Former US President Donald Trump was scheduled to appear at a kosher deli in Brooklyn today (Thursday), but the visit was canceled after the deli owner had a heart attack and died.
Trump was supposed to stop by Gottlieb's, a kosher deli shop in the heavily Hassidic neighborhood of Williamsburg, after which he would travel to Washington DC for a “Combating Antisemitism” event.
The owner of the deli, Shalom Yosef Gottlieb, contracted pneumonia last week and suffered a fatal heart attack today. He was 75, and was a well-known and beloved figure in the Jewish community of New York, known for his generosity. His father, who was a Holocaust survivor, founded the deli.
Gottlieb's son, Menashe, runs the deli and organized the visit by the Republican presidential nominee, which was aimed at shoring up Trump's support among the haredi Jewish community. Intensive preparations had been made for the visit in the last few days, including the deployment of advanced security measures by the Secret Service.
Trump will still visit Williamsburg, though his visit to the deli has been scrapped.
The funeral was held at 2 pm Eastern Standard Time.