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A dispute over fake IDs led a teen to accuse a 5-star hotel of Holocaust denial — and rope in Drake
(New York Jewish Week) – The Mark, a glitzy Upper East Side hotel, has become ensnared in a legal dispute with the 19-year-old scion of a wealthy Jewish family who has allegedly accused the hotel of antisemitism and Holocaust denial.
The hotel has called those accusations baseless — its general manager swore in a legal filing that the hotel recognizes the Holocaust as “one of the most horrific events in history” — and recently sued the teen, Theodore Weintraub, for defamation.
The Mark is an exclusive five-star venue that has hosted A-list celebrities for the Met Gala and rents its penthouse suite for $75,000 a night. In its lawsuit, The Mark says Weintraub began making the accusations after the hotel turned him away two years ago for using a fake ID.
Weintraub, the son of Manhattan cardiologist and art collector Dr. Philip Weintraub, started staging regular protests outside the hotel two years after he was banned in 2021 for repeatedly trying to order drinks from the bar, the suit alleges.
Those protests have escalated in recent months, according to the lawsuit and local reports. (The local news site Patch was the first to report the ongoing conflict.) Hotel staff allege Weintraub and another unidentified protester have held signs declaring “The Mark Denies the Holocaust,” have accused the hotel of spreading disease and have paid at least one other protester to make similar chants. He has also accused the hotel of aiding the late Jewish child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who maintained a residence blocks from the hotel and mentioned it in his “black book” of contacts.
In July, Weintraub allegedly took matters a step further when the Jewish rapper and actor Drake stayed at The Mark. According to the lawsuit, Weintraub first attempted to keep hotel staff from preparing for Drake’s arrival, then tried to block Drake’s entry into the hotel by yelling that The Mark denied the Holocaust, leading to a fistfight between him and the rapper’s fans. Another instance — in which Weintraub or another protester chanted “The Mark helped Epstein” while Drake exited the hotel — was caught on video.
Hotel staff thought they had resolved things with Weintraub after initially banning him from the premises when he was 17, only to find him return to the Mark with his father a month later for a dinner reservation. At first the younger Weintraub reportedly tried to beg forgiveness from staff, then pivoted to loudly accusing them of being antisemitic. His father calmed him down, but Weintraub began his harassment campaign anew two years later, the suit claims.
The lawsuit seeks to bar Weintraub from the premises, as well as keep him from publicly claiming the hotel denies the Holocaust, spread disease or supported Epstein. The charge of Holocaust denial particularly upset the hotel’s general manager, Etienne Haro, who wrote in an affidavit that the hotel “has Jewish ownership” and that “the notion that we deny the Holocaust is a spurious attempt to damage our reputation and relationships.” (The Mark is owned by Alexico Group, a real estate development company whose president Izak Senbahar is a Turkish-born Jew.)
In the affidavit, Haro elaborated that the luxury hotel “recognizes both the existence of the Holocaust as well as the fact that it was one of the most horrific events in history — including, among other things, the murder of six million Jews in an attempted genocide.”
Weintraub lives with his father, and attempts to reach him via his father were unsuccessful. For his part, Weintraub told the New York Post recently that “the truth will come out.”
After putting his picture on the front page of the paper over the headline “SORE BOOZER,” the Post interviewed Weintraub, who told them he was now sober. He claimed that he stopped drinking five months before the lawsuit says his protests started.
He added, “I got nothing against Drake.”
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The post A dispute over fake IDs led a teen to accuse a 5-star hotel of Holocaust denial — and rope in Drake appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.