Nebraska – Penniless and stranded in Omaha with no ticket home, an Israeli woman left at a gas station by con-artists who lured her to the United States with the promise of work finally found shelter at a local Chabad House. As she pieces together enough money to fly back to her parents, the woman is warning others not to fall into the same trap she did.
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“I come from a family with seven children,” says Batsheva, 19, withholding her last name for fear of retribution. “I wanted to do something with my life.”
When Batsheva – who is now working temporarily for Rabbi Mendel Katzman, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Nebraska – saw an advertisement for a job that would pay $3000 a week for just four hours of work each day, she was hooked. Even though the fine print stipulated that she had to pay for her own one-way ticket to the States, she had no suspicion that those behind the ad would renege on their promise to pay for her return trip.
But when she arrived, her savings depleted, she quickly realized all was not on the up and up. Her handlers instructed her to affix her signature to oil paintings and sell them door to door, posing as an artist from Europe. What checks she received she gave to two men, who neglected to pay her.
“The first week, I worked and I didn’t get paid anything,” she relates.
After a second week of work without pay, she confronted them. They took her to the gas station and drove off.
“I started to cry,” she says. “I started to talk to the Creator and ask, ‘What did I do wrong?’ ”
She spent her first weekend at a shelter, refusing to eat the non-kosher food they give her. Two Sundays ago, she called the Chabad House.
Katzman says that what he heard on the other end of the line was heartbreaking.
“I’m hungry,” she told him. “I’m thirsty. I’m tired. I’m a Jew and I need to be with Jews.”
“She was starving, and couldn’t bring herself to eat the ham and cheese there,” relates Katzman. “Thank G-d, we were here to help.”
Local authorities are investigating. A sheriff’s deputy, who happens to be an American-born Israeli citizen and speaks Hebrew, even helped Batsheva retrieve her clothes from a hotel room.
But according to Katzman, not much can be done. The men have picked up and moved on.
Batsheva sees the incident as Divine Providence.
“I know that this is a test,” she explains. “A person doesn’t come here for no reason. These things don’t happen for no reason.”
“She never realized how much she loves her home, her land, her Judaism,” says Katzman. “All she wants now is to get back home fast.”
The rabbi is concerned that more young women with stars in their eyes could get caught up in such scams, which anecdotal evidence suggests are common.
“If something’s too good to be true,” he says, “it probably is. At least Batsheva wasn’t harmed.”
She should have gone to NY for a shidduch.
In any event, she cannot be religious. What religious 19 year old would come all the way to America for some work by herself?
Wow – what a nice ending to a potentially bad story – kudos to the Chabad rabbi for helping out this Jewish girl.
this whole story makes no sense in my eyes…she came pennyless…for a job classifies??? a frum jewish girl?? to omaha nebreska??? wheere did she think she would eat in the first place??? sounds fishy…
poor girl, i hope she gets home safely and finds a good job in Israel.
“I started to cry,” she says. “I started to talk to the Creator and ask, ‘What did I do wrong?’
Maybe working as an illegal immigrant and then selling fake paintings and lying through her teeth to those buying the art.
A good lesson to her and others.
As long as our kids are sheltered and innocent… Who cares if they’re not ready to face the very nasty real world…
so she sells knock-off paintings, fakes being an artist and SHE WAS SCAMMED?!?
its pretty amazing that chabad was there to help her, and all the way in Omaha!
WHY WHY WHY are people so naïve? Who would believe that $3000 a wk for four hrs work each day is a legit promise?
Why don’t people use their sense????
She couldve so easily had her life in danger. She’s VERY FORTUNATE to be alive and well and unharmed.
Fellow jews: take a lesson from all these foolish and childish stories.
What difference does it make if she is religious or non-religious? Did Chabad ask her that asinine question when it rescued her? Although the article did not say so, I have my suspicions that those involved in this scam were fellow Israelis. A shanda!
no matter where you roam chabad is your home
I feel bad for the women….but anyways – what would we do without Chabad…??!!
if the story actually took place as it is written (not sure i believe it) than i honestly cant feel bad for such a girl!what was she thinking???? no fair of getting raped or killed?
Something is missing from this story. The main plot fits perfectly with the typical slave-trafficing case we hear about so much in the news. Luring a young girl to a strange place thousands of miles from home with false promises is the classic MO for these low-lifes. Usually the girls who respond to such offers have troubled backgrounds to begin with, in addition to having loose morals. Another thing that is quite common in these cases is that the deal usually goes bad and the victim scrambles to get out of the situation by all means possible.
I feel bad for the girl. I do have to agree with another commentator that I bet the men were israeli. How else would an ad end up in Israel for work in Nebraska? I bet the Ad was in hebrew too.
Kudos to chabad for helping!
