(William Farrington)
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A rabbi who dubbed himself the “Jewish Indiana Jones” whipped up tall tales of “rescued” Holocaust-era Torahs to raid more than $1 million in charitable donations, the feds charged yesterday.
Manhattan federal prosecutors say Rabbi Menachem Youlus concocted cinematic exploits that included falling through the floorboards of a barracks at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, then digging for hours before finding a buried Bible scroll.
But travel records show he left the United States only once during the time he claimed to be risking his life on globe-hopping missions — for a two-week trip to Israel.
And the hand-lettered, sacred scriptures Youlus passed off as historic relics were actually just ordinary Torahs he “simply purchased” from dealers, the feds say.
“Menachem Youlus called himself the ‘Jewish Indiana Jones,’ but his alleged exploits were no more real than those of the movie character he claimed to resemble,” Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said of the 50-year-old, who looked more like Woody Allen than Harrison Ford as he appeared in a lower Manhattan court yesterday.
Ford played the protagonist Indiana Jones character — a treasure-hunting archaeologist — in the famous series of Steven Spielberg/George Lucas adventure films.
His allegedly fraudulent manuscripts include one for which billionaire investor David Rubenstein paid $32,000 before donating it to Manhattan’s Central Synagogue in 2008.
Youlus — a co-founder of the Maryland-based Save a Torah charity — won widespread acclaim for his account of unearthing that scroll by using a metal detector to locate a box in which it purportedly had been buried in a cemetery near Auschwitz.
But his alleged scheme began unraveling after the Washington Post Magazine published a searing exposé last year that cast doubt on his sensational stories.
According to a criminal complaint, Youlus got more than $1 million from Save a Torah between 2004 and 2010, representing nearly all of the $1.2-million-plus it raised during the same time period.
Youlus allegedly claimed that he wasn’t paid anything for his efforts — merely reimbursed for his costs in locating, recovering and repairing the Torahs.
But court papers say he used phony invoices to inflate his expenses, and also scammed the charity into giving him $144,000 by falsely portraying himself as deep in debt — even though bank records show he had about $2 million stashed in various accounts.
Youlus, who was charged yesterday with mail and wire fraud, declined comment after being sprung on $100,000 bond.