ABSTRACT
In terms of his origin Pinto is a Sephardic rabbi and the great-grandson of the Moroccan rabbis Baba Sali and Chaim Pinto. He graduated from Hasidic and Lithuanian yeshivas in Jerusalem. He is also known as a kabbalist. He comes from a privileged economic background, he owns the international organization Mosdot Shuva Israel and he also has the charisma of a tzadik. Rabbi Pinto supports a number of yeshivas and Jewish social institutions in Israel and the United States. He currently lives in New York, and in addition to his religious activities he is also engaged in the real estate business. Pinto is generally considered one of the most influential rabbis of the Israeli-American community, and has numerous religious, economic and political contacts. In 2011, however, Rabbi Pinto came to the attention of the police on suspicion of economic crime.
