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Sherry-Lehmann’s Landlord Granted Permission to Clear Out Iconic Park Ave Store

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Glorious Sun is the landlord of Sherry-Lehmann’s flagship store at 505 Park Ave. Credit: Yelp.com

By:  Rob Otto

After more than a year of closure following a scandal, a New York judge, Suzanne Adams, has approved an “order of ejectment” enabling Glorious Sun, the landlord of Sherry-Lehmann’s flagship store at 505 Park Ave, to reclaim the space, NY Post reported

The renowned wine retailer, frequented by notable figures such as Henry Kissinger, Greta Garbo, and Andy Warhol, closed its doors on March 10, 2023, due to allegations of selling alcohol with an expired license.

Sherry-Lehmann, founded in 1934 by Sam Aaron and Jack Aaron, had relocated to Park Avenue in 2007, paying nearly $2 million annually for a 9,500-square-foot space. Despite its illustrious history, the retailer faced financial challenges, exacerbated by costly business decisions.

Glorious Sun, owed over $4.8 million in unpaid rent, initiated legal proceedings to retake control of the property. The closure of the store left shelves filled with outdated merchandise and fixtures gathering dust.

Efforts to clear the premises have been delayed, partly due to pandemic-related court backlogs. However, recent developments suggest progress in emptying the space, with glass doors covered and display windows concealed behind sheetrock walls.

While speculation persists about the potential auction of remaining fixtures, including historic wine barrels and memorabilia, investigations continue into alleged financial improprieties, including unpaid sales tax and unfulfilled wine orders. Federal agencies, including the FBI and the US Postal Inspection Service, have been involved in probing the matter.

Despite the store’s storied past and its role in introducing fine French wines to the US market, the fate of Sherry-Lehmann’s legacy remains uncertain as legal battles and financial woes persist.

Sherry-Lehmann’s legal troubles had  been escalating for some time. The Post reported that earlier in 2023, the New York State Liquor Authority shut down the retailer on March 10, 2023 for selling alcohol without a valid license. Subsequently, the store has remained closed since then, affecting its loyal customer base and raising concerns about its future.

Shyda Gilmer and Kris Green, the owners of Sherry-Lehmann, have been at the center of the investigation. The Post reported that they are allegedly being scrutinized for selling wine to customers but failing to deliver it, particularly regarding futures worth over $1 million that were never fulfilled. These allegations have further damaged the store’s reputation and raised questions about the trustworthiness of its management.

The Park Avenue store of renowned wine seller Sherry-Lehmann experienced a shocking turn of events as it was raided by the FBI IN 2023, as was reported by the New York Post. The iconic 88-year-old vintner, already facing significant legal troubles, saw federal agents descend upon its premises as part of a wide-ranging investigation into the business and its owners. The Post reported that the situation has escalated, prompting authorities to take action amidst allegations of misconduct and financial impropriety.

In a surprising move, federal agents arrived at the Park Avenue store early in the morning. An unmarked white van was stationed at the corner of Park and 59th St., indicating the gravity of the situation. The Post reported that the operation was part of a multi-law enforcement agency investigation, although the specific details were not disclosed to the public.

The agents were observed carrying out boxes from the premises, indicating that they were gathering evidence related to their inquiry, according to the Post report. When approached, an FBI officer confirmed they had been inside the store for hours.

Developer Plans New 12-Story Mixed-Use Building in NYC’s Hell’s Kitchen

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Plans were filed with the NYC Dept of Buildings by developer Cheskel Schwimmer of the Brooklyn-based firm Chess Builders to construct a new 180,577-square-foot structure at 622 11th Ave. Credit: Yimby.com

By:  Hellen Zaboulani

A Brooklyn-based developer has plans to build a 12-story mixed-use building in Hell’s Kitchen.

As reported by Crain’s NY, plans were filed with the New York City Department of Buildings by Developer Cheskel Schwimmer of the Brooklyn-based firm Chess Builders to construct a new 180,577-square-foot structure at 622 11th Ave.–a largely industrial block between West 45th and West 46th streets.  The space was formerly a Metropolitan Lumber & Hardware yard.  The permits propose turning the currently empty warehouse into 188 residential units, with the building’s cellar and first floors featuring a retail component.  Floors two through 12 will be apartments, per the filing.  The plan does not include parking spaces. The apartments will likely be rentals, with an average size of 677 square feet per unit, New York YIMBY reported.   The architect of record, Shmuel Wieder of Brooklyn-based S. Wieder Architect, did not immediately reply to Crain’s request for comment.

The Metropolitan Lumber & Hardware business had announced in December 2022 that it would shutter its Hell’s Kitchen location, consolidating its operations to its other sites in SoHo and Astoria, Queens.  The Metropolitan Lumber & Hardware had also occupied the west side of 11th Avenue, across the street from where the filing permits are being requested for the residential space.

As of yet, no plans have been submitted for the development of the adjacent site.  Both sites have become a neighborhood eyesores, filled with graffiti, since the closure.

Chess Builders, the privately held urban construction company and property manager founded in 1999, has most of its expansive portfolio of real estate in Brooklyn.  Schwimmer told Crain’s on Monday that he had just recently closed on the Midtown West property, but declined to offer more information or to disclose the sale price. The Department of Finance filing for the sale is not yet available, so it is not clear how much the property was purchased for.

The property is located just a block away from the renowned Hudson River Greenway –which is the busiest bikeway in the USA.

This may explain why the building has not include plans for parking spaces.  Getting the property approved for residential space may not be such a hurdle being that it sits within Community Board 4, which in contrast to many nearby communities, has been very keen to support large numbers of new housing units. Between 2010 and 2019, the neighborhood’s purely advisory civic panel approved 153.8 units of housing per 1,000 residents— which is a whopping six times more than the citywide average of 25.6 for that time frame, reported the watchdog group, the Citizens Budget Commission.

Manhattan Community Board 4’s (MCB4) Affordable Housing Plan was first created in 2015 for Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen and has set forth a 163-page summary of plans to help boost housing in the area –which includes specific planned rezonings in numerous districts.  “For decades, MCB4 has been a strong advocate for affordable housing at a range of incomes. Our community believes that socioeconomic diversity and integration are the only way to keep Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen, Hudson Yards and Chelsea the thriving neighborhoods they are today”, says the MCB4 Affordable Housing Plan, Revised in June & July 2022.

What Happens if You Accidentally Trash Your Valuables in NYC???

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Joshua Goodman, Deputy Commissioner, Public Affairs & Customer Experience for the NYC Department of Sanitation, told the Post that the department gets frantic calls several times a month. Credit: LinkedIn

By:  Serach Nissim

What happens if you accidentally throw away your valuables and only realize the mix up after the garbage has already been picked up?

