Rabbi Shmuley Boteach lost his bid to toss out a defamation lawsuit accusing him of smearing Billionaire Jeff Soffer’s Fontainebleau Miami Beach.
On Sept. 16, U.S. District Judge Michael Moore denied Boteach’s motion to dismiss the complaint, filed by the affiliate of Soffer’s Aventura-based Fontainebleau Development that owns the iconic waterfront resort at 4441 Collins Avenue. The hotel’s ownership entity is seeking punitive damages against Boteach, whose real name is Jacob Shmuel Botach.
In its December 2024 federal complaint, Fontainebleau Miami Beach alleges Boteach spent weeks falsely accusing the 1,504-key hotel’s owner and staff on his social media accounts of condoning antisemitism after he was kicked out following a verbal altercation he had with another resort guest over the Gaza War.
A book author and social media influencer with 1.2 million followers on multiple platforms, Boteach bills himself as “America’s Rabbi” and “the most famous rabbi in America.”
“The court’s 13-page order speaks for itself,” Sean Burstyn, principal of Burstyn Law representing Fontainebleau Miami Beach, told The Real Deal. “The misconduct described therein is egregious, and we’re fully confident that the jury will see it that way.”
John Benford, an attorney representing Boteach, declined comment.
In addition to denying Boteach’s motion to dismiss, Judge Moore also rejected the rabbi’s request that some of Fontainebleau’s allegations be stricken from the court record. Among the allegations Boteach wanted removed included Fontainebleau’s claim that the rabbi “intensified his calls for the public to boycott the hotel on the basis…that the hotel obstructed a police investigation into heinous statements hurled at him.”
Boteach’s beef with Fontainebleau Miami Beach stems from his argument with another hotel guest, a man of Arab descent, on Dec. 2, 2024, court filings show. The two men filmed each other while hurling insults. In a video clip uploaded to Boteach’s Instagram account, the man called the rabbi a ““F*king baby killer.”
The Fontainebleau Miami Beach complaint alleges that Boteach’s video did not include the rabbi making comments about suicide bombers and telling the other guest, “Allahu Akbar? Are you going to blow yourself up or something?” The lawsuit acknowledged that the other guest made heinous comments and “other words that are easily interpreted as anti-Semitic.”
Fontainebleau Miami Beach’s management condemned the other man’s behavior with a public statement shortly after the incident happened, the lawsuit noted. Boteach and the other guest were both banned from the resort.
