Sales of homes in Manhattan were down by 1.2% for the fourth quarter, according to a brand new report.

According to appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate, that dip represented the tiniest year-to-year drop in deals since buyers started retreating in 2017, the report said.

By: Edward Meranian

“Although some home-shoppers are still wary of overpaying in a market where prices shot up more than 50% from the bottom in 2012, more sellers are acknowledging those concerns and marking their properties down,” said Crain’s New York Business.

“If you want to sell, you have to look at the new reality, the new adjustment,” Steven James, chief executive of Douglas Elliman’s New York City division, told Crain’s. “Those who reduced the price met some encouragement and actually made deals.”

The Manhattan market “is still recalibrating after years of excess, when sellers could name a price and draw several bidders who would top it. Those days are over, replaced with a climate of rising inventory, a disappearing foreign-buyer pool and new federal laws that limit the tax benefits of ownership, especially in states such as New York with high property levies,” the business publication reported.

Hope abounds, but realism always wins. While many brokers say they’re optimistic about a potential turnaround in 2020, “real estate experts say they expect a continued — though perhaps slower — decline this year as tax pressures and rising inventory keep buyers on the sidelines,” CNBC reported.

“I think we’ll see more of the same,” Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel, told CNBC. “The problem with saying that 2020 will mark the bottom is that it suggests it will go up after that. And I think we still have another couple of years of moving sideways.”

What CNBC called the “slow bleed” in Manhattan real estate comes “despite a strong economy and record-high stock market. A new mansion tax on multimillion-dollar apartments, the new federal cap on state and local tax deductions, which makes high-tax states like New York more expensive, and a lack of foreign buyers has continued to weigh on demand. Add to that an oversupply of luxury apartments, with another 2,000 new condos coming onto the market this year, and buyers are shifting rapidly to the rental market, especially on the high end.”

Not many people were impressed with Iran’s later Major Gen. Qassem Soleimani when he was alive. And now that he’s been blasted to smithereens, local jewelers say they aren’t very impressed with the ring that was found on his cold, dead finger.

By: Rochelle Winzelberg

“Dealers believe the distinctive ring worn by Soleimani is either a red carnelian stone — believed by some Middle East Muslims as able to bestow “blessings”– or possibly an inexpensive ruby that would cost a few hundred bucks,” according to The New York Post. “From the photo, it looks like it’s a carnelian stone — it’s not a ruby; it comes from Africa,” said Maykel Rieth, a professional cutter for R Gems Inc on West 48th Street.

“The ring is made out of silver,” he continued. “It could be white gold, but it looks like silver — and whoever made a stone like this is not going to put it in gold because it’s not an expensive piece.”

Another jeweler told the Post (for the full story, see https://nypost.com/2020/01/04/its-no-hope-diamond-nyc-jewelers-not-impressed-by-ring-that-ided-soleimanis-corpse/) that, “From the looks of it, it doesn’t look like an expensive ring because it’s made out of silver, it’s not gold. From the photo the color of the ruby is dark. The brighter the ruby the more expensive, so this ring here doesn’t look that expensive,” he said, “although it’s very difficult to get an exact price from a photo.”

Democrats were quick to side with Iran in blasting Trump for the attack that killed the general. But those without a political axe to grind were elated. According to nationalinterest.org, “Qassem Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of more Americans than any terrorist leader since Osama Bin Laden. No one should mourn his death. In Iran, however, and certainly without moral equivalence, he was a revered figure like former U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, a man who advocated for the troops and was not afraid to mix with them. Inside Iran, he pulled as the most popular or second most popular figure over the course of years. As successive U.S. administrations repeatedly dropped the ball on any informational strategy to accompany the U.S. diplomatic, economic, and military approach, he filled a vacuum which capitalized on Iranian nationalism.”

“Relatively unknown in Iran until the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Soleimani’s popularity and mystique grew after American officials called for his killing. A decade and a half later, Soleimani had become Iran’s most recognizable battlefield commander, ignoring calls to enter politics but growing as powerful, if not more, than its civilian leadership,” reported AP.

“The warfront is mankind’s lost paradise,” Soleimani said in a 2009 interview with AP. “One type of paradise that is portrayed for mankind is streams, beautiful nymphs and greeneries. But there is another kind of paradise. … The warfront was the lost paradise of the human beings, indeed.”