You question how come she got scammed? How come all these Nigerian scams are still successful? Because there’s one idiot born every second. Batsheva is an idiot too, but all she lost was some $$. By the way, I know the Katzmans, they’re great people (the Rebbetzin taught my daughter!) What I don’t understand is why her family didn’t talk her out of it. Yes, I know she’s over age, but still!
For the record, I get at least 3 Nigerian scam emails a week (I just got rid of my last one before I read this.)
What’s most heartwarming about the outcome of this story is knowing that there are at least 3 perfect people in the world (commentors #1 ,#3,#5).
I don’t think that the US Costoms whold have let her in the USA with a 1way ticket, some think is mising,
May chabad be richly blessed for all of the goodness they do in the world.
1, If all the Chochom commenters (like me) sitting and blogging donated $10 she would be home soon.
2, Many Israeli’s that come here expect to hit it rich and when they fail they are too shamed to go home. All the Israeli car service drivers would be millionaires in Israel if they worked that many hours in Israel.
What does an Israeli girl know from Omaha Nebraska? A girl from Israel has no idea what a huge country this is. She sounds like a good kid. She wouldn’t eat non kosher. At least she knew enough to get in touch with chabad.
Mi C’mocha Yisroel, Am echad b’aretz!
I know that everyone loves to talk about ChaBaD, but when you’re stranded and hungry, who do you call?
Keep in mind that I’m not a Lubavitcher, but there certainly was something messianic about the Lubavitcher Rebbe, it’s just that people don’t completely understand the concept of Moshiach…there are many massiahs that came and will come for the tafkid of making the world a better place, not all of them are mainstream, not all of them are frum, and not all of them are Jewish.
In this regard, it’s similar to the concept of nevuah. There are many levels of nevuah, and not all of them were like Moshe or Eliahu…some of them weren’t even Jewish at all, but they came here with a message that eventually transformed the world toward spiritual enlightenment.
Rav Kook, Z’L, wrote this in reference to the 11 levels of prophecy discussed in the moreh nevuchim, and he even says that the Yoisel and Muhammed were nevi’im, with a low level of nevuah, sent to transform the world.
Keep in mind that the messages of hatred and violence within both Christianity and Islam were added later by anti-Judaeists like John Chrysostom and Ibn Abd al Wahhab
It is so pathetic how so many Israelis think of the USA as a goldene medinah and of Israel as the last place to find a parnasa. Hundreds if not thousands of meshulachim descend on the USA every year in the hopes of making money (few succeed). Jews in Israel are jealous of the higher material standard there-and that has just got to end already. Today everyone has basics-even in Israel. When someone is in need there are numerous organizations to help them. The gemach section of every religious town is usually a chapter in the city’s telephone guide! The Israeli mentality is what needs to change-to be happier with the land of Israel and the standards in Israel. Israel is way richer in ways that the USA will never be able to compete with.
B”H in the merit of her declaring herself a YID and not eating treyf she was redeemed. I’m sorry to hear this story but B”H she was not harmed. It could have been so much worse. Look at this story, it has hashgocho protis written all over it.
Who says she is illegal? Who says the paintings are fake & if they were, who says she knew? Who says she was lying? Learn how to read a story without prejudice
but seriously, how did she escape her group home? Her councilors should be held responsible for letting a helpless handicapped girl go to the US without proper supervision
Chabad saves the day again…..
The paintings aren’t :fake”, they’re just quick knockoffs by (usually) an older artist who can make twenty a day. But he won’t be successful selling them cuz it’s not a “cute” thing to buy one from him, but a young, probably pretty girl is a different story.
This stuff is true, I know kids from Israel who have done this, Dudi S. from Arzei Habira did it, made a lot of money, he’s a goodlooking, smooth-talking kid from a frum family who went off the D.
The idea of scamming girls is a new twist on an old theme.
The fact that she went there without plans of where to eat is not a kasha at all. 1st of all, in Israel you can always find kosher, (not Badatz, but nominally kosher), and Israelis have NO IDEA how much bigger and goyish America is.
(BTW, even in USA if you know the hechsherim you can usually find something to eat, but this girl was penniless and going to shelters anyway.)
Also she probably assumed that the “chevra” of fellow Israelis would show her the ropes.
AND she probably didn’t think too much before at all. Not everyone in Israel is a Bais Yaakov girl from Lakewood; she probably is traditional and wanted to get away from home, and her parents didn’t object. Or did.
Chabad rocks
I want to show this article to my preteen kids to show them how naive people can get snookered. Religious or not, she got scammed and it is a shame. Thank G-d for Chabad. She should take this story back to Israeli media. Poor girls from all over the world get scammed into much worse all the time.
What about the 3 yeshiva bechoruim who were snooker to taking suit cases to Japan. These thieves and crooks are looking for the nauve