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‘Can You Dig It?’: New podcast traces how a Puerto Rican-Jewish gang leader helped create hip-hop in the Bronx
(New York Jewish Week) — In the late 1960s, the Bronx was at war. Rival gangs were fighting over territory in neighborhoods that had been devastated by drugs, poverty and the construction of the Cross Bronx Expressway.
Benjamin “Yellow Benjy” Melendez was the son of Puerto Rican Jewish immigrants and the leader of a multicultural gang called the Ghetto Brothers that promoted peace. After his comrade Cornell “Black Benjie” Benjamin was beaten to death in 1971 while trying to break up a fight, Melendez brokered a truce among 50 gangs that led to safer streets, a flourishing of public art and, ultimately, the birth of hip-hop.
Julian Voloj, an occasional Jewish Telegraphic Agency contributor who is married to New York Jewish Week managing editor Lisa Keys, published a graphic novel about Melendez in 2015. Now he has co-written and co-produced a five-part podcast about the Ghetto Brothers that debuted on Audible last month in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.
“Can You Dig It?” includes interviews with former gang members and historians, dramatic reenactments of key moments in the Ghetto Brothers’ history and recordings of Melendez, who died in 2017. Chuck D of the legendary rap group Public Enemy narrates the series, and Coke La Rock — who rapped at what is considered to be the first hip-hop party, on Aug. 11, 1973 — spits a few bars and shares some memories.
Melendez’s ancestors were crypto-Jews from Spain who practiced Judaism in secret to avoid persecution during the Inquisition and afterward. Likewise, he kept his faith under wraps during his gang years. While he forbade members of the Ghetto Brothers from wearing swastikas to appear tough, he never explained why the symbol offended him. Later in life, he embraced his Jewish roots and prayed at the Bronx’s Intervale Jewish Center.
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Voloj, who lives in Queens, spoke with the New York Jewish Week this week about hip-hop history and how Melendez’s Jewishness has inspired his own projects on the genre.
This interview has been condensed and lightly edited.
JTA: When did you first hear about Benjamin Melendez?
JV: I started a photo series on Jewish diversity in 2005, and I always was looking for interesting characters to photograph. Someone recommended Yellow Benjy. He got his nickname because the mother of his first two kids was Chinese, and there were a lot of other Benjamins in the neighborhood. So I called him up and we met up in the Bronx in 2010 at the stairs where Cornell Benjamin was murdered.
That first meeting was really meant to be just one photograph, but he had this fascinating story and we hit it off. I guess it had to do with my own Latinx, Jewish identity — my parents are Colombian — so we really had a lot in common. When Yellow Benjy died, my kids thought that he was a real relative because they had seen him so many times. He was Uncle Benjy to them.
Benjamin Melendez in 2010. (Julian Voloj)
At its heart, “Can You Dig It?” is a story about gangs of disenfranchised youth fighting over turf. What’s the connection between gangs and hip-hop?
Every culture is part of a certain environment in which it was created. The realities of the 1970s Bronx, there were no youth activities, so the gangs in a way filled this void. Obviously “gang” is a term that’s not one size fits all.
After the Hoe Avenue peace meeting, the Ghetto Brothers invited other gangs into their territory for street parties. There is a direct connection to the early hip-hop parties. The philosophy of early hip-hop was about peace, love, unity and having fun. Only later on did you have gangsta rap with its glorification of violence.
Scholar Joe Schloss says on the podcast that people were always surprised to learn Melendez was Jewish and calls him “a perfect example of what it means to be Jewish in the world in a way that was very different from sort of stereotypical notions of what Jewish is.” Do you agree?
It was one of my main motivations to tell Yellow Benjy’s story in the graphic novel “Ghetto Brother.” He was a proud Puerto Rican Sephardic Jew, and it was a story that was missing from the overall canon on Jewish identity. It was also important that his children have Jewish names, and so his kids have names like Judah, Zipporah, Sarah, Rebecca, Joshua. And with them, his legacy lives on.
Several Jewish personalities are mentioned in the podcast. Can you share a little bit about them?
You have all different aspects of Jewish identity in the story. There’s Benjamin Melendez, who’s a Puerto Rican crypto-Jew. Then you have Robert Moses who comes from a German-Jewish family. The Cross Bronx Expressway is the legacy that he’s most associated with, which really accelerated urban decay and white flight.
Then you have Rita Fecher, whose father was a rabbi. She grew up Orthodox, then divorced her husband and lived as a single mom in the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan. Fecher was an art teacher at a school in the South Bronx, and she was such a positive influence on all these kids who had never met any Jews. She really cared about them. She allowed them to find their own voice and helped them to think about art. She’s the kind of teacher you wish would exist more.
