New York – Four and a half months after being mysteriously whisked out of Bolivia and brought back to the United States, the Brooklyn businessman who was held in South America for thirty months made his first public appearance, presenting an award to the Hollywood actor who was instrumental in arranging his return.
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Yanky Ostreicher shared details of his incarceration at Bolivia’s notorious Palmalosa prison and the unlikely friendship that ensued after actor Sean Penn took on his cause as a humanitarian effort at the second annual Champions of Jewish Values International Awards Gala arranged by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s This World: The Values Network.
Ostreicher presented the Champion of Jewish Justice Award to Penn last night in front of a crowd of approximately 800 guests at Cipriani in Manhattan.
“He gave a moving beautiful speech that was very detailed, about how Sean Penn nearly risked his own life to get him out of jail,” Rabbi Boteach told VIN News. “Yanky told all the details with Sean standing right by his side.”
While some considered Penn an unlikely choice of an honoree at an event of this nature, Rabbi Boteach defended his choice.
“In Christianity people are judge by what they believe, but in Judaism we judge people by what they do,” said Rabbi Boteach. If you do good, do a mitzvah, that is enough. It is easy to respect people we disagree with as long as they are people of action.”
Rabbi Boteach praised Ostreicher for agreeing to come forward with his story.
“It is a real tribute to Yanky,” said Rabbi Boteach. “He wanted Sean Penn to get the credit and to show his hakaras hatov. Here in the context of an august gathering of VIPs he was able to publicly say thank you.”
what a great man
Very nice.
Now for my negative comment of the day; why does Shmuely always have to contrast Judaism to other religions? It’s as if he’s looking to make anything into a debate just because.