The episode is not so far fetched and not too rare.  As per the NY Post, Jill, a Staten Island mother-of-three, realized last Friday that her wallet, keys and jewelry were all unintentionally tossed out with the trash. Her wallet, which held cash and credit cards, also contained her car keys and a heirloom pair of gold earrings from the 1940s, was thrown out when her daughter had helped to unloaded bags from their car.  She only realized the faux-pas after the Department of Sanitation garbage truck had already picked up their trash.  She told the Post that while it would have been a big deal to replace any of those things,  the loss of the earrings which had been passed down in her family, was the pinnacle in her mind.  “I wore the earrings for my wedding, my daughter wore them for her high school graduation and prom,” said Jill, who did not wish to publish her last name. “When you lose something so personal, you are hysterical.”

The city collects some 24 million pounds of trash daily.  She didn’t know if it was even possible to find her treasures. In fact though, over the years, New Yorkers have thrown out and managed to recover goods including laptops, passports, valuable clothing, a lottery ticket worth $1,500, and even tefillin, or the Jewish ritual leather scroll boxes which orthodox men bind around their arms and forehead during prayer.

Joshua Goodman, Deputy Commissioner, Public Affairs & Customer Experience for the NYC Department of Sanitation, told the Post that the department gets frantic calls several times a month, with owners looking to recover something from their trash.  Goodman said the instances are “a good reminder that every item in the trash used to belong to someone.”

Jill’s first move was to drive around her neighborhood, looking for the garbage truck.  When this was to no avail, she called 311, which connected her with the Staten Island transfer station, where neighborhood waste is loaded onto bigger trucks headed to the final disposal destination.  Lucky for her, employees were able to pinpoint the local truck that had picked up Jill’s garbage and prevent the cargo from being shipped out of the city.  “You have a finite amount of time” — two or three hours after street pick-up — “before the trash is taken to a transfer station and taken out of the city via a barge or rail car,” said Goodman. If Jill had called after that time frame and missed the truck before it was taken out of the city, her chances of finding her goods would have been doomed.  The DOS allowed her to come down to the station and dig through the mountain of trash.  She was told she wouldn’t have more than 90 minutes and it was suggested she bring a friend to help with the search.

“I’m usually in pressed pants and lipstick,” said Jill, noting that the trash was “pretty smelly.”  After  searching with heavy duty gloves for about 30 minutes she spotted and reclaimed her green wallet.  “I was in shock,” she said. “Everything was intact. [But] it smelled like a pile of garbage.”

Donald Trump’s Net Worth at $6.4B, Placing Him as Top 500 Richest People in World

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In all, his personal net worth is roughly $6.4 billion. For the first time ever, Trump will be on the world’s top 500 wealthiest people in the world, based on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Credit: AP

By:   Hadassa Kalatizadeh

Donald J. Trump is back on top—and not just politically.

Former President Trump has been troubled with a shaky monetary state after being put on the hook to post a $500 million bail for his NY fraud lawsuit.  On Monday, when his entire business empire may have been in crisis, it ended up turning into the former president’s single-greatest day gain on record.

As reported by Crain’s NY, first, a state appeals court awarded him a lifeline, complying with his request to reduce the bond.

His bail was cut to $175 million — an amount Trump says he’ll be able to cover. About the same time, his social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, wrapped up a 29-month-long merger process.   The merger officially makes Mr. Trump, 77, the owner of shares worth billions of dollars.  In all, his personal net worth baloon by over $4 billion—to roughly $6.4 billion.  For the first time ever, Trump will be on the world’s top 500 wealthiest people in the world, based on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Previously, his fortune had peaked at $3.1 billion– largely consisting of real estate properties, the value of which may have been inflated to get better his terms on loans, as per the NY Fraud case.

Monday’s bail deadline had put his business in peril because his assets are not liquid and he may have had to sell his real estate holdings to be able to post the $454 million bond– which is a bond for 120% of the judgment while he appeals the case. New York Attorney General Letitia James may have have gotten the chance to seize his assets if he couldn’t pay.   His team of lawyers had argued that it was “unconstitutional” and unreasonable to have him payout, for hold in escrow, the entire 120 percent of judgment, even though he was still appealing the case.

He had also said that immediately selling his real estate assets at a fire-sale price would be unfair because he wouldn’t be able to buy it back later at a similar price if he won the appeal.  On Monday, when the state appeals court slashed the amount payable, Mr. Trump vowed to quickly post cash or a bond to cover the lowered amount. Still, even despite his windfall from Trump Media’s merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp., he still can’t cash out on those shares, for about six months.

Per Crain’s, completion of the merger meant jumping through hoops including multiple last-minute lawsuits, as well as an investigation  and settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.  After the merger, the DWAC shares closed Monday at $49.95, up around 185% since the start of the year. Trump’s 58% stake in the company is valued at about $3.9 billion, based on that price.

The shares are now included in Bloomberg’s calculation of Trump’s net worth. The day before, his stake had been valued at only $22.5 million, based on his most recent financial disclosure form.

Mr. Trump’s newly updated net worth of $6.4 billion is based on ethics disclosures required for presidential candidates, and  public filings tied to key real estate holdings and staff reporting.

A representative for Trump did not reply to Crain’s request for comment.

Harvard could lose ‘some’ federal funding for failing to provide documents to House committee

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Another elite bastion of Jew hatred is Harvard University. Credit: hillel.org

Harvard University could lose federal funding over its decision not to provide the House Committee on Education and the Workforce with the documents it sought, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), the committee chair, told The Washington Free Beacon on Monday.

“The ultimate thing is obviously, trying to hold back some of their money if they’re just not going to make the students safe,” Foxx told the publication. “That’s always an option for us.”

“It’s hard to know whether it’s arrogance, ineptness or indifference that is guiding Harvard,” Fox added.

The $625 million in federal funds Harvard received in 2021 “accounted for approximately 67% of total sponsored revenue in fiscal year 2021,” per the Ivy League school.

JNS sought comment from Foxx’s office about why “some” of the federal funding is potentially in jeopardy.

“Elite universities didn’t seem at all worried about the genocidal antisemitic rhetoric on their campuses until they started losing donations,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), a member of the education committee, told the Free Beacon.

“For these schools, it’s all about the money. Congress sends elite universities billions of taxpayer dollars each year, and if Harvard keeps giving haven to antisemitism, there’s a lot that House Republicans should do to make them pay,” he added.

Capturing Sinwar, dead or alive, key to saving hostages: Herzog

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By World Israel News Staff

Israeli president Isaac Herzog said that capturing Hamas head Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded the October 7th attacks, is crucial for the release of the Israeli hostages still held in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking in Jerusalem at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new offices of auto tech company Mobileye, Herzog stressed that Sinwar was the driving force behind Hamas and whether or not it will free Israeli captives.

“The reality is this, and the world and us must accept it, everything begins and ends with Yahya Sinwar,” Herzog said.

“He’s the one who decided on the October 7 massacre, it’s he who has looked to spill the blood of innocents, he who works to enflame the whole region, to destroy Ramadan, does everything to ruin coexistence, here and across the region, to cause us to fight with each other and with the whole world,” he continued.

“We must get to Sinwar – either dead or alive – so that we can see the hostages back home,” he added.

