“Jakiw Palij’s continued residency in the U.S. after the deportation order by the Department of Justice, is an insult to every Holocaust survivor, to the memory of the 6 million who were murdered, and to every moral New Yorker,” said Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn). Hikind will be joining students from Rambam Mesivta, Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway, and Machon Hatorah in a four-hour vigil outside of Palij’s home.

“Living in the U.S. is a privilege that is not extended to known and admitted Nazis. His citizenship has been revoked. The deportation order has been in effect since 2004. Why is he still here? Germany, Ukraine, and Poland won’t take him, but he certainly doesn’t belong here.

“My mother survived Auschwitz and bears the numbered tattoo on her arm. Why should she or any of the other survivors in New York have to fear the Nazi amongst us? New York has one of the highest concentration of Holocaust survivors in the world. We owe them better. History owes them a better solution than Palij living out his remaining days ensconced in an apartment in Jackson Heights. Palij participated in genocide; he doesn’t get to live in peace in his old age. This is about justice. Palij doesn’t belong in the U.S. He entered this country fraudulently and has no legal standing to continue living here. Put him in a Homeland Security Detention Center. Set him adrift at sea. Put him anywhere, but not in New York.”

(YW News Desk)