(JTA) — Stephen Woldenberg was in a meeting with his father last Friday, refreshing the Supreme Court’s website, when the news finally came through: Their company had prevailed in its legal challenge to the Trump administration’s tariffs.

“It’s all a bit surreal, I’ll be honest,” said Woldenberg. “It’s very gratifying, though, to see that our case has had an impact and that the Supreme Court ruled and agreed with our position.”

For Woldenberg, who is the fourth generation of his family’s Illinois-based educational toy company Learning Resources, the decision to challenge President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs was rooted in a moral obligation shaped by his family’s Jewish values.

“I think that for us, being Jewish, we felt like we wanted to stand up for what we thought was right, and, you know, not being afraid to take a stand,” said Woldenberg. “I think that that’s part of our identity, and I think that’s a core part of what this case was about. It’s a civil legal challenge, it isn’t political, but we felt like we weren’t going to stand by idly, and I think that’s part of our Jewish identity.”

Learning Resources was founded by Stephen’s grandmother Joan as a spinoff of a company run by her father-in-law Max Woldenberg, who immigrated from Poland as a child in the late 19th century. Joan’s son Rick is CEO, while Stephen and his sister both have high-level executive roles.

The family, longtime members of a Conservative synagogue in the suburbs of Chicago, has a record of Jewish philanthropy. Rick and his wife have donated to local Jewish organizations as well as to the Center for Jewish Life at Princeton University, his alma mater. Elana, who also graduated from Princeton, founded a Jewish philanthropy fellowship there. And Max Woldenberg’s brother Malcolm was a prominent New Orleans philanthropist for whom the Institute of Southern Jewish Life is named.

It was not philanthropy but Learning Resources’ bottom line that got the family fired up by Trump’s tariffs, which raised import costs for businesses that rely on overseas manufacturing. Trump authorized the tariffs using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, rather than by seeking approval from Congress.

Like many American companies, Learning Resources relies on Chinese factories and workers to make its products, of which perhaps the most widely recognizable are plastic bears used for counting practice that are staples of many preschool classrooms.

Stephen Woldenberg said that in 2025, after the tariffs were imposed, Learning Resources paid over $10 million in tariff-related taxes, compared to $2 million the year before.

“After ‘liberation day,’ tariff rates spiked up to 145%, which effectively was like an embargo on Chinese goods,” said Woldenberg. “We decided to take action. We aren’t really a company that likes to stand by idly. We weren’t willing to let a single politician sink the ship.”

Learning Resources’ legal battle culminated in a decisive Supreme Court victory, and a notable loss for Trump, who heavily criticized the decision during his State of the Union speech Tuesday night.

In his decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the “IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.” The Supreme Court agreed 6-3 that the tariffs exceeded the law.

“The president asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope,” Roberts wrote in his opinion. “In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it.”

Among the estimated 1,000 lawsuits filed against the tariffs, which ultimately collected over $130 billion for the United States, were others filed by Jewish-owned companies.

Rebecca Melsky, a former a Jewish day school teacher, was among the first to legally challenge the emergency tariffs last April through her children’s apparel brand Princess Awesome, which she co-founded to defy “gender stereotypes” in kids clothing.

In 2025, Melsky said Princess Awesome had paid over $30,000 in additional tariffs, a cost she said had hit her small business hard.

“We’re a very small company — that money came out of our paychecks,” said Melsky. “We pulled back on our production. We did not make as much stuff last year as we normally do, which we are feeling this year, as we start the year with less inventory.”

After Melsky and her co-founder, Eva St. Clair, took to Facebook to explain the costs of Trump’s tariffs to their customers last April, the pair were approached by the Pacific Legal Foundation, which represented them in federal court. (Princess Awesome’s lawsuit was put on hold pending the Learning Resources decision.)

For Melsky, the choice to take on Trump’s tariffs in court was also inspired in part by her own Jewish values.

