It’s been infuriating to see videos of outwardly respectable people in New York City ripping down the posters which have been put up around New York, on walls, telephone poles, traffic sensor boxes, and trees, which show the photographs of Israeli babies and children who were kidnapped by the terror group Hamas on October 7 and are now held as hostages in Gaza; the posters are an ardent, if silent, plea for their release. Those filled with anti-Israel animus, so many of whom are obvious antisemites, have been having a high old time of it pulling down these posters, and when caught in the act, they feign innocence, claiming that they were only trying to “clean up the city.”
Here is one example: “Broadway producer James L. Simon tears down Israeli hostage flier in NYC,” by Jon Levine and Matthew Sedacca, New York Post, October 28, 2023:
A Broadway theater producer is the latest New Yorker to be caught on film brazenly tearing down fliers of civilians in Israel kidnapped by Hamas terrorists, The Post has learned.
In a video posted by neighborhood blog I Love the Upper West Side, James L. Simon, who co-produced the 2022 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” is seen at West 62nd Street and Broadway using scissors to remove a poster featuring one of the roughly 200 hostages taken by Hamas during its Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel.
This was no spur-of-the-moment pulling down of a poster. He had armed himself with a pair of scissors.
The stone-faced Simon then crumpled up the flier, which had been taped to a traffic sensor box in the heavily Jewish neighborhood, before chucking it into a garbage can and silently walking off, the footage showed.
“You’re going to a dark and devious place if you’ve come to a place where you’re ripping posters off the wall of Israeli hostages, of innocent people held captive by terrorists,” former Broadway producer Adam Epstein, who hosts the podcast Dirty Moderate, told The Post.
Simon, who has also produced Broadway revivals of “Pippin” and “Bells Are Ringing,” told The Post he took down the fliers for the purpose of keeping the city’s streets clean, not for antisemitic reasons, and apologized for offending anyone.
Does anyone believe James L. Simon’s claim that he was just trying to keep the city’s streets clean? If that were true, then why did he leave other posters up and tear down only those about the Israeli children taken hostage? Surely he read the posters, stared into the faces of the children, before pulling them down. Apparently he felt no sympathy, no fellow-feeling for children, including babies, who are now held hostage by the most ruthless and cruel of all terror groups. A heart of stone, has James L. Simon, at least when it comes to Israelis and — let’s not beat around the bush — Jews. He’s apologized, of course, now that he’s been caught on camera ripping several posters down, but alas and alack for James L. Simon, those caught-in-the-act videos have gone viral; the reputational damage has been done. He’s insisted that there was nothing antisemitic about what he did, that he was only concerned with the cleanliness of the city, yada yada. No one believes him. Now what would be a fitting response to James L. Simon? What about people signing an online pledge that they will not attend any play produced by James L. Simon? Tens of thousands of people in New York City, by no means all of them Jewish, will be happy to sign. And how many hundreds of actors will make a similar pledge — that they will never join the cast of a play produced by James L. Simon? That’s how you start to teach a man like James L. Simon a lesson. Chapter 11 will do the rest.
Another example of someone caught in the poster-ripping act is Marc Louvet, a well-heeled Frenchman who works — or rather, worked — in the financial sector for VanEck. A group of Jewish men found him ripping down posters on the Upper East Side, and they asked why he was doing it? He didn’t answer their question, but instead offered only a tu-quoque: “Where are the Palestinians? What about the Palestinians?”
Why aren’t there posters of them? Could it be because no Palestinians have been kidnapped and held hostage? “REVEALED: The latest NYC vandals ripping up posters of Israeli child hostages include a French financier, a Brooklyn magician and his teacher wife,” by Jen Smith, Daily Mail,
VanEck today announced that Louvet has been placed on leave pending a legal investigation. The firm said it expects to fire him soon.
‘We have just now been made aware of a video confronting an employee who had just town down posters of Israeli hostages in Gaza.
