By Ted Brooks

The Real Estate Board of New York, along with New York State Association of Realtors and numerous residential brokerage firms, filed a lawsuit Monday in response to what it termed “misguided and harmful” guidance issued by New York State’s Department of State.

The group, together with the New York State Association of Realtors, a statewide organization with nearly 60,000 brokers, says that the New York Department of State, which issued the legal guidance, went too far and did not follow the proper procedures in solidifying the rule.

“We are asking the court to recognize that the Department of State illegally overstepped its role in issuing its new guidance on rental brokerage commissions,” James Whelan, the group’s president, told the New York Times. “The announcement of this new rule without warning has caused widespread confusion and havoc among dedicated real estate agents and the clients they serve.”

Broker fees generally range from 12% to 15% of a year’s rent, Forbes noted, “and renters were required to pay them even when the building owner had hired the broker to list and market the property. The fee comes in addition to other common charges, including a security deposit and the first month’s rent.”

Frederick Warburg Peters, the chief executive officer of Warburg Realty, “said in a statement to Forbes that the entire real estate industry supports the REBNY in their Article 78 proceeding to stay the implementation of the DOS ruling,” the business publication wrote. “To attempt such a radical change to the landlord/tenant/agent equilibrium without consulting the major stakeholders shows contempt for many of the stakeholders the DOS purports to serve,” Warburg Peters says. “We look forward to the opportunity to discuss this proposed interpretation of the new rental laws in an orderly and fair manner.”

The decision has, to no one’s surprise, proven disruptive. News of the state’s sweeping ban on broker fees “continues to send shockwaves through New York City’s real estate market, earning stunned praise from renters and cries of doom from many of the industry’s longtime gatekeepers,” reported The Gothamist. “But despite the sudden paradigm shift, some city brokers are doing business as if nothing has changed. Multiple New Yorkers told Gothamist that they’ve been misled by real estate brokers in the days since the Department of State issued its clarification of last summer’s rent reform package, which effectively prohibits agents from charging commissions after January 31st (whether fees paid to brokers after the bill was signed into law in June can be clawed back remains an open question). Some tenants say that brokers have outright refused to acknowledge the changes. Others allege they’ve been urged to sign waivers falsely indicating that they were the ones who hired the brokers to represent them.”

By: Hellen Zaboulani

Mom-and-pop shops have a bone to pick with Mayor Bill de Blasio.  They say instead of saving NYC businesses, he’s sinking them.  

Small business owners throughout the five boroughs of New York City are overwhelmed and surprised that the Mayor has launched a crackdown on storefront signage, based on a forgotten, 50-year-old law.  The owners will now be slapped with thousands of dollars in fines for many of the signs and awnings they have had and put up regularly which do not precisely follow the letter of the intricate law. Fines are being handed out if the sign doesn’t meet the code, is incorrectly installed, or doesn’t have a permit. 

As reported by the NY Post, the businesses are tearing down their old non-compliant signs but don’t have the means to properly upgrade in a timely manner, so they are putting up instead little plastic banners.   Streets are now adorned by 2-by-5-feet banners used as signage for even 20-foot storefronts. Permits can be obtained for old signs but the process is tricky and costly. 

The unsightly displays are particularly vivid in Jamaica Avenue, extending from Jackie Robinson Parkway in Brooklyn’s East New York to Queen’s Woodhaven.  “It looks like a Third World country here,” complained Margie Schmidt, whose grandfather opened Schmidt’s Candy nearly a century ago in Woodhaven. “Yucky, icky.”  

One owner, Paul Vasiliadis, described his dismal situation to the Post. “Blindsided,” he said. “That’s how I feel — blindsided.” He has been operating Avenue Diner at 91-06 Jamaica Ave for the past decade.  He currently has a back-lit sign he paid $6,000 for when he first opened. Now, he must take the sign down or will be fined. A proper replacement sign will run him roughly $9,500 to $14,000. It will also require a special permit, as anything bigger than 6 square feet is considered oversized.   Now he says he will need to take out a loan, when the restaurant’s business is already tough in the winter, to replace his sign with a similar but compliant one.  