A full 75 years after World War II ended, the destruction wrought by the Nazis is still being felt in ways great and small.

Case in point: the pathetic tug of war still being waged over ownership of a looted $8 million masterpiece.

A pair of heirs of Holocaust victims, one of whom is 98-year-old Eva Zirkl, continue to wrestle with the wealthy Lehman banking family over artwork.

The prize: a 1917 watercolor by Austrian painter Egon Schiele titled “Portrait of the Artist’s Wife.”

By: Emil Paprovksy

“The work is currently owned by the Robert Lehman Foundation — part of a fine art collection amassed by the late founder of Lehman Brothers — and was purchased in 1964 by the banker’s son Robert “Robin” Owen Lehman in London, according to court papers. It was to be put on the auction block in 2017 at Christie’s,” reported The New York Post. “But, as part of its due diligence, the auction house had alerted Jewish authorities in Vienna, seeking more information about the provenance.”

The painting “came to the attention of the rival claimants in 2016 after Lehman transferred ownership to his foundation with the intent of selling it at auction to raise funds,” according to theartnewspaper.com. “The Robert Owen Lehman Foundation consigned the watercolour to Christie’s in New York in 2016 and that April the auction house alerted the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde (IKG)—Vienna’s official Jewish orthodox community—to the work. That organization responded that the picture had belonged to Karl Maylaender, a Jewish businessman in Vienna who gave his art collection to a companion, Etelka Hofmann, before he was deported to Lodz, Poland in 1941, and was killed in Auschwitz.”

The family of another Holocaust victim, Heinrich Rieger, “who was Egon Schiele’s dentist, believe the watercolor belonged to Mr Reiger before he was killed,” noted The Daily Telegraph in London. “The Lehman Foundation now faces two separate claims from the Rieger and Zirkl families’ respective trusts in New York. Lawyers representing Mr Lehman tried to settle the dispute in “good faith” outside of the courts, but claim that neither parties were willing to meet in person to discuss their positions.”

Thaddeus Stauber, a Nixon Peabody lawyer in Los Angeles who is representing Mr Lehman in the case, told the Daily Telegraph: “We are trying to establish whether either of these claimants have a legitimate claim. Based on what they have submitted at the moment, we don’t believe either of them do. I reached out to all the parties individually and invited everyone to New York to try and reach an agreement in good faith. But for the past three years they have refused to talk to each other.”

Dozens of elected officials from the Greater New York region today joined more than 25,000 New Yorkers at “No Hate. No Fear.,” a solidarity march with New York’s Jewish community, across the Brooklyn Bridge. The march was organized by UJA-Federation of New York (UJA) and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC-NY), as well as ADL-NY, AJC-NY, and the New York Board of Rabbis following the violent, anti-Semitic attacks in Monsey, Brooklyn, and Jersey City.

Edited by: TJVNews.com

 “Today we do not simply walk over a bridge, we begin building better bridges between all denominations of Jews, and between Jews and non-Jews,” said Eric S. Goldstein, CEO of UJA-Federation of New York. “Building bridges means putting aside our differences, religious and political, and calling out anti-Semitism and all forms of hate wherever we see it. The purpose of today’s march is to loudly and publicly proclaim that an attack on a visibly Orthodox Jew is an attack on every Jew, an attack on every New Yorker, and an attack on every person of good will.”

 “The showing today of over 25,000 people representing the full spectrum of the Jewish community of New York, and many from the non-Jewish community, is a reflection of the seriousness of the plague of anti-Semitism affecting New York,” said Michael Miller, executive vice president and CEO of JCRC-NY. “We will continue to work with our political leadership locally, statewide, and nationally to address this scourge to ensure the safety and security of the Jewish community and all communities in New York.”

 Following the march, New Yorkers of all backgrounds gathered in Brooklyn’s Cadman Plaza where a number of community leaders and heads of faith-based organizations including Cardinal Timothy Dolan spoke about the recent attacks, the rise of anti-Semitism, and the need for people of all faiths to fight injustice. Additional speakers and performers during the program included Eric Goldstein, Michael Miller, Maccabeats, Devorah Halberstam, Jonathan Greenblatt, Gil Monrose, David Harris, Mehnaz Afridi, Janice Shorenstein, Frankie Miranda, Joe Potasnik, Bishop Anthony DiMarzio, Blake Flayton, Matisyahu, Eric Ward, Chaskel Bennet, Rabbi Avraham Gopin, Shulem, MaNishtana, Lawrence Aker, Rev. Que English, Eli Cohen, Amy Bressman, Bari Weiss, and Isaiah Rothstein, as well as a video message from Rabbi David Niederman.