‘In no way does VanEck endorse such actions or statements, nor do we support the actions of terrorists in any way. Such insinuations are hurtful and damaging to the company and our Israeli colleagues, family and friends. We are investigating the facts around the incident and our legal options concerning the employee whom we have placed on immediate leave and expect to terminate,’ the company said in a statement.
That’s a good result. VanEck will fire Louvet, and it won’t be easy to find a job in Wall Street finance when you are seen on social media pulling down posters about kidnapped Israeli children. Others will now think twice before following his example, especially as potential employers can so quickly find the visual evidence on social media of those who choose to pull, rip, or cut down with scissors posters of kidnapped Jewish children.
His now-deleted social media pages were cleaned of any political posts, filled mostly with photos from romantic, beach trips with his girlfriend.
It’s too late, Marc Louvet, for you to save your position at VanEck. But I’ve heard that the Sovereign Wealth Funds of Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., and Qatar are looking to hire more Western talent. When they find out about your anti-Israel animus, they will be as eager to hire you as VanEck was to fire you, and for the same reasons.
The damage — self-inflicted — has been done to both of these poster-destroyers.
James L. Simon, the Broadway producer, should have a hard time finding backers for his next production, and actors to play in them, and audiences to attend.
And Marc Louvet will likely have to pack his bags, and along with his girlfriend “of Middle Eastern origin,” light out for Riyadh, or Doha, or Abu Dhabi.
Westman says
Canadian(?) woman tearing down posters of people kidnapped in Hamas attack. Unbelievable misanthropy.
“You’re not thinking about Canada, you’re thinking about Jews” “My husband is a Jew!” “Go ahead, deal with the dying” “why doesn’t my life matter”
https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1719562735971692990
somehistory says
Her life doesn’t matter because she’s a terrorist supporter, a ghoul in female form. she should be arrested for assault.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
People should start shooting on sight people tearing down these missing posters! Otherwise it won’t be long before people tear down missing posters of missing Americans in this country, who have nothing to do w/ Israel, Jews or “Palestine”
Westman says
It seems we have a new phenomenon that identifies those so callous they tear down posters of kidnapped children in their hatred for Jews. It needs a name. Postnappers?
Here is another PostNapper: https://twitter.com/StopAntisemites/status/1719332230734979191
somehistory says
She crawled out of a dirty toilet. Push her back in and flush.
somehistory says
Video of the *police* in Germany pulling down the posters of the ones kidnapped by the hamas ghouls.
And no, this ghoul claiming he was doing it for cleanliness….is a liar. But, being a liar is no surprise since he’s already shown that he has empathy for the ghouls of hamas. He’s also a coward because he didn’t own up to the real reason.
Hide says
They are breeding the next generation of rapists, terrorists and Islamic fascists that will take over more land, turning towns/cities into no-go zones for non-Muslims and eventually nowhere will be safe for us.
Grannya says
Thank you for voicing my thoughts exactly, we need to stop it now, already to many.
VictorMc says
Has this thicko joined the register of the unemployed yet? I seriously suggest he get on early. It must be crowded.
Jane Foss says
similar poster ripping incident at Hunter College a few evenings ago, luckily several police arrived, apprehended poster ripper…bout 50 students and by standers watching….bravo NYPD Jane Foss
OLD GUY says
Well let’s tear down the posters for his Broadway shows and see how he likes it. Or better yet lets just not by tickets for his productions. Hit him where it hurts, his wallet.
FYI says
If it was a muslim boy missing i would not take it down.Why would you do that?
But if it is a Jewish/Israeli boy missing the muslims/lefties/{Lefty liberal Jews even} take it down.
The RED-GREEN Axis[islamic-leftist} of illogicality.
Spare a thought for the parents concerned about their child.
Divine Ada says
What is going on in the west is prophetic and pathetic. The Jews will be so threatened in the west that they will have no choice but to move to their homeland with their Abrahamic blessings after which those that hate the Jews will turn their hate on the west. And this will not be long.