It all started when Jonathan Greenstein was 14 and was kicked out of yeshiva. After making the switch to James Madison High School in Brooklyn, he got an after-school job at an antique store in the area. At the time, the price of silver was at an all-time high, and he saw people bringing in heirlooms like Kiddush cups and menorahs to melt down for the silver value.
“I felt that I was rescuing them by working out a deal with the non-Jewish owner, in lieu of a salary, just to have them give me these Kiddush cups and things like that,” Greenstein shared. “And even though I wasn’t as observant as I am now, I still felt that these shouldn’t be melted down.”
One thing led to another, and Greenstein began accumulating a lot of Jewish antiques over the course of his teens and twenties as a collector, and he eventually began working his way further into the industry as a consultant, dealer and authenticator. In 2001, he was asked to run a charity Judaica auction for the first time, and by 2003, he founded J Greenstein & Company, the only auction house in the United States dedicated to Judaica.
After more than 100 auctions, the greatest challenge of Greenstein’s job has remained the same since the very beginning: “A lot of objects that are bought in recent time are forgeries and fakes,” he said.
“Because of World War II and the Holocaust, everything that wasn’t taken out of Europe beforehand was either stolen by the Nazis and melted down, or simply destroyed,” Greenstein said. “So true antique Judaica is quite rare. Most of the stuff that survived came to this country during the mass wave and immigration starting in the 1870s, before World War I. But any immigration afterward, they came literally with the shirts on the back after World War II.”
He added, “So this stuff is quite rare. The value there could be exponential on a rare and important piece. But there’s also a financial motivation to fake things.”
One thing that’s changed about his work over the years is the shift toward putting in more effort toward conducting business online. Once catalogs are created for an auction — Greenstein usually holds four auctions per year — prospective buyers can request physical catalogs, peruse digital versions, or even visit the auction house, about two months ahead of an auction.
“It takes me about six months to get an auction together,” Greenstein said. “I’m always constantly working on an auction. This auction (a September 8, 2024 auction) had 200 lots, and I started working half a year ago. We got the catalog assembled about two months ago, and then it went off to print … and it also goes online. Then it sits there for 30 to 60 days, people put bids in, but most of the action happens during the auction.”
Even bidding can now be done online or through order bids, in person, or via phone. He explained, “Now everything is digitalized, and everybody just wants more photos of everything.”
Of course, this is beneficial for reaching a wider audience of possible clientele and buyers, many of whom hail from the Los Angeles area in addition to New York. And of course, “There’s a lot of institutions that buy from us, a lot of museums,” Greenstein added. His decades of experience have made him an expert in determining genuine Judaica, something he does outside of auctions for synagogues and other auction houses.
“Sometimes we’ll do a formal appraisal for a synagogue where we appraise their silver and their Torahs for their insurance purposes,” Greenstein said. “I’ll go out with my team and do a whole write-up to send to their insurance company.”
Whether you’re looking to shop or sell, with Greenstein or elsewhere, the first step should always be to find an expert whom you trust.
“I answer emails all the time, even if it has nothing to do with my company. People email me, ‘Do you think I should buy this,’ like stuff they see on LiveAuctioneers, or they just want to ask me for my opinion. It takes years and years to build up an expertise on what’s real and what’s not real.”
Another tip from Greenstein is to make sure that whatever auction house you deal with has a return policy in case what you receive is a forgery. Greenstein’s company does have a return policy, but in all the years of running his business, he proudly says that nothing has ever been returned to him as a fake.
To say Greenstein’s career has been busy would be an understatement. He has authored a book, A Lost Art: Handmade Silver Kiddush Cups of Eastern Europe, released in 2005, and has hosted the series Jewish Gilt on the Jewish Channel (with a format like Antiques Roadshow) that has been featured in numerous news outlets. And if that is not enough, he manages a family with five kids.
He’s even had the opportunity to appraise and auction pieces once owned by late celebrities, including Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Rivers and Sammy Davis. Marilyn Monroe married playwright Arthur Miller on June 29, 1956, at the Westchester County Courthouse, with a Jewish ceremony two days later. The actress converted to Judaism the same year, with Rabbi Robert Goldberg of Connecticut presiding over her conversion.
One of the more interesting pieces from the collection was the siddur, which was printed in Vienna in 1922 for Congregation Torah Vodat — The Avenue N Jewish Center in Brooklyn, which was originally a bar mitzvah gift given to Miller. Inside the siddur were various
handwritten notations and messages, likely by Monroe.
Though the marriage between the couple was over by 1961, the star allegedly remained committed to her religion until her death the following year. Originally sold by Christie’s Auction House in 1999, the siddur sold in a 2018 Greenstein auction for $26,250.
“When you sell one or two pieces of celebrity Judaica, you become like the authority on celebrity Judaica,” Greenstein said. “Nobody’s ever done anything like that before, so you know, other pieces follow along after the first pieces sold and more come to us.”
In 2021, two menorahs owned by another famous Hollywood star who converted to Judaism were brought to auction by Greenstein. Elizabeth Taylor’s third husband, Mike Todd, was Jewish, but it wasn’t until after his sudden death in a 1958 plane crash, and prior to her 1959 marriage to Eddie Fisher, that she converted to Judaism, something she said she did for herself and neither Todd nor Fisher.
Though she famously went on to marry another four times after Fisher, Taylor remained committed to her faith for the rest of her life. A silver metal Godinger menorah from her estate sold for $11,562.50 in January 2021, along with a sterling silver menorah originally gifted to her by her head of security, which sold at auction for $6,562.50.
Smaller, celebrity-owned items like a 14k gold money clip given to Jerry Lewis by Vic Damone have also sold at auction. The ornate money clip features an applied Torah with central menorah and has personalized engraving, selling for $1,900 in 2020. Taking a stroll through jgreenstein.com will show completed auctions from the past five years, with a wide range of items beyond just your classic candlesticks and Kiddush cups, though the company has sold plenty of those.
Tzedakah boxes, sets of stamps and coins, collections of postcards and posters, and jewelry are just some of what has passed through the auction house. The company has larger auctions that catalogs are published for, plus smaller auctions to help new collectors who are just starting out, with items at more affordable price points.
Aside from its auctions, J Greenstein recently expanded its business earlier this year with the addition of a retail gallery. Just a five-minute walk from the auction house down Central Avenue in Cedarhurst, New York, is the company’s newly opened shop that opened in April, selling Judaica both new and old, which will soon be available online as well.
“We’re slowly starting to put all these objects online,” Greenstein said. “They’ll be available on the website too. Some of the silversmiths are known, but most of them are not. They’re just people I work with, and I also do my own designing.”
While he won’t be stepping away from the business anytime soon, two of his five kids — son Joey and daughter Danielle — are involved with J Greenstein. He also has the help of Abe Kugielsky, who has been the director of the auction house since its opening in Cedarhurst.
“I think people will always be connected to their heritage and would like to decorate their home with important things,” Greenstein explained. “Or grandparents who want to buy a Kiddush cup with some sort of history to it for their children or their grandchildren or whatever it is, as opposed to just something from some retail online site, but instead something real from their heritage.”
Visit jgreenstein.com for more information about its upcoming auction.