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Steven Salen, a tailor who survived the Holocaust and dressed presidents, dies at 103
NEW YORK — (JTA) — Nothing riled Steven Salen like a powerful man in a bad suit.
“‘That suit fits terribly!’” his daughter Elayne Landau recalled him as yelling at the TV, multiple times. “‘How’s he going to get elected? Elayne, send him a letter.’ He would dictate the letter. ‘I’m watching you on television. That suit fits horribly. You really look like you’re one-sided. Come see me!’
Sometimes, Landau recalled in an interview, she would even send the letter. And a couple of times there was a polite and friendly reply.
Salen, 103, died on Nov. 23 at a hospital in Manhasset, New York. He was a Holocaust survivor, a savvy war-era black marketeer, and then once landing New York, he built up a reputation as an outfitter — a “bespoke tailor,” as his family put it — to the powerful and influential, working until he was 95.
Salen loved talking about the opportunities this country gave him, but like many survivors, he didn’t begin to open up about the horrors he witnessed and suffered until late in his life — in his case, in his 90s.
He enjoyed regaling his children and grandchildren about his clients and what he designed to make them look good, recalled his granddaughter, Rachel Landau Fisher. One time, he saw an old photo of a man on a tarmac in a trim gray overcoat. Salen said he had made the coat.
The photo was of President Richard Nixon shaking hands with Chinese premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing, the launch of a history-shaking visit that thawed U.S.-China ties.
President Richard Nixon shaking hands with Chou EnLai while wearing a coat that Steven Salen told his family he’d made, Feb. 21, 1972. (U.S. National Archives)
“His grandchildren, Jake, Sofia, Rachel and Sam enjoyed his many stories, including a favorite of a Mafia client walking in on FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in his underwear during a fitting,” his granddaughter, Landau Fisher, wrote in a remembrance.
At his home in Bayside, Queens, he kept mementos of his career: Handwritten entries in ledgers spanning decades, including names like Nixon, and his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger. A framed 1980 check from former President Gerald Ford for $3,170. Gerald Ford tie clips. A hardcover and pristine copy of Kissinger’s remembrance, “White House Years,” with an inscription, “To Steve Salen, who makes me look almost presentable.” A client list from 2000 that includes names like Hearst and Scorcese.
“Martin Scorsese was one of his last clients,” Elayne Landau said of the film director. “So was Harvey Keitel.”
Salen was an old-school, word-of-mouth tailor who started working at FL Dunn on Fifth Avenue in New York, and eventually had his own full-floor atelier on Madison Avenue and 53rd Street, at the heart of the city’s high-fashion district.
In 2011, when Salen already topped 90, the New York style blog “The Trad” profiled his shop. It began, “Back in the ’50s, there were 300-400 bespoke tailors in NYC. Today — there might be 30.”
“They don’t have a web site. They sure as hell don’t have any marketing savvy. Steven can’t even figure out his phone. But they can build you a suit. In fact, they build suits for a lotta shops in NYC who claim to build their own,” the blog reported. “You get chalked up. And then what? Where does your suit go? China? Mexico? Turkey? Or, to the 11th floor of an office building in midtown Manhattan.” (“It ain’t cheap,” the blogger advises.)
Occasionally Salen would pop up in an aside in an article about the rarefied occupants of New York’s social stratosphere, as when the New York Times Magazine profiled antiquarians Leigh and Leslie Keno in 1986 (they are now famed as appraisers on PBS’s “Antiques Road Show”).
“After years of searching for the perfect tailor, they finally found one they feel meets their specifications, a man named Steven Salen,” the Times said. “He passed the brothers’ acid test for tailors by spotting immediately that each twin has an arm that’s a quarter of an inch longer than the other.”
Steve Salen at his granddaughter Rachel Landau’s wedding in 2020. (Family)
Salen would not tell his children about his life before his arrival in the United States unless he had to explain the marks his suffering had left on his body.
