Otto Warmbier's Family Kept His Jewishness Under Wraps While North Korea Held Him

Eric Cortellessa : Jun 22, 2017
The Times of Israel

Warmbier will be buried in a non-sectarian cemetery. The family will not be sitting Shiva, according to a source who said the family was non-observant.

(Israel)—[Times of Israel] The family of Otto Warmbier, the American college student who died on Monday, days after his release from 17 months of captivity in North Korea, was advised to keep his Jewish background and identity concealed while officials tried to negotiate his release. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin/via Times of Israel)

That was because the North Korean justification for his imprisonment centered on a dubious claim that Warmbier had stolen a propaganda poster in a Pyongyang hotel lobby on orders from the Friendship United Methodist Church in Wyoming, Ohio, to bring it back "as a trophy" in exchange for a used car worth $10,000.

"We didn't want to share it," said Mickey Bergman, who worked on negotiations for Warmbier's release, referring to the fact of Warmbier's Jewishness. "The family chose, rightfully so, not to share that information while he was in captivity... because they didn't want to embarrass [North Korea] by explaining that he actually was Jewish" and thus would not have been affiliated with the church.

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