According to the Post, the whole ordeal began when the city’s 311 helpline received an unexplained, mysterious spike in complaints about street sign violations.  The complaints were heavily targeting the areas of Sunset Park, East New York and Woodhaven. In response, the Department of Buildings started taking notice and has been cracking down on businesses since the end of 2017.  Thousands of dollars in tickets have been assessed, leading even the city council to have mercy and place a freeze on tickets until February 2021.  

“The enforcement, all of the sudden, looks very punitive – to generate revenue,” said Bill Wilkins of the East Brooklyn Business Improvement District, about DOB’s crackdown. “That’s abuse, and that’s why shop owners throw up their hands and leave the community.”  Wilkins is pointing a finger at Mayor de Blasio for allowing the sign insanity, while all the while feigning the role of someone on the side of small business.  

“Everything starts from the top. If the mayor wanted to do something about it, he would,” said another business owner. “Folks are struggling,” continued Frank Castelli of Beat the Clock Printing store, on Jamaica Ave. “It’s hard enough to do business in New York.”

In August, the Department of Finance started a six-month initiative to reduce and sometimes even overlook the penalties and interest.  That amnesty program, however, ended last Tuesday. Spokesman for the DOB, Andrew Rudansky claims the DOB had to investigate the complaints, once they were called in.  He admits that getting even the price for a new permit can be tricky, as it is dependent on several variables. But Rudansky says DOB officials are doing their best to spread the word about the law, by visiting stores, doing town hall meetings and distributing pamphlets in 14 languages.

Edited by: TJVNews.com

The Jewish Voice NY is endorsing and is urging our readers to vote for the ZOA Coalition (Slate #11) in the ongoing 2020 World Zionist Congress (WZC) elections. The ZOA Coalition’s impressive record of real accomplishments, their work to spread the truth about the Jewish people’s rights to the land of Israel; and their inclusion of 27 of the strongest pro-Israel organizations, makes the ZOA Coalition well-deserving of our endorsement and our readers’ votes.

At the most recent World Zionist Congress, every single pro-Israel and pro-Jewish resolution was initiated by the ZOA Coalition. ZOA Coalition led the successful two-year battle to pass a broad anti-BDS resolution that includes combatting boycotts against Jews living in Jerusalem and Judea-Samaria. ZOA Coalition also initiated a WZO program to encourage buying Israeli products; and initiated and obtained passage of a vital resolution giving highest funding priority to rescuing and bringing to Israel Jews who are endangered by global antisemitism. ZOA Coalition is working to assuring that Jewish institutional funds are used to preserve the safety of the Jewish people.

The ZOA Coalition also initiated and obtained passage of resolutions: to establish a worldwide WZO program to teach about the Jewish people’s legal right to settle and re-establish the Jewish homeland; calling on Israel’s government to exercise its sovereignty over the Jordan Valley; condemning UNESCO for denying the Jewish people’s connection to Jewish sites in Jerusalem and Hebron; and requiring use of the proper names “Judea and Samaria” – instead of the de-Judaized names.

ZOA Coalition has also been leading successful battles to defeat anti-Israel resolutions, including defeating an antisemitic resolution to label Israeli society as full of “institutional racism.”

The 27 wonderful activist organizations on the ZOA Coalition include: Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), Aish HaTorah, Students Supporting Israel, Americans Against Antisemitism, NORPAC, Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI), the Lawfare Project, Hasbara Fellowships, Z Street, Chovevei Zion, American Friends of Ateret Cohanim, American Friends of Likud, major Russian, Persian, Bukharian and Syrian-Jewish groups, the National Conference on Jewish Affairs, and more. (See VoteZOA.org for full list.)

