Eleven days after Rabbi Shmuley Boteach began publicly promoting a Manhattan gala honoring President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, a member of Boteach’s family forwarded a proposed business agreement that sought to turn introductions to the Rwandan government into a source of private revenue.
The unsigned agreement called for a company, Hospitality House, LLC, to receive 50 percent of the gross benefit from any business obtained through people or institutions connected to Rwanda’s government. It was sent to Botach Inc. on March 19, 2017, and was the subject of a dispute two days later, according to emails and the draft contract reviewed for this article.
The documents do not name Boteach as a signatory to the agreement or establish that he personally drafted or approved it. But a New Jersey corporate-status report dated September 18, 2026, lists Jacob S. Botach as Hospitality House’s reported principal. A 2026 federal court order identifies Jacob Shmuel Botach as “a/k/a Shmuley Boteach.” The state report uses the same 394 East Palisade Avenue address in Englewood, N.J., that appears in the 2017 agreement. It identifies Hospitality House as Boteach’s LLC. The report also says the company’s Division of Revenue suspension began in 2006 and ended in 2023. It therefore does not resolve the company’s corporate or operating status when the agreement circulated in March 2017.
The documents also do not show that Kagame, Rwanda’s ambassador to the United Nations or any other Rwandan official knew of the proposal, or that any resulting business was conducted.
The overlap raises a conflict-of-interest question that can confront leaders of nonprofit and mission-driven organizations: whether relationships cultivated in a public, charitable or diplomatic capacity can be privately monetized through an affiliated business. The materials reviewed do not include World Values Network board minutes, conflict-of-interest policies, disclosure forms or evidence that the organization’s resources were used in the proposed arrangement. They do not establish an ethical or legal violation. They do, however, place a Boteach-linked LLC’s proposed 50 percent fee beside Boteach’s public role in building and displaying the Rwanda relationship.
But the documents and a series of public posts place the proposed fee arrangement alongside Boteach’s campaign to promote a May 21 World Values Network gala that honored Kagame, invoked the legacy of Elie Wiesel and featured a roster of political, diplomatic and public figures. The material shows how a relationship celebrated in public was, at least in the proposed agreement, being positioned as a potential private business asset.
On March 8, Boteach advertised the World Values Network’s “5th Annual Champion of Jewish Values International Awards Gala” on X, calling it “a special tribute to Elie Wiesel z”l” and urging people to save the date, May 21. The next day, the Jewish Standard reported that the organization, which it described as founded and led by Boteach, would honor Kagame at Cipriani in Manhattan with the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Award for Outstanding Friendship with the Jewish People.
On March 19, Boteach’s daughter, whose name is not used in this article, sent the Hospitality House agreement to a Botach Inc. representative. It described Hospitality House as a business consultant and facilitator that would make introductions for potential deals involving people affiliated with, and institutions comprising, the Rwandan government. Exhibit A to the agreement identified a single contact category: “The Government of Rwanda.”
The financial terms were broad. Botach would pay Hospitality House “Fifty percent (50%) of the monetary value of any gross benefit received from Confidential Contacts,” the document said. A contact identified by Hospitality House could become “confidential and proprietary” to the facilitator if Botach did not object within two business days. The proposal barred Botach from using or disclosing those contacts for three years and, for five years after the agreement’s term, from bypassing Hospitality House to deal with them directly. It also contemplated an accountant’s review of Botach sales records to verify payments.
A Botach representative pushed back in an email dated March 21. “50% of the gross is way too high,” he wrote, offering instead “25% of the net profit.” He called the agreement “totally one sided” and said a potential audit of internal records was “unacceptable and ridiculous.”
Boteach’s daughter replied: “You already agreed on 50% why are you going back now”. The quotation is reproduced in full, but her name is omitted.
The same day, Boteach was promoting the public event. In a March 21 post on X, he wrote that the gala would commemorate Wiesel’s “life and legacy” and directed readers to the event’s website. The overlap does not establish that the public gala and the private proposal were coordinated. It does establish that the dispute over a 50 percent fee unfolded on the same calendar day that Boteach was promoting a Wiesel-branded gala for Kagame.
The public campaign continued into May. Promotional materials for the event list Boteach as “Master of Ceremonies” and Elisha Wiesel as keynote speaker. They name Martin Luther King III, former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar, Alan Dershowitz, Ron Dermer and others as presenters or honorees. Kagame is listed as the “Special Recognition Honoree,” receiving the Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Friend of the Jewish People Award.
On May 1, Boteach wrote that the event would complete a Sefer Torah “on Elie Wiesel’s name,” “marked for people of Rwanda from the Jewish people.” A week later, he said he had met and invited Rwanda’s ambassador to the United Nations to the gala honoring Kagame. On May 14, he again promoted the writing of the Torah’s final letters in Wiesel’s name. Four days later, he highlighted a Ron Dermer message saluting the gala and its tribute to Wiesel.
Kagame’s official website records his May 21 appearance at the World Values Network gala in New York. The president’s prepared remarks name Boteach as the organization’s president and thank “Rabbi Shmuley and the World Values Network.” Kagame said Rwanda looked forward to collaborating on an international genocide center in Kigali.
At 10:52 p.m. that night, Boteach posted on X: “Presenting @PaulKagame with our gala Torah.”
The agreement was unsigned, and the supplied record contains no evidence that Botach entered a Rwanda-related transaction, paid Hospitality House or used any of the contacts identified in the draft.
Still, the documents establish the essential sequence. A high-profile gala placed Boteach, Kagame and the Wiesel legacy at the center of a public presentation of friendship between Rwanda and the Jewish community. In the weeks before the event, Botach Inc. received a proposal that would have given Hospitality House half of the gross benefit from access to Rwandan government contacts. The proposed arrangement appears to have failed. Its terms, however, offer a rare view of the private commercial value that someone sought to attach to those introductions.
I’m not part of this world at all. Is this typical behavior? It looks absolutely disgusting and I would expect better of the Wiesels, Ron Dermer, etc.