his organization, World Values Network,” the lawsuit states. When Fontainebleau allegedly refused his demand, Boteach “intensified his calls for the public to boycott the hotel on the basis of his categorically false statements.”
Indeed, Boteach doesn’t appear to be backing off. In a video posted to his Instagram account on Monday, the rabbi said his stay at the Fontainebleau was “hell on earth.”
“Jeffrey Soffer, if you are listening man, you messed with the wrong person,” Boteach said in the video. “You don’t get how ferocious I am asserting that Jews are not going to be pushed around. You can throw all your attorneys at me.”