The ZOA Coalition (slate #11) deserves all of our support. Voting only costs $5 or $7.50 (for election company costs). Please cast your vote today for the ZOA Coalition (Slate #11) via the link at VoteZOA.org or at ZionistElection.org. (Voting ends on March 11.)

By Ilana Siyance

On Sunday February 9th, President Donald J. Trump took to Twitter to slam NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo for “weak leadership” after a devastating weekend with two NYPD police officers shot. 

“I grew up in New York City and, over many years, got to watch how GREAT NYC’s ‘Finest’ are. Now, because of weak leadership at Governor & Mayor, stand away (water thrown at them) regulations, and lack of support, our wonderful NYC police are under assault,” Trump Twitted on Sunday. “Stop this now!”

President Trump’s comment came hours after a gunman stormed into the 41st Precinct in the Bronx and opened fire, shooting wildly.  As per the NY Post, surveillance camera caught the perpetrator on video at about 8 am on Sunday, shooting multiple rounds just a few feet from a police officer’s desk.  Another officer entered the scene drawing his gun, and leading the assailant to take cover, slide his gun away and surrender. In only a minute’s time, over a dozen NYPD officers were on the scene.  The assailant was effectively cuffed and taken into custody. He was taken to a hospital for his injuries. Lt. Jose Gautreaux was wounded but is in stable condition.

As reported by the Post, only twelve hours before, on Saturday night, an on-duty NYPD officer sitting in a marked patrol van with his partner was shot in the by a gunman, who got away.  The incident occurred just blocks away, near the Hunts Point Avenue subway station in the 41st precinct. Police believe the gunman in both cases might be one and the same. His name has not been released.

The NYPD officer who was shot on Saturday night Paul Stroffolino, has thankfully survived and was released Sunday from Lincoln Hospital, as per USA Today. Commissioner Dermot Shea said the officer was targeted.  “Let me be very clear: this was an assassination attempt of two New York city police officers,” Shea said. When asked to comment on the president’s tweet, Shea said, “I’m not getting into that. This is about our officers”.

“Thank God our officers are alive,” de Blasio said. “This was an attempt to assassinate police officers, we need to use the word. It was a premeditated effort to kill.”

Governor Cuomo responded to the news saying he has asked the State Police to offer the NYPD any assistance it may need. “We have zero tolerance for attacks of any kind against law enforcement, and the person or people responsible will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Cuomo said in the statement.  Dani Lever, his communications director, further responded to Trump’s tweet. “We‘d think politicizing police shootings would be beyond the pale even for @realDonaldTrump, but apparently there’s nothing too low for him,” she wrote on Twitter.

Last summer, cops were doused with water across New York City, provoking the President’s taunts towards the local leaders for allowing such lack of respect for the NY Police Department. 

By Clark Savage, Jr.

City employees working under Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez – as many as 40, according to some – have fled the department since the year began.

The reason? Insane amounts of work generated by the recently passed reforms. Insiders say they are now expected to tender evidence to the defendants inside of 15 days following arraignment, and the torrid pace is simply burning them out.

That time frame requires staffers to collect the relevant notes from police officers’ notes, as well as surveillance video, lists of telephone calls and more. The result, according to a New York Post investigation: days as long as 12 hours, with deadlines looming overhead all the time.

“Morale is terrible,” one Brooklyn prosecutor told the Post. “People are feeling overworked and underappreciated.” “People are kind of talking about it openly saying ‘I don’t know, should I ride this out?’” said another. Another told the newspaper that the exodus is unprecedented in his experience, adding, “Almost everyone I know is looking for another job.”

