Craigslist Helps Synagogue Locate Lost Torah
Craigslist can help you find that perfect cement mixer or even lead you to the mysterious cigarette-smoking beauty you sometimes see at your bus stop. But as a Phoenix synagogue found out last week, the sprawling advertisement site is also good for something else: recovering stolen Torah scrolls.
Sam Saks, a Young Israel of Phoenix congregant, posted a $500 reward online last Tuesday, a day after the Torah disappeared, asking for the scrolls to be returned, “no questions asked.” Later that day, he received an email from a woman who purportedly found the Torah — valued at over $35,000 — in a city garbage bin.
Initially, the woman refused to return the Torah, forcing Saks to send her a pleading email, along with a note from the synagogue’s rabbi, stressing that it needed to be back by Friday evening.
“The trick was to let the person know we were not interested in legal action and that we just wanted to get the Torah back,” Saks told CNN’s Belief Blog.
Indeed, charges will not be filed. The woman returned the Torah, along with some other stolen religious paraphernalia, Friday morning.
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.
