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This tight-knit Jewish family has run Mendel Goldberg Fabrics since 1890
(New York Jewish Week) — On Hester Street between Orchard and Allen, tucked away among trendy cafes, high-end clothing boutiques and a smattering of mom-and-pop shops, a green storefront with gold lettering that reads “Mendel Goldberg Fabrics” proudly boasts its year of establishment: 1890.
When Goldberg began his eponymous business more than 130 years ago, the Lower East Side was a neighborhood teeming with Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe — Goldberg and his wife, Chana Henna, had themselves arrived in New York City in the late 19th century, fleeing antisemitism in Poland. Like so many other entrepreneurial immigrants, he sold thread from a pushcart. Eventually, the pushcast turned into a brick-and-mortar store at 72 Hester Street — where the business has remained ever since.
Today, the business is owned and operated by Alice Goldberg, Mendel’s great-granddaughter and the fourth-generation owner of Mendel Goldberg Fabrics. Over the decades, the shop has expanded its inventory from threads and tailoring supplies to silks and other high-end fabrics.
“The store is completely different now, because every generation did something different in this business,” said Alice Goldberg, who grew up watching her father at the store. “Mendel was selling thread from a pushcart. Alexander, his son, started selling silks and other tailoring supplies to the fur trade. My father, Samuel, was selling to Macy’s and Gimbels, who at that point had large fabric departments in New York, as well as starting to import from Europe.”
When Goldberg joined the business about 30 years ago, the store had already been around for a century. So, like her father and his father before him, she pivoted. “I went in the direction of the only thing I knew, which was high-end couture,” she said. “It was my background and all I was used to wearing. When I came in, the wall was a whole row of polyester fabric. It was selling very well; my father did very well with what he sold. But I needed to do what I knew, which was high-end designer.”
Goldberg sources most of her fabrics from Europe — Italy, Switzerland and France — which she purchases on yearly solo trips. These days, the store’s customers run the gamut from Broadway and television costume designers to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and anyone else in need of luxury fabric. Both the recent season of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and the upcoming season of Netflix’s “Bridgerton” feature dresses made from fabrics bought at Mendel Goldberg. Another high-profile client, Elaine Kaufman, the late proprietress of Elaine’s Restaurant on the Upper East Side, had 400 dresses custom made from fabrics bought at the store.
“The neighborhood is completely different,” Goldberg said, referring to the influx of boutiques, bars and cafes that have moved into the area since she started working there.
In 1890, the year Mendel Goldberg established his business, thousands of Jewish immigrants were arriving in New York from Eastern Europe. At the same time, the American garment industry was undergoing a rapid expansion, with New York City and the Lower East Side, in particular, emerging as a center. Many of these Jewish immigrants found jobs in the garment industry, in particular; according to the historian Howard Sachar, “By 1897 approximately 60 percent of the New York Jewish labor force was employed in the apparel field, and 75 percent of the workers in the industry were Jewish.”
Inside Mendel Goldberg Fabrics, the inventory may have changed, but the family’s integrity and dedication to the business remains the same. The walls of the store are covered in heaps of high-end, boutique colorful fabrics: silk, brocade, bouclé, wool, viscose, cotton, lace and linen. Family photographs from every generation are tacked up with pride.
Every weekday, Goldberg drives from her Upper East Side apartment to the store. There, she and manager Louis Ortega — who has been with Mendel Goldberg even longer than she has and is considered a member of the family — pull fabrics, cut orders and ship them out across the world, from California to Vietnam to New Zealand. They handle orders by phone and FaceTime, through an online system, as well as by appointment and from walk-in foot traffic in person. Goldberg’s daughter, Josepha, also works at the store and is likely to take over one day as the fifth-generation owner.
Alice Goldberg and the store’s manager Luis Ortega hold up fabrics inside the Lower Easy Side store, June 29, 2023. (Julia Gergely, design by Mollie Suss)
Goldberg pointed out that the store has always had a large Jewish clientele. “The Orthodox need fabric for shul, for yontif, for aufruf, for sheva brachot, for weddings, for bar and bat mitzvahs,” she said.
In fact, Goldberg’s first memorable sale was to a Hasidic mother who was buying fabric for her 16-year-old daughter. “I knew less than nothing,” Goldberg said, adding that she was able to find her a pink and green cotton fabric that would breathe and stay airy in the summer while still following community standards of tznius, or modesty.
After that, “I knew I had to shop for special fabrics for this clientele,” Goldberg, who is Modern Orthodox, said. With Hasidic and Orthodox men and women in mind, she sourced fabrics with a more conservative style — navys, blacks and whites, with elegant floral prints. To this day, many of Goldberg’s sales are in Hasidic Williamsburg, she said.