Sen. Chuck Schumer said that he would call on Congress to boost funding to protect houses of worship, allocating $360 million for them to fortify themselves with surveillance equipment, gates and strong doors, according to a NY Post report.

“Houses of worship have become targets, whether it’s a rabbis house in the suburbs of New York or a Christian church in the suburbs of Dallas,” Schumer said, referencing a deadly shooting last week at the West Freeway Church of Christ in Texas.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo also announced that he also will beef up security at New York’s religious-based institutions, doling out an additional $45 million to help protect them against hate crimes, according to the NY Post report. 

Discrimination and racism and anti-Semitism is repugnant to every value that New Yorkers hold dear and is repugnant to every value that this country represents,” Cuomo told the crowd. “Racism and anti-Semitism is anti-American.“

But Cuomo said he was “heartened to see this amazing show of support in solidarity,” adding that Sunday’s demonstration was “New York at her best.”

“What is happened in Monsey and what is happened in Brooklyn, New York, is an attack on every New Yorker,” Cuomo said.

A report is circulating that the New York City Council is working with a transportation consultant with the goal of drafting legislation aimed at discouraging cruising for rides by Uber and Lyft drivers in Manhattan’s central business district.

By Tom Robino

Crain’s New York Business cites unnamed sources who say respected transportation analyst Charles Komanoff has been drafting a study in concert with City Council Speaker Corey Johnson. The result would an outline of the most effective way to control so-called trawling – searching for customers under 96th Street as they wait to be assigned a pickup. The aim is to cut down on traffic congestion.

“Komanoff, a longtime advocate for congestion pricing, testified before the council a year ago on ways to cut congestion, and he suggested a per-minute fee—or “time-based surcharges”—on Uber and Lyft rides within the central business district and on cruising. At that time, he was working as a consultant for a taxi company,” Crain’s reported. In fact, he went to work on ways to limit congestion in the central business district.”

Komanoff was “a prime mover in the campaign that passed a congestion pricing plan for New York City, both as creator of the spreadsheet model used by state government and transit advocates to evaluate different toll plans, and as proponent of balancing transit investment with traffic-pricing. He also directs the Carbon Tax Center, a clearinghouse for information, research and advocacy on behalf of robust and transparent carbon-emissions pricing to address the climate crisis. A math-and-economics graduate of Harvard and father of two grown sons, Komanoff lives with his wife in lower Manhattan,” according to his web site.

Traffic congestion is no mere annoyance. As DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg noted in a report several months ago, “Our roadways are more congested than ever. The number of cars entering Manhattan’s central business district continued to drop, but empty for-hire vehicles (FHVs) circling the area brought no relief from congestion. Meanwhile, vehicle registrations Citywide have increased, while freight traffic and home deliveries also continued to rise.”

It has also been the topic of wide discussion. According to a recent piece On Curbed New York, “You’re not imagining it: New York City’s streets are more congested, and slow-moving, than ever. That’s one of the results of the NYC Department of Transportation’s latest mobility survey, which looked at how New Yorkers are getting around the city—on foot, public transit, in cars, and more.

“One big takeaway: It’s taking longer than ever to get around Manhattan,” Curbed New York added. “Both citywide bus speeds and the average travel speed within the borough’s central business district (the area south of 60th Street) are the slowest they’ve been in decades Buses average 7.58 miles per hour—it was 8 miles per hour in 1990—while the travel speed in Manhattan is now just over 7 miles per hour, down from 9 miles per hour in 1990. (It’s even worse in the “Midtown Core,” where speeds average a paltry 4.9 miles per hour.)”

The Black Hebrew Israelites movement is considered a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League.

By: WIN Staff

Investigators believe that the man and woman who killed three people at a Jersey City kosher market and a police officer on Dec. 10, had ties to the anti-Semitic Black Hebrew Israelites movement.

