Orthodox helped get GOP access
Right-wing
The two jailed cronies of Rudy Giuliani who helped him hunt for dirt on Joe Biden in Ukraine won access and influence among Republican power brokers with the aid of right-wing Orthodox Jewish leaders — from New York to Israel.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman used their tight partnership with Giuliani to win awards from rabbis and the support of powerful pro-Israel groups, culminating in a bizarre 2018 Jerusalem jam session in which Christian conservative Mike Huckabee serenaded a VIP crowd with the Southern rock anthem “Sweet Home Alabama” and the Jewish classic “Hava Nagila.”
Not bad for a couple of guys with a string of collapsed business deals in South Florida and slick combovers who look straight out of central casting for shady Brighton Beach characters.
The Giuliani partners were charged last week with another partner with illegally funneling $325,000 to a political action committee that backs President Trump — and face subpoenas from the congressional impeachment inquiry into Trump over their role in the Biden smear scheme.
A fourth suspect, David Correia, a business partner of Parnas, was arrested Wednesday at Kennedy Airport.
Parnas and Fruman may not have broken any laws with their outreach to far-rightwing supporters of Israel. But critics say it appears to be part and parcel of the pair’s influence-peddling operation geared to boost Trump’s reelection and their own business interests.
“We’ve all seen the extent to which Parnas and Fruman and Giuliani would do whatever is necessary to help Donald Trump and to attack his political enemies,” said Logan Bayroff, a spokesman for J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group. “They did this regardless of whether it was in America’s best interests or the long-term best interests of Israel.”
Giuliani denies wrongdoing but admits taking $500,000 in payments from Parnas, supposedly for consulting services.
It all yarmulke.
Parnas and Fruman spotted Dr. Joseph Frager, a gastroenterologist from Queens, wearing his Jewish started with a skullcap from across the room at a conservative political convention in spring 2018, according to published reports.
They made a beeline for Frager, who is a pro-Trump activist and vice president of the National Council of Young Israel, a group of more than 100 Orthodox synagogues, Frager told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Frager said he quickly invited Parnas and Fruman to join an upcoming political trip to Israel and the West Bank.
The group, which included former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, toured Jewish settlements.
The trip culminated with the bizarre jam session on an opulent patio in Jerusalem’s Old City, a video posted by Israel’s Arutz Sheva news organization shows. Huckabee, a former GOP presidential hopeful and Arkansas governor, played bass as Israeli musicians did their best to rock out to the Lynyrd Skynyrd tune that doubles as a tribute to Dixie segregationists.
The guest list included Yair Netanyahu, the son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a powerful figure on the extreme right wing in his own right.
Their common bond: a professed devotion to Trump.
A few months later, Giuliani invited them to join what he called a pilgrimage of sorts to visit the grave, or ohel, at Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, of Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, the revered leader of the Hasidic Chabad movement.
Despite his divisive backing of Trump, New York’s former mayor remains a larger-thanlife figure in the Hasidic world, in part for his support during and after the Crown Heights, Brooklyn, riots of the 1990s.
Frager also joined the tour of the Schneerson grave. He invited Giuliani and the nowindicted pair back to his home not far away for a highpowered dinner, according to a report in Ami, an Orthodox magazine.
Within weeks, Parnas and Fruman found themselves invited to a Young Israel gala that took place in March. They were honored with the group’s “Lovers of Zion” award.
Frager conceded that it was “shocking” to see Parnas and Fruman behind bars last week.
Farley Weiss, the National Council of Young Israel president, sounded a somewhat less sanguine note about the scandal.
“Clearly, if this story would have broke before our dinner we would not have honored them,” Weiss told the News.