“Even if something feels scary, even if you don’t necessarily know if it’s going to do something, standing up for what is right, is, like, we have a moral and ethical obligation to do that, even if that means taking a risk,” said Melsky. “And thankfully, my business partner, her Catholic faith brought her to the same place, too.”

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling last Friday, Melsky and St. Clair took to Facebook again, posting a video shouting “we won!”

But the battle is not over for Melsky, Woldenberg or any of the other businesses that have sued the government over Trump’s tariffs. Following the ruling, Trump swiftly vowed to impose more tariffs, including a temporary 10% global import duty.

While the Trump administration said during the Supreme Court battle that suing parties would “assuredly receive payment” if they lost, the court did not stipulate in its decision what would happen to the tariffs that had already been collected.

As companies seek refunds following the decision, they are likely to be met by a lengthy legal process, with Trump already dismissing calls for refunds as a process that would take “years.”

“The government, the administration, did not have a hard time taking the money, they found that to be quite easy, and so they should be able to turn around and send it right back to us,” said Woldenberg. “They know what everybody paid, and they know how to get the money.”

Melsky said that she felt her company was now in “limbo,” awaiting the Trump administration’s next move.

“It feels a little bit less chaotic, but we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, and certainly we have no idea what will happen with refunds and if they are approved, when that money would come,” said Melsky.

Despite the uncertainty, Woldenberg said he hoped his family’s victory would “inspire” others that they too can make a difference.

“It doesn’t matter the size of the company or the notoriety of the individual,” said Woldenberg. “The American system is set up in a way where anyone can make a difference, anybody can have an impact.”

The post This Jewish family’s toy company challenged Trump’s tariffs. The Supreme Court agreed. appeared first on The Forward.

In general, I steer clear of genre entertainment. For me, films awash in horror and the paranormal are gory, frightening and in the end relentlessly dull — a lethal combination.

But to my surprise, The Malevolent Bride, an Israeli horror series now streaming on Chaiflicks, is so compelling and has such page-turning momentum that I had to know what happened next.

Set in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox community, the series — which is the brainchild of Noah Stollman, and director Oded Davidoff, creators of, respectively, Fauda and The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem — recounts a wave of inexplicable, blood–curdling crimes. But beyond its mystery and thriller elements, the picture embodies an amalgam of Kabbalah, feminism, humanism, and, yes, even quantum field theory.

Here, the line between the scientific world and Jewish mysticism, each requiring its own brand of blind faith, is blurred. Interwoven throughout are themes related to the crippling power of religion and the cost of repressed sexuality that comes in its wake. Like many horror flicks, it has its share of high camp comedy too.

The characters (well, at least the secular ones) are relatable and appealing. The lead, Tom Avni playing Be’er Dov, a physicist, is sympathetic and appealing (easy to look at too). An ex-Hasid who has shed all religion, he lives openly with his equally non-religious doctor girlfriend. Be-er also advocates for the daughter of a Hasid. He’s a feminist too.

The performances are uniformly superb. Even the grotesque moments, and there are some, work entertainingly, if not credibly, within the parameters of the genre’s over-the-top sensibility, which can at times recall The Exorcist.

The series begins with the wedding night of a Hasidic couple — the terrified virgin bride, swathed in white, is soon to be deflowered by a man she’s met perhaps twice. Moments later, we see her clutching shards of glass, her hand bloodied, her gown covered in blood as she charges towards the groom; his corpse is on the floor.

Later in jail, eyes wild, and demonically possessed, she utters a sing-songy phrase, “oxyn, oxyn” that becomes the first part of a satanic refrain that more and more Hasidic women spew forth as they too are overtaken by a curse. Dybbuk imagery is evoked. Violent atrocities ensue.

Giovanni, a police officer (convincingly played by Hisham Suliman), uncovers evidence that connects Be’er to each of these women who owns a book, presumably given to them by Be’er. His name, in each case, appears on its pages as its original owner. The book in question is about Raizel, an archangel out of the Kabbalah who has magical knowledge and powers. Sketches of diabolical figures and illegible writings are scribbled across its pages and in its margins.

