Colombia’s Interior Ministry’s new director for religious affairs got his rabbinical ordination at an online shop and holds a doctorate from a mysterious source, which has Colombian Jewish and Christian communities worried over both his radicalism and newfound power to regulate religious organizations.
Rabbi Dr. Richard Gamboa Ben-Eleazar, who announced his appointment on X/Twitter on Friday, regularly takes to social media to denounce Zionist Jews as “Nazis” and “false Jews.”
The process of his ordination as rabbi has led some, like the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) in the Latin America region to describe him as a “fake rabbi.”
Gamboa’s rabbinical ordination certificate, a picture of which he posted on his LinkedIn account and website, came from the Esoteric Theological Seminary.
While he cited the name of an “Interfaith Theological Seminary” in Gainesville as its source, his documents were identical to those from the Esoteric Theological Seminary.
This interfaith gnostic mystery cult church offers to convert titles for an interfaith minister, shaman, Celtic druid, Gothi Norse clergy, or rabbi for $150.
The application requires a one-page essay about an aspiring rabbi’s spiritual history and a paragraph about their religious work before paying the fee, which comes with added costs of additional titles. An applicant can also earn the certificate by paying $700 for an online study program and writing a 4,000-word thesis.
While Gamboa insisted that his ordination was performed by the seminary’s “rabbinical council,” the certificates, identical to the ones displayed at the online store, were signed by Reverend Katia Romanoff and Reverend Robert Straitt. Both identify with Christianity, according to their respective website biographies.
Gamboa defends his title
Gamboa defended his rabbinical ordination to W Radio on Friday. He said it was approved and accepted by the Unión Judía Liberal e Independiente de Colombia (UJLIC) – an organization that Gamboa leads that has little digital footprint beyond mentions by Gamboa and a 51-follower Facebook page.
Born in Bogota, Gamboa claims to be the son of secular Sephardi Jews of Marrano lineage.
In a 2014 speech in Seoul, Gamboa claimed that South Korean religious leader and messiah claimant Sun Myung Moon was his “teacher,” and he considered Korea his “sacred homeland.” Gamboa, who by 2014 was married to a Catholic woman for eight years, promoted interfaith liturgy.
In a February X post, Gamboa rejected that Jews denied or hated Jesus, claiming that those who did were “Judeo-fascists” engaging in “xenophobic folly.”
Confederation of Jewish Communities of Colombia executive director Marcos Peckel told The Jerusalem Post that Gamboa has no Jewish congregation in the country.
“You don’t become a rabbi by ordering a certificate over the Internet” from a source “not recognized by any of the [Jewish]denominations,” said Peckel, saying that this is a title earned through years of study and community leadership.
Lacking the appropriate requirements
The SWC said in a Friday statement that “Gamboa is a fraud who displays a degree purchased for $150 on the website. He lacks rabbinical training, a congregation, and scruples.”
The Anti-Defamation League, in a Friday X post, described his rabbinical credentials as “questionable.”
While the honorific that follows the rabbi in Gamboa’s name is often doctor, the source of his doctorate is a source of contention. On his LinkedIn and website, the religious affairs director said that the doctorate in ecclesiastical theology was from the “Hebrew Theological Seminary,” which he said was based in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. If the institution exists, it has no digital infrastructure that could be found by the Post.
In response to an expose by W Radio about his qualifications, Gamboa defended his certifications by flashing them before the camera in a Saturday Facebook video. The doctoral diploma, the same one he is seen holding in a picture on his website, bears the coat of arms of Bolivia and a logo that bears the name of God in Hebrew surrounded by the words “Ministério Internacional Yahweh Shammah.”
The Post could not find the digital footprint of such an institution in Bolivia, but there is a Ministério Internacional Yahweh Shammah in Angola and another in Contagem, Brazil. The website of the latter has published a picture of a small ministry, with a globe logo similar to that on Gamboa’s diploma. Both institutions with the name are Evangelical Christian missions, not academic campuses.
