BREAKING: Fraud Exposed In Auctions of Chabad Memorabilia Worth Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars

by CrownHeights.info

It was too good to be true.

Recently, the high demand for Chabad related memorabilia such as items from the Rebbeim, Kisvei Yad, and Beis HaRav began being fed with an infusion of never before known items from the Rabbeim and their family.

Never before seen photos from the Rebbeim and their families, unique personal items, and famous artifacts mentioned in Chabad historical accounts began to surface for sale at online auction houses.

The significance of the articles would seem to be immense and the discovery of these items, historically unprecedented. It naturally threw historians interested in Chabad and librarians into a frenzy.

Could these be authentic items? If they are, it would be incredible.

The First Hint of Fraud

The first auction of these unique Chabad items was a silver plated kiddush cup, purported to have been used by the Lubavitcher Rebbe. It was put up for sale at the Kedem Auction House in Jerusalem.

The excitement surrounding the sale of such an item should have been justified but for its authenticity. The item was accompanied by a letter of authenticity from Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, a member of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Secretariat, which claimed that “enclosed is a certificate by one of the Rebbe’s close attendants, ascertaining that this cup was indeed used by the Rebbe for a long period of time.”

The certifications included photographs of the item with a hand written note stating that it is real and bearing the signature of Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky.

Soon after the auction was announced, Rabbi Krinsky went on record stating that the authenticity of the kiddush cup was a fake, and that the letter published in his name was not written by him.

At the Kinus HaShluchim in the New York region, Rabbi Krinsky said “I heard about [the auction] just today… something about a neches [possession] that is claimed to have been to the Rebbes, a kos, a becher, an alleged silver becher, that was going to be auctioned off in Eretz Yisroel at an auction house by the name of Kedem,” he said. “When I learned about it and that they used my name to authorize its identity and its provenance – it was a fraud, so before I came here tonight, I sent off an email to the auction house and notified them not to do that.”

Kedem Auction House should have known that the becher was likely not authentic, because the becher – which the Rebbe was photographed using thousands of times – using was clearly not the one up for auction. But even without the photos, they never contacted Rabbi Krinsky to verify that he in fact wrote the letter of authentication.

Despite the photographic evidence, and Kedem’s acknowledgement of Rabbi Krinsky’s letter, they went ahead with the auction. Something that troubled many industry observers, as it undermined the credibility of all similar items up for auction.

The kiddush cup was estimated to fetch between $25,000 and $30,000 at the auction.

It would be the first in a long series of auctions with Chabad related memorabilia, and an investigation by CrownHeights.info has uncovered that the items being sold are mostly likely almost all fraudulent.

The Common Link

After the outing of the fraudulent Kiddush cup, a series of auctions at various other online auction houses popped up.

From one auction house to another, these auctions of Chabad memorabilia made their rounds, and are presently being sold at Appel Auction House.

The most recent auction announcement (with date of auction on January 11th, 2022), is being presented by Appel as a “Special Chabad sale, First edition of the Tanya, Letters, Objects, and unknown photos of the Lubavitch Dynasty, Zitomir.” In it are photos and historical Chabad memorabilia such as a photo alleging to be an infant Mendel Horensjain son-in-law of the Rebbe Rayatz, a previously unknown photo allegedly of Rebbetzin Rivkah Schneersohn – wife of the Rebbe Maharash, the third Chabad Rebbe, and items such as a Rattan Rocking Chair supposedly used by Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah and an Emerald and Gold-rimmed Brooch from Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah.

Every single one of these incredible never before seen items, which were never even known to exist by the scores of scholars of Chabad history, listed in these auctions came from a single individual: Shaul Shimon Deutsch.

Deutsch is a well known character to anyone who was concerned with the history of Chabad in the 1990s, when he tried making a name for himself as a historian of Chabad. He authored a couple of books that lacked vigor and never caught on. After not being taken seriously in Chabad circles, he eventually left and appointed himself the Liozna Rebbe and began to build his Chassidim court in a small shul in BP. It seemed to also fizzle.

In 2002, Deutsch launched the Living Torah Museum and in 2008 he opened the Torah Animal World next door in Borough Park. By 2013 Deutsch was hawking the bankrupt Torah Animal World for $995,000, according to the NY Post, which seems to be strange considering Deutsch’s claims of 35,000 annual visitors with each paying $10.

In 2014, the NY Jewish Week reported that the Living Torah Museum was in “severe financial crisis” and in the years since Deutsch seemed to sell off what was left of the Living Torah Museum (which he claimed saw 600,000 visitors). In 2016 he sold a Luchos replica for $850,000 at auction.

Yet, in all that time, no one heard about any of the items that would be treasures to historians and collectors, not for display, sale or even for Deutsch to build his shattered credibility with.

Authenticity of Auctions

In some cases, information is provided about the circumstances of the items being sold at auction such as an American flag is supposed to have been on the ship the Frierdiker Rebbe came to America on, a wheelchair allegedly used by the Frierdiker Rebbe, or a pen seen in a picture of the Frierdiker Rebbe.

The chain of ownership or custody for all of these items, was the same in nearly every item up for auction.

Supposedly, in the final months of 1989, Chana Gurary bequeathed the items to Shaul Shimon Deutsch, writing a separate letter of bequeathment for each and every item. Each letter, identical in many ways, provided a short explanation behind the item, and named Shaul Shimon Deutch as the person receiving them.