What’s more, the business is infused with Jewish values: “My father taught me to follow the Jewish laws of business,” Goldberg said. “It’s critical; the laws of the weights and measures; always pay your help and your suppliers before you take any money; close Shabbat and yom tov [holidays].”
Every fabric is also checked for shatnez — meaning that if it contains both linen and wool, it is prohibited by Jewish law. “If you follow the laws, you’re gonna do OK,” she said. “That’s what he [my father] taught me.”
“The truth is, the fact that I can carry this on and be a fourth-generation owner and keep the legacy alive for my family means everything to me,” she said. “My father left me the responsibility with confidence. So I’ve never let him down.”
To that end, Goldberg is a constant presence at the store. “When she wants to take a vacation, she only lasts three days,” Ortega said.
“I’m not a vacation gal,” responded Goldberg unabashedly.
In 2012, the store suffered from a devastating electrical fire. Despite the damage, Goldberg insisted she had to stay open: She rented a temporary location on Broome Street and set off for Europe to replace her damaged inventory, with the assistance of her younger daughter, Alexandra, while Josepha helped run the temporary location. “They worked like dogs, selling from boxes because we didn’t have enough shelves,” Goldberg said, marveling at her daughters’ dedication and their teamwork. A year later, they were back in the original building.
For Goldberg, living up to the legacy of her great-grandparents Mendel and Chana Henna; her grandparents, Alexander and Ida; and her parents, Samuel and Illean, is what keeps her going.
“This business survived because of the family. Mendel and Chana were immigrants. Every generation just ran with it and did well with it,” said Goldberg, tears welling in her eyes. “We’re going to continue. Family is the essence of this business.”
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The post This tight-knit Jewish family has run Mendel Goldberg Fabrics since 1890 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
The Trump administration has imposed sweeping sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, citing the UN official’s lengthy record of singling out Israel for condemnation.
In a post on X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions under a February executive order targeting those who “prompt International Criminal Court (ICC) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.” He accused Albanese of waging “political and economic warfare” against both nations and asserted that “such efforts will no longer be tolerated.”
“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Rubio announced on X/Twitter.
“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” declared the Trump administration’s top foreign affairs official. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”
Rubio concluded: “The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”
The decision to impose sanctions on Albanese marks an escalation in the ongoing feud between the White House and the United Nations over Israel. The Trump administration has repeatedly accused the UN and Albanese of unfairly targeting Israel and mischaracterizing the Jewish state’s conduct in Gaza.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, has held the position of UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. The position authorizes her to monitor and report on alleged “human rights violations” by Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Last week, Albanese issued a scathing report accusing companies of helping Israel maintain a so-called “genocide economy.” She called on the companies to cut off economic ties with Israel and warned that they might be guilty of “complicity” in the so-called “genocide” in Gaza.
Critics of Albanese have long accused her of exhibiting an excessive anti-Israel bias, calling into question her fairness and neutrality.
Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish state.
In the months following the Palestinian terrorist group’s atrocities across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Albanese accused the Jewish state of perpetrating a “genocide” against the Palestinian people in revenge for the attacks and circulated a widely derided and heavily disputed report alleging that 186,000 people had been killed in the Gaza war as a result of Israeli actions.
The action comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington, where he has received a warm reception from the Trump administration. Netanyahu has been meeting with US officials to discuss next steps in the ongoing Gaza military operation.
Gideon Sa’ar, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Israel, commended the Rubio announcement with his own post on X/Twitter, exclaiming: “A clear message. Time for the UN to pay attention!”
The post US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations
US President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
The Trump administration escalated its showdown against Harvard University on Wednesday, reporting the institution to its accreditor for alleged civil rights violations resulting from its weak response to reports of antisemitic bullying, discrimination, and harassment following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre across southern Israel.
The US Department of Education (DOE) announced the action on Wednesday. Citing Harvard’s admitted failure to treat antisemitism as seriously as it treated others forms of hatred in the past, the DOE called on the New England Commission of Higher Education to review and, potentially, revoke its accreditation — a designation which qualifies Harvard for federal funding and attests to the quality of the educational services its provides.
“Accrediting bodies play a significant role in preserving academic integrity and a campus culture conducive to truth seeking and learning,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Part of that is ensuring students are safe on campus and abiding by federal laws that guarantee educational opportunities to all students. By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers.”
The DOE, McMahon added, “expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Harvard’s Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism has acknowledged that the university administration’s handling of campus antisemitism fell well below its obligations under both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its own nondiscrimination policies.