From left: Pete Chelala, Angelique Lenox, Julian Voloj and Bryan Master at the Cornell Benjamin street renaming ceremony in the Bronx, June 2, 2023. (Courtesy of Voloj)
And she co-produced with Henry Chalafant the 1993 documentary about gang life titled “Flyin’ Cut Sleeves.” How did that come about?
She brought a video camera to the Bronx in the late ’60s, early ’70s, and she gave the kids the camera to document their own lives, which was unheard of. Over a decade later, she tried to track down her former students and see where they ended up. That’s really the powerful thing: you see these angry kids who feel left behind and then you see that everything somehow worked out.
For me, the fascinating part of “Flyin’ Cut Sleeves” is you see Yellow Benjy at the Intervale Jewish Center, the last synagogue of the South Bronx. He goes to services and he’s with Moishe Sacks, who was the rabbi there.
Each episode of “Can You Dig It?” ends with a song by the Ghetto Brothers band, which was fronted by Melendez. Did he rap too?
He really didn’t like hip-hop. It wasn’t his music. He was more of a Beatles fan. He liked Santana.
Although he wasn’t a hip-hop artist, he has a direct connection to the hip-hop troika of [DJ Kool] Herc, Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash. Like Herc, he was once a member of the Cofon Cats [gang]. He was friends with Afrika Bambaataa, who may or may not have participated in the Hoe Avenue peace meeting. Grandmaster Flash, who is slightly younger, knew about the Ghetto Brothers growing up and mentions them in his autobiography.
Who is this podcast for?
Anybody who’s interested in nonfiction audio storytelling. Anybody who’s interested in the history of New York. The bookends of every episode are scripted reenactments, like they use in film documentaries. They really allow listeners to dive in and experience the Bronx in the 1970s.
For the hip-hop community, it allows people to discover a different origin story. You can argue over whether hip-hop is really 50 or not because there are so many origin stories. This is one of them.
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The post ‘Can You Dig It?’: New podcast traces how a Puerto Rican-Jewish gang leader helped create hip-hop in the Bronx appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Amsterdam Mayor to Apologize to Jewish Community for City’s World War II Persecution
Mayor of Amsterdam Femke Halsema attends a press conference following the violence targeting fans of an Israeli soccer team, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Nov. 8, 2024. Photo: Reuters/Piroschka Van De Wouw
Amsterdam authorities will issue an official apology to the local Jewish community for the city’s role in the persecution of Jews during World War II at a Holocaust commemoration next week, Dutch media reported.
The city’s mayor, Femke Halsema, will deliver the formal apology on April 24, during events for Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah).
Every year, the Dutch capital commemorates Holocaust victims at Amsterdam’s Hollandsche Schouwburg theater, originally opened in 1892 and situated in the heart of the city’s Jewish quarter. In 1942, the building was repurposed by Nazi German occupiers as a collection point for Amsterdam Jews before their deportation to Westerbork transit camp and other concentration camps.
According to the Dutch news site Het Parool, Amsterdam authorities will also allocate €25 million to bolster Jewish life in the city, supporting cultural and social programs designed to help the community feel safer and freely practice their traditions.
As in many other countries across Europe, antisemitism has sharply risen in the Netherlands following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, with incidents spiking by 800 percent in the weeks after the Palestinian terrorist organization’s atrocities.
Last year, Israeli soccer fans were violently attacked in Amsterdam after watching the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team compete against the Dutch club Ajax in a European League match. At the time, Halsema called the attackers “antisemitic hit-and-run squads” who went “Jew hunting.”
With Amsterdam’s announcement, Halsema will be the first mayor in the country to publicly apologize for and recognize a city’s role in the persecution of Jews during World War II.
The mayor’s expected apology follows an investigation by the Netherlands Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies (NIOD) into the role of Amsterdam’s municipal services in the persecution of Jews during the Nazi occupation. Previous reports revealed that police took part in raids, the city handed over Jewish residents’ addresses to the Nazis, and municipal trams were used to transport thousands to deportation points.
In 2020, then-Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who currently serves as secretary general of NATO, issued a public apology for the Dutch government’s wartime actions.
Last year, Halsema announced the city would give up the money it received during the war for transporting Jews to deportation sites, a sum originally equivalent to about €61,000 today. The municipality rounded the amount up to €100,000 and paid it into a fund managed by the Central Jewish Consultation (CJO), which can decide how the money is used.
During World War II, the Netherlands had the highest percentage of Jewish victims in Western Europe, with three-quarters of its Jewish population being murdered.
“Better late than never,” Ronny Naftaniel, a prominent member of the Dutch Jewish community, told Het Parool. “It would be good if the apology was not just about the war, but also about the period immediately afterwards, given the cold reception that returned Jews received at the time.”