In a prepared statement, Gonzalez’s office noted that “We have every confidence in the professionalism and dedication of our ADAs who work tirelessly to keep Brooklyn safe. Implementing the new laws in the county with the largest caseload in the state requires our assistants to put in very long hours for the same pay. Those who left the office are leaving for higher-paying jobs, including in other city agencies, because the city has not enacted salary parity despite repeated requests. We are now using recent funding to hire paralegals and other support staff to assist our hardworking prosecutors,” the statement continues.” (Full details can be found at https://nypost.com/2020/02/09/new-yorks-tough-new-laws-for-prosecutors-have-some-of-them-looking-for-the-door/)

CBS also took note of the sudden drop in the number of Brooklyn DA’s office employees, reporting that “There is a stunning demand for changes to the state’s controversial bail reform laws from one of the most liberal district attorneys in New York. It comes as Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez copes with a spike in shootings, even as he arrests dozens of gang members involved in gun cases.”

CBS2 political reporter Marcia Kramer asked the DA for comments about some much publicized videos showing rival gangs shooting at each other in the streets of Brooklyn. “In this case, the overwhelming majority of the defendants in this case were either remanded or bail was set on them,” Gonzalzes responded. “The system really needs to move to a cashless bail system,” he said.

“So you’re saying that nobody should have to pay to put up cash bail?” Kramer followed up. “Correct. We should move to the Jersey model,” answered Gonzalez.

By: Jess Smitnick

Insiders are saying that Paul Singer’s New York City hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. has collected a stake in SoftBank Group Corp. of close to $3 billion.

Singer, so the rumors go, sees SoftBank as highly undervalued, and is envisioning engineering a buyback of shares to the tune of $20 billion.

One way the company could do that would be by shaving investments in Alibaba Group Holding Inc. and Sprint Corp.

According to latimes.com, talks have been ongoing between Elliott and top executives at SoftBank, including of course Masayoshi Son. “The firm thinks SoftBank’s net asset value could be about $230 billion but that it trades at a huge discount because of concerns around its Vision Fund, as well as how the failed initial public offering of WeWork last year was handled,” the Times suggested. “SoftBank’s U.S.-traded shares jumped 12% on Thursday after the Wall Street Journal first reported the investment. They closed at $46.49 in New York, giving the company a market value of about $97 billion.”

“In a bullish cover story last July, before the WeWork debacle, Barron’s noted that SoftBank’s stake in China’s Alibaba Group Holding (BABA) was worth $116 billion, eclipsing SoftBank’s $100 billion market capitalization. Our sum-of-the-parts analysis appears to be how Elliott is approaching its SoftBank investment. The Journal article also raised the idea that SoftBank would buy back $10 billion to $20 billion of its stock in an effort to close the gap between its market capitalization and investment value,” Barron’s reported.

Although both sides have proclaimed a desire to keep relations friendly, “investors say Elliott’s demand that SoftBank buy back $20bn of shares, provide more transparency on the more than 80 companies it has invested in through its Vision Fund and make governance changes, sets up a clash between Mr Son, a man who has built his career on taking huge risks, and a fund that has defined modern activist investing,” according to ft.com.

Few in the investment community are willing to bet against Son, and with good reason. “SoftBank stock closed Friday in Tokyo up 7.1% after a report from the Wall Street Journal that hedge fund Elliott Management has over time acquired a $2.5 billion stake in SoftBank and is pushing for a stock buyback and governance changes, Forbes reported. “The surge lifted Son’s net worth by $1.2 billion to $21.6 billion as of the market close on Friday in Japan. The 63-year-old owns slightly over a quarter of SoftBank and is the second-richest person in Japan behind Tadashi Yanai, founder of Uniqlo parent company Fast Retailing.”

If you have ever walked through the hallowed halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art you might have been stopped by the haunting beauty of a painting currently hanging in Gallery 634. It currently has the title of “The Rape of Tamar,” a scene from the Old Testament. Rather, its place on the wall is a testament, perhaps, to the theft of Jewish property by the Germans under the Nazi regime. Court records indicate that it was once the possession of Siegfried Aram, whose family fled for their lives from Germany in 1933.