“He told the story of how, to his amazement, he twisted off his frozen toes and didn’t even feel it,” Elayne Landau wrote in a eulogy, describing the time her father spent on the Russian front as a slave of the Nazi war machine. “We had seen his feet, you see, so he had to say something about that.”
“He was a Holocaust survivor, but as much as that experience shaped who he was, he did not want to be defined by it,” she wrote. “I understood this because growing up in a community of refugees, we didn’t ask these questions and for the most part, people didn’t offer. People needed to move on.”
He worked ceaselessly, Landau said in the interview. “I remember on Sundays we used to go to Schwartzbaum, which was a woolen shop on the Lower East Side on Delancey street to buy cloth, so this was a seven-day-a-week thing for him,” she said.
And then, in his 90s he began to open up, and Elayne Landau saw an opportunity to get close to the father who spent her childhood working.
“He remarked frequently that he can’t believe he made it,” she wrote in her eulogy. “And he began to want to talk about it. Sadly, by this time, well into his 90s, he could not recall many specifics. But with the help of the few reminiscences that I’d written down through the years, Rachel and I were able to piece together the outlines of his story.”
He was born Zoltan Salomon in Nelipyno, Czechoslovakia in 1919. In 1939, in what he would later describe as some of the best years of his life, he was learning tailoring at a trade school run by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
Then the Nazis arrived and they deported Salen. He never saw his parents or seven of his 11 siblings again. Russians liberated him in 1943. “He told me how the Russian soldiers gave the Jews guns to shoot their German captors,” Elayne Landau recalled. “He said some people did.”
He joined the Czechoslovakian army and became a supply sergeant, which required sharp business skills to negotiate the black market. A fellow black marketeer had a cousin, Frantisca, who was 18; she and Salen were married within three weeks. They arrived in New York in 1949, and Salen landed a job as a tailor almost immediately.
His wife, who took the American name Frances, predeceased him, and so did his son, Jeff, a founder of the seminal 1970s punk band, Tuff Darts, who died of a heart attack in 2008. He is survived by his daughter, Elayne, son-in-law Matthew Landau, daughter-in-law Diana Salen and his four grandchildren.
“He really wanted to be defined by his American life,” Elayne Landau said. “He was so grateful for being here you could never say anything bad about against America.”
His granddaughter, Rachel Landau Fisher, said he and her grandmother drew slightly different pleasures from their American experience.
“He and his wife were most honored to have tea with First Lady Betty Ford after fitting the president at the White House,” she said. “His happiest place was at a poker table in the Catskills’ Concord Hotel.”
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11-Year-Old Girl Succumbs to Wounds from Iranian Missile Strike
A photo of Nesya Karadi. Photo: courtesy of her family.
i24 News – An 11-year-old girl has died nearly three weeks after being critically injured by an Iranian missile strike on her family home.
Nesya Karadi passed away Friday at Sheba Medical Center, becoming the 21st civilian fatality in Israel since the current conflict began on February 28.
The attack occurred on April 1, just hours before the start of Passover. Officials confirmed the strike involved an Iranian missile equipped with a cluster warhead; a sub-munition directly hit the Karadi home, wounding 14 people.
Among the injured was Nesya’s father, a volunteer with the Magen David Adom paramedic service. In a final act of heroism before losing consciousness from his own injuries, he reportedly administered life-saving first aid to his daughter.
Hanoch Zeibert, the Mayor of Bnei Brak, expressed the city’s deep grief over the loss of a “pure child whose whole life was ahead of her,” pledging the municipality’s full support to the Karadi family during their ordeal
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Palestinian Local Elections Give Some Gazans First Chance to Vote in Years
A Palestinian woman votes during the municipal election at a polling station in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip April 25, 2026. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Palestinians voted in local elections on Saturday that for the first time in two decades include Gaza and are a gauge of the political mood.
The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority has said it hopes the inclusion of the Gazan city of Deir al-Balah will reinforce its claim to authority over the territory from which it was ousted by Hamas in 2007.
