This week’s post is dedicated to Jack Pons, the grandfather of Above the Scroll subscriber, Fallyn Laurette. Born Yacob Ponsowitz on June 13, 1919, he served from ages 21 to 25 in the 104th Infantry Division of the United States Army. The division went by the name of the “Timberwolves” and Pons was nicknamed the Brooklyn demon. Their motto was “Nothing in hell can stop a Timberwolf.”
Pons was a Jewish American who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and liberated Nordhausen concentration camp (also known as Dora-Mittelbau or Dora-Nordhausen) in central Germany. In April 1945, as American troops closed in, the Nazis began emptying Nordhausen, forcing thousands on death marches or to Bergen-Belsen, where they perished.
Pons told his granddaughter his unit had heard of the camps but had not seen any until a fellow American solider staying in a nearby town discovered Nordhausen. The Nazis had fled and left the prisoners that had not been sent to Bergen-Belsen or on a death march locked in the camp. Nearly all had died except for a few hundred that managed to survive. The American soldiers made the local German civilians dig mass graves to bury those who perished at the concentration camp.
Photo Source: Jack Pons, Nordhausen, April 1945.
When Pons returned to the United States he changed his name from Yacob Ponsowitz to Jack Pons because of the antisemitism he witnessed in Europe. Pons passed away at the age of 97, survived by two daughters, two grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren who continue to carry on his legacy. May his memory be a blessing.
Note to Reader: this week’s terrorist attack in London will be included in the Above the Scroll section because of the significance of the story. All other stories will be NYC based in that section as per usual.
LONDON TERRORIST ATTACK INJURES TWO AND LEAVES A COMMUNITY REELING.
On Wednesday, April 29, Essa Suleiman, a 45-year-old Somali born naturalized UK citizen, went on a stabbing spree in Golders Green, a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in London. He stabbed two visibly Jewish men on the street before police apprehended him. The stabbings have been deemed an antisemitic terrorist attack.
CBS news reports the assailant was previously referred to the Counter Extremism program which aims to de-radicalize individuals. An Iranian group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Suleiman has been charged with attempted murder.
The two victims, ages 34 and 76, were hospitalized and reported to be in stable condition.
The Jewish community is reeling in the wake of this attack, the Yom Kippur Manchester attack last year, and multiple arson attacks on synagogues, schools, businesses and four Hatzola ambulances torched in March. British Jews are scared, angry, and many are seriously considering whether there is a future for them in England.
Russell Langer, the director of Public Affairs in the Jewish Leadership Council, says the community has seen the signs and issues an urgent warning to the government:
"At this point in time, I don't think there's any faith in the community that something like this isn't going to happen again.”
British journalist Jonathan Sacerdoti had scathing words for the British government to act after two and a half years of inaction.
The UK appears to be finally waking up to the threat of terrorism.
On Friday, the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre in the UK raised its threat level to SEVERE. This mean an attack is imminent within the next 6 months. The government website says the severe threat determination is based on the Golders Green attack and “Islamist and extreme right-wing terrorist threat from individuals and small groups based in the UK.”
Jonathan Hall, the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has recommended a temporary suspension of pro-Palestinian protests, indicating they have “become incubators for antisemitism.”
"It’s not simply enough to offer thoughts and prayers and to support the police investigation." — Jonathan Hall
Stop the War Coalition, the organization behind many of the pro-Palestine protests, claims the statement that the protests foster antisemitism is false and that many Jews attend these protests.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said the use of the words “globalize the intifada” can lead to arrest by the police:
“If you stand alongside people who say globalize the intifada, you are calling for terrorism against Jews—and people who use that phrase should be prosecuted. It is racism, extreme racism, and it has left a minority community in this country scared, intimidated, wondering if they belong.”
Photo Source: The Spectator, via Getty Images
PARK SLOPE FOOD COOP MEETING DERAILS INTO JEW HATRED
The New York Post broke this story, obtaining a video recording of a meeting of Park Slope Food Coop members. The Coop has been in the news repeatedly for trying to boycott Israeli products.
