Potential Trump visit to iconic Gottlieb’s deli has Hasidic world aflutter

Speculation that the former president will stop by was sparked by visits from the Secret Service

Gottlieb’s restaurant in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn Photo by Twitter screenshot

By Lauren Markoe September 18, 2024

Editor’s note: The expected visit Thursday of former President Donald Trump to Gottlieb’s has been cancelled due to the death early the same day of its owner, Rabbi Shalom Yosef Gottlieb, 75, according to local media reports. He was the son of the deli’s founder.

When the U.S. Secret Service scoped out Gottlieb’s deli, a kosher spot in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, this week, word spread through Hasidic Brooklyn faster than flanken falling off the bone.

“The excitement in Williamsburg is palpable,” reported Matzav.com, an Orthodox news site. Hasidic WhatsApp is crackling with speculation.

The rumor mill was predicting that former President Donald Trump, who is making a rare campaign visit to the New York area Wednesday, might visit Gottlieb’s on Thursday. Some reports said the protected visitor might be Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican nominee for vice president. The Gottlieb’s aren’t sure, but talk as if it might be the guy at the top of the ticket.

And that he will likely nosh.

“Trump, I imagine, will order something to eat, will possibly eat here, meet and greet people, but I’m not sure how,” Menashe Gottlieb, the grandson of the deli’s founder, told a reporter outside his restaurant Tuesday, speaking in Yiddish.

NEW YORK: The owner of Gottlieb's Restaurant in Williamsburg talks about Trump's upcoming visit on Thursday. He says Secret Service told him a VIP will be visiting but did not confirm it was Trump. The short visit is expected around 3-4PM. pic.twitter.com/3hTs911MQf
— KolHaolam (@KolHaolam) September 17, 2024

Video from Willilamsburg 365 News via X

Gottlieb said the Secret Service had on Sunday and Monday visited the restaurant, which was founded 65 years ago by his grandfather, Zoltan Gottlieb, a Holocaust survivor.

Corned beef and cholent

Wood-paneled Gottlieb’s evokes an earlier era of Yiddishkeit, with its retro sign and hot dogs rolling on the grill. “As old school as you can get,” wrote one Facebook fan.

It’s a particularly popular hangout for Jews of the Satmar sect, one of the most insulated of Hasidic groups.

But Gottlieb’s, which seats about 50, welcomes outsiders, too. Yelp is full of reviews from tourists praising its heavy Ashkenazi specialties: pastrami sandwiches, cholent, fried onions, matzo ball soup and five kinds of kugel. Non-Hasidic tour guides regularly bring their clients for a meal at Gottlieb’s, which is Glatt kosher, which literally means it uses a specific kind of kosher meat but is generally used to imply “strictly kosher.”

“Had a taste for a corned beef sandwich,” wrote one Gottlieb’s customer, who gave it five stars. “The quintessential Brooklyn deli experience.”

That quintessential-ness makes Gottlieb’s an attractive spot for politicians trying to court the Jewish vote.

Though Trump is not popular among New Yorkers overall, and the majority of Jewish Americans did not vote for him in 2020 or 2016, he has the support of many Orthodox Jews.

Why would Trump go to Gottlieb’s?, the Yiddish-speaking reporter asked its owner.

“Gottlieb’s is Gottlieb’s,” said Gottlieb, who was told by the Secret Service to pay close attention to his phone in the coming days.

In the meantime, he said, “officially we’re open for customers.”

Chana Pollack, the Forward’s archivist, helped with translation from Yiddish.

Lauren Markoe is news editor of the Forward. A Bronx native, she reported for The Patriot Ledger, several McClatchy newspapers in the South, and Religion News Service, where she was also managing editor. She also produced live radio shows at WAMU in Washington, D.C., where she lives.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO