Israeli businessman alleges family ejected from Swiss hotel in frigid night due to antisemitism

3 police officers oversee late-night eviction of Yaniv Bender and his family, including 3 children, from Swiss luxury hotel; Bender claims antisemitism, saying manager admitted to targeting them for being Jewish; hotel denies

Yaniv Bender, an Israeli businessman and former CEO of Psagot Investment House, claims he and seven family members were evicted from a luxury hotel in the Swiss ski resort town of Arosa in an incident he describes as severe antisemitic discrimination.
Bender, 36, who visibly identifies as Jewish by wearing a kippah and tzitzit, reported that the manager of The Tschuggen Collection hotel ordered them to leave late at night in freezing temperatures, allegedly saying, "You and your children are barbarians."
Yaniv Bender and his family ejected from Swiss hotel
(Video: Courtesy)
At the start of the vacation, during a skiing session, Bender's brother-in-law dislocated his shoulder and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Additionally, Bender’s wife came down with the flu and remained in their room with a high fever. Due to her condition, Bender requested to postpone a scheduled spa treatment by two days, but the hotel refused and demanded payment. When Bender went to the reception desk to speak with the manager, the situation quickly escalated.
“The manager arrived, and the incident began to spiral into absurdity,” Bender recounted. “The manager spoke to me terribly. He said, ‘You are a barbarian. Your children are barbarians. How do you raise your children? My children don’t behave like this.’”
At that point, the manager informed Bender, “I want you out of the hotel today. Get out of here.” Bender explained that he could not leave in the middle of the night, as his brother-in-law had a dislocated shoulder and his wife was severely ill. He asked to stay until the morning, but the manager insisted that they leave the hotel immediately.
“We didn’t understand his aggression,” Bender said. “We asked him if he had a problem with us being Jewish. The manager replied, ‘Yes.’ At that moment, he became vulgar and hostile. He called the police. We were in complete shock. We hadn’t done anything wrong. We were just a family with three small children who hadn’t made any excessive noise. We couldn’t understand where this was coming from.”
A Swiss police officer arrived but did not speak English, so two English-speaking officers were summoned from a nearby city. The officers entered the room, saw the family with their young children, and asked them to leave. “We requested time to pack and leave. We asked, ‘On what grounds are you doing this?’ The officers explained that under Swiss law, if a hotel owner wants to evict a guest, they can.”
3 View gallery
צ'וגן קולקשן (The Tschuggen Collection) בעיירת הסקי השוויצרית ארוזה
צ'וגן קולקשן (The Tschuggen Collection) בעיירת הסקי השוויצרית ארוזה
The Tschuggen Collection hotel
(Photo: YueStock / Shutterstock.com)
Bender insisted on receiving a written explanation from the hotel manager regarding his family's eviction. In the letter, the manager wrote: "We hereby confirm that due to your behavior and after repeated warnings, it was mutually agreed that it would be best for everyone if you find another hotel. We were forced to ask the police to assist in implementing these measures. As one of the leading hotels in the country, we expect our esteemed clientele to behave in a manner that does justice to our establishment and other guests. We thank you for your understanding and cooperation and wish you a safe onward journey."
Bender was shocked by the letter, saying that he had never agreed to leave the hotel. “It was an absurd situation where three armed police officers were in our room, demanding we leave. The children were in a state of panic, crying and asking, ‘Are they going to kill us?’ At one point, the hotel manager’s assistant came and threatened to bring her husband to beat us. When we tried to film the manager, she grabbed the phone. The situation became extremely emotional, with everyone crying. Ultimately, we were thrown out of the hotel at 11:30 p.m. into a parking lot at minus 13 degrees Celsius (8.6°F). They wouldn’t even let us go into the lobby. We were left with 14 suitcases, three small children, a person with a dislocated shoulder and my wife, who had a 40°C (104°F) fever and a perforated eardrum caused by all the shouting.”
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By midnight, the family found another hotel in St. Moritz, incurring additional expenses of tens of thousands of shekels. The hotel that evicted them agreed to refund 10,000 Swiss francs (around $11,000) out of the 25,000 Swiss francs (approximately $27,500) they had paid.
"We did nothing to justify being thrown out of the hotel," said Bender. "My children are five years old. I’ve stayed at some of the most prestigious ski resorts in the world and have never been treated so humiliatingly.”
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שוטרים בחדר של משפחת בנדר
שוטרים בחדר של משפחת בנדר
Police officers in Bender's room
(Photo: Yaniv Bender)
According to Bender, one of the English-speaking police officers told him he would be willing to testify in court that the hotel owner had not presented any evidence of wrongdoing by the family. The officer reportedly added that the eviction was unjustified but that Swiss law allows hotel owners to evict guests without explanation.
“We went through a day of severe trauma," Bender said. "I work with international businesspeople and am familiar with many cultures. This was pure hatred. I am absolutely convinced this was antisemitism. I don’t know if it was related to the war in Gaza, but no one deserves to experience something like this. I am someone with the resources, connections and financial ability to fight back—I will sue them. I have already sought a major law firm in Switzerland. This will not go unanswered.”
“Every time I read about antisemitic incidents in the news, I never truly believed them,” Bender continued. “I thought it happened to someone who might have behaved in a vulgar manner. But now, I’ve experienced something firsthand that I never thought existed in this world. I’ve gained perspective. I used to think these reports were exaggerated or fabricated. I have never in my life endured such humiliation and shame. It’s horrifying.”
Bender has filed a formal complaint with the hotel chain’s management. A spokesperson for the hotel’s public relations department confirmed that the incident is under investigation.
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עיירת הסקי השוויצרית ארוזה
עיירת הסקי השוויצרית ארוזה
Arosa, Switzerland
(Photo: Shutterstock)
Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chairman of the European Jewish Association (EJA), to whom the family reported the incident, sent a strongly worded letter to Switzerland’s Tourism Ministry, demanding condemnation of the incident and decisive measures to prevent such antisemitic acts in the future. Rabbi Margolin also instructed the organization’s legal advisor, attorney Shlomo Dahan, to prepare a lawsuit against the hotel owners.
“The antisemitic insults and slurs uttered by the hotel manager and his assistant against the family are horrifying,” Rabbi Margolin said. “The fact that this behavior came not from a drunk troublemaker but from the managers of a five-star luxury hotel, who evicted a Jewish family in the middle of the night, requires a thorough investigation by the authorities and the most severe response."
A spokesperson for the Tschuggen Collection responded: "As a small, inclusive, family-owned hotel company, we welcome and value guests from all over the world with very diverse backgrounds. Any incident that leaves any of our guests feeling mistreated in any way is regrettable and very saddening to us, especially as we pride ourselves on being a safe-haven and sanctuary during times of global upheaval. That said, we strongly reject the characterisation of events of 14th January by the Bender family, and any accusations of antisemitism or wrongdoing on behalf of our staff. Unfortunately, the actions of the Bender family during the incident in question left the hotel managers no alternative to involving the authorities to resolve the situation. Numerous members of staff, other guests and the authorities themselves can testify to this.
"Our owner family themselves are fiercely proud of their Jewish heritage, have always been delighted to host Jewish guests from around the world in our hotels and continue to support apolitical causes in Israel (most notably an annual gala event at our sister Carlton Hotel in St. Moritz raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Sheba Tel Hashomar Medical Center in Tel Aviv each year). We hold ourselves to the highest standards of hospitality and ask our staff and all our guests from all over the world to exercise courtesy and respect towards each other. We are only too aware that, sadly, anti-semitism is on the rise globally but that is not what happened here."
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