Rabbi Who Allegedly Stole Professional Gambler's Money Was Head Of Young Professional Outreach For Aish HaTorah's London Branch

Rabbi offered to bet on the stock market for the gambler, but allegedly bet far more money than the gambler authorized – and lost all of it.

Here's how the British papers reported the alleged scam:

…The rabbi, Simon Nissim, offered to place spread bets for Andrew Feldman on the Dow Jones index and give him any winnings.

But Mr Feldman, 22, who agreed to cover any losses and ended up with a bill for £140,000, is now asking deputy High Court judge Richard Snowden QC to set aside a statutory demand for the money served on him by the 34-year-old rabbi.

Jonathan Lewis representing Mr Feldman at the High Court in London, said the two used to be friends and his client "looked up to and placed trust" in the rabbi.

He said the two had agreed or understood that all wins would go to Mr Feldman and he would indemnify Mr Nissim for all losses.

But while Mr Nissim placed bets for Mr Feldman during two weeks in October 2008, he also placed a "considerable number of spread bets on his own behalf using the same spread betting account", said Mr Lewis.

Mr Feldman, from Bushey, had argued that he did not accept that all the bets had been placed on his behalf and that he had never authorised the "huge volume" of bets. He said he had agreed to four or five bets a session but Mr Nissim had placed 77 bets in a four-hour period which he had never instructed him to do.…

Here is an excerpt of a page from the Jerusalem Kollel's website showing Rabbi Nissim as a then-current employee of Aish HaTorah's London branch:

Here's the entire page as a PDF file:

Download The Jerusalem Kollel Alumni Placement printed 5-10-10

I know the head of the Jerusalem Kollel, Rabbi Yitzchak Berkowitz. He's a straight shooter and a good man.

Unfortunately, it seems not all his students are cut from the same cloth as their teacher.

[Hat Tip: Eli.]

Comments

[Adam Neira]

Play with market fire and you are liable to get burnt.

[harold]

I am sure that Mr. Feldman did not give money to Simon Nissim to invest in the Stock Market because he is a Rabbi as the article is spinning the story. As the story says "the two used to be friends". Therein lays the story. There was something in their past relationship that made Mr. Feldman feel that Simon Nissim would be successful in the market. Maybe the two dabbled in the market together and Nissim showed some success.

There is clearly something missing here. As usual that is what makes many stories interesting. Not in what they tell you, but in what they don't.

[maven]

Harold, what kind of "friends" would a 22 year old and a 34 year old "kiruv" person be? If you know Aish's pitch, with all its numerology, etc, it would not be a surprise that this person might have thought he "knew" how to beat the system as a Rabbi or mekubel or so on. Happens all the time.
You seem to have a need to find a "way out" for any story that's printed here, and often it gets quite annoying.

[Mr. Apikoros]

Not a good time, in retrospect, to have been long stocks. Lehman Bros. went belly-up in mid-September, and at the end of the month, the House of Representatives voted down TARP. With credit suddenly being unavailable, even for the most credit-worthy companies, things weren't looking very good.

I guess the rabbi thought the market would take a dead cat bounce. He was wrong.

[wobble]

shmarya, check the court records.
the judge already found against feldman and awarded the rabbi full costs after feldman did not deny that he owed the money.

What is being reported is Feldman's appeal (even though the first judgement says he should not appeal as he has no case.)

feel free to dredge dirt against bad frummies, but this is just a clear cut case of a scumbag poker guy taking advantage of his Rabbi.

[Michael]

Aish Hatorah is corrupt, I know them well...

[Maskil]

Michael,

Of course, in general you're correct. Aish Hatorah is a self-serving cult and their success rate is negligible, and over a decade of time even criminal. But you didn't really qualify what you meant by "corrupt" and it could apply to many groups or organizations in the vein you intended.

But you need to keep in mind that Aish has really branched out and they have stations all over the world with rabbis from a multitude of backgrounds. I know of an Aish Hatorah with a Lakewood educated rabbi who 20 years ago went to a far corner of the earth, where he is still perfecting his command of the language. He get's by sometimes on kashrut jobs, but only when he needs to (there is no kashrut label, just a community list provided free by him - including everything kosher in the country from within and without down to what is batel be-60). I was actually really surprised that he was involved in Aish, let alone leading the community. He and his organization does nothing more than serve the public and provide a beacon to those who want to learn but do not recruit. You might say he's the exception that proves the rule, but I'm certain there are many others like him. Aish is really big now and local branches have far more autonomy than in central locations like the US and the like, and it is not fair to group the good apples together with the rotton barrel-full in which they sit.

[Eli]

Sorry for doubting you. Keep digging them up!

[Sir Davidston]

The fact of the matter is the Rabbi tried to help out this poor gambler but he got screwed over. The court clearly ruled in the Rabbi's favor and he owes £140,000. Now he is appealing to the high court which im sure he will lose!