Israel’s new consul general visits to support the hotel.

On August 13, Yuval Donio-Gideon, who serves as consul for public diplomacy, informed me that the consul general is highly aware of the violent pro-Hamas activism that has spread in New York City since October 7 and was concerned about the boycott of our high-profile NYC Jewish family establishment, The Historic Blue Moon Hotel. Yuval told me the consul general would like to visit and find out more about our iconic project and our current dilemma, and he advised me to keep the pending visit confidential due to security concerns. Over the next week, Chief Operating Officer Noa Zohar and I communicated about the barrage of hate that is being torpedoed at the hotel in a storm of emails and social media directives. We set a meeting for August 30 for a private tour and discussion over lunch about our situation.

No Rest for the Weary

Since July 21, there has been no respite from the venomous attacks by email, phone calls, social media and review forums reeking from keyboard-raging Islamist supporters’ projections of infanticide pouring in from around the globe.

Yelp Review From Amsterdam

“However, no matter what I tried, I could not get a good night’s sleep here. I’m used to sleeping in an urban environment, but as soon as I would start drifting off, I could hear the blood curdling screams of children, thousands and thousands of children screaming in fear and pain. If I did manage to sleep, I had nightmares with themes of treachery, mendacity, murder and theft.”

The glut of obviously staged malicious online reviews have at times been disabled by regulating bots, which relieves the malignant sting but further marginalizes our online presence.

Incoming emails are a dumping ground for ominous threats and repetitive nasty expletives:

“Let’s close this Jewish concern, we want to know when you are around, We’re coming to get you, when is your son coming back, I want to give him a hug. You live at xxxx, we know where you are. &$%#Israel. @#$king Nazi genocidal state. @#$% israel @#$% israel. Free Palestine from the river to the sea. Cucarachas Nazis. Name @#$%israel email @#$%[email protected], @#$%israel. From the river to the sea. @#$%Israel. Free Palestine. Free Palestine from the river to the sea. Nasty cucarachas nazis. Nazis 2.0.”

Listed as Genocide Supporter

ArabBrit: They have an employee committing war crimes and genocide representing their hotel. BDS would be happy to add them to the list.

Aymon Housh Hadrian @Hadrian_Rom ·Replying to @Sultan4471861 and @bluemoonhotel He should never come back; if he comes, then we have a Party.

Hadrian @Hadrian_Rom This hotel belongs to a Jewish terror family and needs to be closed in one way or another. No mercy!!!

On August 25, HASMIK cheerleaders returned for an up-close and personal visit.

The Fashion Institute of Technology’s Students for Justice in Palestine branch paid us a visit to the Historic Blue Moon Hotel. The fashionista kaffiyeh trending branch of SJP staged a makeshift runway, sporting laptops displaying slideshows as they posed with contempt; handing out flyers and indiscriminately chiming in chants of “Boycott Zion Nazi Blue Moon Hotel,” and other not so catchy phrases. They hoped to discourage visitors from attending our Sweet Dreams Kosher Café and restaurant; they took a second position opposite the hotel in front of the Tenement Museum to rant about our son’s IDF service and malign the hotel.

Luigi, a Messianic Christian who on occasion volunteers at the hotel, was out front cleaning up the exterior; he was already disgusted by the October 7th massacre and well aware of the Palestinian blame game. Luigi gave them hell about the psychotic, depraved and murderous acts committed by Gazan Arabs. He did not allow them to impinge his space as he performed a water dance with a garden hose cleaning the area directly in front of the hotel.

Soon thereafter we received support from congressional challenger Mike Zumbluskas and his staff. Mike arrived with a sincere group of concerned citizens waving a six-foot American flag. He spoke intelligently and with reason to an ugly and unprincipled band hell bent on defending the indefensible. Mike is a community activist who should be noted for challenging Congressman Jerry Nadler, a Jewish politician who signed Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action which was meant to slow Iran’s nuclear ambitions via appeasement; however, as appeasement goes it was a $150B donation which in actuality served to prop up the Mullahs’ crumbling regime, subsidize Hezbollah and Hamas and made the long-awaited breakout time on Iran’s highly coveted atomic bomb ambition many steps closer to reality.

They were not interested in our Last Jewish Tenement tour nor in the art and history portrayed. Similarly, they were not the slightest bit curious about the National Geographic choice of our hotel as one of 150 in the Western Hemisphere to check into. They were fixated on targeting Bram Settenbrino, an outstanding soldier who was chosen in 2023 as soldier of the year of his combat engineering unit and in 2024 selected to have a Seder with the Prime Minister.

Mike Ben Yaakov, commander of the IDU: “Bram Settenbrino made aliyah from the States and joined the Israel Dog Unit. During his tour of duty, he found three missing people and helped save many lives. He then moved on to join The IDF Engineer Corps and has been fighting deep in Gaza for the past two months, since the horrific Simchat Torah massacre.”

