The private eye who wears a skullcap

Joe Levin isn’t your typical private investigator, said Jed Lipinski in The New York Times. An Orthodox Jew, Levin has carved a niche for himself investigating various Orthodox-related crimes and infidelities. A decade ago, he started his company, T.O.T. Private Investigation, and began trailing his subjects around the world, from synagogues to strip clubs. The company’s acronym stands for a Yiddish expression. “It means ‘Put your tuchis on the table,’” says Levin. “In other words, ‘Show me the proof.’”

Though he typically wears the fedora and black frock of the Hasidim, he sometimes dons stocking caps and sports jerseys as disguises. He knows the unspoken codes of the community, which enables him to infiltrate insular Orthodox groups without raising eyebrows. It’s an advantage that works every day except the Sabbath, when he hires non-Jews to fill in until sundown. “Saturday is a very busy day for mischief inside the Hasidic world. Everyone thinks we’re sleeping. But in reality we’re wide awake.”

Investigating wrongdoing, he concedes, can be distressing for a man of faith. “I want to believe that there are good people in the world. But when I go to work every day and I see what I see, it’s a very big challenge for me.”

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