Rabbi Hawks ‘Chametz’ Bread to Warren Buffet
A Nebraska rabbi symbolically sold some leavened bread products to legendary investor Warren Buffet.
Rabbi Jonathan Gross of Omaha had reached out to Buffet proposing that the billionarie buy his community’s chametz, the stash of leavened bread products that Jews traditionally sell to a non-Jew prior to Passover only to buy it back after the festival.
While Buffet was receptive, he was unavailable to meet with the rabbi immediately before the holiday.
So the sale of the rabbi’s community’s chametz – generally conducted on the day before Passover – to Buffett could not proceed. But a smaller, symbolic sale of some leavened products went forward anyway last month, partly to generate publicity for a local food bank, the Omaha World-Herald reported.
On Feb. 23, Buffet, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and currently the world’s third-richest man, greeted Gross and two other rabbis at his offices in Omaha.
In exchange for four 50-cent coins, Buffet received a bottle of scotch, a challah and a bag of (non-kosher) cheetos, reportedly the investor’s favorite snack. The sale also included a box of chametz in the rabbi’s home and three large containers of chametz in his synagogue that were being donated to the Food Bank of the Heartland .
Buffet joked that next year he would bargain the price down.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
