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Florida rabbi seeks tefillin owner

Rabbi Uri Pilichowski purchased seven sets of phylacteries at store selling contents of airline baggage and has to date found six claimants

By JTA 8 July 2014, 11:21 am

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The last set of seven tefillin returned to their owners. (courtesy)

A Florida rabbi discovered seven pairs of tefillin at a store that sells the contents of unclaimed airline baggage.

Rabbi Uri Pilichowski was on vacation with his family when he visited the store in Scottsboro, Ala., looking for cheap cell phones, the New York Daily News reported.

The rabbi bought the religious items, worth hundreds of dollars, for $45 each on July 1. He then posted photos of the bags in which they were stored on Facebook in an attempt to find the owners.

Six of the seven pairs were claimed in less than a week, with four of the owners living in the New York area, one in Israel and one in Los Angeles, according to the news website Vos Iz Neis.

One belonged to Noah Jacobson, a singer for The Maccabeats, and another had belonged to David Malka, a former chef for the Lubavitcher rebbe, which he had given to his grandson before his death.