Yisroel Settenbrino, artist and developer of the Historic Blue Moon Hotel and Sweet Dreams Cafe, 100 Orchard Street in Manhattan, started getting hate messages and threats on social media, email and phone on July 21. The hotel is the only kosher, Jewish hotel in New York City, and the hate messages and threats are occurring as the result of their son Bram’s IDF service in Gaza, and some social media posts that unfortunately went viral. And now, the hate has escalated into boycotts and demonstrations by Hamas supporters.
The Settenbrino family and family business have been attacked online and by protests, and boycotts have been arranged online and outside the hotel. “On August 5 we received a visit at the Historic Blue Moon Hotel and Sweet Dreams Cafe from Hamas supporters,” said Settenbrino. “They came with the express aim to ruin us economically by menacing our staff and guests with intrusive proximity to our door, shouting slogans, carrying signs to boycott the IDF and the ‘Zionist, Islamophobic Settenbrino family.’ They gathered together like a musical flash mob, and with the zeal of missionaries distributed flyers with Bram’s picture and a portrayal of our altruistic heroic son as a destroyer of mosques and a man who shoots at Arabs indiscriminately.
“We are receiving death threats, even on my cell phone. They fill up our email. They have called and threatened my wife. We are under siege and they want to destroy my business. Getting to the hotel is how they are getting to Bram.”
The Historic Blue Moon Hotel is located directly across the street from the Tenement Museum and predictably, “the pro-Hamas supporters drew an audience from the Tenement Museum. Passersby were invited to join in the taunts, rants and rage,” Settenbrino continued. He initially stood outside to protect their guests’ sense of security, opening and closing the door for them. The hotel’s day manager, Dovid, a Crypto Puerto Rican Jew who has adopted a Chabad-style dress code, intermittently weaved in and out with Settenbrino between his own responsibilities.
“We refused to be intimidated and knew we needed to hold the ground directly outside the hotel,” Settenbrino said. “But how do you keep a staff like that? We need help to secure the building.”
The pro-Islamist supporters “held signs saying, ‘Stop the genocide,’ spewed denunciations and senseless accusations as they defended the indefensible,” he continued. “Intermittently, I tried unsuccessfully to impart some facts to the sorry-looking misfits, partly because they are brainwashed and mostly because they are on the same payroll as the campus protesters.”
“The impact of this new escalation on our family business is still being processed,” Bram said, speaking with The Jewish Link. “We have a little bit of a dry spell of bookings over the next few weeks. It’s hard to say definitely that it’s related, but you can never know for sure. Guests don’t want to stay at a hotel that’s getting slammed on the internet for being involved in war crimes even if it’s not true. Our staff is a little bit on edge, and a few have even quit. Just a lot of unnecessary emotional and financial stress.”
Settenbrino shared that some of the email messages they have received have been extremely hateful, including words like “ZioNazi scum,” “genocide cocktail” and “war criminal.” But there have also been supportive messages:
“I live in Perth, Western Australia and I just wanted to send my love and support to you. The protests you are being subjected to are vile and so undeserved. Please know you are not alone. Myself and fellow Christians (genuine ones) love you and are praying for you and are so angry that these things are happening to you. May God bless you and may you know you are not alone.”
“Hello from Los Angeles! Your hotel is absolutely beautiful. And, I am saddened by the circumstances in which you find yourselves at present. I have forwarded the article to family who live in NYC and who have business there. I pray that you are FLOODED with a host of patrons who walk proudly through your doors. I can easily see that a two-week stay would suit me perfectly. (That will be my follow-up prayer.)”
“Little message for Bram. I’m also in the army right now, for two years now, and support you, I’m coming to New York at the end of the month.”
He said that his faith and Jewish values help him to navigate and walk through this current siege of hate. “B”H, I see life through a Jewish spiritual prism. We know much is hidden, nothing happens arbitrarily, Hashem is omnipresent and so we are never alone.
“I try to see past difficulties and find comfort in ancestral strength. I carry a mental icon of my Bubbie, interceding on my family’s behalf to continue a lifetime of service as she did, despite a pogrom that claimed her holy parents and four brothers. These are my spiritual resources, things I care about, help me cope with life’s fluctuations, bring me comfort, and most of all a life of meaning and purpose.”
Bram said: “In my mind, Hashem always has a plan, and I fully believe that He will help us turn this around, and come back stronger than ever. He blessed me with an amazing family who are overloaded with talent and smarts, and I have full faith that if we work hard, and count on each other, Hashem will do the rest and find us a way out.”
To help the Settenbrino family at this difficult time, or to book at their award-winning hotel, eat in their beautiful restaurant, or arrange a group to take their last Jewish Tenement tour, and view the art and memorabilia, visit http://www.bluemoon-nyc.com/
Contact [email protected] for more information.
Susan R. Eisenstein is a longtime Jewish educator, passionate about creating special, innovative activities for her students. She is also passionate about writing about Jewish topics and about Israel. She has two master’s degrees and a doctorate in education from Columbia University.