Be’er insists he knows none of these women. Nonetheless, with his career at risk, he realizes he must uncover the truth to save his reputation. Through flashbacks, we learn that as a young Yeshiva student he was drawn to the Kabbalah and had a clandestine and shockingly forbidden affair with a Hasidic girl named Yedidia to whom he did indeed gift the book.

At the same time, Dr. Malki Price (Leeox Levy), an Orthodox clinical psychologist who heads a mental health facility for deeply troubled girls, is also grappling with the growing menace. Some of her own patients have channeled the free-floating demon, leading to murder, suicide and terrifying occult acts.

Be’er and Malki join forces in order to track down Yedidia who, for reasons that are not entirely clear, seems to be the origin of this epidemic of violence and mysticism. Levy brings an understated compassion to her role that is riveting to watch.

Malki, we later learn, is a transgender woman as is Levy in her first major film role, which reinforces the series’ themes of tolerance and mutual respect. The Jewish mysticism with its scary folkloric and mythic warnings and taboos underscores the series’ embrace of sexuality and the fluidity of gender identity. After all, in the Kabbalah tradition, the Messiah will be both male and female.

Along their journey, Be’er and Malki meet an array of great characters and despite their differences grow increasingly attached to one another. The final romantic scene between Be’er and Malki is simultaneously unnerving, comic, and unexpected, though it shouldn’t be. Yet another hallmark of an original fun series.

 

The post A compelling horror series from Israel — even if you don’t like horror movies appeared first on The Forward.

(JTA) — Sometime in the early 2010s, Jeffrey Epstein walked into Dr. Steven Kaplan’s office for a root canal.

The procedure took some time and required multiple visits. The two men got to chatting. “He was just another guy, that’s it,” Kaplan recalled to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The subject of Judaism came up.

“I wanted to put some yiddishkeit into him,” Kaplan said. “I was telling him, ‘You should meet a Jewish girl, because I think these girls are going to want you for your money.’ He said, ‘I would marry a Jewish girl.’”

Kaplan, who says he was unaware at the time of Epstein’s 2008 conviction and sentencing for sexual solicitation of a minor, sent Epstein several books on Judaism and offered to connect him with his rabbi. That meeting never happened, but when Epstein offered to help Kaplan fix up his office, a different proposal emerged: Kaplan asked his patient to donate to his children’s Jewish school or any Jewish institution.

Epstein agreed, telling Kaplan he would do it in honor of his mother. Soon his accounts wired $25,000 to Yeshiva Tifereth Moshe, in Queens, via the Jewish donation service MATCH. (He had initially promised $50,000, Kaplan said.) On a form for MATCH explaining his donation, included in the latest Justice Department release of files pertaining to his investigation, Epstein (or an assistant of his) wrote, “I AM IMPRESSED WITH THE CHILDREN I HAVE SEEN FROM THE YESHIVA.”

“Maybe that donation is helping him in the next world,” Kaplan told JTA. He added that, by the tenets of Orthodox Judaism that stipulate 10% of one’s earnings should go to tzedakah, or charity, Epstein’s donation was “nothing.” A spokesperson for the yeshiva told JTA they didn’t know anything about the Epstein connection. (JTA could not independently verify Kaplan’s account, but in emails revealed in the Epstein files, Epstein’s assistants relate conversations they had with Kaplan in which he urges the donation.)

Kaplan said he was of two minds today about Epstein’s support of Jewish causes throughout his life. “He still has a Jewish neshama,” Kaplan said, using the Hebrew word for soul, of the man who had orchestrated a wide-ranging network of underaged escorts; maybe giving money to Jewish causes was still a net good, regardless of where that money came from.

Yet Kaplan added that if Epstein were alive today and wanted to give to a yeshiva, knowing what he now knows about his crimes, he would have to ask his rabbi.