Now deceased, Mr. Aram had argued for many years that the painting had once been his property but the work has, as for many other stolen property from Holocaust victims, changed hands and some even re-titled. Of course, the subsequent and current owners of these works claim ignorance of the provenance of these now invaluable pieces of art. Lynn Nicholas, an art expert and historian of Nazi looted art , states: “Unless somebody made a noise, it would not even have occurred to a dealer to go back and check.” Nonsense. Museums and those experts who trade in the art field have a responsibility to check the history of the pieces with which they wheel, deal and make fortunes.

But Mr. Aram, his descendants and many other Jewish victims, after so many years of their artworks being sold and resold, have a tough job not only proving their prior ownership but as well, the illegal means by which their properties were stolen from them by the Nazis and their followers. Just chew on the fact that the Nazis looted about 600,000 paintings from Jews and at least 100,000 are still missing. “Missing,” means that no one knows, or wants to know, their whereabouts. Many of these works, perhaps even the Gallery 634 piece, are now “legally” owned and proudly displayed by museums, both private and publicly owned. Case in point, a federal judge has ruled, in another instance of “Nazi stolen art,” that in the case of a Spanish museum now the “owners” of one such piece, that: “The court must apply (that nation’s) law which states that a museum or collector can keep artwork it purchased without realizing it was stolen.”

That’s one of the legal problems these victims and their families face. Sadly it resurrects the old streetwise idiom: “Possession is nine tenths of the law.”

Edited by: TJVNews.com

The much anticipated Dirshu Siyum HaShas will be held, IY’H, on Sunday, February 9th at New Jersey’s Prudential Center, the largest indoor arena in the United States. 

According to an article on the Yeshiva World News web site, for the first time ever, the two leading choirs in the world of Jewish music – the Malchus and Shira choirs – and the two best orchestras in the world of Jewish music – Hamenagnim and Freiich, with some 50 musicians between them, will appear together on one stage at the siyum. Following an unprecedented wave of requests, an additional hall has been opened that is in very close proximity  to the original hall in New Jersey.

Following an unprecedented wave of requests for the Prudential Center arena in New Jersey which contains tens of thousands of seats, all the tickets were sold out several weeks ago, and the Dirshu USA management decided to open an additional hall, the NJPAC which holds thousands more seats, to accommodate those who wish to participate in the great event.

Dirshu opened the chain of siyumim worldwide when it held its siyum event at the Jerusalem International Convention Center on Motzai Shabbos Chanuka – the event which served as the first of all the siyumim in the Jewish world, and it is also the Dirshu organization which is closing the series of siyumim for the 12th Daf Hayomi cycle, as was reported by YWN.

An expected 45,000 people will attend the siyum with the participation of maranan v’rabanan, shlita, from all over the Jewish world, choirs, and tens of thousands of Jews from Dirshu families in North America, according to YWN.

The delegation from Eretz Yisroel will be headed by the Sanzer Rebbe, shlita, who will complete the Shas at the important event and give chizzuk; HaGaon HaGadol Rav Dovid Cohen, shlita, member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, Rosh Yeshiva of Chevron and member of the Dirshu world presidency; HaGaon HaTzaddik Rav Shimon Galai, shlita, and HaGaon HaTzaddik Rav Aharon Toisig, shlita.

This time Dirshu is breaking historical records with its musical production. For the first time ever, the two leading choirs in the world of Jewish music – the Malchus Choir from Israel and the Shira Choir from the United States, as well as the two best orchestras in the world of Jewish music – Hamenagnim and Freiich, with some 50 musicians between them, will perform together on the same stage, according to the YWN report.

During the event, which will set new records for investing efforts into siyumei haShas, Dirshu’s new and poignant melodies which were composed especially for the series of siyumei haShas will be sung in honor of the Torah, with Shalom Wagshal presiding over the musical production. YWN reported that artist and composer, Reb Mona Rosenblum, will present an incredible composition “Behisasef Roshei Am”, which was written especially for the occasion and will be performed by Reb Motty Steinmetz and Reb Zanvil Weinberger. 