For example; for the photo allegedly of Rebbetzin Rivkah Schneersohn – wife of the Rebbe Maharash, the letter describes how it remained secret all these years.

A letter of bequeathment allegedly from Chana Gurary reads: “I hereby gift to Shaul Shimon Deutsch a photo of my great grandmother, Rebbetzin Rivkah, I received it as a gift from grandmother in the Spring of 1941. My brother-in-law wanted me to give it to him to publish it in a book on the Maharash. I refused as I was afraid it would get lost.”

Something Doesn’t Add Up

After the initial excitement over the remarkable finds began to fade, serious questions began to arise.

The letters of bequeathment, allegedly written by Chana Gurary, looked remarkably amateurish. Written in what appears to be #2 pencil, the handwriting and signature looked like they had been written by a young child, not a very well educated woman that the daughter of the Frierdiker Rebbe was.

In fact, an analysis done on a copy of one of the letters by a graphologist found that the bequeathment letters actually raised more questions as to their authenticity.

A lack of any tremors normally associated with an elderly person’s handwriting, and an amateur method of writing, including letters written in all upper case, gave the impression of someone distinctly different from Chana Gurary who at the time was in her 80s.

The questions began to get even deeper as comparisons of some of the items sold at the auctions to known photographs of the Rebbeim found significant discrepancies,like with the becher from the original auction, which in some cases even triggered the return of the purchased items to the auction house with refunds.

All these things also begged the question, why would Chana Gurary hand over priceless family heirlooms to Shaul Shimon Deutsch, an unknown person with no family or historical connection? If it were for a desperate need of money, wouldn’t the Gurary family have at least sold these items instead?

Raising the alarm, historians and known Chabad librarians began to fight back, claiming that these items were likely forgeries, but until now, proof was never presented publicly.

Signature Comparison

Until now, all of these questions were just that, questions.

After intense research and an investigation by CrownHeights.info, the signature of Chana Gurary was discovered attached to a type written printed letter. Without question, the signatures found on the bequeathment letters do not match the authentic signature of Chana Gurary.

A highly educated woman, Chana Gurary had a well developed signature, complete with a distinct loop from the Hebrew letter Nun in “Chana” flowing into the letter Hey. In the bequeathment letters, the letters appear to have been written as a young child would write them, large, boxy, and with each letter written distinctly.

Without question, these bequeathment letters, both in content and signature, appear to be complete forgeries.

This conclusion was mirrored by Rabbi Chaim Dalfin, an author and historian with multiple books on Chabad history.

In a video published in response to questions regarding the alleged photo of Rebbetzin Rivkah, Rabbi Dalfin said, “The note that the person who is behind the selling of this picture – I happen to know him – and the note was definitely not written by Chana Gurary. I believe it was written by him [Deutsch].”

The Investigation

Having established the letters of bequeathment to be forgeries, what of the items themselves? Might they still be authentic? Perhaps they were stolen?

As CrownHeights.info delved into the question of whether these items could perhaps be real, the answer of “there is no reason to believe they are authentic” – although compelling – was not enough. We wanted to go deeper.

Could perhaps we verify for certainty that these items were fakes? Or was there a chance that these items were in fact real, even if the story provided was not?

Rabbi Dalfin, noted the difficulties behind such an investigation, giving the possibility that they might be authentic.

“Is it possible that he [Deutsch] got this [photo of Rebbetzin Rivkah], yes. Is it possible it’s her picture, yes,” Dalfin said. But ultimately he too came to the conclusion that for multiple reasons “I conclude that it is not Rebbetzin Rivkah.”

During the investigation, CrownHeights.info was able to verify that Shaul Shimon Deutsch had in fact met with Chana Gurary’s son, Barry “Berke” Gurary, at least once in his home, and that Barry’s home did hold some priceless Chabad artifacts.

But those who were close with Barry don’t believe that it is possible that Barry had given Shaul Shimon Deutsch these items.

“I knew Barry Gurary for many, many years,” one of Barry’s acquaintances told CrownHeights.info on condition of anonymity. “I never saw Shaul Shimon Deutsch in his house even once.”

The acquaintance went on to note that the Gurarys’ were not known as people to give gifts to others, and went so far as to say that he does not believe that Barry would have ever given these items to Deutsch.

Might Shaul Shimon Deutsch have gone into the Gurary home and stolen some of the items, for example the photographs?

While this may appear like a harsh claim, it may also be the only imaginable way that these items could be explained as authentic and requiring the need for Deutsch to fabricate the bequeathment letters.

Yet this possibility also has some major questions, the largest comes from Barry Gurary’s own family.

An acquaintance of one of Barry Gurary’s children told CrownHeights.info that the family does not believe that any items from their father’s home are missing, and as the items being sold at these auctions would be family heirlooms, they would know.

The Conclusion

The answer to the ultimate question of where the items being sold as Chabad memorabilia originated, we may never know, but they are most certainly not what is claimed that they are.

What we do know is that all the letters of bequeathment appear to be fraudulent, and without those there is no reason to believe that there is any legitimacy to the claim that these items are in fact Chabad memorabilia, and many reasons to believe that they are not.

The question now is on the auction houses, which had been informed of the likely chance that these items were either forgeries of stolen, and perhaps for the authorities and the buyers to investigate further.

This article was compiled by CrownHeights.info from publicly available information as well as numerous interviews and conversations with authors, historians, and Gurary family acquaintances.