At the Tuesday evening meeting, the Post reports a member attending on Zoom said:
“Jewish supremacism is a problem in this country,” and “We can’t keep making the same mistakes between what we did with the Nazis and what we did with other hateful, racist groups.”
The statement directly equates Jews with Nazis.
Witnesses who attended the meeting in person said at least 50 people applauded.
Photo Source: The New York Post, Helayne Seidman
Jewish leaders and Coop members spoke out.
The New York Post spoke to longtime Coop members Ramon Maislen and Barbara Mazor. Mazor is running for the board, citing increasing antisemitism which has completely taken over the Coop influenced her decision to run.
“I stood up onstage at the meeting, facing a hostile crowd, and said, ‘Applauding a speech that labels Jews as supremacists is not principled. It is wrong.” — Ramon Maislen
“It’s just, let’s, let’s get our Jew hate on. And we saw it unabashed last night.” - Barbara Mazor
Mark Treyger, the head of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, has called on New York State human rights departments to investigate the incident.
“New York’s strength is rooted in diversity, pluralism, and the rule of law. Jewish members of the Coop should not be demeaned, targeted, made to feel unsafe, or subjected to collective blame because of disagreements over Middle East policy.” - Mark Treyger
The Coop currently has a 75% voting threshold to boycott products. The meeting was scheduled to discuss whether the threshold should be lowered to 51%, thereby making it easier for the BDS movement within the Coop to boycott Israeli products.
The left-leaning Coop has a long history of trying to boycott Israeli products:
In 2012, the New York Times reported over 1,600 Coop members met and ultimately voted to reject the boycott of Israeli made products. The Coop only carried a handful of Israeli food items. Ironically, some of the products involved in that boycott would negatively impact Palestinian olive farmers used in Israeli products if the boycott was successful.
In October 2024, New York Jewish Week published an expose on the atmosphere of the Coop since October 2023. The article said Coop meetings had become “toxic” spaces centered around boycotting Israeli products. Jewish members reported members screaming Zionist slurs at them while they tried to shop. Member Sondra Shaievitz said:
“This is harming our food co-op, it’s ripping the co-op apart. This isn’t some kind of political action community and we’re not going to solve the Middle East. Our platform was the health of the co-op and making sure all of our members feel welcome and safe.”
MORE NEW YORK CITY NEWS
MAMDANI’S AD HAS A CITY EMPLOYEE SPORTING A KEFFIYEH
A new campaign initiated by the mayor’s office calls on New Yorkers to organize after a dismal turnout of only 400 hundred people at the Rent Guidelines Board hearing. The Board holds multiple annual hearings and is intended to be a place for tenants and landlords to speak, be heard, set guidelines and make adjustments on rents.
On April 29, the mayor’s X account posted a video, showing two employee’s from the Mayor’s Office of Mass Engagement going door-to-door as part of a grassroots campaign to get New Yorkers to turnout at the next hearing. Mohamed Alharbi, the deputy borough director of the Queens office of Mass Engagement, is on the right wearing the keffiyeh.
The New York Post reports that colleagues of Alharbi were surprised to see him wearing the keffiyeh in the video and said they have never seen him wear it to the office. If this is true, the fact that he wore it in an official capacity for this video is significant not only because of the meaning behind the garment but also because the Mayor’s Office of Mass Engagement is funded by taxpayer dollars.
The Post spoke to Moshe Spern, president of United Jewish Teachers:
“They knew what they were doing and exactly the message they wanted to send. In the city with the largest Jewish community, how can someone not see this as a direct act of hate toward the Jewish community?”
Why is this relevant?
Mamdani posting on his X account of 2 million followers a video of an employee wearing a keffiyeh, a garment many Jews associate with fear, danger and terrorism, can be inferred as a symbolic way for the the mayor to insert his pro-Palestinian views into a local housing issue that has nothing to do with the Middle East.
