This Dan Goldstein Didn’t Heckle Ivanka — He’s Still Getting Harassed
Image by Forward Montage
Dan Goldstein is an all-too-common name, as more than one New York law firm found out after one Daniel Jennings Goldstein, a lawyer, heckled Ivanka Trump aboard a JetBlue flight to Florida last week.
According to the folks at Shiboleth, a New York based group, their office was inundated with negative and threatening calls and e-mails after their associate Daniel S. Goldstein was confused with the Dan Goldstein of airplane infamy. “We first noticed something was odd on Thursday morning when we began receiving e-mails calling for the firm to terminate our associate Daniel Goldstein,” managing partner Alon Harnoy wrote in a statement sent to the Forward.
He continued, “The e-mails accused him of harassing Ivanka Trump and her child aboard a JetBlue flight to Florida. In large part, the e-mails were crude, vulgar and indecent, and some accosters even adopted a lynch mob mentality – hungrily chasing speedy revenge and some even refusing to concede even after being told on the phone that they had the wrong Dan Goldstein.”
Attorney Daniel S. Goldstein (not the Dan Goldstein who heckled Ivanka Trump). Image by Shiboleth
Because American Jews share Eastern European ancestry and their ancestors adopted surnames at roughly the same time, there’s a large number of common surnames in comparison with other groups, while the custom of naming children after relatives reduces the variety of first names. The Forward has documented two other such cases this year. And the Daniel Goldstein of Shiboleth isn’t the only Daniel Goldstein, Esq. who had to append a notice to his firm bio stating that he isn’t the one of JetBlue fame: a Daniel A. had to do the same at Schule, Roth & Zabel.
As it would happen, Shiboleth’s Dan Goldstein — like the other Dan Goldstein — was out of the office, on holiday in Paris, where he was proposing to his partner. The law firm notified him of the events, added extra security at its headquarters and launched a campaign to inform online haters that they had the wrong guy.
The firm said it had some advice for individuals and companies faced with similar problems in the future. “What we have learned, and what we would advise those in future who are misidentified by a faceless mob, is that the key is to respond with speed and integrity, adopting a broad strategy to communicate consistent message points on web (home page, news and attorney bios), Twitter, telephone reception and voicemail,” Harnoy wrote. “Most importantly we strongly advise against doing nothing at all as mob behavior can turn into an avalanche if left unchecked.”
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter, @DanielJSolomon
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
