Chabad Buries Donor On Its Property And Then Mortgages The Property And Loses It – And The Grave – In Foreclosure

Chabad of California took money from a major donor to buy a historic scenic mountain retreat, with the condition that Chabad would bury the man on the site when he died. Chabad complied, but shortly after the man died, Chabad mortgaged the property, including the man's grave, and lost in foreclosure. Here's what happened next.

Above: Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Cunin

Chabad of California got a sizable donation from a man in 2004 to buy a famous mountain retreat once owned by Academy Award winning actor Walter Huston, with the stipulation that when he died, the man would be buried on the property he loved.

Two years later, the man died and was buried where he desired at Running Springs.

But Chabad soon mortgaged the property the man helped them buy and then only months later, stopped making payments on that that loan.

The bank tried to negotiate. Chabad still didn't pay.

Eventually, the bank put the loan into default and wanted to disinter the man's grave and the grave of another donor Chabad buried there – the only two graves on the sprawling property – to make the property salable.

Chabad sued, in part claiming that Jewish law forbids graves to be moved. It also accused the bank of anti-Semitism, despite what was clearly Chabad's own malfeasance.

Chabad then tried to buy the property back from the bank at about half of what it was worth, whined about anti-Semitism when the bank refused, and then tied the bank up in court with other frivolous claims.

Eventually, Bnei Akiva bought the property and is working to rehab it so it can be used as a camp and retreat center starting this summer.

Chabad told the Jewish Journal it won't sue Bnei Akiva. It's only beef, Chabad of California's head, Rabbi Baruch Shlomo Cunin – who, I'm told, was the Lubavitch Yeshiva in Brooklyn's amateur plumber when he was a very poor student there decades ago – reportedly said.

The widow of the second man buried on the property sued Chabad, Cunin and Cunin's son Levi for elder abuse, alleging they basically manipulated and tricked her and her dying husband to give them their Malibu house in exchange for that burial. The case was settled out of court and has a gag order attached to it, but the woman is still living in that house several years later.

Cunin has along alleged history of similar behavior. He was also recorded threatening a local Chabad emissary he was upset with, leaving a message on the man's home answering machine telling him that he would come and break his legs with a baseball bat unless the man compiled with Cunin's orders.

After the Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe died in 1994, Cunin sometimes made a minyan – which requires 10 adult men (or, under some lenient rulings 7 or more adult men with the rest of the 10 being made up with male children holding Pentatuchs) – by counting all of seven previous Chabad-Lubavitch rebbes (all dead, of course), the Maggid of Mezeritch and the Ba'al Shem Tov (both also long dead) to make 9. He, Baruch Shlomo Cunin, was number 10. And Cunin used that formula to say Kaddish, the public out loud repetition of the Amidah prayer, and other things. He's still a Chabad rabbai and emissary in good standing.

At any rate, read all about the Running Springs foreclosure and the burials at the Jewish Journal.

Related Posts:

All Chabad of California / Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Cunin Posts.

Comments

[Allan]

“Rabbi Baruch Shlomo Cunin – who, I'm told, was the Lubavitch Yeshiva in Brooklyn's amateur plumber”

Lol! Who says you can’t learn a trade at Chabad yeshiva?

“to buy a famous mountain retreat once owned by Academy Award winning actor Walter Huston.”

Poor guy. First he loses all his gold in the “Treasure of the Sierra Madre” and then his property is taken over by Chabad!

His John Huston was great in the role of Noah and the voice of God so Huston property must have special sparks of holiness that can only be redeemed by Chabad.

[Miami rocks]

Lesson to be learned .
If you decide to donate to charitable organization don't insist on being buried on its property !!

[Shamir the worm]

Oh,dear!It must be terrible for grave-worshipping idolaters lke the Lubavitchers to lose a grave!

[Alter Kocker]

Better lesson to be learned: When Chabad knocks on your door for a donation, slam the damn door in their face. End of discussion.

[Alter Kocker]

One further remark-making a minyan out of dead Chabadniks. Hmmmmm, any more evidence that they are making it up as they go along? And yet they have the nerve to stop paying, and cry anti-semite when the bank forecloses? Then try to buy it from the bank at half-price? Such wonderful representatives of the Jewish world. A Pox on them.

[ruthie]

omg

[Primetrades]

Isn't this the retard cumin who always holds the fundraising on TV and does the dancing ( like a dancing monkey )?

Raises aka steals a lot of money on those fund raising.

He should be in jail. Fake phony fraud crook.

Someone break the news that his rebbe is DEAD. 6 feet under. Never coming back. Dead like the breastlovers rebbes prick without Viagra.

[Jeff]

They didn't have the money to pay the mortgage, but they had money to hire lawyers?

Meanwhile, this is another illustration of the sad fact that Chabad will give smicha to anyone.

[Bruce J Cooke]

Honesty in business is so important that the Talmud (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbos 31a)
says: “The first question an individual is asked in the afterlife at the final judgment is: ‘Were you honest in your business dealings?’”

[H]

Out of interest, how would they know it's the first question?

Anyone with first-hand experience?

[put a square into a hole]

"They didn't have the money to pay the mortgage, but they had money to hire lawyers."

Who says they pay the lawyers?
That just might be the next chapter.

[dh]

If that's the first question, the second one is "Did you have a telethon?"

[Rebitzman]

This is (in Chabad circles) known as "Plan A". Gaining title to, mortgaging (also known as cashing out) then walking away from property is a story you can read about all over the country.

Usually it's a shul.

[ah-pee-chorus]

If the guy knew how foolish it is to trust Chabad he would have set up a trust of some sort giving chabad the right to USE the property but preventing them from ever selling or mortgaging it.

[Cornish]

This is probably a dumb question but I really dont know - Is this how Chabad operates generally or are is it a few bad apples tainting the others?

Just wondering if there may appear more lowlifes because so many of them?

[Chafraud-Depravitch]

Rabbi Cunin: "They will understand and see that the Rebbe runs the world and will take us out of golus".

LOL. Idol worshiping, morally bankrupt, POS.

Perhaps it should be: "They will understand and see that the Rebbe defaults on all mortgages, and is the head parasite who can even get us evicted from golus".

[chaim]

Sadly many in Chabad are motivated by money. Just try to get a financial report fron any part of Chabad. Good luck ! How much does Cunin & co. get paid and from which account. How much money was raised on the telelthon ?Any answers ? Please post them.

[Abracadabra]

Rebitzman | January 31, 2015 at 09:20 PM

It's so sad. For the shul, for the congregants who believed their shul would be taken care of, for the people who were deceived into giving over their money or precious real estate, fooled by smiling charlatans hiding behind beards and fake piety. It's just sad all around.

[Nachum]

"or, under some lenient rulings 7 or more adult men with the rest of the 10 being made up with male children holding Pentatuchs"

A complete myth.

[OnlyInAmericaCanTheyGetAwayWithAllThis]

Feeling physically nauseous at this stereotypical, indeed archetypal misbehavior of goyim who pretend to be Jews with nothing more than ponytails on the side of the head, and black hats. Uch. THESE are the people who prove so many points of the atheist.