NPR did a deep-dive into the history of the keffiyeh. A garment traditionally worn by Bedouins, it become a symbol of Palestinian nationalism when Yasser Arafat began wearing it in the 1960’s. Terrorists like Leila Khaled (a plane hijacker) and members of Hamas also wear the keffiyeh. The keffiyeh has become ubiquitous at protests, where some Palestinians wear it as a sign of pride, some in solidarity to the cause, and some to cover their faces.
Photo Source: Reuters
HILLEL TARGETED AT THE NEW SCHOOL
On Friday, April 30, the student senate voted to cut the funding for Hillel at the New School, a university in Greenwich Village.
The 22-body student senate claims Hillel is behind “grave violations of international law.”
“To continue to fund Hillel at the New School would mean that your student fees would be used to support violations of international law,” the statement says. “Our shared values require us to enforce our policies until Hillel agrees to affirm and abide by international law.”
The New York Post first reported on this, citing that the student senate had a problem with Hillel’s student trips to Israel, including Birthright Israel and volunteer trips to military bases in the country. The student senate wants Hillel to sever any relationship to Hillel International and cease programs to Israel.
Photo Source: Times of Israel, via Getty Images (April 21, 2024)
Hillel serves 700 Jewish students at the New School. The CEO and President of Hillel International, Adam Lehman said:
“Demonizing Hillel with false charges rooted in age-old antisemitic tropes is wrong, plain and simple. We are in active conversations with university leadership and Jewish community partners to ensure every Jewish student at The New School has access to the Hillel experience, support, and resources they deserve.”
The New School and New York City Council member Erik Dinowitz reacted quickly to this move by the student senate.
A spokesperson for the school issued the following statement:
“The student senate does not have the authority to determine the recognition, funding eligibility, or official status of registered student organizations. That authority rests with university administration.”
Why is this significant?
This story bears a stark resemblance to the protests surrounding Park East Synagogue hosting Nefesh B’Nefesh last fall for American Jews moving to Israel. At that time, mayor-elect Mamdani had said “sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”
Above the Scroll covered this, questioning what “violation of international law” the then mayor-elect was referencing, unless he believes immigration to Israel is illegal.
Regardless of the opinion of the current mayor or the 22 students leading the senate at the New School, Israel is a sovereign Jewish state. Hillel is an organization dedicated to serving Jewish students, many of whom have strong ethnic, familial and religious ties to the only Jewish state. The normalization of the use of the words “violation of international law” with absolutely no legal or evidentiary foundation to strip funding for a minority group dedicated to Jewish student life and community could be deemed a discriminatory action.
UC BERKELEY HOSTS FAILED SUICIDE BOMBER. JAY SHURES CONDEMNS THE EVENT AS “DISGUSTING AND ABHORRENT.”
The Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) group hosted an event for University of California Berkeley Law students on April 20th for Palestinian Political Prisoners Day. They chose to present Israa Jaabis, a Palestinian suicide car bomber who was imprisoned and released in November 2023 as part of the hostage exchange deal.
As reference, the November 2023 hostage exchange released women, children and elderly civilian hostages taken from Israel into Gaza on October 7, in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned on a variety of charges, one of whom was Jaabis.
In 2015, Jaabis was stopped by a police officer in Jerusalem when she yelled “Allahu Akbar” and attempted to light the gas tank of the vehicle she was driving in an attempted terrorist attack. Jaabis and the police officer were both burned but survived the attack.
Photo Source: UCB SJP Instagram
In a video, Jaabis received applause from law students noting the crowd:
“makes us hopeful that there remains some humanity” and “That there is someone to support us in the future, delivering our message to the international community, and amplifying our call to liberate Palestinian prisoners, as well as to liberate all societies from servitude and from bigotry, which produces populations complicit in perpetrating inhumane laws.”
