Times have changed and while once, collecting funds for mosdos was under the radar, officials in many countries today are looking for undeclared income in places previously unimaginable, and this has created new realities, albeit some unwanted ones, for many who are actively engaged in fundraising.
This is applicable in the United States too, and chareidim are among those under suspicion.
The Slonimer Rebbe Shlita arrived at the airport on Wednesday night for his flight home, winding down a two-week fundraising effort for his mosdos and he was detained for questioning as inspectors feared he was carrying more than the permitted amount of cash. During his visit, the rebbe was raising money to build a yeshiva gedola in Elad.
They rebbe and his entourage were flying out of Newark Liberty International Airport. He was asked if he was bringing cash with him. They were all checked as were their bags and as a result of the inspection, they missed their flight.
Askanim came to the airport and arranged for another flight to Israel. As a result, the rebbe missed participating in Thursday morning shachris minyan in the Beis Medrash in Bnei Brak.
It is reported that in recent months, a number of admorim were stopped for such inspections at Newark Airport including the Rebbe of Vishnitz Shlita, Toldos Avraham Yitzchok Shlita and Dushinsky Shlita.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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9 Responses
A tzaddik is entitled to receive funds for his housing and food and for his needy extended family.
The article fails to note that these more rigorous inspections are the result of several cases going back to 2014 where well known rabbonim and askanim associated with mosdos in EY returning to EY through JFK and Newark were found to have substantially more undeclared cash in their baggage than allowed under the laws of either country. Such instances raise a number of questions, most importantly, why did such ostensibly chashuve yidden attempt to sneak such large amounts of cash into EY without declaring it and why would they be carrying cash in the first place rather than checks or depositing the funds electronically for transfer back to the accounts of their mosdos in EY. There is no shortage of banks in the New York/Newark area that will readily provide electronic funds transfer at very low cost. The answer of course is that they want to have funds with no paper trail that they can allocate and dispense with no accountability. Its no big deal for these individuals to be interrogated if there is probable cause. Certainly, missing a shachris minayn in BB is no big deal as compared with the benefits of enforcing the money laundering rules .
Isn’t it time that all countries stopped humiliating poor people who are struggling to save Yiddishkeit.Always believe a Tzaddik!
Nothing wrong with carrying any amount of cash all you have to is declare it and fill out a CTR form.No one really cares how much you carry just let us know
Interesting that although they searched him they did NOT find anything illegal. B”H for that.
Umm – you know that there’s actually no limit on the amount of cash one is allowed to take out of the US or in to Israel, right? The only issue is declaring the funds – if they exceed a certain amount ($10,000 in the US – not totally sure of the number in Israel), there’s a requirement to fill out and file a declaration form. The only reason one would not declare such funds is if there’s money laundering going on – i.e., the desire to bring in $$$ with no paper trail, particularly relevant when there’s funny business going on. And there is reason to suspect “Chashuve Admorim” of money laundering – a few years back, one such Chashuve Admor spent some time as a guest of the Federal government for just such offenses…
an Israeli Yid
To those comments that seem to claim that some Admor had once been caught, it seems to me that is no different than saying “one Muslim is a terrorist then all Muslims are terrorists”
Further, seems that this comes down to choosing who to inspect based on religion and/or nationality. So why isn’t the ACLU on top of this to fight such discrimination in the courts, seeing as they are so gung-ho to fight the Muslim immigration-refugee thing in court?
And further to those comments about Admor, I have searched and the only reference I could find to such things (as being prosecuted for money crimes in the U.S.) is for things like issuing tax receipts for money not received (or for money returned). How does that translate into carrying cash outside the country? On the contrary, if the money was not received then there would be no cash to carry!
YOU ARE 100% CORRECT; but the leftist would only go against a Rebbe not against a Moslem