Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

Madoff Scheme Brings to Light Jewish Artifacts

Since Bernard Madoff’s December arrest, victims of his Ponzi scheme have been selling off not only their real estate and their jewelry, but also their Judaica, according to a New York-based auctioneer.

Jonathan Greenstein, whose eponymous company auctions off “rare antique and artisan Judaica” told The New York Post’s Page Six that Jewish artifacts that “haven’t seen the light of day in generations” are going on the block — courtesy of Madoff’s victims.

Case in point: a diamond-encrusted yad dating back to 18th-century Holland and a Torah crown. Greenstein said that these items, slated to be auctioned off on June 8, are owned by Rhea Schindler, the widow of the late Reform movement leader Rabbi Alexander Schindler.

Schindler was the second president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations — the predecessor of the Union for Reform Judaism.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

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. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.