The Upper East Side Mark Hotel (E. 77th Street bet. Fifth and Madison – can you get more UES than that?) in late July filed a defamation lawsuit against one Theodore Weintraub. According to court papers, Weintraub, son of cardiologist Dr. Philip J. Weintraub, hired protesters to stand outside the posh hotel and yell out random accusations, such as “The Mark has mice, The Mark denies the Holocaust, the Mark supports Epstein.”
That last one had to do with the fact that Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious black book included the hotel’s address, but absolutely no untoward reference to this respectable establishment.
The reports about Weintraub’s incessant attacks on the Mark Hotel were so reminiscent of the stories about disturbed groups of ex-pat Israeli and local Jewish anarchists who conducted a similarly baseless shaming manhunt for Israeli parliamentarians who were visiting New York City a while back. It appears that if you have the money and the hate, you can do anything you want to anyone, in the name of free speech.
Now this dystopian theory may be tested in court.
Theodore Weintraub, accused of smear campaign against The Mark hotel, says he’s sober. This kid and his father should be bankrupted for this stunt as the father clearly provided the $& for the protesters. https://t.co/l17UEqTLQy
— Mike Ponti (@PontiMike) August 5, 2023
Back in August 2021, when Weintraub was 17, he tried to buy a drink at the Mark Hotel bar with a fake ID. He tried in many other hotels as well, according to reports, but no one would sell him a drink. For some reason, he chose not to walk over to the nearest bodega to get a beer but insisted on trying again and again in establishments where a glass of good bourbon may cost as much as $50. Finally, the Mark Hotel staff had enough and they banned him.
Or, as the lawsuit puts it: “With every passing failed attempt, Weintraub became increasingly aggressive with those refusing to serve him,” until the hotel declared him “someone not to be welcomed into the hotel.”
A short while later, the Weintraubs booked a dinner reservation at the Mark and were told that Dr. and Mrs. Weintraub were very much welcome on the premises, but their son is not.
Little Mark Weintraub did what any rich kid would have done – he threw a huge, screaming tantrum, that included accusations about the hotel being antisemitic. What enraged the boy even more was the fact that his own father told the staff that he “understood the ban.”
According to the lawsuit, two years later, Weintraub, now 19, brought a friend over to the sidewalk outside the hotel and the two began to harass the staff, calling the doorman a pedophile whose “mother is a prostitute,” and moved on to physically confront guests.
And then, last June, Weintraub started hiring protesters at $25 a pop to stand outside the Mark Hotel and yell crazy accusations, forcing the hotel to hire extra security to prevent them from storming the restaurant.
According to court papers, on July 17, Weintraub and his hired help were thrown out of the hotel at 4 in the morning after they tried to stop the kitchen staff from preparing an early morning meal for a VIP guest. The guest happened to be Jewish, and when he arrived around 5, the protesters started shouting that the Mark Hotel denies the Holocaust. Neighbors were yelling, “Shut up already!” Don’t ask.
There were several more such incidents, and every time the police were asked to intervene, they said they couldn’t because the protesters were not using megaphones.
Look at that – the “Busha” people did use megaphones when they ruined MK Simcha Rothman and his wife’s night in NYC, and the cops didn’t get to them either.