Nabbing Sinwar, he said, is the IDF’s top priority. Only when the Hamas head is in Israeli custody will there be a chance to repatriate the captives from the Strip to Israel.

“It’s he who seeks to deploy terror, and the whole world and the whole region should know that responsibility is his alone and he won’t get away with it. We won’t let him.”

In what may have been a reference to the recent proposal to free some 700 terrorists from Israeli prisons in exchange for the release of the captives, Herzog stressed that Israel is “making every effort to bring the hostages home.”

Hamas officially rejected the Israeli offer on Tuesday morning.

Despite international pressure for a ceasefire, Herzog said that Israel has “no choice” but to “continue the fight.”

Meta Oversight Board Recommends Loosening Standards To Allow Users To Glorify Terrorists as Martyrs

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Meta, the parent company for Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, is facing a new onslaught of lawsuits, alleging disturbing social and mental effects of Instagram on children and teens. Photo Credit: Wikipedia.org

Jessica Costescu-Free Beacon

Meta’s oversight board is recommending the company loosen its standards regarding the glorification of terrorists. Under the board’s recommendation, Facebook and Instagram users can refer to terrorists as “shaheed,” an Arabic word for “martyr.”

The board released its recommendation Tuesday, calling Meta’s current policy “overbroad.” As of now, Facebook and Instagram posts that refer to “designated dangerous individuals”—such as Hamas terrorists—as “shaheed” are removed under a Meta policy that bars users from glorifying terrorists. Those posts would be allowed under the board’s recommended policy, so long as they do not include other “signals of violence,” such as an image of a weapon.

“Acts of terrorist violence have severe consequences—destroying the lives of innocent people, impeding human rights and undermining the fabric of our societies,” the board’s recommendation says. “However, any limitation on freedom of expression to prevent such violence must be necessary and proportionate, given that undue removal of content may be ineffective and even counterproductive.”

The move comes amid a spike in online anti-Semitism in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel. Anti-Semitic posts increased 28 percent in the week after the attack, according to Anti-Defamation League (ADL), while such posts increased 919 percent on X, formerly Twitter. The difference between the two platforms suggests Facebook “enforced their hate speech policy more robustly and/or their content moderation tools were more effective at removing violative content,” the ADL found.

For the World Jewish Congress, the Meta oversight board’s recommendation is misguided.

“There must be no confusion as to where Meta stands when it comes to praise of terrorists, terror groups and acts of violence [on] its platforms,” the group’s technology director, Yfat Barak-Cheney, said in a Tuesday statement. “[A]t such a precarious moment for Jewish communities and many others around the world, it would be irresponsible to reduce safety measures online.”

Meta did not respond to a request for comment. Its oversight board consists of 40 “diverse” members, according to its website, and was created in 2018 to “bring accountability” to content moderation decisions.

The company pledged to respond to the board’s recommendation in 60 days. Meta has “committed to observing board rulings that apply to specific posts and users,” according to Axios.

For years, Hamas has used the term “shaheed” to glorify suicide bombers. In 2016, for example, it announced the “martyrdom of shaheed Abdel Hamid Abu Srour,” a teenaged boy who carried out a suicide bombing that targeted a bus in Jerusalem.

At Columbia, an Israeli-Designated Terror Group Teaches ‘Palestinian Resistance 101’—And Lauds Plane Hijackings

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Jessica Costescu- Free Beacon

On Sunday, a group of keffiyeh-clad individuals huddled around a computer to discuss the “Palestinian resistance.” Charlotte Kates, a member of the Israeli-designated terror group Samidoun, praised Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack for showing “the potential of a future for Palestine liberated from Zionism.” Khaled Barakat, a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine activist, lauded airplane hijackings as “one of the most important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”

While those speakers and other attendees were explicit in their support for terrorism against Jews, the event did not take place in Gaza, Doha, or Tehran. It took place in New York City, where an anti-Semitic Columbia University student group—Columbia University Apartheid Divest—invited the speakers to deliver a lecture on “the fight for liberation,” titled “Palestinian Resistance 101.”

The event, which the Washington Free Beacon attended virtually, reflects the extreme anti-Semitic activism seen on college campuses in the wake of Hamas’s attack. In some cases, faculty members have advanced that activism.

A Columbia faculty group, Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, promoted the event in an Instagram post, which featured an image of a Palestinian boy throwing stones at an Israeli tank during the second intifada. The group launched in January, pledging to stand with anti-Semitic student protesters and “take back our University.” Its members include classics professor Joseph Howley, history professor Manan Ahmed, and history professor Marwa Elshakry.

In addition to Kates and Barakat, the Sunday event featured Within Our Lifetime founder Nerdeen Kiswani, who has called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.” The three speakers routinely praised Hamas and Hezbollah, advocated for armed resistance against Israel, and encouraged attendees to “be of service … to the resistance movements that are on the front lines fighting Zionism.”

The event was initially scheduled to take place at Columbia’s Barnard College, the university’s all-female undergraduate school. A flyer promoting the event listed the Barnard Center for Research on Women as a host. At the start of the event, however, student organizers said they were forced to “change rooms” at the last moment after a Ph.D. student lodged a complaint to the university. The change was “part of a long line of Columbia’s long line of repression,” the organizers said.

The event was moved to Columbia’s “Q House,” an “LGBTQ+ special interest community at Columbia University,” according to an internal email obtained by the Free Beacon. “This location change is due to Columbia University continuing to repress Palestinian students and the allies of the Palestinian struggle for liberation on campus,” read the email, which was addressed to “comrades.”

A Columbia spokeswoman said the university is “aware of an unsanctioned, unapproved event that took place last night” at a “residence.” Kates and Barakat addressed attendees via Zoom, while Kiswani attended in person.

“Columbia canceled the event, denying requests to use university space, as did Barnard,” the spokeswoman told the Free Beacon. “Despite this, the event organizers held the event in a residence with an online option.”

“We are investigating this matter and will not tolerate violations of university policy,” the spokeswoman said.

Neither Barnard nor Columbia University Apartheid Divest responded to requests for comment.

The Sunday event featured a who’s who of anti-Semitic activists. Kates serves as “international coordinator” of Samidoun, a group that advocates for “Palestinian prisoners,” many of whom are convicted terrorists. In addition to its Israeli terror designation, Samidoun is banned in Germany over its support for Hamas terrorism.

Barakat, Kates’s husband, has conducted interviews on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and Palestinian news sites describe him as a leader of the terror group. Israeli intelligence agencies say they have internal documents that cement his status as a PFLP terror leader.

Kiswani, meanwhile, has led pro-Hamas rallies in New York City through Within Our Lifetime, which she founded in 2015. Instagram removed the group’s account last month after Kiswani used it to endorse Hamas’s attack and advocate for “whatever means necessary it takes” to topple Israel.

During the event, Kates praised Iran as “a nation on the side of the Palestinian people, intervening and building a movement of resistance to free this entire region … from U.S. imperialism.” She also advocated for a campaign to end America’s list of designated terror organizations “entirely,” saying the list stops Palestinian activists from staying “in contact” with foreign actors.

