A Jewish leader in Poland says her community was deceived by a man who pretended to be an Orthodox Jew, wearing a beard and Payos and leading prayers in Hebrew.
Alicja Kobus, leader of Poznan’s Jewish community, said Thursday that the impostor was unmasked recently when people in his hometown saw him on television taking part in ecumenical observances with Catholic and Muslim religious leaders.
Kobus told The Associated Press he presented himself to the community as Yaakav Ben Nistell from Haifa, Israel. Polish media say his real name is Jacek Niszczota, a cook from Cichanow, a town in north-central Poland. He has vanished since being unmasked.
Kobus said he learned Hebrew and prayers listening to Israeli radio.
(AP)
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Years ago a shul in my Jerusalem neighborhood had a sefer Torah stolen. The police told the Rav that he could give up on getting it back since it would have been sold in Russia already. The Rav said that it was half a consolation to him. Who would have thought, when he was a boy and Russia was ruled by the G-dless Bolsheviks, that one day soon Jews would want sifrei Torah so much that there would be a black market for them?
This story strikes me the same way; who would have thought, 70 years ago, that Polish goyim would want to pretend to be Jews?