“I don’t know the answer to that,” the endodontist said. “I would go to the rabbi and say, ‘Is it a mitzvah for him to give it? Or is it bad for us to take it?’”

Kaplan’s ethical dilemma reflects one theme surfaced in the Epstein files released by Congress last month about the financier and convicted sex offender’s connections to the Jewish world.

Scrutinized for evidence of Epstein’s misdeeds, the files have enabled armchair sleuthing about Epstein’s associates, fueled antisemitic conspiracy theories and caused powerful players implicated in them to face new consequences — as when Harvard University broke ties with its former president, Larry Summers, on Wednesday.

The files also offer a window into Epstein’s workaday, small-scale networking, suggesting an almost obsessive effort to be involved in the affairs of his friends and associates. Jewish groups and individuals made up a significant share.

The files show that Epstein made donations to and connections with Jewish causes with which he had little to no personal relationship. They also show that some Jewish groups benefitted from donations from Epstein even after his 2008 conviction for sexual solicitation of a minor — though it remains unclear whether they knew about it. Some have said specifically that they did not.

Epstein served 13 months in a county jail following that conviction, which was largely swept under the rug thanks to a “sweetheart deal” between Epstein and former U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta. Many in the public had little knowledge of him or his misdeeds until investigative reporting about the deal emerged in 2018 and Epstein was arrested the following year.

Epstein sought to leverage his Jewish largesse as he also sought to improve his public image both before and after his conviction, the latest files show.

One email shows that he sought placement on the website eJewishPhilanthropy, then something of a directory for Jewish philanthropy insiders, for one of his foundations in 2013.

“The Foundation supports many jewish causes around the world as well as numerous Israli [sic] causes,” an Epstein staffer wrote in a draft letter sent to Epstein for approval.

Describing Epstein as “a financier and science philanthropist,” they trumpeted his support of the Jewish National Fund, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Columbia Jewish Foundation, UJA- New York, and Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, along with a few yeshivas that were not Kaplan’s. The bio goes on to note Epstein’s “long partnership with Leslie Wexner.”

Epstein’s only note: “no wexner affiliations please.” Six years later, Wexner, a prominent philanthropist to Jewish causes, would reveal that he had broken ties with Epstein years earlier after a decades-long relationship and forced him to repay $100 million he said Epstein had stolen from him. Epstein had previously served as a director of the Wexner Foundation, which funds fellowships for young people entering a career in Jewish communal service and intensive adult education programs for volunteer board members of Jewish organizations.

Now the latest Epstein files release has turned up the heat on Wexner, who again denied knowledge of Epstein’s alleged crimes in a congressional deposition last week. It has also thrown other major funders of Jewish causes into the spotlight, including some for the first time.

Epstein’s Jewish giving far predated his 2008 conviction, and had no clear ideology. Some of it was already known before the latest files release. He and his partner and co-conspirator, Ghislane Maxwell, cultivated relationships with both FIDF, which raises money for the welfare of Israeli soldiers, and Seeds of Peace, which holds summer camps bringing together Israeli and Palestinian youth. They gave large sums to Hillel International and YIVO, as well as $500,000 to the religious day school Ramaz, and backed an Israeli charity that distributed aid to the needy. (That group, Ziv Tzedakah Fund, received $100,000 from Epstein in 2006 before shuttering less than a year later.)

Other Jewish groups solicited Epstein for donations well after his conviction in 2008. Harvard Hillel, whose building Epstein had helped facilitate Wexner’s funds to build, made personal appeals to him in 2010 and 2011 — stoked in part by a Jewish dean, Henry Rosovsky, who brokered Epstein’s giving to Harvard Hillel and who Maxwell testified had received a “massage” at Epstein’s townhouse. (Rosovsky died in 2022.)

“We regret that anyone associated with our organization contacted Mr. Epstein during the years in question, and in the intervening years Harvard Hillel has revised our ethics standards to prohibit interactions of this nature,” Harvard Hillel’s current director, Jason Rubenstein, told the Harvard Crimson this month about the solicitations. Rubenstein added that the staff who sought the donations haven’t been involved with the organization in over a decade.

