Netanyahu’s Son Starts New Haven Biz

Yair Netanyahu, the oldest son of the Israeli prime minister and a prominent defender of his father’s government, has formed a company in Fair Haven and bought a house in the Annex to boost his work speaking on college campuses about Israeli history, Judaism, antisemitism, and his life at the center of his home country’s politics.

His business creation, real estate purchase, and recent visits to New Haven — including at a downtown kosher restaurant — reveal the younger Netanyahu’s tie to a small city with a growing Orthodox Jewish community.

Netanyahu, 33, formed his company, called Y.N Israel Heritage LLC, in November. 

As first reported by Shomrim investigative journalist Uri Blau in this Feb. 27 Hebrew-language article, the younger Netanyahu worked with Fair Haven-based real estate developer Jonathan Perlich to incorporate his business at the Quinnipiac River Marina at 315 Front St., which Perlich co-owns.

Per state business registry filings, Netanyahu was originally listed as the company’s ​“managing member” — meaning he was its owner and responsible for its day-to-day operations. A subsequent state business filing from late January swapped out Netanyahu’s name from the LLC’s public record and swapped in Perlich as Y.N Israel Heritage’s non-owner ​“manager.”

Blau also reported that Yair Netanyahu visited New Haven as recently as last September, when the downtown kosher restaurant Ricotta posted on Instagram about his visit.

Despite dropping his name from the state filing, Yair Netanyahu still owns the 315 Front St.-based company, according to city land record filings.

The Independent found that Y.N Israel Heritage LLC purchased the single-family house at 75 Pardee St. in the Annex for $325,000 on Jan. 31. The seller of the property was Gan Eden Chadash LLC, a holding company controlled by New Haven landlord Sim Levenhartz. Blau’s article for Shomrim identified Sim and his brother Menahem Levenhartz as close friends of Yair Netanyahu. Blau also reported that Yair and Sim live in the same luxury apartment complex near Miami, Florida. 

A second land records filing shows that, on the same day that his company bought 75 Pardee St., Y.N Israel Heritage LLC took out a $275,000 mortgage loan on that property from BPL Mortgage LLC, a financial services company based out of Illinois. 

Yair Netanyahu signed his name several times on that mortgage document as the ​“sole member,” or owner, of Y.N Israel Heritage LLC. The document was also signed by a notary in Miami Dade County, Florida.

Netanyahu did not respond to a request for comment by the publication time of this article. 

According to the Shomrim article, even though Netanyahu has lived in Florida for nearly two years, he remains actively engaged in the Israeli political arena. ​“During his father’s visit to the U.S. in February, Yair accompanied him and met with billionaire Elon Musk, who has taken a key position in the Trump administration,” Blau wrote. ​“Throughout this time, Yair continued to attack Israeli security officials, the judicial system, and the media, while spreading unfounded claims through his social media accounts, including the conspiracy theory known as ​‘The Betrayal from Within.’ ”

So. Yair Netanyahu’s company is based out of 315 Front St. and owns a single-family house in an industrial stretch of the Annex. 

What exactly does it do? 

Jonathan Perlich, 31, explained that he and Netanyahu set up Y.N Israel Heritage LLC to be a ​“speaking engagement company primarily focusing on Israeli heritage [and] better understanding of Israeli people as that pertains to Israeli Judaism and the fight against antisemitism.”

Perlich, who also runs his own consulting company, said he is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the business. He does not book speaking engagements for Netanyahu, who has his own podcast and a Twitter account with more than 228,000 followers. Instead, Netanyahu turned to him to form the company because of Perlich’s experience creating LLCs and making sure that all relevant reports are filed and taxes paid to comply with state laws around running a business in Connecticut.

Perlich said that Y.N Israel Heritage LLC is ​“primarily focused” on securing Yair Netanyahu ​“speaking engagements at colleges, universities, other business organizations that would be interested to hear more from Yair” and his perspective on Israel.

Why was it formed in New Haven, given that Netanyahu lives in Florida?

Perlich said Netanyahu’s decision to incorporate Y.N Israel Heritage LLC here is a testament to New Haven ​“as a diverse city” and ​“cultural hub in Connecticut” that is also close to New York City and Boston, has easy access to Tweed New Haven Airport and a regional train network, and that has Yale and a host of other colleges and universities nearby.

Also, ​“there’s a strong Jewish presence in New Haven that has been established over the course of many years,” Perlich said, especially in Beaver Hills.

“It was an honor to have New Haven as a place to establish that entity and [its] headquarters,” Perlich said about Netanyahu’s company.

And why did the company buy 75 Pardee St.?

It is ​“not a rental property,” Perlich said about that recently acquired single-family house. Instead, his understanding is that ​“Yair and other people” affiliated with Y.N Israel Heritage LLC will stay there when they visit New Haven. He said he’s not sure how that property will be run in the long term.

Perlich himself is neither Israeli nor Jewish. He described himself as a Catholic from the American South whose family made pilgrimages to Israel in his youth. 

His family runs a company called Ecochlor, which he said specializes in environmental and regulatory compliance ​“in regards to invasive species contamination of ballast water tanks on ocean-going vessels.” 

His work for the family business brought him all over the world, including work trips to Israel and an extended stay in Singapore. 

During the first Trump administration, he said, his family repatriated part of its business to the New Haven-North Haven area. That’s when Perlich moved to New Haven, and eventually transitioned from the family international-shipping-industry business and into the world of commercial real estate.

Perlich said he doesn’t remember exactly who introduced him to Yair Netanyahu — whether it was Sim Levenharz, who also has a number of LLCs based out of 315 Front St., or ​“some of the rabbis here in Connecticut and New York” with whom he has formed ​“very strong relationships” in recent years.

“I believe, being a neutral party, not a Jewish community member, someone who’s understanding of many sides of the aisle, of the world, multiple folks of prominence in the New Haven community felt it was a good fit” for Perlich to help Netanyahu to form this company ​“to ensure that services could be rendered, and to support his business endeavor.”

Perlich said he is not aware of any formal speaking engagements Netanyahu has booked so far with Y.N Israel Heritage LLC. He did attend an informal meetup at the downtown kosher restaurant Ricotta last September with Netanyahu and several members of New Haven’s Chabad Lubavich Jewish community, including Sim and Menahem Levenhartz. 

Perlich said he was impressed at that meeting by Netanyahu’s ​“deep understanding of history” and his ​“engaging conversation with Jewish community leaders that we’re excited to hear thoughts and discussions … [regarding] how the Jewish community within New Haven was responding to world events.”

Perlich, who does not speak Hebrew, said he did not understand everything that was said at that Ricotta meetup. ​“My direct conversation [with Netanyahu] was with [their] shared fascination with Israeli history and history as a whole,” he said.

Does Netanyahu come to New Haven often? ​“I’ve seen him several times,” Perlich said, but not in recent months. 

“My suspicion is New Haven doesn’t have the greatest winters” compared to Florida, he said. ​“I would expect to see him more as spring comes.”