A Jewish charity co-founder who claimed he crisscrossed the globe rescuing Torahs as a “Jewish Indiana Jones” surrendered this week to face mail and wire fraud charges after authorities said he duped benefactors.
Menachem Youlus, who owns the Jewish Bookstore in Wheaton, Md., where he resides, was charged in a criminal complaint and released Aug. 24 on $100,000 bail. Attorney Paul Rooney said, “We deny this accusation, and anything else we have to say will be said in court.”
Court papers in New York said the 50-year-old Youlus carried out the fraud from at least 2004 through last year, pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars through the “Save a Torah” charity he co-founded in 2004 as a nonprofit organization. He allegedly fabricated dramatic stories about sometimes dangerous trips, including to concentration camp sites in Poland and Germany.
A criminal complaint said he passed off Torahs he bought from U.S. dealers to synagogues and congregations nationwide, sometimes at inflated rates. — ap