Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Back to Opinion

In Menachem Stark Slay, Where’s the Humanity?

Menachem Stark, a Brooklyn Hasidic real estate developer, was abducted, murdered, and thrown into a dumpster. Stepping to a new low, the New York Post reports this story with inappropriate levity and derision toward the victim.

Practically gloating over Stark’s death, the front cover of [Sunday’s New York Post rhetorically asks, “Who didn’t want him dead?”

We still don’t know all the facts and it’s certainly possible that Stark’s business deals in some way caused a dispute that led to his murder.

But how about the eight children and widow mourning over him? How about the hundreds of mourners who showed up at his funeral in the bitter cold to pay respects? How about any decent human that believes murder is the wrong way to settle disputes?

A Facebook page titled “Condemn the NY Post for Sundays Cover Page” has already garnered over 1,000 likes from those outraged by the callous headline.

The Post article goes on to refer to the Hasidic landlord with the derogatory phrase “slumlord,” while implying that his abduction and murder should be of no surprise due to “‘shady’ real-estate transactions.”

If an attention-grabbing headline about a “slumlord” weren’t enough, The Post decided to inject some wildly inappropriate Yiddish humor into the mix describing the landlord as “up to his tuchus in debt.” ‘Tuchus’ is Yiddish for “ass.” Jewish jokes often involve that word.

The Post needs to be called out for sensationalizing this tragic story, using Yiddish levity in the context of a Hasidic man’s murder and feeding into stereotypes about Jewish landlords, which can only spark more hatred and anti-Semitism.

A message from our CEO & publisher 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.

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

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.