From the archives: Contest lands restaurateur in the soup

This story was originally published in Newsday on January 17, 1998

Maybe you thought the worst thing you could get from eating matzoh balls was heartburn. But recently, Ronnie Dragoon, owner of Jericho-based Ben's Kosher Delicatessen, learned they can also give you heartache.

A few months ago, Dragoon and the sales staff of WABC-AM radio cooked up a way to raise money for two charities that serve the homeless, creating the First Annual Charity Matzoh Ball-Eating Contest. Television and radio stars would be invited to participate - eating matzoh balls or counting how many others ate.

And that's where Dragoon's tsuris began - when he invited radio show host and attorney Ron Kuby, who, with the legendary William Kunstler, defended Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, convicted in connection with the World Trade Center bombing, and Colin Ferguson, the Long Island Rail Road murderer.
First, the Jewish Defense Organization called for a boycott of all Ben's Delicatessen locations.

"These are the kind of boot-licking Jewish traitors that are selling us out," the message on the Jewish Defense Organization's hotline said earlier this week. "Yes. Ben's Kosher Deli. Let's give them a taste of the anger of the Jews in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island, who are sick of the Kunstlers and the Kubys."

Then, Dragoon said, he began receiving threatening telephone calls, about two weeks before the finals slated for Jan. 22 at the Manhattan store.

"A man purporting to be a rabbi called and started screaming and yelling at me. Someone else who said they were from the PBA Patrolmen's Benevolent Association called and asked me how I could have the defender of a cop killer take part. This went on for a week," said Dragoon. "I was concerned that on Jan. 22 that someone would commit violence. I could personally live with that, but I'm not sure I should be the one to put others at risk."

So Dragoon withdrew his invitation to Kuby to judge the matzoh ball-eating contest. Over a bowl of matzoh ball soup in Ben's in Manhattan, Kuby agreed.

"Only in New York City are matzoh balls a matter of racial, political and religious debate," Kuby said. "I would have been a good judge. My grandmother made matzoh balls until she entered a nursing home when she was in her 90s. It's one area I actually have a great deal of expertise. And this was as close to a real judicial appointment as I was ever likely to get."

Mordechai Levy, founder of the Jewish Defense Organization, has his sights on Kuby.

"Kuby is Kunstler's living successor," Levy said in a telephone interview. And "we have the right to destroy him. We did the same thing to the Ku Klux Klan, and we'll do the same thing to someone who supports Arab terrorists. We're going to drive him into misery, just like we did Kunstler."

The day after Dragoon made his decision to ask Kuby to bow out, he was not pleased with himself.

"I'm giving credibility to people who are using the same strong-arm tactics and terrorism, just what they're accusing Ron Kuby of," Dragoon said. "Freedom of speech is being repressed and the people around Ben's are being put at risk."

Levy said he would call off the boycott of Ben's restaurants once he had confirmation that Kuby was no longer a judge. But pressure is now mounting to drop Curtis Sliwa, Kuby's partner on a WABC radio program. Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, is slated to be a guest matzoh ball eater Jan. 22. Dragoon said someone claiming to be from the Puerto Rican Defense League threatened to organize a boycott if Sliwa participated. Sliwa angered many Puerto Ricans in 1992 when he said they carried switchblades for fighting because it was in their blood.

Angelo Falcon, director of the Institute for Puerto Rican policy, said he knew of no one on staff of its sister organization, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, who made the call. Sliwa did not return calls for comment.

Calls or not, Dragoon is standing by Sliwa. "I'm leaving Sliwa in place no matter what," said Dragoon.

"I always kept politics out of the store," said Dragoon. "It had no place. I don't know how people can make a political issue out of trying to feed the homeless with private-sector dollars."