RSS
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.
—
The post Alan Hevesi, tarnished NYC pol who championed Holocaust restitution, dies at 83 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
RSS
Trump Hosts Qatari Prime Minister After Israeli Attack in Doha
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
US President Donald Trump held dinner with the Qatari prime minister in New York on Friday, days after US ally Israel attacked Hamas leaders in Doha.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with an attack in Qatar on Tuesday, a strike that risked derailing US-backed efforts to broker a truce in Gaza and end the nearly two-year-old conflict. The attack was widely condemned in the Middle East and beyond as an act that could escalate tensions in a region already on edge.
Trump expressed annoyance about the strike in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sought to assure the Qataris that such attacks would not happen again.
Trump and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani were joined by a top Trump adviser, US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
“Great dinner with POTUS. Just ended,” Qatar’s deputy chief of mission, Hamah Al-Muftah, said on X.
The White House confirmed the dinner had taken place but offered no details.
The session followed an hour-long meeting that al-Thani had at the White House on Friday with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
A source briefed on the meeting said they discussed Qatar’s future as a mediator in the region and defense cooperation in the wake of the Israeli strikes against Hamas in Doha.
Trump said he was unhappy with Israel’s strike, which he described as a unilateral action that did not advance US or Israeli interests.
Washington counts Qatar as a strong Gulf ally. Qatar has been a main mediator in long-running negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and for a post-conflict plan for the territory.
Al-Thani blamed Israel on Tuesday for trying to sabotage chances for peace but said Qatar would not be deterred from its role as mediator.
RSS
Trump Urges NATO Countries to Halt Russian Oil Purchases
US President Donald Trump gestures during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Aug. 26, 2025. Photo: Jonathan Ernst via Reuters Connect
i24 News – US President Donald Trump issued a letter to NATO nations on Saturday, impressing upon them to stop purchasing Russian oil and impose major sanctions on the regime of Vladimir Putin to end its war in Ukraine.
“I am ready to do major Sanctions on Russia when all NATO Nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all NATO Nations STOP BUYING OIL FROM RUSSIA. As you know, NATO’S commitment to WIN has been far less than 100%, and the purchase of Russian Oil, by some, has been shocking! It greatly weakens your negotiating position, and bargaining power, over Russia,” the message read.
“Anyway, I am ready to ‘go’ when you are. Just say when? I believe that this, plus NATO, as a group, placing 50% to 100% TARIFFS ON CHINA, to be fully withdrawn after the WAR with Russia and Ukraine is ended, will also be of great help in ENDING this deadly, but RIDICULOUS, WAR. China has a strong control, and even grip, over Russia, and these powerful Tariffs will break that grip.”
Trump’s post comes after the recent flight of multiple Russian drones into Poland, widely perceived an escalatory move by Russia as it was entering the airspace of a NATO ally. Poland intercepted the drones, yet Trump played down the severity of the incident and Russia’s motives by saying it “could have been a mistake.”
RSS
Netanyahu Says Getting Rid of Hamas Chiefs in Qatar Would Remove Main Obstacle to Gaza Deal
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the US Independence Day reception, known as the annual “Fourth of July” celebration, hosted by Newsmax, in Jerusalem, Aug. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that getting rid of Hamas chiefs living in Qatar would remove the main obstacle to releasing all hostages and ending the war in Gaza.
Israel on Tuesday targeted the Hamas leadership in Doha.