Poland – A Jewish leader in Poland said Thursday that her community was deceived by a Polish Catholic man who pretended to be an Orthodox Jew, wearing a beard and payots — curly sideburns in front of the ears — and leading prayers in Hebrew.
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Alicja Kobus, leader of Poznan’s Jewish community, said that the impostor was unmasked recently when people in his hometown saw him on television taking part in ecumenical observances with Catholic and Muslim religious leaders. They then informed local journalists about the hoax.
Kobus told The Associated Press that the man presented himself to the community as Yaakav Ben Nistell from Haifa, Israel. Polish media say his real name is Jacek Niszczota, a cook from Ciechanow, a town in north-central Poland. He has vanished since being unmasked.
The Poznan community has posted a warning on its website on Niszczota saying he “deceived not only the community members but also other people with whom he cooperated on behalf of the Poznan Jewish Community.”
As a volunteer, the man was not obliged to prove his identity, and his activities raised no suspicion.
“He won our trust with the good things that he was doing: he baked challahs (bread) for Israel Independence Day ceremonies, he helped with maintenance of Jewish cemeteries, he had the right knowledge,” Kobus said.
He also led prayers and gave lectures on Jewish tradition, that were all correct, and did not protest when people from outside the community occasionally addressed him “rabbi,” Kobus said.
Kobus added she was impressed that he learned Hebrew and prayers listening to Israeli radio.
Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich said he met the man a few times and always found him to be “very sweet and smiley.”
Schudrich said that while it’s not good that the man misrepresented himself, the incident is indicative of a growing interest in Poland in its once-large Jewish community, which was nearly destroyed by Nazi Germany in the Holocaust during World War II.
“Who 30 years ago in this country would have pretended to be a rabbi, to say nothing of 70 years ago?” Schudrich said.
The holy Reb Nachman said once ut malach ut a galach.
Any real charedi would have called him out in 2 seconds.
His shirt buttons the wrong way.
The length of the beard, and the length of the payos are 2 completely different, and mutually exclusive hashkafos.
The is no chasidish Hashkofahm
The glasses, definitely no.
This guy is such an obvious fake,
I would love to hear what he told them was Hebrew davening. Maybe it was the evening weather and traffic report for Haifa. I don’t think the mispallelim would know the difference.
Bizzare! They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so there’s that but he definitely doesn’t look like a real chassid, he almost looks like the fake chassidim that they sometimes portray on TV; very strange. Wonder if he’s related to that guy from Lakewood who pulled a similar shtick a few years ago pretending to be a kollel guy haha
There are even some so called Rebbes who hardly pass muster but they have their followers. Things are different in Eastern Europe and the obviously not very Jewishly literate community should not be blamed. Why Chief Rabbi Shudrich did not take a closer look is another question.
I have visited the Poznan kehillah 6 years ago. They were so friendly to organize a minyan for us. During davvening we found out that only 1 man could read Loshon HaKodesh, with major difficulties. Than it turned out that many of the members/mispallelim were not halachically Jewish, as wasn’t the president of the kehillah. The rules are that if one of your parents were Jewish you could become member of the community. Members with only a Jewish father were restricted from religious participation, though. Very poignant to see such a damaged ‘community’, without virtually any Torah knowledge! But people wanting to connect so desperately! We in America cannot even phantom such a despair and quest…… And so it turns out these people are very vulnerable for geeks and impostors: anything that feels and looks more Jewish then the members themselves are being grappled to still the hunger for a Yiddishe connection! Nebbach! I am not judging the community. I understand how this impostor could strike root here……….
I agree with one of the previous posters: if you judge them, go there to help build, as American born Poland’s Chief Rabbi Schudrich did. He didn’t stay in his safe shtetl!