For over 40 years, Shelly Levine, founder and CEO of Tivuch Shelly Real Estate, has presented Israeli real estate to clients worldwide, selling thousands of apartments and helping build communities for her Anglo clientele.
During that time, Levine has organized and participated in hundreds of housing fairs, community presentations, and private meetings across the United States, Canada, and England.
For most of those years, these events were welcomed as opportunities for prospective buyers to learn about life in Israel, find homes or investment properties, and strengthen their connection to the Jewish homeland.
Today, when she travels for these fairs, she finds herself on the front lines of the Israel-Arab conflict.
Never before has Levine experienced the kind of hostility that has emerged over the past three years.
What was once a straightforward real estate presentation is now met with aggressive demonstrations against Israel and the Jewish community, requiring heightened security measures.
During a recent visit to the New York Tri-State area to present Israeli housing opportunities to interested buyers, Levine was met with large-scale demonstrations.
In Teaneck, New Jersey, she was forced to change locations at the last minute and hire private security to ensure a safe environment for herself and the attendees.
After decades of presenting Israeli real estate opportunities, helping families settle in established Anglo communities, and building new ones, she suddenly found herself facing demonstrations, intimidation tactics, and media scrutiny unlike anything she had encountered in her professional career.
Yet despite the protests, attendance remained strong.
“The people attending these events are not looking for conflict,” she said. “They are looking for information, options, and a connection to Israel. Many are thinking about their future and where they want their families to have a place to call home.”
Following the New Jersey event, things escalated. After several hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators disrupted an event at Park East Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, The New York Times published a particularly critical article about the event, highlighting Shelly Levine as the veteran representative.
Rather than report on the angry chants of “from the river to the sea” and “long live the intifada,” Levine felt the coverage lacked important context regarding the anti-Israel and antisemitic views expressed by many of the protesters.
Soon afterward came a wave of hateful messages on her social media accounts and company website.
The controversy followed her overseas to London, where she participated in another Israel property housing fair.
Event organizers instructed exhibitors not to market certain projects located in areas that could raise legal or political concerns under UK regulations.
Levine said she fully complied by…
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