A Video Labeled Him an Anti-Semite; He Says He’s Victim of Smear Campaign

The video is, at first glance, simple. Greg Schlotthauer, a middle-aged, bespectacled man, stands inside the 14th St. and 7th Ave subway station, yelling at the camera. His shirt reads “Hot Girls for Zohran” in reference to then-mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. It was this shirt which started it all, Schlotthauer said in an interview with Straus News; the shirt which kicked off the viral interaction that led to loss of friends, of employment opportunities, and hundreds of death threats levied against him.

The video in question is an 18-second interaction between Schlotthauer and two women, one of whom is filming. The video opens with Schlotthauer saying the last half of the word “Palestinians” about 20 feet away. Then the video cuts; he’s closer now, saying, “You turned on a nasty-ass Israeli f—ing song!” Another cut: Schlotthauer yells “F—ing b—!” before turning to walk away. One woman speaks: “He’s attacking us, can you please have somebody—,” before Schlotthauer interrupts with, “That’s a f—ing lie!” A third cut. Schlotthauer yells, “You’re monsters!” as he walks towards the subway stairs. “Because I’m a Jew?” the woman replies. End scene.

On September 5, the video was uploaded to Instagram by Mellisa Chapman, a Staten Island-based influencer with over 196,000 followers on the platform. Chapman added a quote from the anonymous camerawoman: “My mom and I were going to Union Square, and then he starts screaming at us when he sees my Jewish star. He’s chasing us through the subway station until one of the workers got involved and started protecting us.”

Statistics show that antisemitism in the U.S. has been on the rise since Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, killed over 1,200 and kidnapped over 240 people, 85 of whom were killed in captivity. The attacks ignited a fierce Israeli counter-offensive which some, including a United Nations commission, have called a genocide against the Palestinian people.

While a handful of government hotlines exist to report antisemitic abuse, an alternative network of proudly Zionist social media accounts has also emerged for the purpose of exposing perceived antisemites online. These include individuals like Chapman as well as organizations such as the Shirion Collective, a “surveillance network” which offers cash bounties in exchange for help identifying activists they have deemed antisemitic.

A video of two women who claim to be getting harassed in New York City simply for wearing the Star of David was perfect fodder for this section of the internet. That Schlotthauer was wearing a Zohran Mamdani shirt only added fuel to the fire. “If [Z]ohran Mamdani is elected as mayor this will become an everyday occurrence,” Chapman opined in her caption.

However, the 18-second video clearly does not show the full interaction between the two parties. There are three jarring cuts, and such a mess of dialogue that it is clear whoever edited the video did not want viewers to get the unedited picture. The sequencing of the video is also strange. It ends with the provocative words “Because I’m a Jew?” while a version of what appears to be Schlotthauer’s reply is moved to the start.

Regardless, the accounts who pounced on the video demanded that Schlotthauer pay for his alleged antisemitism. His full name was quickly uncovered by the Shirion Collective. Others dug up one of the places where he worked as a pianist—the Arthouse Hotel on the Upper West Side—and flooded the hotel with calls demanding Schlotthauer be fired. Schlotthauer said he hasn’t been booked to perform there since. The hotel did not respond to a request to comment.

A search for Schlotthauer’s name on X and Facebook reveals hundreds of threats made against him. “I hope Greg knows that when he gets to Rikers Island, he shouldn’t sing in the shower,” one user wrote. “Put a bullet in him,” said another. The Shirion Collective put things simply: “We will hunt and expose you.” Schlotthauer’s name and workplace was even shared by John Podhoretz, editor-in-chief of the Jewish publication Commentary and a frequent contributor to the New York Post. “Let’s see what happens at his next gig,” Podhoretz wrote ominously. (In an email to Straus News, Podhoretz said he was “too busy” to comment for this story.)

Schlotthauer also shared screenshots with Straus News which suggest that the wife of his superintendent, a woman named Melanie Luciano, “liked” a comment which said that Schlotthauer “needs to meet Mr. Glock.” Luciano declined to answer questions over Facebook Messenger, writing, “I did nothing wrong. He can go to hell.”

Schlotthauer described a very different version of events taking place inside the subway station. He said he encountered the two women in the station elevator, before one of them noticed his shirt and took out her phone. The woman “turned on a video that was like a nationalistic rallying song,” Schlotthauer said. “She showed it to me, and she said, ‘Israel, bitches!’... If it would happen tomorrow, I might laugh, but at the time, my heart started racing.”

Schlotthauer said he asked the woman if she had spoken to any Palestinians, to which the woman replied that her aunt was Palestinian. After the three got off the elevator, they continued arguing. Schlotthauer claims he said, “What do you think about 60,000 dead people?” and the woman replied “Aww!” in a mocking tone before he “flew into a rage.” Schlotthauer said calling the woman a “monster” was in reference to her attitude toward the killing of civilians in Gaza. “I have a real sense of compassion for people who are oppressed,” he said.

The accounts which branded Schlotthauer an antisemite were, unsurprisingly, uninterested in his side of the story. They instead combed the internet for any evidence that would support their claim that he was an anti-semite. A few accounts began sharing a photo of Schlotthauer with his hand extended at a Democratic Socialists of America rally as “proof” he was a Nazi. Why anyone would perform a Nazi salute at a rally which features Black people, Latinos, and Jews in abundance doesn’t make much sense, as Schlotthauer pointed out: “I think that most people understand that the total number of Nazis who will do a Nazi salute at a DSA rally is zero.” The photo that circulated edited out all the people around Schlotthauer and just showed him with an outstretched hand, which was used as “proof” of what they said was the Nazi salute.

The women who videotaped Schlotthauer in the subway station remain anonymous. None of the social media outlets who promoted the clip responded to requests for comment and for help identifying the women, including Chapman, M.A. Rothman, Persian Jewess, Shirion Collective, and StopAntisemitism.

Growing up in Wichita, Kansas, Schlotthauer said he was frequently bullied in school for acting effeminate. He realized he was gay at the age of twelve but tried to disguise it during his teen years. After graduating from the University of Kansas, he fell in love with New York City and has worked here as a musician for the last 35 years. He has performed at “all the main piano bars,” citing Brandy’s, The Duplex, and Don’t Tell Mama as favorites. He also busks in a subway station near where he was filmed.

Schlotthauer is a familiar face at progressive rallies and protests. His wardrobe includes a T-shirt that says “Black culture influences the whole world” and a Muslim cap called a topi. And he is understandably aggrieved about being portrayed as an antisemite online. “I have so many Jewish friends who are sweethearts,” he said. He went as far as to have three of these friends write statements defending his character, which he shared with Straus News as well as the Arthouse Hotel. (The hotel didn’t respond, he said.)

While social media has a short memory, it never forgets entirely. Over three months after the Schlotthauer video went viral, the subway video continues to be reposted on occasion. On Dec. 15, actor James Woods, who frequently posts pro-Israel and anti-Muslim content on X, incorrectly claimed that Schlotthauer was the same man as a man who appears in a different video swearing at a woman inside a restaurant. (Woods did not respond to requests to comment.)

Schlotthauer said he was interested in being part of a class action suit against the accounts which targeted him. But for the most part, he’s trying to put the viral video behind him. He said the incident hasn’t changed who he is as a person—he still loves to attend political rallies and performs inside the subway station. Recently, he said, a stranger who had seen the video approached Schlotthauer on the street to call him disgusting. This time, he didn’t lash out or yell, but instead promised the woman there wasn’t a bigoted bone in his body. After the two of them spoke for a few minutes, he said she recanted her opinion.