A nebbishy rabbi who called himself the “Jewish Indiana Jones” deserves up to five-plus years in the slammer for whipping up tall tales about unearthing Torahs lost during the Holocaust, the feds say.
Menachem Youlus, who looks more like Woody Allen than Harrison Ford, faces sentencing today after pleading guilty to scamming contributors to the Maryland-based Save a Torah Foundation, which he co-founded.
The charity raked in more than $1.4 million by selling religious scrolls that Youlus claimed to have “rescued” from Nazi concentration-camp sites — but which he really bought from used-Torah dealers.
The Manhattan federal court filing notes that Youlus “personally lied to children on many occasions,” and cites a letter from an unidentified woman whose daughter donated half her bat-mitzvah money to Save a Torah after their congregation bought one of Youlus’ bogus Torahs.
“She was very upset to learn about the charges against Rabbi Youlus last year and regrets that her bat-mitzvah money was wasted in this fashion,” the girl’s mom wrote.
Prosecutors Nicole Friedlander and Janis Echenberg also said Youlus has “been lying about his personal finances since the day he was charged,” and tried to hide his assets to avoid paying restitution.
Defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman, seeking a no-jail sentence on the grounds that Youlus is a first-time offender who “will spend the rest of his life carrying the deep shame of his crime,” declined to comment.
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