YWN reported that the event will include additional songs by the Hamenagnim Orchestra and the Malchus Choir and singers Reb Yisroel Adler, Reb Shlomie Cohen, Eli Herzlich, Zanvil Weinberger, Ahrele Samet, and child soloist Dudi Hershkop, conducted by Moishy Roth, Ruvi Banet, and Moshe Laufer. The event is produced by MC Productions.

A special and moving 30-minute presentation will also be screened, “Hiney Yomim Bo’im” which was prepared by Reb Mordechai Tzin and Reb Yosef Pollack, and moves between the two world wars and describes the great blow struck to the glorious world of European Jewry. YWN reported that the special presentation, which includes live exhibits on the stage, touchingly tells the amazing story of a father and son who were at the World Congress of Agudas Yisroel in Vienna in 1923. It moves between various places in the history of Europe’s Jews on the eve of its great destruction, and demonstrates the importance of the daf gemorra in continuing the chain of the generations, as was reported by YWN.

 At the NJPAC venue, musical giants Reb Levy Falkowitz and Reb Motty Ilowitz will appear together with the orchestra of Reb Shia Berko, with selected parts from the central arena broadcast to the nearby hall throughout the evening. (YWN).

Facebook determined the page violated community standards for hate speech, company spokesman Daniel Roberts said in an email. The page was removed Wednesday.

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Facebook has agreed to shutter the public page of a group the administration has identified as anti-Semitic, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday, according to an AP report.

Murphy, a Democrat, said in a joint statement with Attorney General Gurbir Grewal that the social media giant agreed to “take down the public page” of a group called Rise Up Ocean County, which is focused on development in the shore community.

“We appreciate that Facebook has now decided that this kind of hateful rhetoric has no place on its platform,” Murphy and Grewal said in the statement, as was reported by AP.

Facebook determined the page violated community standards for hate speech, company spokesman Daniel Roberts said in an email. The page was removed Wednesday, according to the AP report.

The development comes after Grewal’s office wrote in April to Facebook to make the social network aware of the page.

Among the posts on the group page, according to the attorney general, was a video in which the group predicted that a group of Orthodox rabbis would lead to the “colonization” of Lakewood, in Ocean County, the AP reported. Another comment on the site referenced the Holocaust and called for getting “rid of them like like Hitler did,” according to the attorney general.

AP reported that last year Facebook cracked down on what it called “dangerous individuals,” banning accounts it said violated its policy. The company has said it has always banned people or groups that proclaim a violent or hateful mission or are engaged in acts of hate or violence, regardless of political ideology, was was reported by AP.

For years, social media companies have been under pressure from civil rights groups and other activists to clamp down on hate speech on their services. After the deadly white nationalist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, Google, Facebook and PayPal began banishing extremist groups and people who identified as or supported white supremacists.

Taking a leading and formidable role in having the anti-Semitic Facebook page taken down was the Simon Wiesenthal Center. 

In a public statement that was posted on Thursday, the SWU said, “After having Wiesenthal Center’s Eastern Director Michael Cohen spend countless days and hours beginning last January, working alongside local community partners in Lakewood, Toms River, Jackson and throughout Ocean County NJ, including Agudath Israel of America, local elected officials, the Governor and the Attorney General; the hate site “Rise Up Ocean County” was finally removed from Facebook yesterday. With a two pronged strategy of discrediting the site and making every attempt to have Facebook take its page down and off of its platform, success was finally had yesterday and a strong message was sent that we will be relentless and tireless in combating anti-Semitism and hate on social media platforms.

SWC would like to extend its appreciation to the Governor and Attorney General for their continued and commendable efforts in making sure to publicly call out Rise Up Ocean County as a hate site at every public opportunity.”