“It is important to popularize campaigns to … scrap the U.S. terror list entirely, or at the very least to get Palestinian, Lebanese, Yemeni, Filipino, and other revolutionary organizations off the terror list,” Kates said. “Because that’s a weapon that’s being used against the Palestinian people, against the Arab people, and against the solidarity movement as a whole, and in order to kind of fundamentally deform the politics of the movement.”

For his part, Barakat glowingly discussed the PFLP’s wave of terrorism during the 1960s and 1970s. He specifically praised the terror group for hijacking airplanes, which he said “introduced the Palestinian questions to the world.” Barakat falsely claimed the hijackings were done peacefully—in fact, PFLP hijackers killed at least two pilots and one Israeli passenger.

“If we take, for example, certain tactics that the Palestinian movement have practiced—take, for example, hijacking airplanes,” Barakat said, “it was one of the most important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”

“If it wasn’t for these tactics, we would [have] never heard of … Palestinian women who led these kinds of heroic operations that introduced the Palestinian questions to the world,” he continued. “If you take, for example, the speeches that were given to the people in the airplanes by Palestinian fighters … they’re all about what our struggle is about.”

Kiswani called on fellow activists to openly advocate for violence against Jews. In the wake of Oct. 7, she said, anti-Israel “organizations” asked her not to discuss Oct. 7 or “resistance” during her speeches. Now, according to Kiswani, those organizations “mention resistance—now they’ll talk about it three months later or five months later because they saw we did it, we got away with it, we got support for it.”

Previously Deported Illegal Alien Charged with Murdering 25-Year-Old Ruby Garcia

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Michigan Dept. of Corrections/Facebook

By John Binder

A previously deported illegal alien is now accused of murdering 25-year-old Ruby Garcia in Kent County, Michigan.

Brandon Ortiz-Vite, a 25-year-old illegal alien from Mexico, has been arrested and charged with felony murder, open murder, carjacking, carrying a concealed weapon, and felony possession of a firearm in connection to the shooting death of Ruby Garcia.

According to police in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a Kent County Sheriff’s Department Lieutenant found Garcia dead on March 22 with multiple gunshot wounds on the side of U.S. Highway 131.

 

On March 24, Ortiz-Vite was taken into custody by police. At the time of his arrest, he had a firearm in his possession and allegedly admitted to shooting Garcia with the firearm, which he said he had purchased illegally.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials confirmed that Ortiz-Vite is an illegal alien who was previously deported to Mexico from the United States in 2020.

Ortiz-Vite has also been arraigned on charges dating back to 2020 and had a bench warrant issued that year after he failed to appear in court on charges of drunk driving and driving with a suspended license. He had other run-ins with the law in 2017 and 2018.

Ortiz-Vite remains in the Kent County Correctional Facility without bail and is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter here.

HYPOCRISY: White House ‘disappointed’ Israel cancels delegation to D.C. after throwing Israel under bus

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Pentagon spokesman John Kirby speaks during a media briefing at the Pentagon, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

(JNS) — John Kirby, the White House national security communications advisor, told reporters on Monday that the Biden administration is “disappointed” that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called off a high-level delegation to Washington to discuss a potential Israeli ground operation in Rafah.

Israel decided to cancel the ministerial visit after Washington abstained on, rather than vetoing, a ceasefire resolution at the U.N. Security Council on Monday.

“We’re very disappointed that they won’t be coming to Washington, D.C., to allow us to have a fulsome conversation with them about viable alternatives to going in on the ground in Rafah,” Kirby told reporters.

Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi had been scheduled to arrive in Washington on Tuesday for meetings with U.S. counterparts to discuss Israel’s plans for a military operation in southern Gaza. Kirby said the officials would discuss proposals for “viable options and alternatives to a major ground offensive.”

Following Monday’s vote, Jerusalem announced that “in light of the change in the American position, Prime Minister Netanyahu decided that the delegation will not depart.”

Kirby denied a shift in U.S. policy in abstaining from the nonbinding ceasefire resolution. There is no reason for there to be an escalation of tensions between America and Israel, he said.

“Nothing has changed about our policy—nothing,” Kirby said. “We still want to see a ceasefire, and we still want to get hostages out—all of them. And we would still want to see more humanitarian assistance get in to the people of Gaza. The reason we abstained is because this resolution text did not condemn Hamas.”

Kirby also denied that there has been a change in the way the Biden administration talks about the potential Israeli military operation in Rafah, from asking to see a “credible plan” to rejecting the operation outright.

“We said weeks ago that we believe a major ground operation in Rafah would be a disaster, absent any proper accounting for the safety and security of the refugees that are still there,” Kirby said. “We still believe the same thing.”

“I don’t see any change in the rhetoric,” he said. “We don’t support a ground operation into Rafah.”

A First: Hamas rape victim goes public with her ordeal

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Amit Soussana, 40, one of the hostages returned to Israel. (Courtesy)

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

An Israeli woman taken hostage on October 7th and held in captivity in the Gaza Strip has accused her former captors of rape, marking the first time an Israeli hostage has gone on record stating they were sexually assaulted while held by Gaza terrorists.

Amit Soussana, a 40-year-old attorney, was abducted from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza during the Hamas invasion of October 7th.

At the end of the truce between Hamas and Israel in late November, Soussana was released as part of the hostage deal, which included the freeing of hundreds of jailed Arab terrorists.

On Tuesday, The New York Times revealed testimony given by Soussana, confirming that she had been raped while in captivity in the Gaza Strip.

During the invasion itself on October 7th, Soussana was brutally beaten during he abduction, she recalled, with at least 10 men dragging her off to the Gaza Strip.

Security camera footage from her abduction shows Soussana being dragged off, while wrapped in a white fabric, by a group of men.

 

Her abductors attempted to subdue her and carry her into Gaza on a bicycle, but ultimately dragged her through open fields after binding her hands and feet.

Soussana arrived in the Gaza Strip with significant injuries, including heavy bleeding, fractures to her right eye socket, cheek, nose, and knee.

Soussana told the Times, during eight hours of interviews in mid-March, that during her captivity she had been chained to a bed in a child’s bedroom – one decorated with images of the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants.

Her guard, who identified himself by his first name, Muhammad, would regularly sexually harass Soussana, lifting up her shirt, touching her body, and asking when her period would be over.

Muhammad frequently asked her about her sex life, and would enter the bedroom she was held in while wearing only his underwear.

On the day of the sexual assault, October 24th, two and a half weeks after she was kidnapped, Muhammad unchained Soussana, allowing her bath.

After her bath, however, Muhammad entered the bathroom and pointed a pistol at her, striking Soussana twice, striping her of her towel, and groping her.

“He sat me on the edge of the bath. And I closed my legs. And I resisted. And he kept punching me and put his gun in my face.”

Muhammad then dragged Soussana back to the bedroom where she had been held captive and raped her at gunpoint.

“He came towards me and shoved the gun at my forehead,” Soussana said.

“Then he, with the gun pointed at me, forced me to commit a sexual act on him.”

