By Gilad Atzmon

The list of NYC’s 100 worst landlords is, once again, overwhelmingly dominated by Jewish names. Naturally, I wondered whether this bar mitzvah guest list quality also applies to the list of NYC’s 100 best landlords. If it does, problem solved. We would assume that since Jews are overrepresented in the NYC rental business, they are amongst the best landlords as well as the worst.

A quick search reveals that there is no official NYC best landlord list. The Yelp search engine offers something that resembles such a list and it doesn’t approximate my bar mitzvah guest list in the least.

Since the demography of the list of NYC 100 worst landlords is obvious, the list raises the following questions:

1. How is it possible that there are no academic texts that examine this serious anomaly of extreme over-representation of one ethnic group in this gruesome list?

2. How is it possible that not one social science graduate student has dedicated his/her PhD to the study of the 40 times over-representation of one ethnic group in the shameful list of abusive landlords? I ask because an over-representation of 1.3 of an ethnic group in crime statistics has justified academic research and even institutional study.

3. How is it possible that not one cultural studies scholar has attempted to identify the possible cultural conditions that have led to the concentration of one tribe in this horrid list?

4. And what about American media? Shouldn’t we expect CNN, the NY Times or even Breitbart.com to ask the obvious question? What is it about Gilad’s bar mitzvah guests, why are they so horrid to their tenants?

5. How can we explain the fact that the NYC based Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Jewish anti Zionist outlets such as Mondoweiss that ‘care’ for ‘justice’ and ‘Palestinian rights’ are blind to the abuse that is taking place within their own backyard? I wonder, is Jewish ‘anti’ Zionism there to divert attention from gross wrongdoing elsewhere?

6. We should all ask ourselves, why are we, you and I, afraid to raise these questions?