In 2015, a senior vice president of Touro College, the private Jewish New York institution, made a personal appeal to Epstein for him to fund a “medical incubator as well as resiliency in higher education.”

“I have read with interest about your prior philanthropic pursuits and the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation’s generous contributions to various causes,” wrote the official, Michael Newman. “A donation to Touro College would further your foundation’s goals in both education and medical research.” A Touro spokesperson told JTA that Newman’s letter “was a blind prospecting note to a philanthropist that went unanswered.”

Some of Epstein’s post-conviction Jewish giving was prosaic, the kind of mid-level donations made as favors that rarely trigger nonprofits’ due diligence mechanisms.

UJA-Federation of New York, for example, accepted a $50,000 donation from Epstein in 2017. The occasion: the UJA’s signature Wall Street Dinner, which drew more than 2,000 people and raised $29 million. Epstein made his donation in support of one of the honorees, Howard Lutnick, who was then chair of the financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald and is now President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary. (Trump himself is prominently mentioned in the Epstein files.)

Invited to fill a table at the event, Epstein declined, responding that Lutnick — who was also his next-door neighbor — could fill his. Lutnick recently admitted to a more extensive relationship with Epstein than he had previously publicized, including visiting his island after he had previously said he had cut ties; the White House has said it will stand by him.

A spokesperson for the UJA declined to comment further to JTA on Epstein’s donation.

For his part, Epstein did not appear to be wedded to UJA as a cause. Emailing with Summers in 2019, six months before his arrest, he discouraged the former U.S. Treasury Secretary from donating to the New York federation: “much rather you use you extra funds for your own benefit „ rather than the UJA,” Epstein wrote. “Agree re no UJA,” Summers wrote back. “Po=dering [sic] uses of money.”

The American Jewish Committee, meanwhile, invited Epstein to a gala dinner in 2013 in honor of Matthew Bronfman, a prominent Jewish philanthropist, though it was not clear whether he attended.

“AJC takes seriously this inquiry given Jeffrey Epstein’s reprehensible crimes,” a spokesperson told JTA in a statement. The spokesperson said that the 2013 invitation “is a standard form solicitation used routinely for honoree events and doesn’t reflect any AJC ties or relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.” The group added that it had two donations from Epstein on file, both predating his conviction: $15,000 in 2000 and $25,000 in 2003.

Nonprofit watchdogs are suggesting that groups that accepted Epstein’s money after 2008 should take a harder look at their practices.

“With respect to any donations accepted after the conviction, I find the compartmentalization truly astonishing,” said Laurie Styron, of the watchdog Charity Watch. “Throwing sex trafficking victims under the bus in service to revenue growth that will eventually support the mission of some unrelated charitable effort is not OK. Anyone who tries to justify this really needs to take a hard look in the mirror and ask themselves if they would feel differently about trading justice for money if it were their own daughter or mother or sister who was trafficked.”

Indeed, what should be done about Epstein’s Jewish donations now is another thorny question. Some of the Wexner fellowship’s alumni, responding to his Epstein ties, have begun lobbying for Wexner’s name to be dropped from the program; a few have made public reparations for benefitting from Wexner’s money.

And Za’akah, an advocacy group for Hasidic sexual abuse survivors, has harshly criticized the yeshivas and other Orthodox institutions that accepted funding from Epstein, even the ones that had no knowledge at the time of his conviction or the allegations against him.

“You can’t come into the holiest place in Judaism and say, ‘I’m paying for this with the wages of prostitution,’” Asher Lovy, the group’s founder, said in an Instagram video in which he cited Talmudic teachings.

Lovy added, “By doing that, Epstein was afforded the opportunity to launder his reputation — the reputation he had rightly earned as a sex trafficker.”

At least one yeshiva that received an Epstein donation has sought to distance itself from him. The Texas Torah Institute, a yeshiva in Dallas, recently issued a statement saying it was unaware that Epstein had paid out $28,000 in tuition payments across 2008 and 2009.