It’s noteworthy Jaabis used the word “humanity” and “inhumane” multiple times in her video given that the nature of her crime, an attempted terrorist attack intended to harm as many people as possible, lacks any semblance of humanity.
Last week’s newsletter covered UCLA and Jay Shures scathing response to the UCLA Student Association. Shures is a regent of the UC system and vice chairman of United Talent Agency.
Shures spoke out against UC Berkeley SJP hosting Jaabis, noting they had the First Amendment right to do so but that it was “disgusting and abhorrent.”
Shures also said the event has “‘anti-Zionistic behavior’” that leads to antisemitism.”
Photo Source: Variety Magazine, via
Kelly Taub/BFA/REX/Shutterstock
US SOLDIER CHARGED WITH THREATS AGAINST JEWS
Jakob Marcoulier, 22, a soldier stationed in Louisiana was arrested on Thursday after the FBI obtained a tip that Marcoulier made threatening statements against synagogues on the messaging site Discord.
An audio recording was provided to the FBI that allegedly had Marcoulier making the following statement, among others, on Discord:
“After this deployment if the Jews still have reign over our government, I am going to walk into a synagogue with my AK, with a 75-round drum mag, and all of my extra mags, with my level four plates, and my haka helmet that’s three plus, and I am going to kill every single Jew I know inside of that synagogue. And that’s my goal in life.”
Photo Source: Times of Israel
DEMOCRATIC PARTY UPDATES
Maine: Graham Platner moves forward in the Maine Senate Democratic primary as Janet Mills, the current governor, suspends her campaign.
Above the Scroll covered Platner two weeks ago, a candidate who had a Nazi symbol tattooed on his chest (although he claims he did not know what it was and later had it covered with other ink) and also showed support for Hamas in prior social media posts.
The Jewish Democratic Council has not endorsed Platner citing concerns about his candidacy. CEO Halie Soifer says:
“We won’t support a Democrat who doesn’t represent the views and values of the vast majority of American Jews.”
Meanwhile, Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, says the Democrats will unite behind Platner to try and defeat Republican Susan Collins. The Forward reports this may create issues with moderate and pro-Israel voters.
Michigan:
Alyssa Slotkin denounces Michigan Democrats who nominated Amir Makled, a lawyer, who is running on the Democratic ticket for the Michigan state Board of Regents. Makled shared antisemitic conspiracy theory social media posts (that are now deleted) and praised Hezbollah leaders, including Hassan Nasrallah, as martyrs. When this came to light, Makled claims he was not being antisemitic, just critical of the state of Israel.
“I disavow antisemitism completely. And the only reason why I’m asked about antisemitism is because I am critical of the state of Israel and those two are not the same thing.”
One of the deleted posts obtained by the Detroit News shows Makled retweeting an antisemitic post on X from Candace Owens and adding his own rhetoric at the top. Apparently criticism of Jewish civilians as “demons” and “enemies” is not antisemitic, just criticism of the state of Israel.
BONDI BEACH BENEFIT CONCERT CANCELLED BECAUSE CHOIR REFUSES TO SING WITH JEWS. CHOIR NOW SAYS THAT’S NOT TRUE.
The Australian Hellenic Choir and the Sydney Jewish Choral Society were scheduled to perform at the end of June in Sydney, Australia in a concert to benefit the Jewish victims of the Bondi Beach attack that occurred last December.
The concert has now been cancelled because over half of the Greek Hellenic choir refused to sing with their Jewish counterparts. Some cite fear as a reason.
James Tsolakis, president of the Australian Hellenic Choir, said he did not realize the extent of antisemitism in the Greek community:
“The Jewish people are all into it, I’m into it, but the Greek choir was a bit anti doing it because of the political climate. Unfortunately, we have a lot of people in the community blaming the Jewish community for what’s happening in Israel, Palestine… that’s not correct.”
After this story ran in The Australian on April 27 and in the Times of Israel on April 28, the Jerusalem Post ran a story on April 30, with the Australian Hellenic Choir claiming the reason for the cancellation was not antisemitism.
