Another Large Lot of Questionable Historic Chabad Items Placed Up For Auction
by CrownHeights.info
Just two months after a lot of questionable Chabad memorabilia was auctioned off at an Israeli Auction House, another large lot has surfaced, and is even more likely to be fakes.
The Appel Auction House, founded in 1999 as an auction house for Sifrei Kodesh and rabbinical manuscripts, published the most recent lot of Chabad items along with a host of manuscripts, old Sefarim, and pamphlets.
Both this lot and the previous one at the Kedem Auction House appears to have come from a controversial figure, Shaul Shimon Deutsch. In a multitude of letters published with each “artifact”, Deutsch claims to have had been gifted the items by Mrs. Chana Gurary, the daughter of the Frierdiker Rebbe and sister of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka.
A lead filled gold pen from the Frierdiker Rebbe, a silver topped walking stick allegedly gifted by the Rebbe Rayatz, and a wheelchair allegedly used by the Frierdiker Rebbe when he travelled. These are just some of the more reasonable items claimed to have been gifted by Mrs. Gurary to Shaul Shimon Deutsch. Each item appears to come with a separate letter of “authenticity”, written in English by Mrs. Gurary clearly gifting the items to Deutsch.
Yet this lot of items and “letters of authenticity”, which came under fire in the previous auction as being forgeries, have just appeared to have gotten even more farfetched and unbelievable.
A box with dried Hadasim leaves, a double inkwell and candle holder, previously unknown photos allegedly of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka as a child and infant, a silver brooch the Rebbe Rayatz allegedly bought his eldest daughter, and a suitcase the Frierdiker Rebbe allegedly kept all his manuscripts in on his journey to the United States. Each item with the exact same trace and authenticity. Gifted by Mrs. Gurary to Shaul Shimon Deutsch, with a very questionable handwritten letter claiming that the item had been gifted by Mrs. Gurary along with an explanation of the item being gifted.
While it might be potentially possible that these items are real, those who have studied chabad history and historical artifacts claim otherwise.
“Every item for sale in this auction from Shimmy Deutsch is a fake,” one person who asked not to be named told CrownHeights.info regarding the earlier Kedem auction. “They are a figment of his imagination.”
The questions of the authenticity of these items stem not only from the unlikelihood of Deutsch actually having received such items from Mrs. Gurary, or that she even had such items, but also from the “authenticating” documents.
The likelihood that Mrs. Gurary even possessed these items is small, the likelihood that she gifted these items to Deutsch is even less, and the likelihood that she did so by writing a letter for each item gifted is less than miniscule, according to those who have studied chabad history.
Perhaps the most unbelievable item being auctioned off in this lot of Chabad memorabilia is two medical instruments allegedly used by Dr. Gerson to treat the Frierdiker Rebbe at the Greystone Hotel in Manhattan.
One of the medical items appears to be an electrostimulation device, which at the time would have been a rare and expensive item only held by physicians, and not left in the hands of a patient or their family.
Such lots and items of chabad memorabilia have surfaced in the past at auction houses, with each lot almost always ultimately being deemed as fakes.
In one situation, the auction house claimed to have had a Kiddush cup from the Rebbe which was “verified” by Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky. Rabbi Krinsky negated the claim in a letter saying that the Rebbe never had such a Kiddush cup.