The post Amsterdam Mayor to Apologize to Jewish Community for City’s World War II Persecution first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Alleged Arsonist Targeted Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro Over Palestinian Stance, Police Say
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and the Pennsylvania State Police provide an update on the act of arson that took place at the Governor’s Residence, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, US, April 13, 2025. Photo: Commonwealth Media Services/Handout via REUTERS
The suspected arsonist who allegedly tried to kill Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro set fire to his official residence out of anger over the governor’s perceived stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a search warrant signed by State Police.
The suspect, 38-year-old Cody Balmer, called 911 prior to the attack and accused Shapiro of orchestrating nefarious “plans” against the Palestinian people. Balmer also referred to Shapiro, who is Jewish, as a “monster,” according to the search warrant, which was obtained by the PennLive news outlet.
Balmer told emergency operators that Shapiro “will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,” and demanded that the governor “stop having my friends killed.”
The suspect continued, telling operators, “Our people have been put through too much by that monster.”
Corporal Benjamin Forsythe of the Pennsylvania State Police said in a warrant to obtain Balmer’s devices that the suspect set fire to Shapiro’s residence, the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion, over the alleged ongoing “injustices to the people of Palestine” and his Jewish faith.
Shapiro’s residence was set ablaze on Sunday morning, hours after the governor hosted a gathering to celebrate the first night of the Jewish holiday of Passover. Shapiro said that he, his wife, and his children were awakened by state troopers knocking on their door at 2 am. The governor and his family immediately evacuated the premises and were unscathed.
According to police, Balmer scaled a nearly 7-foot-high security fence and evaded authorities before breaking into the governor’s mansion. The suspect was able to remain in Shapiro’s home for around a minute before throwing Molotov cocktails and escaping.
The suspect later revealed to police that he planned to beat Shapiro with a sledgehammer if he encountered him after gaining access into his residence, according to authorities.
Balmer, who was charged with eight crimes by authorities, including serious felonies such as attempted homicide, terrorism, and arson. The suspect faces potentially 100 years in jail. He has been denied bail.
Shapiro, a practicing Jew, has positioned himself as a staunch supporter of Israel. In the days following Hamas’s brutal slaughter of roughly 1,200 people across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Shapiro issued statements condemning the Palestinian terrorist group and gave a speech at a local synagogue. The governor also ordered the US and Pennsylvania Commonwealth flags to fly at half-mast outside the state capitol to honor the victims.
Shapiro has condemned protests against Israeli- and Jewish-owned businesses in Pennsylvania as “antisemitic” and resisted demands to call for a “ceasefire” in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. The governor revised the state codes of conduct to bar government employees from participating in “scandalous or disgraceful” behavior.
Shapiro’s strident support of Israel in the wake of Oct. 7 also incensed many pro-Palestinian activists, resulting in the governor being dubbed “Genocide Josh” by far-left demonstrators.
In a statement, US Attorney General Pam Bondi condemned the attack targeting Shapiro. However, Bondi did not clarify whether she plans on opening a federal case against the suspect.
“It is absolutely horrific what happened to him,” Bondi said. “We have been praying for Josh, for his family. Those photos, it was horrible. I firmly believe that they wanted to kill him. The defendant allegedly said he was going to use a hammer if he could have gotten to the governor. I’ve known the governor many, many years. It is horrible, and yes, we are working with state authorities to — it’s now a pending investigation — anything we can to help convict the person that did this and keep them behind bars as long as possible,” Bondi said.
In statements to reporters, Shapiro refused to accuse the suspect of antisemitism, saying that he would allow prosecutors to determine the motivation.
“I know that there are people out there who want to ascribe their own viewpoints as to what happened here and why. … I choose not to participate in that,” Shapiro said.
“Prosecutors will ultimately determine what motivated this. The district attorney and the Department of Justice can comment on that further,” Shapiro added.
The post Alleged Arsonist Targeted Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro Over Palestinian Stance, Police Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Backlash Grows in UK as Hamas Mounts Legal Challenge Against Terrorist Designation
Demonstrators hold Israeli and British flags outside the Law Courts, during a march against antisemitism, after an increase in the UK, during a temporary truce between the Palestinian Islamist terrorists Hamas and Israel, in London, Britain, Nov. 26, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Susannah Ireland
A growing wave of condemnation is mounting in the UK after lawyers representing the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas sought to challenge the organization’s terrorist designation, prompting fierce criticism from British Members of Parliament and Jewish organizations.
Last week, Hamas filed a legal petition arguing for its removal from the United Kingdom’s list of proscribed terrorist groups, describing itself as “a Palestinian Islamic liberation and resistance movement whose goal is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project.”