The Hellenic Choir management committee alleged the benefit was cancelled on their end due to “time constraints.”
It seems unclear how that is a possible explanation given that the date, venue, music and funding had already been secured. The President of the choir’s own statements directly contradict this claim. The Hellenic Choir management committee said Tsolakis statements were “made without the authorization of the committee, and didn’t reflect the values of the musical company.”
ANTISEMITIC ACTS AROUND THE WORLD
Germany: Berlin apartment buildings are vandalized with antisemitic death threats and a synagogue in Cottbus is defaced with a swastika.
Romania: A Jewish cemetery is vandalized, defacing 14 gravestones.
Canada: Aleph Bet Judaica in Toronto is vandalized for the third time. Owner Moshe Joseph responds to the attacks against his store with love, strength, and a desire to keep serving his Jewish community.
Highlighting important reads on Substack this week:
Hen Mazzig post Stop Arming Doha is an important read on arms sales to America’s allies in the Middle East.
Journalist Nadav Eyal is a go-to source for news and politics in the Middle East, but this essay published a month ago is one that will make you think deeply about the role and relationship of the Jewish diaspora.
“Now more than ever, Israelis are bound by a shared fate to Jews in the diaspora….Anyone who fails to grasp that the spiritual, political, and historical character of the Jewish people was also shaped — in modern times primarily — in the diaspora, will not understand its significance to the Jewish experience at all.”
Melanie Phillips post The Palestinian Laundromat is a stark and unfiltered critique of the British government’s handling of antisemitism and resulting terrorism. In the wake of this week’s attacks, she proffers a moral compass for the “West [to] disentangle itself from this morass and return to the core values of the civilization that it has so tragically tossed aside.”
IN POSITIVE JEWISH NEWS…
BOY GEORGE STANDS UP TO JEWISH HATE
Boy George, a long-time ally of the Jewish community and an advocate for using music to unite people, voiced his support after the most recent terrorist attack in Golders Green.
Despite all the controversy from Spain and other countries who have decided to not attend or air Eurovision because an Israeli singer is competing, Boy George also confirmed he will be attending. In an interview with Sky News, Boy George said:
“I played in Israel, I got a letter from Roger Waters telling me not to go and I went, because I’ve got a lot of fans in Israel. Plus, in the UK, I have a lot of Jewish friends — and I know them to be beautiful, good, kind, smart, loving people, so expecting me to turn against my friends is a lunacy, and it’s not going to happen.”
GOLDA GUIDE LAUNCHES GOLDA GIRLS PODCAST
Golda, the fun Jewish lifestyle guide curating everything you need to live Jewishly, launched its podcast, Golda Girls. Golda creator Stephanie Butnick, and dream Jewish team - Jewish Insider journalist gabby deutch, writer Esther Levy Chehebar and Rabbi Diana Fersko - are co-hosting the podcast.
“Our hope is to bring some levity to the community, a place for Jewish women and the people who love them to connect about all things frivolous and serious, Jewish and Jew-ish, intellectual and idiosyncratic. It’s a show about culture, community, identity, and the everyday moments shaping our modern lives.” Gabby Deutch
THE DOMESTIC GODDESS JOINS THE GREAT BRITISH BAKEOFF
Nigella Lawson, the ultra successful British food writer, cookbook author, and television star, has joined the beloved baking show, the Great British Bakeoff. Lawson is replacing judge Prue Leith, who is retiring from the show, and will co-judge with Paul Hollywood.
Photo Source: BBC, via Getty Images
Lawson, whose persona became synonymous with her cookbook, How to Be a Domestic Goddess, is also proudly Jewish and says her upbringing profoundly influenced her approach and style of cooking.
“I think that if you are Jewish, you feel that food as sustenance is important; food as a way of forging bonds with people and a sense of family is important; but we also cannot help but to think of food symbolically. We don’t have to be taught that. It’s not about any religious thing – it’s in how we are.”
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