Rabbi finds $500M in checks left at Jerusalem’s Western Wall

GlobalPost

A rabbi found over $500 million in checks left in Jerusalem's Western Wall on Wednesday.

CBS News reported Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch said worshippers at the holy site found an envelope and gave it to him with 507 checks, each for $1 million dollars.

Rabinovitch, who oversees Jerusalem's Western Wall, said most are Nigerian and doubts they can be cashed, CBS News said.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told CBS News other checks were from Europe, Asia and even the United States.

The Jerusalem Post explained it is a tradition for people to leave notes in the cracks of the stones" and said the checks were "signed but not made out to anyone."

Police are currently investigating the authenticity of the checks, the Post wrote.

If it turns out they are fakes, why would someone leave them at such a holy site?

Rabinovitch said many people want "to give all they had to the Creator of the universe," according to CBS News.

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