Riverway Law submitted a claim to UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on behalf of senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk, who also provided a witness statement in the case. Given that accepting funds from Hamas would violate British law, the firm is providing pro bono representation to the terrorist group.
“The British government’s decision to proscribe Hamas is an unjust one that is symptomatic of its unwavering support for Zionism, apartheid, occupation, and ethnic cleansing in Palestine for over a century,” the filing reads. “Hamas does not and never has posed a threat to Britain, despite the latter’s ongoing complicity in the genocide of our people.”
Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, had been banned in Britain since 2001, but the Interior Ministry broadened the ban to include the group’s political entities in 2021, arguing that Hamas functions as a unified organization rather than separate branches.
“I would be very surprised if the British government agrees to remove Hamas from the proscribed list,” Jonathan Turner, chief executive of UK Lawyers for Israel, told The Algemeiner in an exclusive interview.
“The UK is not entirely sympathetic to Israel, but it’s still very unlikely they would rule in favor of Hamas.”
In applying for removal from the list of proscribed organizations, Turner explained that Hamas does not deny being a terrorist group but rather argues that it is undesirable for it to remain banned.
In its filing, Riverway Law outlines three primary grounds for why Hamas should be removed from the terrorist list. The first argument contends that the UK’s ongoing proscription of Hamas violates international law, including the British government’s obligation not to be complicit in genocide, which Hamas claims is being perpetrated by Israel in Gaza.
Additionally, it highlights the UK’s alleged responsibility to end “the unlawful occupation of Palestinian territories,” referencing the 2024 International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion that Israel’s presence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is illegal.
The second argument claims that proscribing Hamas violates the European Convention on Human Rights, particularly the rights to freedom of expression and assembly, as UK law prohibits the promotion or support of proscribed organizations. Hamas argues that this ban restricts open debate on the Palestinian issue and peaceful demonstrations, while also being discriminatory since Israel is not similarly proscribed.
The third argument asserts that the proscription is disproportionate and not sufficiently justified. Hamas argues that there is no direct threat to the UK, that its violence is a “legitimate response to occupation,” and that the proscription undermines Palestinians’ democratic will when they elected Hamas.
The terrorist group violently eliminated its Palestinian opposition in a brief conflict in 2007, when Hamas took full control of Gaza after winning legislative elections the prior year.
Turner countered that all three arguments lack merit, emphasizing that rights such as freedom of expression and assembly can be lawfully restricted under UK and international law to protect national security, public safety, and the rights or property of others.
He also pointed out that Hamas still holds 59 of the hostages abducted during its invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and that hostage-taking is a crime against humanity under international conventions.
“Hamas is a very vicious terrorist organization,” he told The Algemeiner.
Earlier this week, British Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick announced that he had reported Riverway Law attorney Fahad Ansari for supporting Hamas and jihad, as well as the firm’s potential breach of sanctions regulations.
“The legal profession is being damaged by ideologues exploiting their status to platform extremism,” Jenrick wrote in a post on the X social media platform. “This isn’t about free speech. It’s about a man who repeatedly crosses the line into open support for terrorism — all while the authorities look away.”
Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel also criticized the legal effort, calling Hamas an “evil Iranian-backed terrorist organization, which kidnaps, tortures, and murders people, including British nationals.”
More British citizens (18) were killed during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 onslaught than in any foreign terrorist attack since Al Qaeda struck the US on Sept. 11, 2001.
“They pose an ongoing threat to our security and to the peace and stability of the Middle East and have weapons and training facilities that put lives at risk and threaten our interests,” Patel said in a statement. “They show no respect for human rights, life, and dignity and have oppressed people living in Gaza for too long.”
“Those campaigning to end the proscription of Hamas fail to understand the seriousness of the threats this terrorist organization poses,” the statement read.
Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), a UK-based Jewish civil rights group, also dismissed the case as a “bad-faith attempt to promote genocidal antisemitism,” rejecting the argument that proscribing Hamas stifles political engagement. They argued that it’s still possible to campaign for Palestinian rights, criticize Israel, or support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without endorsing Hamas or terrorism.
Riverway Law’s legal challenge on behalf of Hamas came less than a month after a group of British lawmakers released a new and extensive report documenting the atrocities of the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 atrocities across southern Israel.
The report showed that, in total, about 7,000 Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists killed 1,182 people, wounded more than 4,000 others, and kidnapped 251 hostages — 210 living and 41 dead bodies at the time of their abduction — during the onslaught. The study detailed Hamas’s planning, the weapons used, and the violence which occurred at each location, including gristly details of sexual violence, torture, and the desecration of corpses.
The post Backlash Grows in UK as Hamas Mounts Legal Challenge Against Terrorist Designation first appeared on Algemeiner.com.