ABOVE: Left-leaning ‘philanthropists’ George and Alex Soros have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to nonprofits funding the antisemitic tent cities at Columbia and other college campuses. PHOTO: @alexsoros/Instagram
By Josh Christenson | The New York Post
New York Democratic candidates in competitive races took campaign donations from Westchester People’s Action Coalition, a left-wing nonprofit, and the Soros family, which are both pouring money into antisemitic encampments on college campuses.
Former Rep. Mondaire Jones, who is running to win back his seat in New York’s 17th Congressional District this year, has received more than $35,000 in donations from billionaires George and Alex Soros since 2022, FEC filings show.
Those contributions included $6,000 donations apiece from the father-son duo in December, as the progressive hopes to unseat freshman New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler.
During his first campaign and later term in Congress, Jones also received more than $3,400 from a board member of the WESPAC, a fiscal sponsor of the anti-Israel groups Within Our Lifetime and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
WESPAC President Howard Horowitz gifted more than $1,000 to the primary campaigns of “Squad” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), whose district covers Westchester County and parts of the Bronx.
That White Plains-based nonprofit backed protests of President Biden over his support for the “genocide” of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, as he headed to a swanky fundraiser at the home of actors Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
‘SHUT DOWN WARMONGER’S FUNDRAISER,” an email invitation endorsed by WESPAC read, according to a copy obtained by The Post. “NO MONEY, NO PEACE FOR BABY-KILLER BIDEN!’
Felice Gelman, a retired Wall Street banker who is giving away her fortune to anti-Israel causes, has also donated nearly $3,700 to Bowman’s congressional campaigns.
Her latest contribution of $1,000 comes ahead of the anti-Israel rep’s tough primary fight against Westchester County Executive George Latimer, who is ahead by 17 percentage points in a Democratic poll earlier this month.
Jones trailed Lawler by just 2 percentage points in another Democratic poll conducted in May 2023.
“Mondaire Jones pals around with radical antisemites like AOC, Ilhan Omar and Jamaal Bowman and is bankrolled by the very same people who are funding the horrific antisemitic protests we’re seeing on college campuses across the country,” Lawler campaign spokesman Chris Russell told The Post.
“He must immediately return these donations and denounce those he continues to associate with,” he added.
“Mondaire Jones has vigorously spoken out against antisemitism and the BDS movement, so of course he doesn’t support the pro-BDS Students for Justice in Palestine,” said Shannon Geisen, a spokeswoman for Jones’ campaign.
“If Mike Lawler wants to criticize people who have contributed to Mondaire, Lawler needs to explain why he accepted a contribution from Harlan Crow, a billionaire with a Nazi memorabilia collection, and has endorsed a well-known antisemite for the Rockland County Legislature and Donald Trump, who has repeatedly cozied up to Nazis.”
The Soros’ network of nonprofits, WESPAC and Gelman have all propped up Within Our Lifetime and SJP’s tent encampments at Columbia University that have threatened the school’s Jewish community.
The groups — along with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) — descended on the Morningside Heights campus last week to set up a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” as Congress grilled Columbia’s president Minouche Shafik for fostering antisemitism on campus.
Undergrads at the sprawling tent city have intimidated and harassed Jewish students and faculty, forcing administrators to scrap in-person classes as chants of “Intifada” and “f–k Israel” ring out on the quad.
“A message to the scum of nations and pigs of the earth: Paradise lies in the shadow of swords,” read a cardboard sign seen by The Post that was hidden deep in the encampment.
Since 2017, Soros’ Open Society Foundations donated at least $300,000 to the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), which is paying student radicals to “rise up, to revolution” at the Ivy Leagues and elsewhere.
USCPR’s community “fellows” rake in as much as $7,800 and its campus “fellows” enjoy between $2,880 and $3,660 to organize “campaigns led by Palestinian organizations.”
Gelman, a former member of WESPAC’s committee for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, and her husband, Yoram, donated $20,000 to the group through her nonprofit, the Sparkplug Foundation, in 2022, public filings show.
Reps for Bowman’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment. ##