Achiya, Bram’s Platoon Commander: “Bram fought with us in Gaza and made a really good effort, was with us in maneuvers and raids, and fought fiercely.”

MK Dov Lipman: “Bram left New York to enlist in the IDF as a lone soldier. He entered Gaza to fight Hamas on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people.”

Israel’s New Consul-General Arrives in Support of The Historic Blue Moon Hotel

We closed Sweet Dreams Café and restaurant to limit traffic. The Consul General arrived with his staff at 11 a.m. He was warm, friendly and genuinely interested in our project. After an exterior tour, he proceeded to peruse the 14 collages of the lives loved and lost at 100 Orchard Street. He stopped briefly to call his wife and daughter to join us and share the experience. The day felt as if we were spending quality time with our extended family. At the next stop we checked out our Yiddish theater floor and explored a suite dedicated to the Yiddishe diva Molly Picon. We sat out on the wide balcony where every building of note was visible. A bird’s eye view of Orchard street made it easy to imagine the 2 million Jews who traversed the Lower East Side and who made astonishing contributions to American life.

Across the way, One World Trade Center could be seen, standing at the site of the original Twin Towers. Ofir acknowledged September 11th as being the American equivalent to October 7th, both being a result of radical Islam, and lamented about the antisemitism in New York City. He shared his grandmother’s experience in Europe in the ’30s as a parallel for the real-time Jew hatred we are experiencing and witnessing around the world. After sharing a glass of wine on the terrace, we moved on to the extensive Italian lunch I had prepared for the consul general and his staff. We began our luncheon meeting in our dining area. We started with handmade mozzarella, paired with selected wines, and served three entrees I had prepared two hours prior to their arrival: risotto and salmon, Bolognese with rigatoni and cream pesto with fresh tuna and pignoli, which Ofir impressively exclaimed was the best dish ever. The desserts were a blueberry cake I baked for the occasion and an assortment of delicious baked goods from my wife Shaina’s onsite bakery, including her famed Lemon Tiramisu, which I compare to the status of Vienna’s coveted Sacher Torte.

I took the opportunity to speak frankly about our arduous journey and challenges in maintaining our hub of Jewish life and culture on the Lower East Side. The boycott comes at a tenuous time since we are still recuperating from the economic death throes of a 18-month pandemic closure which was exacerbated by one-size-fits-all programs that excluded us from PPP, grants or any helpful program offered. City, state and federal agencies talk a big game of community arts, family business and economic growth; however, there is a bureaucratic indifference that contributes to the diminishment of those who drive the economy and bring benefit to their community. Despite our small size we’ve provided multiple goodwill initiatives in culinary and rehabilitative initiatives for challenged members of society, housed the former Eldridge Street Congregation for 7.5 years, all gratis, and created a kosher café and restaurant offering Klezmer and classical music for an iconic Jewish community bereft of a kosher eatery for five years.

“Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.” – John D. Rockefeller

The right thing to do in our case was to preserve a chunk of New York City history in a stately building designed by an architect of note, Julius Boekel, where former Jewish refugees, tenants and merchants are honored by 14 collages of their personal effects curated in a museum-like hotel that received a huge media triumph, and which stimulated a resurgence south of Delancey Street and buttressed the historical presence of the Tenement Museum.

Ofir, his wife and his staff members were moved by their experience at our stately hotel standing in the cradle of New York Jewish Life, a first home for over 2 million Jewish refugees fleeing pogroms, who struggled with a life of drudgery in the sink-or-swim American Depression yet managed to leave their indelible mark on America. Ofir and his staff also recognized and showed concern for our contemporary struggle with SJP, whose aspiration is to bury the only family-run Jewish hotel and restaurant left on the Lower East Side. The consul general is firm in his conviction that it is imperative for all of us to stand together, speak up and support one another, saying. “I’m calling on New Yorkers: wake up before it will be too late!”

“We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness.”– Charlie Chaplin

At the time of our most urgent need it has been kindness and unusual miracles that have sustained our family and our enterprise. Remarkably it took a man of immense responsibilities and concerns like Ofir Akunis to not just call but also spend an entire day of support with us. Ironically, we could not get a cameo appearance from any of the Jewish congressmen, senators or even the Jewish Caucus of the New York City Council to show up, let alone help our beleaguered family business, which is a poster child for preservation, arts, and Jewish cultural life.

Seeing support from volunteers during the pandemic and friends and family reaching out to help, seeing people who walk the walk. strengthens our convictions and gives us hope that we are not fighting our battles in vain. The image of Mike Zumbluskas with the American flag, the young rabbi from Nevada walking smack through a nasty and ugly crowd with his wife and three small boys to eat at our restaurant, supportive emails and people who want to donate time and money to help us, all give us the motivation to continue our mission to secure our building.

Please see the link to our website below for your consideration:

National Socialist 1933 Boycott of Jews has arrived in NYC | Lower East Side Renaissance Corp (Powered by Donorbox)