Beware of strange men offering you a great deal on a mezuzah
By adamg - Tue, 12/02/2008 - 4:21pm.
Brookline Police report two residents of 2 Strathmore Rd. had their mezuzahs stolen sometime late Sunday or early Friday.
One was described as having a mahogany base with a silver colored star in the center; the other was described as having a bronze, woven pattern with green gem stones. Both have an estimated value of $150.
- Add new comment |
| 
| 
Hot Mezzuzah!
I wonder whether this was done to harass or to steal.
I'm having trouble imagining any Jews wanting to buy mezzuzahs of questionable provenance.
Torah theft
Not the same thing, but theft of Torah scrolls is a surprisingly common crime. Enough so that the NYPD has a special task force to deal with it.
Torah! Torah! Torah!
Sorry, had to be said.
Condo Commandos sometimes do this
Sometimes the uniformity-in-appearance-of-common-area regulations of some condominium associations, mezzuzahs, crucifixes, US flags etc are summarily removed from the doorways of residents.
I used to live in a condominium not far from this area and they were strict about such things, no matter how small the item. I'm not saying this is what happened here, but I am surprised that those doohickeys could fetch that much $
-----------------------------------------
who and the what now?
Since religious Jews are
Since religious Jews are required to place a mezzuzah on their door frame, I think any such condo regulation would be trumped by state and federal anti-discrimination laws.
Apparently not quite true.
According to 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Though there is a movement in Congress to change that.
torah value
Interesting. The couple I looked at had the stolen torahs valuations in the tens of thousands of dollars each. Perhaps they would be of interest to collectors? Or perhaps it is not uncommon for old torahs to have untraceable provenance (due to the diaspora) and be in demand by Jewish groups?
The stolen mezzuzahs were reportedly valued at $150. How many collectors would risk one or more charges of receiving stolen property for such things?
stolen goods
you have dirtbags breaking into cars for spare change all over the city at night.
Maybe mezzuzahs are the new GPS or copper pipe that gets an easy sell on the black market?
The new copper pipe
Right, because they melt the mezzuzahs down and re-use the letters for Chanukah cards.. :)
one z
I only know this because I tried googling mezzuzah and got "did you mean mezuzah?
Hebrew word often has no standard English spelling
Consider, for instance, the name of the upcoming holiday: Hanukah? Chanukah? Hanukkah?
yeah
but in this case, it seems the standard is one z.
Changed, but
Nobody better ask me to change "mezuzahs" to "mezuzot".
No problem
You can keep-ah it just-a like it is.
And when the police arrived to investigate ...
Did they warn bystanders to kipot?
Damn you!
I actually had planned to do just that.
Um, hey Adam, do you think you could change "mezuzahs" to "mezuzot"?
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com