Rabbi Appeals to Burglars to Return Religious Objects to Synagogue

The rabbi of the Elmhurst Jewish Center in the Queens section of New York has appealed to burglars who took a number of antique religious objects Sunday morning to return them. Rabbi Moshe Portnoy told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that a reward would be given for the return of three silver ornamental crowns and four silver pointers and no questions would be asked.

The items had been brought out of Nazi Germany by members of the congregation “at great personal risk,” the rabbi said. He said while he did not put a dollar value on them, they were priceless to the congregation. Rabbi Portnoy added that the police are investigating the case, and hinted that the thieves might have been drug addicts because “they knew what they were taking. They took only valuable things of silver.”