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Alan Hevesi, tarnished NYC pol who championed Holocaust restitution, dies at 83
(New York Jewish Week) — Former New York City Comptroller Alan Hevesi, grandson of a chief rabbi of Budapest and a leader in the fight to recover assets of Holocaust survivors before corruption charges ended his political career, died Thursday in an assisted living home on Long Island. He was 83.
The nearly lifelong resident of Forest Hills represented the Queens, New York community in the state Assembly for more than 20 years before being elected city comptroller in 1993. Using the gears of government, in 1997 he barred the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) from leading a $1.3 billion letter of credit deal with the city, punishing the bank for failing to cooperate fully in helping Holocaust victims recover lost assets.
The next year he outlined sanctions on Swiss banks in an effort to force them to continue negotiations on lost and stolen assets in their coffers. He also pressured Deutsche Bank, which was seeking to buy New York-based Bankers Trust Corp., to contribute to a slave-labor reparations fund.
“I believe that if international institutions want to participate in the global economy they have to accept global values, and providing restitution for Holocaust survivors is part of that,” Hevesi told the N.Y. Daily News in 1998.
He was elected state comptroller in 2002 after losing the Democratic primary for mayor the previous year.
He resigned from office in 2006, after winning a second term, in a plea bargain with the Albany District Attorney in which he admitted using state employees and vehicles to chauffeur his ailing wife, Carol. In 2010, he pleaded guilty to a second-degree corruption charge, acknowledging he accepted $1 million in gifts from a friend and political backer. For that charge he served 20 months in prison.
“I want them to see [the mistake] in the context of a 35-year career in public service,” he told the Forward in 2006, referring to his former supporters. “I wrote the nursing home reform law. I wrote the law saying there will be no medical experiments on human beings — based on the Nuremberg [Code]. I think there’s been a rush to judgment.”
Hevesi, who was born in Manhattan, was the son of Jewish immigrants who left Hungary in 1938 to escape the Nazis. His paternal grandfather, Simon Hevesi, was rabbi of Budapest’s famed Dohány Street synagogue, and served as the chief rabbi of Hungary from 1927 until his death in 1943. Of the relatives who remained in Hungary, 55 were murdered in concentration camps.
Hevesi’s father, Eugene, was an official with the American Jewish Committee. His mother, Alicia, was a music publisher. Alan Hevesi was president of the Bnai Zion fraternal organization in the early part of the 2000s and often attended meetings of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. As comptroller he made investment in Israel a priority, including $100 million in biotech and other industries there, arguing that they not only helped the Jewish state but would bring solid returns for New York’s pension-holders.
Carol, his wife, died in 2015. Survivors include Andrew Hevesi, an Assembly member from Queens; Daniel Hevesi, a former State Senator; a daughter, Laura Hevesi, and three grandchildren.
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The post Alan Hevesi, tarnished NYC pol who championed Holocaust restitution, dies at 83 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.