Tonight, after Shabbat, when I turned on the computer and began checking my mail, I saw a short disturbing article in the New York Post about a possible scam. Rabbi Menachem Youlus has been selling what he claims to be pre-Holocaust era Torah Scrolls he has dramatically rescued from mass graves, concentration camps etc.
His adventure stories about these rescues are more exciting than fiction, and more and more people suspect that they are fiction. I "googled" and found a longer more detailed article in the Washington Post.
It's the numbers which make his stories tall tales. How could he have time to travel between the states and Europe, rescue hundreds of Torah Scrolls and also restore them?
On his Save a Torah promotional video, posted on the Web in 2007, Youlus says he has rescued 500 Torahs since he began his mission a quarter-century ago. The number Youlus gives on this spring afternoon in 2009 has soared to 1,100.
According to Jewish Law, exact financial records are supposed to be kept.
In a 3-hour interview, Youlus is unable to provide a single name, date, place, photograph or document to back up the Auschwitz stories or any of the others. He says that until Save a Torah was founded in 2004, he kept no records. He refers all requests for documentation since then to the foundation's president, investment banker Rick Zitelman of Rockville.
But in a late December meeting at The Washington Post, Zitelman, 54, shows no documentation for any of the scrolls, despite requests. Zitelman says the only paperwork he gets from Youlus is an invoice the rabbi himself writes up for each Torah. He says Youlus does not submit any airline tickets or hotel receipts for overseas missions.
It just doesn't make sense.
16 comments:
Clearly a scam, the guy should be ashamed.
seems like it
how exactly do you think records can be kept when the governments he extricated the torahs from wouldn't exactly be very happy about those said torahs leaving the country in addition just because the wp says there was no records doesn't mean there weren't any it just means that he probably refused to be interviewed for the article - you should do your own research before deciding that something is a scam and figure out if the people writing the article have an ulterior motive - i believe that is also a part of the Jewish religion
yitz, He loves publicity from the looks of it. If his lack of detail is due to security, then he'd be much more discrete in terms of general publicity.
But the two most suspicious elements to the story are the impossibly massive numbers of Torah Scrolls Youlus claims to have rescued and the duplicate/identical stories for different scrolls.
Well, assuming it's not a scam why isn't he just donating the Torah scrolls to a Holocaust memorial organization? I can't imagine trying to make a profit on anything associated with the Holocaust.
They would also probably be able to authenticate them.
probably to help repair and get the torahs out of their respective countries and he is selling them for far less than their market value same thing with publicity its for donations - while it may be true that he loves the publicity it is also a basic neccesity in running in organization with such ambitious aims
in addition verification is definitely possible - based on types of inks used handwriting analysis types of parchment decay etc.
the savatorah site claims that they are getting independent verifications for the torahs
also he would probably rather send them to places they would actually be used
yitz, look at the numbers he claims. They aren't realistic.
keli, that's his organization, if I read correctly.
even if the numbers are off - which might be an exaggeration again i am not quite sure how its a scam the saveatorah website only claims 50 torahs were resettled through their program if the torahs are independently verified - which they presently are doing i would think he would be in the clear. i would think that people would try to get their facts straight before lambasting someone who is probably doing good work. also if you read some of the articles that were written about him (ie. in the ny post) it is obvious that some of the people making these accusations
have no idea of what they are talking about
http://www.saveatorah.org/ has posted the following
"Rabbi Youlus has been performing an enormous service for the Jewish community in rescuing Torahs that have survived the Holocaust and restoring them for use in Jewish communities around the world. We request that the public not be misled by innuendo in one published report, and reserve judgment until after Rabbi Youlus is given a fair opportunity to respond. Save A Torah is turning to independent experts in the field to verify the origin of donated Torahs."
Let us see who the "independent experts" are and what they actually say.
Batya, since you live in Shilo perhaps you can check with Efrat and see what they say about the Torah they are supposed to have received from this organization.
http://www.saveatorah.org/template.php?section=RT
Resettled Torahs - Partner Communities
In upcoming months we will provide information on the communities that have received Sifrei Torah through partnerships between Save a Torah, our generous supporters and the recipient communities. Please watch for the growing list!
Save A Torah Partner Communities
Aish Hatorah
Kiev
Beit Knesset Mishkan
Shalom Beit Yosef,
Kibbutz Zeelim, Israel
Emek Medial Center, Afula, Israel
Jewish Community of
Mariupol, Ukraine
Minyan Tehillah, Cambridge, MA
Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy, Rockville, MD
National Institutes of Health- Bethesda, MD
Progressive Jewish Minyanim- Belarus
Reconstructionist Group of Southern Westchester
Pelham, NY
Riskin Shul
Efrat, Israel
Please let me know when you have more info.
Sabba Hillel, please check your map. Shiloh and Efrat aren't at all connected.
I did not mean to imply that. I just meant that it should be easier for you to get in touch with the shul in Efrat than it would be for me (here in the United States). It would be like my getting in touch with someone in New York or Lakewood (which are about 4 hours away from my home in Baltimore).
Perhaps you know of someone who can find out.
Sabba Hillel, I guess you don't realize that Riskin's Efrat shul has no connections to us in Shiloh. Why don't you ask some of the Efrattian jbloggers.
Shalom!
Sabba Hillel, before the days of telephones, faxes, and the Internet, the comparative geographic proximity of Shilo to Efrat would be relevant. Today...
exactly
I did send a comment about it to an Efrattian blogger.
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