Judging Menachem Stark’s Jewish Life — Not Just His Death

Image by courtesy of stark family
A man was murdered last week. By many news accounts, he was a crook. He also happened to be a Haredi Jew.
Does the last fact matter?
Yes, according to the politicians who have fallen over themselves to condemn the New York Post’s typically tasteless coverage of the death, which included the headline — based on comments of a detective — “Who Didn’t Want Him Dead?” For example, Assemblyman Dov Hikind, never one to miss an opportunity to grandstand, said that the coverage caused pain “to the entire Jewish community.”
But if Menachem Stark, a slumlord who gave slumlords a bad name, was Jewish in his death, was he also Jewish in his life? Was he Jewish when he bounced checks, defrauded tenants, and rented out buildings unfit even for animals? Was he a representative of “the entire Jewish community” then?
As for the Post, it’s hard to see what, if anything, justifies the Twitter tag #StopNYPostHate. Sleazy, exploitative, offensive, absolutely — which is business as usual for the Post. But hate? Based on what? That the Post called Stark “up to his tuchus in debt?” That they printed a picture of him? Where’s the “hate,” exactly?
In fact, Stark’s ethically compromised life was far more “Jewish” than his death. Stark was hardly the only ultra-Orthodox Jewish slumlord in Brooklyn. Thanks to the oddities of the Brooklyn real estate market, Haredim control properties in some of the borough’s coolest neighborhoods: Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick. These places were crime-ridden slums a decade ago, but now they’re filled with my friends — one of whom said, on Facebook, that Stark “sounds like every Hasidic landlord I’ve ever had.”
Is it anti-Semitic for him to say that? Or is it, sadly, accurate?
There are, I assume, plenty of scrupulous and kind Haredi landlords. And there are centuries of anti-Semitic violence beneath the image of the cheap and unscrupulous Jew, which should make anyone pause before painting it.
But by all accounts, Stark was what used to be called a shandeh fer de goyim, a scandal for the non-Jews. Bernie Madoff, Roy Cohn, Jack Abramoff — these are Jews who make Jews look bad. In life and in death.
The mourning of him as some kind of hero makes matters even worse. According to his mourners, Menachem Stark was generous “to anyone in the community.” Note the qualifier. Ripping off, endangering, and lying to the goyim — which, let’s recall, includes anyone who isn’t Haredi — is just fine, as long as you help your fellow Satmars. Mob bosses, too, were often generous to their communities.
And it’s not just slumlords. Ever run the New York Marathon? In Hasidic Williamsburg, you get jeered, even spit at. And need we even mention the community’s circle-the-wagons mentality when it comes to corruption and sexual abuse?
Stark’s unethical behavior toward goyim, and the Haredi community’s dismissal of it, both reflect that community’s insider/outsider, us/them dichotomy that this newspaper has reported on countless times. Of course, not every Haredi person believes that goyim have no souls, or that it’s only permissible to save the life of a non-Jew on the Sabbath if another non-Jew is watching, or that it’s better to let a child molester abuse again rather than inform the secular authorities. But many do.
No one deserves to be murdered and thrown in a dumpster. But those calling the Post anti-Semitic should be careful what they wish for. If Stark’s death was inseparable from his Satmar Haredi Judaism, what about his life?
Jay Michaelson is a contributing editor to the Forward.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
In Case You Missed It
-
Yiddish די הגדה ווי אַ לעבעדיקער דענקמאָל פֿון אַשכּנזישער פּאָעזיעThe Haggadah as a living monument to Ashkenazi poetry
אַמאָל זענען די פּייטנים, מיסטישע דיכטער־וויזיאָנערן, געווען אויבן־אָן בײַ די פֿראַנצויזישע און דײַטשישע ייִדן.
-
Opinion Marine Le Pen may be headed to prison — antisemitism and xenophobia still roam freely
-
Fast Forward Israel announces new offensive to seize ‘broad territories’ of Gaza Strip
-
Film & TV Val Kilmer was the voice of my generation’s Moses (and God)
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.