“Until the recent release by the Justice Department of over 3 million documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, Texas Torah Institute was unaware of any potential connection with Epstein,” Rabbi Eliyahu Kaufmann, the school’s dean, told the Houston Chronicle.

Kaufmann added that the school “conducted an internal review” and determined that the checks were not signed by Epstein himself, but instead by his financial advisor Harry Beller — who also facilitated other yeshiva donations over the years, the Epstein files show. (Other Jewish schools that received donations from Epstein did not return JTA requests for comment.)

Beyond the donations, the latest files have renewed scrutiny on Epstein’s Jewish associates — and induced a cascade of consequences for many of those named beyond Summers.

Casey Wasserman, the Jewish entertainment agent, has lost top clients over his relationship with Epstein and is currently facing calls to step down from the Los Angeles Olympics planning committee.

Thomas Pritzker, a cousin of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, has stepped down from his role as chair of Hyatt Hotels over his Epstein connections, while Norwegian diplomat Mona Juul, who played a large role in facilitating the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, has also resigned from government after emails revealed Epstein had left her children millions in his will.

Financier Leon Black, whose foundation publishes the Jewish Lives series of biographies from Yale University Press; World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder; art curator David A. Ross; renowned linguist and pro-Palestinian advocate Noam Chomsky; and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak are among the other Jewish names also facing a new round of scrutiny over their Epstein ties. The latest files show that Epstein and an Israeli security delegation had had a New York apartment, in which Barak stayed on multiple occasions, outfitted with hidden cameras.

Bard College, meanwhile, has opened an investigation into its longtime president (and former Jerusalem symphony director) Leon Botstein. Botstein has said his interactions with Epstein — whose dinner invitation his spokesperson said he had turned down in 2013 because of a Rosh Hashanah obligation — were part and parcel of the difficult job of raising funds to keep a struggling liberal arts college in business.

Some of Epstein’s interactions on Jewish topics had more to do with status than money.

The files show that he was invited to a “very private screening for friends and family” of the 2017 drama “Disobedience,” about closeted lesbian Orthodox women. The invitation had come through Peggy Siegal, a publicist who was a key power broker in his affiliations with celebrities — while also, the files show, cracking Jewish-inflected jokes to him about his sexual predilections.

Epstein indicated that he would attend. The screening, held at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, had a guest list packed with celebrities, including the film’s co-stars Rachel Weisz and Alessandro Nivola, as well as showbiz royalty like Daniel Craig, Jennifer Connelly, Steven Soderbergh, Naomi Watts, and Jeffrey Wright. Also on the guest list: Israeli writer-director Oren Moverman and director Mira Nair, the pro-Palestinian advocate and mother of current New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Other files show that he got involved in 2013 in seeking a conversion to Judaism for one of his female associates.

“Jeffrey says he needs a Rabbi who does conversions for Shiksa’s ….might you know of one!” his assistant wrote to an intermediary, using a Yiddish term for a non-Jewish woman.

The intermediary, who had pitched Epstein to finance a variety of deals over the years, was quick to oblige. “Yes, What level Orthodox, Conservative or Reform,” he responded. “Obviously the Orthodox is the most rigid but accepted by everyone, as you go down the scale the work gets easier but less acceptance. Not a real issue unless one has a child and the question of religious acceptance of that child. Pick a flavor and I will find.”

The emails show that the intermediary then reached out to a prominent Orthodox conversion advocate, Rabbi Adam Mintz, who advised him to approach Rabbi Lisa Rubin at Central Synagogue, a Reform congregation in Manhattan. A connection evidently took place, as Epstein later made a reference to a contact being enrolled in “Jew class.”

Reached for comment, Mintz told JTA he never interacted with Epstein and didn’t know the particular conversion request was connected to him.