While the Times did not disclose details of the rape itself, the article confirmed that Soussana’s description of events and her captivity matched those given to social workers after she was freed.

After the rape, Soussana says Muhammad expressed guilt over the attack, saying “I’m bad, I’m bad, please don’t tell Israel.”

Shortly after the story’s publication Tuesday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog released a statement calling for international condemnation of sex crimes by Gaza terrorists.

“Amit Soussana speaks for all those who cannot speak. She speaks for all the victims of Hamas’ despicable sexual crimes and abuse. She speaks for all women everywhere.

“The whole world has the moral duty to stand with Amit – and all the victims – in condemning Hamas’s brutal terror, and in demanding the immediate return of all the hostages.”

Israel slams US for allowing UN resolution to pass, emboldening Hamas

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Israel's Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan (Aviv Hertz/TPS)

By World Israel News Staff

The United Nations Security Council resolution passed Monday demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will embolden the Hamas terror organization and hampers efforts to reach an agreement securing the release of Israeli hostages, Israel’s envoy to the UN said Tuesday.

Speaking with Israel National News, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan excoriated not only the United Nations Security Council for passing a resolution Monday 14-0 demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, but also the Biden administration for allowing the resolution to pass.

The resolution separately calls for the release of Israeli captives held hostage in Gaza, but does not condition the ceasefire on the hostages’ release.

Erdan rejected States Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Greenfield-Thomas’ claim that the U.S. interprets the resolution as being non-binding and the ceasefire conditional on the release of Israeli captives.

“Even if the United States explains that, from their perspective, the decision is not binding and they link the release of hostages with the ceasefire, our enemy does not see it that way,” Erdan said.

“The Palestinian ambassador has already held a press conference explaining legally why the decision is binding and how they will try to promote it. This also opens the door to many legal initiatives against us around the world and to significant damage – hence our frustration and anger.”

Israel, Erdan continued, would ignore the resolution’s demand for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, but warned that the vote would encourage Hamas to raise its demands in hostage deal negotiations and thus make an agreement more difficult to achieve.

“The decision’s implication is zero – it will have no meaning from Israel’s perspective.”

“Hamas, on the other hand, understands that it cannot militarily defeat the IDF, and its hope is that the international community will pressure us and possibly impose sanctions so that we concede and agree to a ceasefire. Therefore, this decision plays into the hands of Hamas and sabotages our efforts to free hostages and our military effort.”

Monday’s resolution was drafted jointly by the delegations from Sierra Leone, Switzerland, Slovenia, South Korea, Malta, Japan, Mozambique, Ecuador, Algeria, and Guyana, and passed the Security Council 14-0, with only the U.S. abstaining.

The measure “demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a permanent sustainable ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip.

HOSTAGE FAMILY MEMBERS AND ISRAELI FM TRAVEL TO UN TO DEMAND ACTION AGAINST HAMAS
Separately, the resolution “also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access to address their medical and other humanitarian needs, and further demands that the parties comply with their obligations under international law in relation to all persons they detain.”

In protest of the resolution’s passage and the Biden administration’s refusal to utilize the American veto in the Security Council, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday canceled a high-level delegation to Washington.

Jerusalem announced that “in light of the change in the American position, Prime Minister Netanyahu decided that the delegation will not depart.”

Netanyahu said that the changed U.S. position “hurts the war effort and the effort to release the hostages” by giving the Hamas terrorist organization hope that international pressure will bring about a ceasefire without freeing the captives.

Fire Dance: A Mesmerizing Film Explores the Lives of Hasidim in Tiberias 

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Fire Dance is a mesmerizing, mystical, erotic, and rather magnificent work; one filled with love for a community of Israeli hasidim in Tiberias, but a work which neither spares them, nor the viewer. Credit: IMDb.com

Fire Dance: A Mesmerizing Film Explores the Lives of Hasidim in Tiberias 

By:  Phyllis Chesler

Rama Burshtein-Shai has written and directed her best film yet. Fire Dance is a mesmerizing, mystical, erotic, and rather magnificent work; one filled with love for a community of Israeli hasidim in Tiberias, but a work which neither spares them, nor the viewer. It is a complex film about tribalism versus individual happiness; about passion and restraint.

Fire Dance is very bold, perhaps shockingly so. The first episode opens with a young hasidic girl’s rather gruesome suicide attempt, and ends with something totally unexpected, even surreal: from out of nowhere, a wild dog ferociously attacks another young hasidic girl–an assault which leaves her with a disfiguring, life-long scar on her face. Our would-be suicide believes that her jealousy of the more popular girl may have caused this disaster.

Days later, these characters, as well as the wildness of the desert, the sky over Yam Kinneret, still live within me, such is the power of this eight episode film. Cinematically, Burshtein-Shai proceeds slowly, with life-like pauses in a conversation, with time for each character to think.

We live at a time in which hasidic and haredi life has been denounced and famously filmed as cruel, intolerant, unjust, homophobic, misogynistic, medieval, (Unorthodox, Trembling Before God, Leaving the Fold, One of Us, My Unorthodox Life). Burshtein, does not avoid these themes; what she does is similar to what Shtisel, A Price Above Rubies, and The Women’s Balcony do, namely, she balances them out by presenting hasidic/haredi communities that are, at the same time, also filled with a longing for God, a belief that even mighty sinners (drug addicts, adulterers, violent hooligans,) can repent and be redeemed, that fallen souls can be rescued. Most moving, individuals within these communities are filled with incredible, humbling, deeds of loving kindness.

For example, in one scene, a Grand Rebbe is in the midst of an important meeting with other rabbis when a woman who has been waiting to speak to him starts screaming and refuses to stop. He interrupts his meeting to hear her out. She is utterly alone in the world and does not know what kind of new stove to buy. Surprisingly, the Rebbe immediately takes her into his own kitchen and shows her his oven and explains to her how it works.

Another example: The would-be suicide, Faigie Rosenberg, (Mia Ivryn, in her first ever role), is the kindest, the boldest, and the smartest of all the girls. She seeks out an older, distant female relative, Mrs. Epstein, a hoarder and, without being asked, totally cleans up her apartment. This woman is also agoraphobic and has not been outside for “seven years and some months.” Faige gently talks her through it and accompanies her outside.

Perhaps Rabbi Natan, (played by the very soulful Yehuda Levy), is the embodiment of chesed, loving kindness. He is a rabbi with a “troubled past,” who is known (and mistrusted) for helping women. He and his wife have organized a small sewing workshop for women who are mentally or cognitively disabled, non-employable, in order to ensure that they do not fall by the wayside. He also counsels women about their anguish, tries to help women obtain religious divorces–or he tries to get them and their husbands to reconcile lovingly when possible.

The unhappy, deprived women fall in love with him. They include our trouble hero Faigie. Some women demand religious divorces. One, Giti, goes on a hunger strike until she receives one. R. Natan experiences what Freud called transference (and maybe counter-transference). The besotted include Faigie who is at least half his age. Clearly, he is their Love Doctor, his combination of philosophical and mystical advice hypnotizes his female flock. The situation becomes untenable, harassment and violence erupt. Stones are thrown through windows, women are called “harlots.” Faige is thrown to the ground and beaten. R. Natan flees to the desert.

