Port Washington Chabad Rabbi Responds To Politico Article

Chabad of Port Washington, a Jewish organization that serves the local community, made headlines on Sunday when the news organization Politico published the article, "The Happy-Go-Lucky Jewish Group That Connects Trump and Putin."

Rabbi Shalom M. Paltiel from Chabad of Port Washington told Patch the article was "reminiscent of the age old anti-Semitic stereotyping that the Jews somehow control everything."

The Politico article says "some of the shortest routes between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin run straight through [Chabad of Port Washington.]"

In the piece, Politico made the following connections to Chabad of Port Washington:

• Soviet emigres Tevfik Arif, Felix Sater and Tamir Sapir led a project called Bayrock-Sapir that joined forces with Trump in the early 2000s. Sater, who belongs to the Chabad of Port Washington house, went on to work for the Trump Organization.
• Paltiel called Russian Chief Rabbai Berel Lazar his "close friend and mentor."
• Bayrock founder Arif, who lives in Port Washington, is listed among Port Washington Chabad's "top three benefactors."

Patch reached out to Paltiel for a response to the Politco article. In an email, Paltiel responded, "The writer's imagination is the stuff of movies and any honest reader can see this is someone looking to create a story and is a master conspiracy theorist. I'm not very concerned about the article because the above is quite obvious when one reads it. The public response to it similarly reflects this."

Paltiel is correct: The Politico article got plenty of negative feedback from the public on both sides of the political spectrum.

New York Post editor Seth Mandel tweeted:

Fox News reporter Adam Shaw (@AdamShawNY) responded to Mandel's tweet with, "I look forward to Politico's next piece about the secret Masonic symbols in the dollar bill..."

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted:

Politico reporter Ben Schreckinger shared his article on Twitter to receive comments that said the piece could be "perceived as bigotry" and it is a "nasty, sinister piece." One Twitter user said he was surprised the article's original graphic of "shadowy Jews" was approved by an editor:

Photo via Patch User Rabbi Shalom Paltiel, Chabad of Port Washington