The Wiesenthal Center also said: “The coalition that worked long and hard toward this result was specifically effective due to the true diversity of Ocean County leaders working together against hate demonstrating how much stronger we are when standing together. United, we were able to work to have the Ocean County Freeholders pass a Wiesenthal Center drafted resolution specifically condemning the Holocaust distortion and anti-Semitic stereotypes constantly being presented and posted by the Rise Up Ocean County site and Facebook page. Together we worked collectively and diligently to ensure that Ocean County residents had their leadership make it clear that the sites’ activities were considered taboo and inciting hate and should be recognized as isolated from mainstream discussions on community issues.”  

Four-day trip to Israel will build upon economic relationship, strengthen ties from Governor Murphy’s 2018 trip

 Edited by: TJVNews.com

Choose New Jersey will return to Israel to lead a four-day economic mission trip to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem from February 10 to February 13. The delegation will build upon the progress from Governor Murphy’s October 2018 trip and look to strengthen existing economic ties, cultivate further investment opportunities in New Jersey, and deepen connections between New Jersey and Israel.

 “Choose New Jersey is looking forward to returning to Israel with an academic and business delegation to attract more businesses to our State and forge new collaborations,” said Jose Lozano, President & CEO of Choose New Jersey. “New Jersey is the ideal location for international businesses to plant their flag and we welcome innovative Israeli companies that are looking to grow in the United States.”

 The trip includes key meetings with government and industry leaders, including representatives from cybersecurity, UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles), technology, life sciences and health care industries. The Choose New Jersey delegation will also host an event with the Israeli Chamber of Commerce and meet with a number of companies interested in investing in New Jersey.

 Throughout the trip, the delegation members will tout New Jersey’s innovation ecosystem, showcase partnership opportunities with the State’s world-class universities and highlight why New Jersey is the best place for Israeli companies to live, work, and do business.              

 Home to the fourth largest Israel-born population and the fourth largest population of Israeli ancestry in the United States, New Jersey has a longstanding cultural relationship to Israel. The State of New Jersey demonstrated its commitment to Israel with the formation of the New Jersey-Israel Commission in 1989. The Commission works to promote cultural and educational exchanges and to encourage capital investment and joint business ventures. Choose New Jersey worked in close partnership with the New Jersey-Israel Commission to plan the mission to Israel.

Choose New Jersey President & CEO Jose Lozano will lead a delegation which includes: 

• Cathy Scangarella, Chief Business Development Officer, Choose New Jersey
• Mariel Meskunas, Chief of Staff, Choose New Jersey
• Sho Islam, Business Development Officer, Choose New Jersey
• Nicole Mahon, Event Manager, Choose New Jersey
• Andrew Gross, Executive Director, New Jersey-Israel Commission, State of New Jersey
• Jared Maples, Director, New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, State of New Jersey
• James Blazar, Chief Strategy Officer, Hackensack Meridian Health
• Diane Reynolds, Partner, McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP
• Christopher Paladino, President, New Brunswick Development Corporation (DEVCO)
• Gurdeep Kaur, CSIO, Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG)
• Donald Sebastian, Senior VP of Technology & Business Development, NJIT; President, New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII)
• Coleen Burrus, Director, Corporate Engagement and Foundation Relations, Princeton University
• Beena Sukumaran, Ph.D., Vice President for Research, Rowan University
• Steven Weinstein, Esq., Executive Vice President for Policy and External Relationships/Partnerships, Rowan University
• David Kimball, SVP, Research & Economic Development, Rutgers University

Choose New Jersey and the delegation will be posting on social media during the trip using the hashtag #NJIsraelMission. You can follow their activities on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. 

About Choose New Jersey

Choose New Jersey is a privately funded 501(c)(3) nonprofit economic development organization. Our mission is to stimulate job creation and attract capital investment to New Jersey. We market New Jersey both domestically and internationally as the best place to grow your business in the United States. Our knowledgeable, experienced staff, supported by a network of State agencies and private partners, provide free, confidential assistance to guide companies in establishing operations here. By harnessing the power of business, labor, academic and government leaders, we enable growth across all sectors of our State’s economy. We aspire to build a stronger and more prosperous New Jersey for all. For more information, visit www.choosenj.com.