In all her films, Fill the Void (2012) and The Wedding Plan (2016), Burshtein-Shai romanticizes weddings and brides. It is as if each wedding re-enacts the first Creation story in Bereshit. Without one’s mate one can never be whole. While this is true for men as well, the filmmaker focuses mainly on the women, on their desire to be cherished, sung to, to not feel humiliated, to not be alone, to have children, to honor their parents. Their wedding dresses and their seats before the bedeken, when the women come to bless the bride, are Burshtein-Shai’s version of every film Disney ever made about a prince and princess and a happy ending. Fairy tales to which women are addicted.  All her brides are shy virgins–not Amazon warriors, corporate killers, or IDF soldiers.

Okay, it’s not my only cup of tea but it is very moving and visually powerful. Burshtein-Shai also depicts the kind of intense female bonding that rarely exists in the secular world.

However, she gilds no lilies. Feige’s mother Raizi, a widow, (Noa Koler), hits her, keeps verbally abusing her, never even took her for glasses until Feigie was seven years old. Her mother says, rather insanely to the astonished optometrist, “Yes, I told you, she’s blind as a bat.”

And yet, the women embrace each other, dance together, try to help each other; their loving relationships are very intense–they have only each other in their small, precious world.

I do not love the fact that Burshtein-Shai’s women, in all of her films, are a bit unbalanced, emotionally extreme, not at all restrained–even as they wrestle with their obligation to maintain the stability and survival of their communities, over and against their desire for happiness and romantic love. Their values are religious, not secular.

When R. Natan’s father, the community’s Rebbe dies, he has his will read aloud by his survivors, beginnng with his wife, his two sons, and his daughter. The love he openly professes for his wife is unparalleled, (except for the Song of Songs); it is almost embarassing. His advice: “The hardest thing is to judge everyone favorably, even the wicked.”

MS-13 Gang Leader On FBI’s Most-Wanted List Arrested At Border In San Diego

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Authored by Brad Jones via The Epoch Times,

A high-ranking leader of the international Mara Salvatrucha gang, better known as MS-13, was arrested on narco-terrorism charges at the U.S.-Mexican border in San Diego earlier this month.

Fredy Ivan Jandres-Parada, a leader of the international MS-13 gang, was arrested at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego on March 7, 2024. (Courtesy of FBI)

Federal authorities arrested Fredy Ivan Jandres-Parada, 48, also known as “Lucky De Park View“ at the San Ysidro Port of Entry March 7.

He has been charged for his alleged role in ordering numerous acts of violence against civilians, law enforcement, and rival gang members, as well as transnational drug distribution and extortion schemes.

The San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Ysidro, Calif., on Feb. 2, 2024. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The suspect ranks among the senior leaders of MS-13’s Ranfla Nacional leadership council, formerly known as the Twelve Apostles of the Devil, which controls thousands of MS-13 members worldwide, according to the FBI.

The U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, issued a federal warrant for his arrest in late December 2020, charging him with conspiracy to provide and conceal support and resources to terrorists, conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, conspiracy to finance terrorism, and narco-terrorism conspiracy.

An indictment unsealed a month later reveals the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) strategy to target the upper echelon of MS-13 leadership—the Ranfla Nacional—in El Salvador to dismantle its command and ability to direct cliques in the U.S.

Such cliques are known to be in various Los Angeles neighborhoods known by an area or street including Hollywood, Park View, Normandie, Francis, Fulton, and Coronado, according to the 31-page indictment.

Trump’s Crackdown

A 2020 DOJ report on the department’s efforts to combat MS-13 estimated the gang had 10,000 members across the U.S. and tens of thousands more worldwide and is “responsible for violent crimes in the United States, including murders, extortion, arms and drug trafficking, assaults, rapes, human trafficking, robberies, and kidnappings.”

Less than a month after he was sworn into office, then-President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing “the whole-of-government” to develop and execute a comprehensive and decisive approach to dismantle transnational criminal organizations, including MS-13, to “restore safety for the American people,” the DOJ report states.

“For decades, MS-13 has exploited weaknesses in U.S. immigration enforcement policies to move its members in and out of the United States and to recruit new members who have arrived in the United States illegally,” according to the report.

It has infiltrated American cities and suburbs and established cliques in California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Massachusetts, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas, according to the DOJ report.

The San Ysidro border entryway near San Diego, Calif., on May 31, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

MS-13 members are mostly Salvadoran nationals or first-generation Salvadoran Americans, as well as Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans, and other Central and South American immigrants, according to the FBI.

And a 2008 report from the agency deemed MS-13 a high-level threat in some parts of the U.S. and a medium threat nationwide, saying it often targets middle and high school students for recruitment.

But, in May 2018, then-President Trump took flak from political adversaries who accused him of calling illegal immigrants “animals,” while criticizing California’s sanctuary state policy at an immigration roundtable in Washington.

“We have people coming into the country, or trying to come in—and we’re stopping a lot of them,” President Trump said. “You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people. These are animals.”

He made the remark in response to a question about gangs from a sheriff—and later said he was referring to MS-13, but at a National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., a month later, U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, former House Speaker, chastised him over the remark.

“This is the first time in recent history where we have had a president who does not respect the dignity and worth of every person coming into our country, the recognition that immigration is the constant reinvigoration of America,” Ms. Pelosi said. “America has always been a nation of immigrants, enriched and blessed by each wave of newcomers to our shores. We truly believe, as people of faith, that we are all God’s children.”

 

Ms. Pelosi also received public backlash for saying there is “a spark of divinity” in every immigrant that demands “respect for every person—not animals, not inhuman, but children of God.”

“Immigrants keep faith in America’s promise of opportunity and we must keep faith with them by respecting … the dignity and worth of every person. We must reject language that calls them animals,” she said.

Meanwhile, CBS News reported March 24, that U.S. Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens has called the southern border a “national security threat” citing 140,000 known “gotaways” who were detected by cameras and sensors crossing into the U.S. illegally, but evaded apprehension in the last five months.

Mr. Owens told CBS the Border Patrol is “closing in” on one million apprehensions of migrants in between ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2024 fiscal year, which began in October.

President Trump, who is again running for president, continues to stress at his rallies the danger of MS-13 gangs, including their brutal machete attacks and other violent tactics.

The IRS Has 940,000 Unclaimed Tax Refunds From 2020 That Are About to Expire. Is One of Them Yours?

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FILE - The exterior of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building in Washington on March 22, 2013. The IRS says it has collected an additional $360 million in overdue taxes from delinquent millionaires, as agency leadership tries to promote the latest work its done to modernize the agency with Inflation Reduction Act funding. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

(AP) — The IRS is warning taxpayers that they may be leaving more than $1 billion on the table.

 

The federal tax collector said Monday that roughly 940,000 people in the U.S. have until May 17 to submit tax returns for unclaimed refunds for tax year 2020, which totals more than $1 billion nationwide.