Some Gazans, who are struggling to meet their basic needs in the devastated enclave, welcomed the opportunity to vote.
“As a Palestinian and a son of the Gaza Strip, I feel proud that after this war the democratic process is returning,” said voter Mamdouh al-Bhaisi, 52, at the Deir al-Balah polling station.
Turnout, however, was low at 13.8 percent in Deir al-Balah by 1 p.m. (1000 GMT) and at 25.3 percent in the West Bank, according to official figures. Voting will continue in the West Bank until 7 p.m., while in Deir Al-Balah it ends an hour earlier due to electricity constraints.
Casting his ballot in a polling station in the Al-Bireh area, near Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said eventually elections will be held across the Gaza Strip.
“Gaza is an inseparable part of the state of Palestine. Therefore, we have worked by all means to ensure that elections take place in Deir al-Balah to affirm the unity of the two parts of the country together,” he said.
ISRAEL HAS EXTENDED CONTROL OVER GAZA AND WEST BANK
Since a US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza between Hamas and Israel took effect in October, intermittent talks led by the United States have made little progress towards a settlement that envisages international supervision of Gaza.
European and Arab governments broadly support an eventual return of Palestinian Authority governance in Gaza, together with the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. It would comprise Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule.
Western diplomats say local elections could be a step towards the first national elections in nearly two decades and advance reforms to increase transparency and accountability that the PA says are under way.
“We hope that the procedure carried out today will be crowned with legislative and presidential elections,” said Munif Treish, one of the candidates in the West Bank.
Saturday’s vote is the first of any kind in Gaza since 2006 and the first Palestinian elections to be held since the Gaza war started more than two years ago with a cross-border Hamas assault on southern Israeli communities. Municipal elections were last held in the West Bank four years ago.
STRUGGLE TO PAY WAGES AS ISRAEL WITHHOLDS FUNDS
The Palestinian Authority has struggled to pay wages as Israel withholds tax revenues it collects on its behalf, raising fears of economic collapse. Israel justifies withholding the funds in protest at welfare payments to prisoners and families of those killed by its forces, which it says incentivize attacks.
The Israeli government has also taken steps to help settlers acquire West Bank land. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has repeatedly said: “We will continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state.”
In Deir al-Balah, which has suffered less damage from Israel’s assault since 2023 than other Gazan cities, banners bearing candidate lists hang from buildings.
The Palestinian election committee cited widespread destruction among the reasons voting could not be held across the rest of Gaza, more than half of which is controlled by Israel, with the rest under Hamas rule.
HAMAS BOYCOTTS VOTE BUT SOME CANDIDATES ARE ALIGNED
Some Palestinian factions are boycotting the elections in protest at the PA’s request that candidates back its agreements, which include recognition of the state of Israel.
Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, has not formally nominated any candidates but one list in the Deir al-Balah election is widely viewed by residents and analysts as aligned with it.
Analysts say the performance of candidates linked to the militant group could gauge its popularity. Most candidates, including in the West Bank, are running under Fatah, the main political movement behind the PA, or as independents.
Hamas has said it would respect the results. Palestinian sources told Reuters ahead of the vote that the group’s civil policemen would be deployed to safeguard polling stations in Gaza.
The Palestinian Central Elections Committee said more than one million Palestinians, including 70,000 in Gaza, are eligible to vote, with results expected late on Saturday or on Sunday.
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Iran Says It Won’t Accept ‘Maximalist Demands’ as Islamabad Hosts Peace Push
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi meets with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, as Pakistan prepares to host the US and Iran for the second phase of peace talks, in a location given as Islamabad, Pakistan, released April 25, 2026. Photo: ESMAEIL BAQAEI VIA X/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi laid out Iran’s demands and its reservations about US positions on Saturday as Islamabad hosted a new push to end a war that has killed thousands and roiled global markets.
