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, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
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 the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
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.