In a Saturday write-up for the New York Post, reporter Princess Jones helps shine a light on the Black Hebrew Israelites movement, by recounting her experience of once attending a sermon at the world headquarters of the movements in New York City.

Jones, a relative of a Black Hebrew Israelite member in North Carolina, wanted to know more about the movement after watching a viral video in January of a confrontation between a group of Catholic school students and Black Hebrew Israelite street preachers during the March for Life at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.

After being allowed entry by the doorkeeper, Jones was asked by him if she was on her period.

“I wasn’t, but they must have noticed my look of shock, and explained to me that women on their periods are considered ‘unclean’ and barred from religious services,” Jones wrote.

“Before they allowed me to pass, I was searched for drugs and weapons with a metal detector. They asked me to open my purse, and demanded that I hand over my cellphone. When I asked why, they responded, ‘for security reasons,’” she added.

As she entered the sanctuary she was greeted by two “high priests” dressed “in long purple vests with gold piping and puffy white shirts.”

“On the wall behind them was a large plaque with their version of the 12 tribes of Israel: the ‘Negroes’ belong to the tribe of Judah, the Cubans to Manasseh; West Indians to Benjamin; Native Americans to Gad; the Haitians to Levi, and so on,” Jones wrote.

Jones wasn’t shocked to hear what the high priest decided to speak about, because she had already been told beforehand from her relative in North Carolina what the movement’s doctrine is all about.

“Basically, it amounted to this: Everything I had been taught in my Christian faith was a lie. Blacks were the ‘true’ children of God. We were the lost Israelite tribes. We could go to heaven if we followed the Ten Commandments and stayed away from eating pork and shellfish, among other beliefs. White people were our oppressors,” Jones wrote.

However, Jones thought it strange that the high priest skipped around the Scripture to justify his version of the word of God. Noticing her puzzlement, the high priest explained to her that “it’s how you get understanding of the word.”

Toward the end of the service, one of the high priests present reminded everyone that the church was there to help with any emotional issues if needed.

Jones believes that the priest did so because he was worried about bad publicity associated with the religion since the church is considered a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League. (World Israel News) 

Read more at: worldisraelnews.com

An op-ed in the New York Times on Wednesday stresses the importance of the march planned for this morning, Sunday, January 5th in protest of the recent rise of anti-Semitism in the city.

By: WIN Staff

The march titled “No Hate. No Fear” will leave from Foley Square in Lower Manhattan at 11 am and cross the Brooklyn Bridge; to be followed by a rally in Brooklyn’s Cadman Plaza.

The editorial, titled “It’s an Old and Insidious Hatred. And New Yorkers Can’t Stand for It,” begins by saying that New York has been home to Jews ever since the first Jewish congregation in the United States, Shearith Israel, was founded in 1654.

According to police crime data, more than half of the 421 hate crimes reported in New York City in 2019 were against Jews.

“In New York, a city of immigrants and refugees, anti-Semitism is a threat to everyone. Just like white supremacy, it flourishes like a plague when cynics and bigots inflame painful divisions and spew hate for political gain,” the editorial says.

“To protect all of us, New York needs to show up against anti-Semitism. We need to march in the streets, together.”

The march is being sponsored by the UJA-Federation of New York along with the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, the Anti-Defamation League of New York, the American Jewish Committee of New York, Americans Against Anti-Semitism, Zioness and the New York Board of Rabbis.

“The event, organized as a response to the skyrocketing anti-Semitism in Jersey City, Monsey and Brooklyn, is intended to “send the message loud and clear that we are one,” tweeted Americans Against Antisemitism’ founder Dov Hikind.

The ADL’s Tracker of Anti-Semitic Incidents reports that since the Dec. 10 massacre at a kosher grocery store in New Jersey, there have been over a dozen of anti-Semitic incidents in New York and New Jersey. (World Israel News)

DIRECTIONS

Subways to Foley Square:

1, 2, 3, A, C, J, or Z trains to Chambers Street

4, 5, 6, R, or W trains to City Hall

Once downtown:

March participants should arrive at Foley Square via the North side, at the intersection of Worth Street and Lafayette Street (also known as Federal Plaza).

Marchers who arrive via subway south of Foley Square MUST walk North up Broadway or Centre Street until Worth Street, then proceed toward the intersection of Worth and Lafayette.