In a 300-plus-page report, the task force compiled a comprehensive record of antisemitic incidents on Harvard’s campus in recent years — from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s endorsement of the Oct. 7 terrorist atrocities to an anti-Zionist faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as murderers of people of color. The report identified Harvard’s past refusal to afford Jews the same protections against discrimination enjoyed by other minority groups as a key source of its problem.
Coming several weeks after President Donald Trump ordered the freeze of $2.26 billion in federal research grants and contracts for Harvard, the task force report found it was “clear” that antisemitism and anti-Israel bias have been fomented, practiced, and tolerated not only at Harvard but also within academia more widely.”
The university is now suing the federal government over the funding halt.
President Trump has spoken scathingly of Harvard, calling it, for example, an “Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institute … with students being accepted from all over the world that want to rip our Country apart” in an April post to his Truth Social platform.
In recent weeks, however, both Trump and McMahon had commended Harvard’s constructive response in negotiations over reforms the administration has asked it to implement as a precondition for restoring federal funds. The requested reforms include hiring more conservative faculty, shuttering diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] programs, and slashing the size of administrative offices tangential to the university’s central educational mission.
The administration has since changed its tone in the wake of a report by The Harvard Crimson that interim Harvard President Alan Garber has said “behind closed doors” that he has no intention of doing anything that would make Harvard more palatable to conservatives.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism issued Harvard a formal “notice of violation” of civil rights law. Charging that Harvard willfully exposed Jewish students to a flood of racist and antisemitic abuse both in and outside of the classroom, it threatened to strip whatever remains of Harvard’s federal funding.
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” wrote the federal officials comprising the multiagency Task Force. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.”
In Wednesday’s announcement, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Harvard’s conduct “forfeits the legitimacy that accreditation is designed to uphold.”
“HHS and Department of Education will actively hold Harvard accountable through sustained oversight until it restores public trust and ensures a campus free of discrimination,” he said.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks
IDF operating in southern Lebanon. Photo: IDF Spokesperson
Israeli forces uncovered and destroyed Hezbollah weapons caches in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, as a new report indicated that despite ongoing U.S.-led efforts to secure a disarmament deal, the Iran-backed group is making repeated, largely concealed attempts to rebuild its military presence in the area.
Troops carried out several operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning, destroying weapons depots, explosives and multibarrel launchers concealed in forested terrain, the IDF said, in violation of the November ceasefire, which requires Hezbollah to withdraw its forces 20 miles from the Israeli border.
A new report released this week by the Alma Research and Education Center found that Hezbollah is focused on rebuilding in three areas: operational deployment, weapons acquisition, and financial recovery.
“Hezbollah didn’t give up its resistance narrative and motivation,” Alma’s director, Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, told The Algemeiner.
“It wants to rebuild its capabilities and infrastructures, whether it’s the villages that will be used as human shields or the military infrastructure in South Lebanon and in Lebanon in general.”
According to Zehavi, Hezbollah is attempting to return Radwan fighters to positions south of the Litani River as part of a wider plan to restore its elite forces to operational readiness. The IDF on Monday killed Radwan commander Ali Abd al-Hassan Haidar in a targeted strike. The action came hours after US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut to discuss a long-term deal that would include an Israeli withdrawal and complete disarmament of Hezbollah.
Barrack described the Lebanese response to the proposal as positive. Later, he issued a blunt warning to Hezbollah in response to a vow by the terror group’s leader, Naim Qassem, not to lay down its arms. “If they mess with us anywhere in the world, they will have a serious problem with us,” Barrack said in an interview with Lebanese news network LBCI. “They don’t want that.”
Zehavi said it was premature to predict the outcome of the diplomatic efforts. She warned that the challenge of disarming Hezbollah remains enormous and emphasized that the Lebanese Armed Forces have not demonstrated the capability or willingness to confront the group.
“It’s too soon to be optimistic or pessimistic,” she said, noting that no firm commitments have emerged from the Beirut talks.
Hezbollah’s efforts to smuggle and manufacture weapons have been complicated by both Israeli strikes and the regional realignment over recent months. While Israeli strikes have disrupted many supply routes, according to Zehavi, Syrian authorities have intercepted far more Hezbollah-bound weapons than the Lebanese Army, which claims to have uncovered 500 arms caches but has provided no evidence.
The financial front marks the third aspect of Hezbollah’s rebuilding effort. Last week, the group halted cash payments to Shiite civilians whose homes were damaged in the war, citing liquidity problems. Zehavi attributed the shortfall to disruptions in Iran’s funding networks — an outcome of the 12-day war against the regime in Tehran — and said the constraints would likely hamper Hezbollah’s ability to compensate its base and sustain operations.
“I hope they will continue to have problems with the cash flow, that way it will be very difficult for them to recover,” she said.
The post IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.