Last year, a globe-trotting Torah rescuer who called himself the "Jewish Indiana Jones" was accused of being a fraud. And now, Baltimore bookshop owner Menachem Youlus has admitted that he is indeed a fraud: “Between 2004 and 2010, I falsely represented that I had personally obtained vintage Torah scrolls — in particular ways, in particular locations — in Europe and Israel,” he said in court yesterday. “I know what I did was wrong, and I deeply regret my conduct.” And he isn't even the real Jewish Indiana Jones!
Youlus, who co-founded Save a Torah charity foundation in 2004, faces up to five years in prison for creating the bogus charity, which he built up by weaving fictional tales of rescuing Holocaust-era Torahs. In one such instance, he claimed to have used a metal detector to unearth a metal box with Torah scrolls on the grounds of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
He pleaded guilty to mail fraud and wire fraud, admitting that he had used the U.S. Postal Service and emails to further a scheme to steal money while claiming to be saving and restoring the historic Torahs. Youlus’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, told reporters that his client was “a good man with the best intentions who ultimately strayed into fraudulent conduct” and said he “should be sentenced with great leniency.”
As part of his plea agreement, he will repay his victims $1.2 million. This was a good first step in ridding the world of people who would malign the good name of Indiana Jones—but unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any clause in the plea to stop George Lucas and Steven Spielberg from further sullying the reputation of Indiana Jones by making more godawful movies that even they admit were completely ill-conceived. Hopefully Matt Stone and Trey Parker can work up the courage to finally right that wrong.