Though details of the talks were scant, Araqchi met Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other high-ranking officials. The White House had earlier announced that President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner would travel to the Pakistani capital on Saturday, but Iran has so far ruled out a new round of direct talks.
Washington and Tehran are at an impasse as Iran has largely closed the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries one-fifth of global oil shipments, while the US blocks Iran’s oil exports.
IRAN SETS OUT ITS ‘PRINCIPLED POSITIONS’
The conflict, in which a ceasefire is now in force, began with US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran on February 28. Iran has since carried out strikes against Israel, US bases and Gulf states, and the war has pushed up energy prices to multi-year highs, stoking inflation and darkening global growth prospects.
Araqchi “explained our country’s principled positions regarding the latest developments related to the ceasefire and the complete end of the imposed war against Iran,” said a statement on the minister’s official Telegram account.
Asked about Tehran’s reservations about US positions in the talks, an Iranian diplomatic source in Islamabad told Reuters: “Principally, Iranian side will not accept maximalist demands.”
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had earlier told reporters that Iran had a chance to make a “good deal.”
“Iran knows that they still have an open window to choose wisely,” he said. “All they have to do is abandon a nuclear weapon in meaningful and verifiable ways.”
Araqchi arrived in Islamabad on Friday. But an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson posted on X that Iranian officials did not plan to meet US representatives and that Tehran’s concerns would be conveyed to mediator Pakistan.
Trump told Reuters on Friday that Iran planned to make an offer aimed at satisfying US demands but that he did not know what the offer entailed. He declined to say who Washington was negotiating with, “but we’re dealing with the people that are in charge now.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the US had seen some progress from the Iranian side in recent days and hoped more would come this weekend, while Vice President JD Vance was ready to travel to Pakistan as well.
CEASEFIRES IN PLACE, FEW SHIPS CROSSING HORMUZ
Days after Trump extended the ceasefire, international flights resumed from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport on Saturday, Iranian media said. The first passengers had departed for Medina, in Saudi Arabia, Muscat and Istanbul, with operations expected to accelerate in the coming days.
“Well, it’s a good feeling. When flights resume, trade is done, and people can do their jobs. It’s a good feeling,” said one passenger at the airport, where passengers were queuing at check-in desks.
Iranian airspace has been largely closed since the start of the war. Tens of thousands of flights have been canceled, rerouted and rescheduled worldwide, shutting much of the Middle East’s airspace because of missile and drone threats.
Trump unilaterally extended a two-week ceasefire on Tuesday to allow more time to reconvene the negotiators.
Oil prices surged this week, with Brent crude futures soaring 16 percent, on uncertainty over the fate of the peace talks and as violence flared in the region.
Shipping data on Friday showed that five ships had crossed the Strait of Hormuz in the previous 24 hours, compared to around 130 a day before the war. The ships included an Iranian oil-products tanker but none of the vast crude-carrying supertankers that normally feed global energy markets.
Data analytics firm Vortexa said this week it had recorded 35 total transits through the US blockade from April 13 to 22, involving Iran-linked or sanctioned vessels for inbound and outbound journeys.
“The enemy, whose objective of crippling Iran’s missile and military capabilities has failed, is now seeking an honorable exit from the quagmire of war,” Iranian media quoted a defense ministry spokesperson as saying. “Iran is today in firm control of the Strait of Hormuz.”
Iranian state TV quoted the country’s top military command as reiterating that Iran would react if US forces continued their “blockade and piracy” in the region.
On Thursday, Israel and Lebanon extended their ceasefire for three weeks at a White House meeting brokered by Trump, but there was little sign of an end to the fighting in southern Lebanon.
Israel invaded its northern neighbor last month to root out Iran’s Hezbollah allies after the militant group fired across the border in support of Iran. Tehran says a ceasefire there is a precondition for talks.
Four people were killed in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday, Lebanon’s state news agency reported, and Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel, the Israeli military said, in the latest challenge to the ceasefire there.