Menachem Stark Wins $18K Raffle After Death
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — Menachem Stark, the Hasidic Brooklyn landlord and father of seven who was abducted and murdered in January, was the winner of an $18,000 raffle drawn Wednesday night, according to the Jewish Political Updates website.
He had bought $100 worth of raffle tickets in December, part of a fundraiser for a Bobov charity that helps poor families pay for wedding expenses. His family was notified of the prize on Thursday morning.
Stark, 39, was kidnapped outside his Williamsburg, Brooklyn office on Jan. 2; his partially burned body was found in a garbage bin on Long Island the next day.
After his murder, much of the media attention focused on Stark’s questionable business practices and his reputation as a slumlord. However, he was widely lauded as a generous philanthropist in the Hasidic community. The New York Post tabloid enraged many Orthodox Jews when it published a photo of Stark on its front page, with the headline, “Who Didn’t Want Him Dead?”
In the years before his murder, he withdrew nearly $3.6 million from his business to pay personal debts, and was deeply in debt at the time of his disappearance, according to the New York Daily News.
The New York Police Department is still investigating his murder and has not made any arrests.
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