The NY Daily News reports:
A group called Save the Graves wants to bury real estate developer Aby Rosen in protests.
After staging demonstrations outside the Lever House headquarters of Rosen’s RFR Holding and, last week, outside his upper East Side home, the Central Rabbinical Congress of the USA and Canada has announced it will turn up the heat on the Quaker-maned magnate by picketing two of his investments: VIP hangouts the Core Club and the Gramercy Park Hotel.
As we reported this summer, the CRC’s beef with Rosen and RFR involves the company’s project to build an ultraluxe $600 million hotel in Jaffa, Israel. Construction crews there have unearthed an ancient grave site, and the protesters allege RFR has ignored their pleas to deal with the remains in a proper manner.
As a result, the CRC’s Save the Graves committee fired off a warning letter, dated Nov. 15, to Rosen.
The missive explains that if Rosen continues to respond to the group’s concerns with “a mix of silence and petty half-truths,” the CRC will keep organizing “protests of RFR projects and properties throughout New York,” including “the Core Club and the Gramercy Park Hotel” — two exclusive venues frequented by VIPs who wouldn’t want to get caught up in a Hasidic hullabaloo.
The letter adds the protests will “educate” RFR’s partners and customers as to “the true nature of your development” and complains of “bones strewn around the site in a most disturbing manner.”
A spokeswoman for Rosen responded with a cryptic release that does not name Save the Graves or the CRC, but rather states, “Israel’s High Court of Justice has rejected the claims of “an anti-Israeli, anti-Zionist religious extremist group to obtain a temporary injunction” against RFR.
The release also contends the remains were “definitively determined” to be of “pagan origin” and concludes: “The project continues to move forward without delay.”
(Source: NY Daily News)
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14 Responses
We should all participate in these protests against these criminals in NY supporting the zionist regimes descration of our holy ancestors graves under the lie of some zionist professor finding it is “pagan”.
“an anti-Israeli, anti-Zionist religious extremist group”
If the shoe fits, wear it well.
I do not approve of digging up graves, but WHERE were all of these protesters when jewish graves in gush katif were dug up when gush katif was emptied. where is their honor in defending graves that some may not be yidden when people who are for sure yidden, were dug up and desecrated. why don’t they protest that? is it because it is easier to go up against the jewish state which is being attacked on all sides, than to protest the scary arabs? the fact is that they ARE scared of the goyim (also cats and dogs, and the occassional bee).if jews dont stop witch hunting each other, how can we expect Hashem Yisborach to help us? those people were someone’s father, mother, R’L kids. people who are here and now. all I am saying is if you ARE on the right side of things it would show in being CONSISTENTLY on the right side of things.
shayala you said that you are against digging graves so maybe sednd in an email to rfr instead of criticiz the protest
Comments 2 and 3 do not speak to the point.
Your antipathy to a particular group–for whatever–reason–does not justify your apathy towards the problem of graves desecration in Israel.
“Dig we must, and damn the Hareidim!”
deep thinker, that aint so deep. it is the point. if turning over some graves are an outrage, so should the others, who are beyond a doubt jewish. we have to stand for what is right, not only when it earns us points with our narrow minded peers. a jew is a jew. and i am far from apathetic. if i was apathetic, i wouldnt post a respose.
Kudos to these Tzadikim that are protesting in honor of the kevorim.
To sit cool, and just post a comment stating ”hey why only now?” and ”why not in Gush Katif” Etc.
Thats easy and the subtotal? you did nothing! not now when you agree its needed, and not by gusg katif where you think it was ‘also’ needed, so whats the point?
zionflag: Shame on you. If those thugs would dig up your close relatives’ graves would you also talk like this.
My question is, Why only Satmar. It should be every Ehrlicher Yid who does not compromise their Judaism for zionism.
sane conservative, unfortunately we dont exist unto ourselves and beliefs. those same people would not be able to bury their dead in har hamenuchos, zeisim, … if not for a jewish presence in eretz yisroel. you would not be able to walk there, and you certainly would not be able to daven at the kotel if not for the young boys who patrol, and check bags there, many of whom are shomrei torah u mitzvos. ahavas yisroel is key here, not the opposite.
number 8 it is unfortunate that despite your very expressive comment including lots of punctuation (impressive), you still dont get the point. @_@ ????!!!!@_@
There quite a difference between the Jaffa Graves and Gush Katif graves. The difference is ‘VADEI’, we knew 100% that the kevarim in Katif were yiddim, while the Jaffa kevurim are ‘safek’.
BTW ERETZ YISROEL, (particularly the area that is today Beitar) is almost completely a ‘graveyard’, going back to the days of creation. The graves can be pagan, muslim, christian and in some areas Jewish. The main reason for these protests are so that the European World listens and will not desecrate graves of our ancestors there. Digging up graves and reburying them has been dealt with in many sefarim of sheilos/teshuvos…
These protests are to cast negativity upon the Jewish State, something that is ‘murderous’ in today’s anti-semitic environment.
Just a grammatical comment… the title mentions hotel construction in Haifa. Last I checked, Haifa and Jaffa aren’t the same place. I think the title should say Yafo.
The protests are against a private developer — RFR — not the state of Israel. There have been protests against similar occurrences in Europe – this is not targeted only at the state of Israel. All that is being requested is that the developer allow proper religious authorities to remove the bones and rebury them properly. Unfortunately these conflicts have happened in the past here as well (as #12 mentions), yes Eretz Yiroel is a country with a very long history and many “graveyards” — which is why this is such an important issue. Each case becomes precedent for another case, and a situation that is now “safek” may be applied by the antiquities authorities to a different situation as well. Additionally, as it is well known, the courts and many of the secular authorities here are not particularly sensitive to the halachik requirements in these situations. Pressuring the private companies is often more effective. Here in Israel many groups of frum Jews are concerned and protesing — this is not related specifically to Satmar. Perhaps they are the only group protesting in America, but here you can see the signs boycotting “Motzrei Electra” (a subsidiary of the elco group which is the Israeli firm working with RFR on the development of the site) all over the place. (For anyone who’s been here recently, those are the yellow and black signs with big “lo”s written on them)