A Pittsburgh man is charged with stealing Judaica from dozens of Jewish homes
The suspect allegedly used a number of tactics to gain access to Jewish homes — including pretending he was Jewish

Photo by David Rullo/Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle
(JTA) — The 20-year-old Squirrel Hill resident, Andrew Clinton, is not Jewish. But on April 21, when Pittsburgh police searched the home of his parents, they found several bins of Judaica — all stolen.
Hamsa amulets, menorahs, books, miniature Israeli flags and even family photos were among the large collection of items recovered in the search.
Clinton, who was arrested earlier this month, is accused of pilfering them from the homes of local Jewish residents. He has been charged with more than a dozen counts of theft, although many of the items could not be returned because they had never been reported as stolen.
According to the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, Clinton used a variety of methods in order to gain entrance to Jewish homes: he posed as a contractor, landscaper, HVAC technician and gynecological resident; used a false name to post to a private Jewish Pittsburgh Facebook group; and pretended either to be Jewish or to be interested in converting in order to snoop in houses to determine what he wanted to steal.
He also attended Jewish community functions until rabbis began expressing concern over his behavior, and several Jewish institutions began banning him from the premises.

All of it seems to have been for the purposes of amassing his collection of stolen Jewish artifacts from Squirrel Hill, Fox Chapel and Ohara Township. The police are asking members of the Pittsburgh Jewish community for their help in identifying further victims of Clinton’s thefts so that they can return the items to their rightful owners.
Not all of his stolen items were Jewish in nature. Clinton also stole thousands of dollars in cash, dozens of signed baseballs, and a firearm, police said.
In a separate incident, two days before their search of Clinton’s parents’ home, Pittsburgh police also arrested a 31-year-old man who had screamed and made obscenities at Jews on the street near a synagogue. The man, who is currently being held in jail awaiting a preliminary hearing, is also accused of having screamed at churchgoers.
The security directors for the Pittsburgh Federation and the local Jewish Association on Aging had aided in the police’s apprehension of Christian Williams, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
The post A Pittsburgh man is charged with stealing Judaica from dozens of Jewish homes appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Secretive GOP firm distorts Democratic candidate’s views on Israel in NJ governor race
-
Fast Forward Trump administration to review nearly $9 billion in Harvard funding over campus antisemitism
-
Yiddish World Yiddish fans in Berlin launch a Yiddish open mic series
-
Fast Forward Cornell pro-Palestinian student leader opts to leave US, as Columbia ‘self-deportee’ makes her case to return
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.