The average median refund is $932 for 2020. Texas (93,400), California (88,200), Florida (53,200) and New York (51,400) have the largest amount of people potentially eligible for these refunds.

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement: “We want taxpayers to claim these refunds, but time is running out for people who may have overlooked or forgotten about these refunds. There’s a May 17 deadline to file these returns so taxpayers should start soon to make sure they don’t miss out.”

For people who need to file a return, the IRS advises taxpayers to request their W-2, 1098, 1099 or 5498 from their employer or bank — or order a free wage and income transcript using the “Get Transcript Online” tool at IRS.gov.

Taxpayers typically have three years to file and claim tax refunds, otherwise the money becomes the property of the U.S. Treasury.

Generally the deadline to claim old refunds falls around the April 15 tax deadline, but this year the three-year window for 2020 unfiled returns was postponed to May 17, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But if taxpayers haven’t filed a return for tax year 2021 and 2022, any 2020 refunds would be withheld until they file for those years as well to make sure they don’t owe.

Werfel said “some people may not realize they may be owed a refund. We encourage people to review their files and start gathering records now, so they don’t run the risk of missing the May deadline.”

Tax season officially began on January 29.

According to the latest tax season statistics, more than 71.5 million individual tax filings have been submitted to the IRS this season.

Denouncing anti-Israel views ‘at the highest level’ would risk our jobs, Jewish UN staffers say

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The head of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres lambasted Israel in the aftermath of the Jenin operation. Credit: Facebook

By Mike Wagenheim
(JNS) Some 18 days before thousands of Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “demanded” that António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, “change the attitude of the organization’s institutions toward the State of Israel.”

Meeting with Guterres on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, Netanyahu added “that it was untenable that while major changes for the better were taking place in the entire world and in the Middle East, that the U.N. was unaffected and remained steadfast in its hostility to Israel,” per an Israeli readout.

Despite the global body’s long, documented history of antisemitism, Jewish U.N. employees who spoke anonymously to JNS said that their religious identities were not an issue before Oct. 7. Since Hamas’s terror attack, the current U.N. employees said, the United Nations has become a very uncomfortable place for Jews to work.

A longtime U.N. staffer, who works in development and does not have a last name that would typically be considered Jewish, told JNS that “you forget your nationality” when you join the world body. “If my name was, I don’t know, Goldstein or Rosenberg, they would maybe be different,” the employee said.

“You work as civil servants, which means that you are not here to defend the interests of your country,” the staffer said. “It’s the same for religion. When you join, they will never ask you which religion you are. It’s completely, completely secular.”

The employee, whose close network at work is aware of the person’s Jewish faith and familial connections to Israel, estimates that 10 other Jews also work in that particular U.N. agency.

After the Hamas attacks, the United Nations issued “a lot of reminders” telling employees to avoid taking sides or making statements on social media amid conflict, “particularly the conflict in Gaza,” the staffer said. “We are supposed to follow the values of the U.N.”

The staffer subsequently noticed colleagues posting about the plight of Gazans on social media, including on X and LinkedIn, with nary a word about the Israeli victims.

“We are in a situation where we have to stay quiet. Not to say anything. Be good civil servants. And to listen to the propaganda that is completely organized and supported at the highest level by the U.N.,” the staffer said.

“I was thinking that at some point I should speak out. But it’s also very difficult. We risk our jobs,” the person said, adding that the United Nations “is being instrumentalized by Hamas” and that Guterres fell “into that trap of propaganda.”

Presented with some of what the Jewish U.N. staffers said, Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and president of Human Rights Voices, told JNS that the United Nations “is a cesspool of antisemitism.”

“The environment is incredibly hurtful, stressful and dangerous for any Jew or Israeli who cares deeply about the well-being of the state of Israel,” she added. “One can only imagine how difficult it is to actually work for such an organization and be dependent on its bureaucracy for one’s welfare.”

‘Right to be the victim’

The four Jewish U.N. employees who spoke to JNS described the U.N. environment for Jews as isolated, scary and typified by political advocacy gone off the rails after Oct. 7.

One of the four is an Israeli citizen, and the four all come from different countries and work at different agencies of the global body. JNS granted anonymity to all and is protecting their identities to avoid jeopardizing their employment.

UN headquarters
A view during the high-level week of the 78th session of the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 18, 2023. Credit: Laura Jarriel/U.N. Photo.

The Israeli is one of 164 working in the entire United Nations organization as of 2022, per official U.N. statistics. According to that data, 100 Israelis work at the United Nations; 14 at the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees; seven each at the World Food Programme and the U.N. International Children’s Emergency Fund; and half a dozen or fewer at 16 other U.N. agencies. No Israelis were listed in 2022 as employees of the now-embattled U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is currently under investigation for its staff’s ties to Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups.

The United Nations does not maintain employment statistics on the basis of religious identity. Of 1,065 staff within the U.N. secretariat at the end of 2021, there were 12 Israelis—below the “desirable range” of 13 to 22 that the United Nations sets as a baseline according to a country’s population and other factors. The 164 Israelis of 125,436 total U.N. employees in 2022 represented about 0.13% of the entire U.N. staff, which is about the same percentage that Israelis represent globally.

In separate conversations, the U.N. employees told JNS that their Jewish identities played no factor in their jobs—for better or worse—prior to Oct. 7.

Right after Hamas’s brutal assault, the first employee told JNS that close colleagues asked the staffer if the person’s family was OK. But the employee was struck by how few made such an effort.

“There are crises in many countries in the world as we speak,” said the employee, who would ask a colleague from Congo or Sudan if the colleague was OK.

“We, as Jewish staff, were completely shocked when we realized that there was a collection which was organized for the Palestinian victims,” the employee said. “This came quickly after Oct. 7,” even before Israel sought to eradicate Hamas from the Gaza Strip.

“They were already claiming their right to be the victim. The Palestinian propaganda took place quickly, even in the U.N.,” the employee said. “The U.N. in general actually quickly took the side of the Palestinians.”

‘Very uncomfortable’

“It wasn’t until the attack that I started feeling very uncomfortable” at work, a second U.N. employee, who worked in the U.N. secretariat, the administrative part of the global body, on and after Oct. 7 told JNS.

The staffer felt so uneasy that the person left that position in the secretariat and now works in another part of the international body, which this person has found to have lower levels of politicization.

The U.N. secretariat “is purposely trying to hide as much as possible Hamas’s responsibility for the terror attacks,” the employee said. “It started to be very disturbing.”

The employee cited misinformation shared in the secretariat, as well as a refusal to discuss Hamas as a terrorist organization as the person’s reason to switch jobs. “It just became kind of a system that I realized that it wasn’t me who was going to be able to change it,” the person said.

UN Arafat
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan signs the book of condolences for former Palestinian Liberation Organization head Yasser Arafat at the complex where his tomb rests, March 14, 2005. Credit: Eskinder Debebe/U.N. Photo.