Gamboa lists in his curriculum vitae a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from La Salle University and incomplete studies at San Alfonso University.
Qualifications Gamboa does not have
The issue of Gamboa’s qualifications is not just a matter of identity and character, as Peckel explained that religious affairs director is a technical position that requires qualifications such as a master’s degree, which he does not appear to have.
“He does not have the qualifications or experience for the job,” said Peckel.
The danger of Gamboa comes, despite his own suspicious credentials, from his excommunicative approach to Jews who are Zionist, said Peckel. Gamboa allegedly refers to Zionist Jews as apostates, heretics, and Nazis. He would “disqualify people as Jews while he is head of religious affairs.”
In a February 10 X post, Gamboa said that a Jewish immigrant to Israel was “not Jewish because Zionism is an anti-Jewish, idolatrous, and apostate heresy” and was instead a “Nazi.”
Gamboa has dabbled in the Khazar conspiracy theory, describing Ashkenazi Israeli Jews as “Khazars” in a February 7 X post, and in December he said that “not all Jews are racially Semitic” but Ashkenazi and Kaifeng Jews were instead “descendants of non-Semites who converted to Judaism centuries ago.”
In a February post, he also decried Latin American converts to Judaism, who he resented for believing themselves to be Semitic because they called him antisemitic.
Ties to Iran
SWC warned of his close ties to the Iranian diplomatic mission in the country. Gamboa participated in an al-Quds Day event in Colombia and an Iranian-backed protest day against Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem.
While many Jewish communities around the world decry al-Quds Day as a period of escalated rhetoric and antisemitic belligerence, Gamboa’s UJLIC issued a statement rejecting the “criminalization” of the event by “Zionist propagandists.”
“We reject in the strongest possible terms the accusations of some Zionist propagandists who have dared to describe this day as ‘an antisemitic event,’” said the March 26 statement. “On the contrary, we denounce before the public that the attacks against anti-Zionist Jews are a very serious act of antisemitism that must be punished by civil authorities faithful to the Republic of Colombia’s commitments to international human rights standards regarding the fight against hate crimes.”
Such statements have caused alarm to Jewish and Christian communities, who see him as a threat to the freedom of worship in the country.
“In his new role, he will be the one who authorizes or outlaws Jewish communities in Colombia,” warned SWC. “He announced that he will seek to repeal the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Definition of Antisemitism, which Colombia has incorporated into its anti-discrimination legislation, and to ‘hunt down Zionist propagandists.’”
“Evangelical Christians and the Catholic Church, who have been working for many years to establish a religious dialogue in Colombia – they are concerned,” said Peckel.
"We cannot accept him"
Pastor Hector Pardo told Infobae that “a person who is going to hold such an important position, one that is established by the Colombian Constitution, violates the principle that we do not disdain or reject anyone, and that person must accept everyone. Gamboa already flatly rejects the Jewish community. We cannot accept him; it’s a step backward.”
The ADL said on X that his “inflammatory antisemitic remarks and ties to extremist groups would threaten religious freedom and the security of Colombia’s Jewish community.”
SWC Latin America assistant director Dr. Dario Pendzik said that the appointment of Gamboa was part of a strategy by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, in which Gamboa’s supposed Jewish bona fides were used to enforce narratives about genocide against Palestinians and the president’s anti-Israel agenda.
“There is a clear strategy to show that the good Jew is the one who attacks and denies Israel,” said Pendzik.Petro has defended the appointment, claiming on X that the methods used to select religious authorities among each religious sect were not the concern of the state. He said that freedom of worship was guaranteed in the country, including that of anti-Zionist Jews.
“The government does not accept that just because some have Zionist policies and others do not, the government excludes non-Zionists,” Petro said Friday. “Zionism is not a religion, but a policy born a century and a half ago that seeks to create a state for a religion.”
Gamboa responded in a Sunday X post to the scrutiny against him as being a violation of his human rights, religious freedom, and his honor and good name.
