Chabad Rabbi Steals From Food Bank – Chabad Does Nothing To Stop Theft – Steals From City's Poor

The San Diego Union Tribune reports:

Two charity operators who collected hundreds of tons of donations from the San Diego Food Bank were charged yesterday with multiple counts of grand theft and forgery. They are accused of stealing food and other groceries meant for the poor.

The San Diego City Attorney's Office filed criminal complaints against Zeev Buchler and Jose Alanis, two subjects of a report this year in The San Diego Union-Tribune  that examined widespread mismanagement and theft at the county's largest hunger-fighting organization.

Prosecutors expect to seek jail time for Alanis and Buchler, both of whom owned or had family members who owned retail stores selling the same types of products they withdrew from the food bank.…

According to the complaints, Buchler and Alanis defrauded the food bank and donors by taking products that were supposed to help the neediest families in San Diego County.

Investigators spent much of this year reviewing records and interviewing food-bank employees, swap-meet vendors and other witnesses, Davis said in an interview.

Buchler withdrew food and other products from the food bank for more than 10 years under the authority of Chabad of San Diego, a well-known Jewish organization based in Scripps Ranch.

Buchler was charged with 32 counts of grand theft and petty theft and one count of forgery. In the last six months of 2004 alone, he collected nearly 55 tons of food-bank donations.

During the time Buchler collected groceries from the food bank, he ran a retail store on El Cajon Boulevard, was fired from an insurance agency for embezzlement and was repeatedly sued by creditors. He also declared personal bankruptcy in the 1990s.

Rabbi Josef Fradkin said yesterday that Chabad of San Diego had "absolutely no knowledge of (Buchler's) alleged activities." However, records obtained by the newspaper showed that Chabad officials knew about the withdrawals and did little to stop them beyond telling the food bank that they were not responsible for debts Buchler owed the food bank.

Davis said Buchler recently sold his house in University City and left San Diego. She expected a bench warrant to be issued for his arrest as soon as today.

"We're definitely actively looking for him," she said.…

Something to keep in mind as one prepares to write a check for Chabad hurricane relief.

Comments

[Harboyne]

Oh ! those dear polished diamonds neshomos . robin hoods who rob the poor to get richer . a true kiddush hashem and tikkun olam .

[Marty]

Three Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries remained in New Orleans to help residents who couldn’t leave the city.

Among them was Rabbi Yossi Nemes. Nemes received a panicked phone call from a visiting Jewish family that had been evicted from their hotel, which was shuttering up against the storm, a Chabad spokesman told JTA.

The family couldn’t make it to the Superdome quickly enough to miss the storm and, concerned for its safety, contacted Nemes — who decided to stay in his own home and take in the visitors.

Thirteen people stayed on an upper floor of his home as the storm raged, driving water in through the roof. The first floors were flooded and toxic water coursed through the home’s taps, the Chabad spokesman said.

By Wednesday afternoon, water in the immediate area had stopped rising and Nemes and his guests were able to get two cars started and begin the trek out of the New Orleans suburb of Metairie.

Overnight, Nemes had noticed that an elderly couple caught in a house across the street was trying to signal for help from helicopters passing overhead. He waded across to their home after day broke and was able to give them food, which they had run out of.

Nemes reached the Chabad spokesman Wednesday on a cellular phone borrowed from a local worker. He could not be reached otherwise.

The United Jewish Communities, the umbrella organization of North American Jewish federations, established an emergency mailbox to accept donations to aid both the Jewish and general communities affected by the storm. UJC also is encouraging federations and affiliated communities to open independent mailboxes to raise money.

“The Jewish community has always been at the forefront of responding to human and natural disasters, and is playing a major role in alleviating such devastation,” said Carol Smokler, chair of the UJC Emergency Committee. “Hurricane Katrina is taking a human, emotional and property toll of historic proportions. UJC and the Jewish federations of North America will, as always, respond rapidly to ease the challenges and suffering of our Jewish brethren and their neighbors.”

[Mendy]

Wow! You are very quick at finding, creating and fabricating allegations against chabad. Is chabad responsible for your marital status as well, or was the Rebbe's letter regarding that lost too?!

[Isa]

If I were Chabad I would search and bring in this scum.
This scum is destroying Chabad's good name far more than Shymara good ever do.
Chabad would get much credit if a Chabad truck pulled in front of the police station and pushed the scum out and drove away.
(unless of course this was a conspiracy to fund Chabad at that city har har)

[Contributor]

Hey Shmarya, don't let a couple rotten apples spoil the whole barrel of rotten apples.

You know, George Carlin once said, "I never [...]ed a 10, but last night I [...]ed five 2's. So, le-havdil, maybe the Rebbe couldn't find any 10's, but he did send out thousands of 2's.

[jose]

Why do you insist on calling him rabbi? No where in the article is he referred to being a chabad rabbi or any type of rabbi.

I thought the seal of God is truth, why do you continue to promote you false vision of reality?

[Shmarya]

He represented himself as a rabbi. It was in earlier articles.

[Rowan Berkeley]

"UJC and the Jewish federations of North America will, as always, respond rapidly to ease the challenges and suffering of our Jewish brethren and their neighbors."

I like that double entendre : "our Jewish brethren and their neighbors."

Has it ever struck any of you that non-Jews find this sort of thinking racist?

I know what you're gonna say, "yes, we have to be racist in the sense of giving preference to our own because the rest of the world is racist against us"

well, I wonder why?

[Harboyne]

"Three Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries remained in New Orleans to help residents who couldn’t leave the city."
Along with several hundreds of priests , pastors , sheikhs , reverends , rabbis , and many thousands of rescuers .
Some stayed of their own will and others ended up stranded . Thousands of kids broke their piggy banks and directed all their savings to the rescue efforts .
The "panicked phone call from a visiting Jewish family " sounds like coming straight out of a weak ethnic joke .
That's all very nice , but does it have anything at all to do with swindling the San Diego Food Bank .

[rebeljew]

As with the beating of the FR's daughter, it is impossible that tammimim could act this way. (Arms over head cowering in a corner.)

[jennifer]

I wouldn't get too hot under the collar about "jewish brethren and their neighbors" talk -- Mormons, Catholics, Muslims, etc all do the same thing. Mormons often say that they like such-and-such neighbor, "even though she is not a member," Catholics are more apt fo give to Catholic charities that help Catohlics, and we all know that Muslims will support other Muslims no matter what they do. In other words, it's not a Jew thing, it's a human thing.

[Isa]

Maybe Chabad IS involved.
Do you think that CHabad would allow food to be withdrawn for 10 YEARS without asking for its cut????

[Ben]

I looked over the articles and could not come up with this guy representing himself as a rabbi. Please post the url's where he did so. Otherwise you can correct yourself and admit another glaring mistake.