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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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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
The post Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.