Rubin directed questions about Epstein to a spokesperson for the synagogue. “Rabbi Rubin has no awareness of any of her conversion students having had any connection to Epstein. She is not aware of any past contact with him,” the spokesperson said.

The year after the initial introduction, Epstein urged the intermediary to apply pressure to speed the conversion. “lisa rubin the rabbi you gave [redacted], its important that [redacted] gets her conversion asap,” Epstein wrote, a day after receiving an email from someone who said she had “missed a third of the classes” taught by Rubin.

In response, the intermediary offered to find another rabbi. Over the following two years, Epstein would personally authorize reimbursements for classes with a female rabbi. It is unclear if the classes ever led to a conversion.

The would-be convert’s name is redacted in most of the files, indicating that she may have been a potential victim or co-conspirator. Epstein’s reasons for seeking a conversion for her are unknown, though he was known to have arranged sham marriages, including same-sex ones, for some of his victims in order to help them obtain American citizenship.

Epstein appears to have had closer relationships to at least one other rabbi. Between 2010 and 2011 he frequently advised contacts to connect with Rabbi Sam Klagsbrun, a former Jewish Theological Seminary professor, who died in 2023. In the emails Epstein occasionally referred people to Klagsbrun, a practicing psychiatrist, seemingly as patients; other times he authorized payments to him.

Synagogue representatives, including some rabbis, also made direct appeals to Epstein at many points, according to the latest files. In 2014, a co-founder of The Beis, an upstart Orthodox synagogue on the Upper West Side geared toward South African Jews, asked Epstein for help with seed money to purchase a building. He drew on his perception of Epstein’s Jewish background in his appeal.

“I couldn’t help but notice your ‘Israel’ chalkboard in the dining room – and I have a feeling that you grew up like me in the City – more culturally Jewish than religious,” the pitchman, film producer Daniel M. Rosenberg, wrote to Epstein. He later added, “The rabbi told me that we all needed to go out of our comfort zones on this one. So this email certainly qualifies. Want to meet with an amazing, worldly, brilliant (and very connected) rabbi?”

Requests for comment to Rosenberg and to The Beis’ rabbi were not returned.

Additional pleas for Epstein’s cash or other forms of largesse came from a Naples, Florida, Reform synagogue president, now deceased, as well as two synagogues located on the U.S. Virgin Islands where Epstein frequented — one Reform, one Chabad.

While it was unclear whether Epstein ever donated to the synagogues, the files showed that Orthodox schools beyond Kaplan’s received his money.

Some donations appear to have come in the form of tuition reimbursements for specific students — such as one redacted attendee of Bais Yaakov of Ramapo, a Jewish girls’ school in New York. A bill for $22,600 in tuition to the school in 2015 was included in Epstein’s files.

Beller, Epstein’s assistant, facilitated multiple donations from Epstein to yeshivas, sometimes specifically for tuition. He signed a check for $15,000 from Epstein’s holdings to Yeshiva Aderes Hatorah in Jerusalem in 2010. The next year Beller signed a check for $1,000 to Chabad Neshama Hebrew School in Brooklyn, and sent another $6,000 of Epstein’s money to American Yedidim, an Israeli aid group based in Florida. In 2014 Beller signed another $18,610 cash withdrawal to Yeshiva Mercaz Hatorah, a Jerusalem school catering to English-speaking Orthodox boys.

Another Epstein associate, Darren Indyke, signed a $24,500 check from Epstein’s office to Yeshiva Gedola Ohr Yisrael, in Brooklyn. The check is dated 2016. Indyke, a co-executor of Epstein’s estate, last week settled a class-action lawsuit Epstein’s victims filed against him for up to $35 million. The suit had claimed that Indyke and fellow co-executor Richard Kahn used financial maneuvers to aid Epstein’s abuses and pay victims and recruiters.

Indyke has also been subpoenaed by Congress in connection with the Epstein investigation. Attempts to reach Beller and Indyke were unsuccessful.

The post What the Epstein files show about Jeffrey Epstein’s Jewish world appeared first on The Forward.