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Madoff Victims Resort to Selling Judaica
By Lilit Marcus / March 15, 2009
The excellent E.L. Doctorow novel City of God opens with the book’s narrator, the Episcopal Rev. Thomas Pemberton, discovering that his church has been robbed. Among other things, the thieves took some brass candlesticks, a bunch of purple robes, and the church’s cross. When a local cop comes over to investigate, he admits he is surprised anybody would rob Protestants. "They’ll hit a synagogue for the watchamacallit, the Torah," says the detective. "Because it’s handwritten? Not a mass-produced item? It’ll bring, a minimum, five K. Whereas the book value for your cross has to be zilch."
Sadly, it’s not only a pilfered Torah that will sell for a high amount. Today’s New York Post reported that some of the victims of Bernie Madoff’s landmark Ponzi scheme have resorted to selling off their Judaica:
Antique auctioneer Jonathan Greenstein told Page Six rare Judaic artifacts that "haven’t seen the light of day in generations" are surfacing in light of the desperate times some collectors are facing. Two victims, Rabbi Alexander Schindler and wife Rhea, "lost a substantial sum of money" with Madoff, said Greenstein. They now plan to recoup some cash by putting an ancient Torah crown and a diamond-encrusted Torah pointer from Amsterdam up for auction.
When a rabbi has to sell off his own Jewish artifacts, what we have we come to?
Oh, and just to follow up on that story from City of God:Â in case you were wondering what happened, they found the cross after all – on the roof of a synagogue on the Upper West Side.
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Yups,
AT CNN.com, there is full an complete article. This is really bad.
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Although this may be an unfortunate development for some, there has for a very long time been pieces of ancient Hebrew texts being sold as antiquities on ebay for some time. The high and mighty ideals of the Jewish preservation of religious artifacts is no longer as it was. For anywhere from (previous currency exchange rates) $150 to $1000 and more you could buy reputed authentic torah text portions from Jewish communities of Europe and the Middle East. The sacred has been profaned, even by Jerusalem dealers, for some time now.
These were retirement gifts to Rabbi Alex Schindler, who was a serious leader in reform Judaism. His widow Rhea has a sister who is currently a rabbi in Charlotte, N.C. These items should have been passed down to her. The Yad is from ~ 1780 and very few like this from the Netherlands survived the Holocaust. I’m quite tempted to go up to Conneticut in June to bid on this. If I won it, I’d give it as a present to the rabbi’s Charlotte sister-in-law. This is a horrible time to have to part with rare antique Judaica. Items are selling for pennies on the dollar. Maybe I also have a strong desire to do this, because I still feel guilty about pawning a very ornate custom made diamond, sapphire, & pearl cross pendant that my grandmother gave me ( not knowing I had converted to Judaism).   Â
Not Madoff, of course, which is a total tragedy. But it’s a silver lining on an otherwise dark cloud that some Judaica which "hasn’t seen the light of day" will now perhaps be bought by someone who will use it and/or display it. And at least these Madoff victims have some assets to retire on–precious metals are just about the only investment doing well right now.
–Z
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