SixofNine
01-29-2005, 12:09 AM
By day he runs the Jewish Bookstore of Greater Washington in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. At night he's Indiana Jones with a yarmulke, rescuing Torahs around the world.
The February edition of Washingtonian magazine contains an article about Rabbi Menachem Youlus, a man who has rescued and restored Torahs at great personal debt and risk. Unfortunately, Washingtonian doesn't run copies of its articles on its web site, so if you can pick up a paper copy I highly recommend it for this article.
If you can't get your hands on a copy, let me put my stubby fingers to work and type out one story from the article about a serendipitous discovery in the Ukraine. He had just completed an unsuccessful negotiation with an antiques dealer and thought he was leaving empty-handed:
"As I was coming out of the house, this farmer in a horse and cart across the street is looking at me, looking at my yarmulke, and he comes over."
"Are you Jewish?" he asks.
"Yes I am."
"Then I have a map to sell you."
"What is it?"
"He says, 'I don't know for sure, but my father said if I ever saw someone with a special hat like yours, sell him the map.'"
Menachem does some fast calculations and realizes that the man, now in his sixties, would have been very young during World War II. He probably didn't know much of what happened.
"So I ask him, 'How much?'"
"One thousand, five hundred dollars," the farmer says.
"I say, 'That's a lot for a map.' I try to bargain, but he says, 'Take it or leave it.'"
Menachem took it.
"I have been in Eastern Europe long enough to know to trust my gut," he says. The farmer had been told by his father that this map was his inheritance and that it would be considered valuable by Jews.
The farmer handed over an old map of his farm, on which an X had been circled. Menachem handed over $1,500 from his money belt full of gold coins. "They don't deal in dollars" in Eastern Europe, he says. Gold is nontaxable and untraceable.
When the farmer led them to the spot where they were supposed to dig, he told Menachem he could not dig. "This map is no good unless I can dig," Menachem said. "Well, it will cost you," the farmer said. "How much?" Menachem asked, knowing the answer. "One thousand, five hundred dollars," the farmer told him.
Menachem shakes his head and shrugs. "Thank God that was the highest he could count. So I gave him another $1,500 for the right to dig - for that, he threw in two shovels."
With the deal sealed, Menachem and his driver began to dig. "My driver is a big guy-he can dig. I am no slouch either, " he says. "I work for two burial societies."
At about four feet down, Menachem and the driver hit bones. After unearthing three bodies, Menachem knew what they had. He called a well-connected friend in St. Petersburg - "and I don't mean Florida," he says. Within hours, the friend had sent two backhoes and arranged for the permits to dig. "Everything you do in Eastern Europe requires a permit. It's a nice way to say schmear money," Menachem says with a laugh, explaining that he spreads gold as liberally as he smears cream cheese on a bagel. "We were supporting the local economy in a big way."
They dug for the rest of the day and through the night. "I am not sure whether there were 262 or 263 bodies," Menachem says. "It's not because I can't count - we found parts of bodies that we couldn't put back together."
Halfway through the unearthing of the mass grave, Menachem says, they found what looked like two small bodies wrapped in tattered clothes with Jewish stars on them. They were Torah scrolls.
A financial adviser friend aware of how much he gone into hock set up Save-A-Torah, a non-profit foundation to pay the expenses of this effort and reduce his personal debt, but only after he had somehow managed to do it on his own, using his own money and incurring a large amount of personal debt for 18 years.
There's a lot more in the article, and when you're done you can't help but to like and admire this guy. As another rabbi said:
There is a Hebrew legend that there are 36 righteous people in every generation, the Lamed Vow, by whose merit the world is sustained. As long as these righteous people do good in the world, God will continue to bless and sustain the Earth...Menachem is one of those righteous 36.
Brian
The February edition of Washingtonian magazine contains an article about Rabbi Menachem Youlus, a man who has rescued and restored Torahs at great personal debt and risk. Unfortunately, Washingtonian doesn't run copies of its articles on its web site, so if you can pick up a paper copy I highly recommend it for this article.
If you can't get your hands on a copy, let me put my stubby fingers to work and type out one story from the article about a serendipitous discovery in the Ukraine. He had just completed an unsuccessful negotiation with an antiques dealer and thought he was leaving empty-handed:
"As I was coming out of the house, this farmer in a horse and cart across the street is looking at me, looking at my yarmulke, and he comes over."
"Are you Jewish?" he asks.
"Yes I am."
"Then I have a map to sell you."
"What is it?"
"He says, 'I don't know for sure, but my father said if I ever saw someone with a special hat like yours, sell him the map.'"
Menachem does some fast calculations and realizes that the man, now in his sixties, would have been very young during World War II. He probably didn't know much of what happened.
"So I ask him, 'How much?'"
"One thousand, five hundred dollars," the farmer says.
"I say, 'That's a lot for a map.' I try to bargain, but he says, 'Take it or leave it.'"
Menachem took it.
"I have been in Eastern Europe long enough to know to trust my gut," he says. The farmer had been told by his father that this map was his inheritance and that it would be considered valuable by Jews.
The farmer handed over an old map of his farm, on which an X had been circled. Menachem handed over $1,500 from his money belt full of gold coins. "They don't deal in dollars" in Eastern Europe, he says. Gold is nontaxable and untraceable.
When the farmer led them to the spot where they were supposed to dig, he told Menachem he could not dig. "This map is no good unless I can dig," Menachem said. "Well, it will cost you," the farmer said. "How much?" Menachem asked, knowing the answer. "One thousand, five hundred dollars," the farmer told him.
Menachem shakes his head and shrugs. "Thank God that was the highest he could count. So I gave him another $1,500 for the right to dig - for that, he threw in two shovels."
With the deal sealed, Menachem and his driver began to dig. "My driver is a big guy-he can dig. I am no slouch either, " he says. "I work for two burial societies."
At about four feet down, Menachem and the driver hit bones. After unearthing three bodies, Menachem knew what they had. He called a well-connected friend in St. Petersburg - "and I don't mean Florida," he says. Within hours, the friend had sent two backhoes and arranged for the permits to dig. "Everything you do in Eastern Europe requires a permit. It's a nice way to say schmear money," Menachem says with a laugh, explaining that he spreads gold as liberally as he smears cream cheese on a bagel. "We were supporting the local economy in a big way."
They dug for the rest of the day and through the night. "I am not sure whether there were 262 or 263 bodies," Menachem says. "It's not because I can't count - we found parts of bodies that we couldn't put back together."
Halfway through the unearthing of the mass grave, Menachem says, they found what looked like two small bodies wrapped in tattered clothes with Jewish stars on them. They were Torah scrolls.
A financial adviser friend aware of how much he gone into hock set up Save-A-Torah, a non-profit foundation to pay the expenses of this effort and reduce his personal debt, but only after he had somehow managed to do it on his own, using his own money and incurring a large amount of personal debt for 18 years.
There's a lot more in the article, and when you're done you can't help but to like and admire this guy. As another rabbi said:
There is a Hebrew legend that there are 36 righteous people in every generation, the Lamed Vow, by whose merit the world is sustained. As long as these righteous people do good in the world, God will continue to bless and sustain the Earth...Menachem is one of those righteous 36.
Brian