Her husband died shortly after their Pacific Palisades home was destroyed by fire. Then came the crooks

Ellen Rudolph and her husband, Steve Lewis, were still trying to repair their Pacific Palisades home and rebuild their lives after last year’s fire when, two months later, came the devastating news. Lewis had Stage 4 lung cancer.

Chemotherapy and immunotherapy didn’t work, she said, and doctor appointments, treatments and insurance issues took precedence over home repairs. Rudolph, 71, said she is struggling to cope with her husband’s illness and growing financial responsibilities. Lewis died in their temporary Playa Vista apartment on Oct. 6.

“It was like a freight train,” said Rudolph. “It went so fast, we didn’t have time to get our act together.”

By January, Rudolph said, he had received an insurance check and saved money to repair his home. However, he said, he received a suspicious text message about his PayPal account being used to buy $450 in cryptocurrency.

He was so focused on dealing with emergencies, one disaster after another, that he clicked on a link in the text in an attempt to reveal another potential problem. Instead, the scammers took over his computer and targeted his bank accounts, and before the end of the month, he lost $38,000 that was meant to fix his home.

“I felt that I was managing things well, until the scam came,” he said. “And then the whole floor was removed from under me.”

Rudolph said he contacted the police and his bank, but he was emotionally exhausted. Not knowing what else to do, he wrote to his friend, Cantor Chayim Frenkel of his synagogue, Kehillat Israel, in Pacific Palisades.

“I was a wreck, I felt ashamed,” she said.

It was not just the list of disasters that she would have to face in one year, but the feeling that she would somehow disappoint her family and her late husband by falling for this scam, Rudolph said.

Frenkel was an old friend, introduced her to her husband in 1999 and officiated their wedding in 2012. He was there the day before Lewis died, saying a prayer.

“I told her, ‘Ellen, I’m not going to accept this, and I’m going to check this,'” he said.

The synagogue had already started a fire fund and raised more than a million dollars to help those affected by the 2025 fires in Southern California, Frenkel said.

Rudolph had not received help from the fund at the time, but Frenkel said the synagogue was able to give him a $10,000 grant to help renovate his home.

After that, Frenkel set up a GoFundMe page on Feb. 4 to reveal all that he had lost. As of Monday, the fundraising effort had already surpassed the $28,000 goal.

Many of those donating are current or former members of the synagogue. Others have also had their lives destroyed by fire, he said.

But the fundraising efforts have been a remarkable example of a community that continues to exist, Frenkel said.

“The fire did not take away our spirit, it did not destroy our hope, it did not take away our community,” he said.

For Rudolph, the damage to his home, the loss of his husband and being the victim of a scam shook him, but the community’s reaction gave him hope.

“It’s amazing how amazing some members of the human race are,” she said. “They’re generous and thoughtful and caring and loving, and they get it.”