Biased ‘neutrality’

A manager at the United Nations told staff that no employee who had defended Israel would be invited to an event promoting U.N. work, under the guise, the second U.N. employee told JNS, of avoiding confrontations.

But there were many examples of people “standing up and yelling ‘Free Palestine’ or something similar in nature” at U.N. meetings and events, “with no push back from management,” the staffer said.

“Even this notion of neutrality is really a biased one because we need as civil servants to be neutral and impartial, but only when it comes to some topics,” the person said.

“I haven’t experienced any feeling of anti-Jewishness or antisemitism. I think the feeling is much more against Israel,” the person said. “But today, the two are becoming more and more difficult to separate, because we are in a moment where most Jewish people are united in support of Israel.”

A third Jewish U.N. employee, who works as a lawyer, told JNS that “the fact that I’m Jewish did not help me, but did not hinder me” pre-Oct. 7.

After Hamas’s attack, for reasons that “need no explanation,” the lawyer told JNS about being “more upfront” about the person’s Jewishness.

“It was only then that I started to hear from colleagues—not friends—convey the fact that they couldn’t care less about what happened on Oct. 7,” the lawyer said. “It was the first time in my life that I could see in front of me this reaction that there’s a story behind” the massacre.

The staffer noted that Guterres had said that “it is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.”

“From Oct. 7 until Israel started responding about a week later, everyone was like ‘Who knows? Who knows what happened? You know, those allegations,’” the U.N. lawyer said. “It set clear boundaries and a clear understanding of what people think about Israel and Jews.”

We, as Jewish staff, were completely shocked when we realized that there was a collection which was organized for the Palestinian victims.”

U.N. employee

The lawyer lamented the erosion of long-established U.N. guardrails.

“We have a duty not to take part in anything that’s happening or anything that we’re working with. We work with all the countries, with all issues,” the U.N. lawyer said.

“It’s part of the contract that we signed that says we have a duty of neutrality,” the staffer added. “You would have thought that in this conflict, as with other conflicts, people would remain professional and would keep this neutrality. That did not happen. Many people crossed that boundary.”

Colleagues didn’t direct comments directly at their Jewish co-worker “because they know that I would have reacted,” the lawyer told JNS. “But you hear it in the corridors.”

“Never in my life have I heard anyone here be outspoken about any other conflict,” the lawyer added. “Every day, we hear complaints or about violations of human rights by countries, but no one is outspoken or takes sides because we work with everyone. There was an exception here.”

Jewish UN
A detailed view of a lanyard during the “Standing With Israel” event, organized by the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations on Oct. 13, 2024. Credit: Manuel Elías/U.N. Photo.

‘Complete silence’

The U.N. lawyer is unaware of United Nations staffers asking co-workers with family in Israel how the latter was doing immediately after Oct. 7. “On the contrary, there was complete silence,” the staffer told JNS.

Both the lawyer and the former employee of the secretariat, who now works elsewhere within the United Nations, told JNS that staff associations at some U.N. agencies drafted letters to Guterres expressing support for his actions and demanding a ceasefire. Some asked colleagues to sign their names on the letters, which means that the organizations have a list of who signed and who did not. (Staff associations function somewhat like unions and advocate for the rights and interests of personnel.)

“There’s not a single Jew or Israeli that I know that works for the U.N. that didn’t think, ‘Oh my God, where am I working? What are the values of the organization?’” the lawyer told JNS.

“We know that the U.N. is political, but we also knew that until now, the staff has remained outside of that because it’s our duty,” the staffer said. “But everyone broke that code.”

When South Africa brought the case accusing Israel of genocide before the International Court of Justice—the principal judicial U.N. arm based in The Hague—colleagues treated the case as must-see television, the U.N. lawyer said.

“Everyone on my floor said, ‘I have to stop. No, no. I cannot meet. I need to follow the ICJ,’” the employee said. “I’m like, ‘Did you know that last year, Ukraine also brought Russia to the ICJ? Did you know what the ICJ decided on that?”

“No one followed anything else but this process,” the lawyer said. “You start to wonder, how is that possible?”

A fourth Jewish employee who spoke to JNS described similar experiences. “The rule of the U.N. that you can’t express your political views has gone out the window,” the fourth employee said. “I don’t see anybody not expressing their political opinion.”

The staffer, who declined to have any details published about the person, including job description, agency or specific experiences for fear of retribution, said there is trepidation about identifying as Jewish at the United Nations.

“Lots of people are hiding the fact that they’re Jewish,” the employee said. “They’re not saying they’re Jewish out of fear.”

UN Holocaust
Detail of a participant attending the United Nations Holocaust Memorial Ceremony, held in observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust (Jan. 27) on Jan. 26, 2024. Credit: Manuel Elías/U.N. Photo.

The employee told JNS that some Jews have left the United Nations due to it being “unbearable,” though some Jewish staffers remain because “it’s better to stay and influence. That is the consensus—to make sure that your voice is heard, and that you influence and change things from the inside, rather than giving up on it and leaving.”

Meirav Eilon Shahar, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and international organizations in Geneva, told JNS in a statement: “Since Oct. 7, it has become clear that the United Nations and international organizations have not only failed the State of Israel but also failed their own Israeli and Jewish employees.”

“For too many of them, their place of work has become a place of fear, isolation and discomfort, where all rules of impartiality and restraints have been disregarded,” the ambassador told JNS.

“Lots of people are hiding the fact that they’re Jewish. They’re not saying they’re Jewish out of fear.”
U.N. employee

She called “on the heads of the United Nations and all specialized agencies to act for the well-being and respect of all their staff, irrespective of their origin, faith, culture or background—or else these organizations will cease to embody the universal values they are meant to uphold.”

Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, told JNS that he has “been alarmed to hear from several U.N. employees who are Jewish, and employees from other international organizations, who have been subjected to a hostile work environment since Oct. 7.”

Since Hamas’s attack, “existing rules about U.N. employees pronouncing themselves on political matters have been trampled in the name of condemning Israel,” Neuer said.

U.N. officials “who’ve taken an oath to observe a code of conduct” in limiting political speech have been “in gross violation,” he told JNS. “It seems like the U.N. doesn’t care.”

“I sympathize with the Jewish employees at the U.N.,” Neuer added. “There aren’t many of them to be sure, because the U.N. has for many years not been an attractive place for Jews. But it’s only gotten worse.”

“It’s time for U.N. leaders to step up to the plate and condemn abuse of U.N. principles and defend the rights of all their employees,” he said.

JNS asked Guterres’s office to make Jewish U.N. employees available for an interview for this article on the record, but the office declined.

“The secretary-general has worked hard to foster an environment in which every staff member, regardless of religion, nationality or gender, feels included and protected,” the secretary-general’s office told JNS in a statement. “As someone who has been an unwavering voice against antisemitism throughout his life, he is concerned that some Jewish colleagues are feeling isolated or unheard due to the current conflict in the Middle East.”

“The secretary-general will not tolerate any actions or statements by staff members that violate the organization’s internal rules concerning the use of social media or violate their responsibilities as civil servants,” Guterres’s office added.