Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau announced today the arrest of David Levy, 49, owner of a yarmulka shop on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, on charges of possession of a Torah stolen from the Kehila Kedosha Jamina synagogue on Broome Street, also on the Lower East Side. The arrest was made by officers of the New York Police Department’s Bias Incident Investigating Unit under the command of Capt. Paul Donnelly.
According to Morgenthau, Levy who lives in Rego Park, Queens, was arrested in his shop on Essex Street last night while attempting to buy three Torahs stolen in November, 1980, from a young man who Morgenthau said was cooperating with the authorities. Levy was also found in possession of stolen Torah cases, breast plates and crowns. He was booked on charges of criminal possession of stolen goods.
Malcolm Hoenlein, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, which has created a task force to deal with the growing number of such thefts in the Greater New York area, hailed the arrest and said that the Jewish community wanted the arrest and punishment of any person, regardless of race, creed or religion, involved in the theft and sale of stolen Torah scrolls.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
