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Crumbs cupcakes, founded by a Jewish couple, makes a comeback
(New York Jewish Week) — Picture the Upper West Side, circa 2003, the year that Jewish couple Mia and Jason Bauer opened Crumbs Bake Shop at Amsterdam Avenue and 75th Street. In the wake of a cupcake craze kicked off by a “Sex and the City” scene filmed at Magnolia Bakery, fans lined up for Crumbs’ oversized cupcakes, available in inventive varieties like Black-Bottom Cheesecake Brownie, Grasshopper and Squiggle, a gargantuan riff on the traditional Hostess cupcake.
The wildly popular Manhattan bakery quickly grew into a chain — by 2013, Crumbs had more than 70 stores across the country.
Soon, however, the dream crumbled. The Bauers sold the chain in 2011, but by 2014, due to a variety of factors — including increased competition, high real estate costs and general gourmet-cupcake burnout — Crumbs closed its doors. Later that year, an investment group tried to resurrect the troubled brand — reopening some stores and adding challah to the menu on Fridays — but failed.
Now, however, Crumbs is back, with the Bauers again at the helm but with a new business plan: In place of brick-and-mortar bake shops, they are selling desserts online at originalcrumbs.com. They are also offering delivery in New York City through Gopuff, and their baked goods are available at select local supermarket chains, including Gristedes, D’Agostino’s and ShopRite.
“There were things we always wanted to accomplish with the brand that we didn’t have a chance the first time around,” Mia Bauer told the New York Jewish Week. “We didn’t feel like Crumbs kind of petered out the way it deserved to. That wasn’t the ending we foresaw for Crumbs. We really had nurtured it and cultivated it and we felt like it deserved better than that.”
After the original Crumbs folded, Mia spent time raising the couple’s two children in their Short Hills, New Jersey home. She returned to political campaign work, which she was doing prior to becoming a full-time baker. Jason, meanwhile, opened a brokerage business and a spirits company in New York, and also took a corporate position at WeWork.
After a few years, however, the Bauers were ready for a change, and market research confirmed the interest that former Crumbs customers were expressing to Jason.
In 2021, Jason paid just $350 to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to revive the brand. Since then, the couple have been analyzing market research, altering their business model, attending trade shows, creating new recipes and designing new packaging. They formally relaunched the business in November 2023 and it is now known as Original Crumbs Bakeshop.
Now, as before, Crumbs products are kosher: Their cupcakes are under National Kosher supervision by Rabbi Aaron Mehlman, and a new product, soft-baked cookies, are OU-Dairy certified. The Bauers keep a kosher home, and as Jason told the New York Jewish Week, “We wouldn’t sell any food as a profession if it weren’t kosher.”
“The highlight of our week is Shabbat, but Jewish principles are woven throughout our daily existence,” said Jason, who, together with his family, belongs to the Kabbalah Centre in Manhattan, as the family splits its time between New Jersey and the Upper East Side.
Kabbalah, Jason added, “informs our every decision both in our personal and business lives.”
When Crumbs first opened 20 years ago, the bakery became known for their “signature” 4.25-inch diameter cupcakes, described now on their website as “twice the size of a normal cupcake.” At the time, such oversized treats were an anomaly.
“I actually didn’t realize they were oversized,” said Mia, who said she began baking as a child of 7 or 8. “That’s how I always made my cupcakes for family and friends. I assume it started out kind of innocently. I had a muffin pan in my home as a kid and that’s what I used. It didn’t occur to me that my cupcakes were that much bigger than the average cupcake.”
When the Bauers launched Crumbs their goal was to bring back the corner bakery, which, in the early 2000s, had started to disappear; the couple realized that supermarkets were basically the only option for baked goods for many people. At the same time, Mia, who had worked in a bakery as a teenager, had been “longing for the experience of a neighborhood bakery,” according to Jason.
While the new iteration of Crumbs isn’t focused on local bakeries, nostalgia still drives its founders: “We wanted to pivot and be the box of cupcakes or package of cookies that people have in their home,” Mia said, recalling fond memories of Entenmann’s cookies.
During Crumbs’ initial run, Mia — who lived in Israel from ages 1 to 7 and admits to a preference for plain white cake with lots of frosting — ended up creating more than 120 cupcake flavors, with about 30 varieties available in each shop at any given time.
These days, the cupcake varieties have been reduced to 12, plus seasonal and holiday flavors. Crumbs still offers their cupcakes in their signature size, as well classic ( aka “normal”) and mini sizes. The classic-size cupcakes are sold in supermarkets, and will now cost a little more than $2, considerably cheaper than the $4.50 bakeries used to charge.
“We’re able to produce them in volume with efficiencies that allows the price point in supermarkets to be significantly less than it was in our stores,” Jason said.
Crumbs 2.0 has added a line of soft batch cookies in eight flavors, most of which are takeoffs of their most popular cupcake flavors, like Cotton Candy, Sprinkle Sundae and Marshmallow Cookies & Cream. The small, soft-baked cookies — much like the Entenmann’s chocolate chip cookies that Mia was so fond of — are packaged in resealable, stackable, plastic cookie jars and cost $8.
“We are pretty fanatical about quality control,” Mia said. “I treated our stores like my kitchen. Even now, in supermarkets, it’s the same quality control.”
According to Jason, every cupcake is still made and decorated by hand, and the cookies are homemade, too. These days, Crumbs has become something of a family business, with the couple’s children — Annabelle, 15 and Zack, 13 — serving as taste-testers, critics and digital media consultants. “We run by both our kids almost anything social media-related to get their input,” Mia said.
Jason sees their return to the bakery business as bashert, using the Yiddish word for destiny. “We’re both very spiritual people,” he said. “We’ve always felt when the opportunity presented itself to us, there’s a reason it came back into our life, so we couldn’t ignore it.”
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The post Crumbs cupcakes, founded by a Jewish couple, makes a comeback appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Colorado Attack Suspect Charged with Assault, Use of Explosives
FILE PHOTO: Boulder attack suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman poses for a jail booking photograph after his arrest in Boulder, Colorado, U.S. June 2, 2025. Photo: Boulder Police Department/Handout via REUTERS
A suspect in an attack on a pro-Israeli rally in Colorado that injured eight people was being held on Monday on an array of charges, including assault and the use of explosives, in lieu of a $10-million bail, according to Boulder County records.
The posted list of felony charges against suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, in the attack on Sunday also includes charges of murder in the first degree, although police in the city of Boulder have said on social media that no victims died in the attack. Authorities could not be reached immediately to clarify.
Witnesses reported the suspect used a makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary device into the crowd. He was heard to yell “Free Palestine” during the attack, according to the FBI, in what the agency called a “targeted terror attack.”
Four women and four men between 52 and 88 years of age were transported to hospitals after the attack, Boulder Police said.
The attack took place on the Pearl Street Mall, a popular pedestrian shopping district near the University of Colorado, during an event organized by Run for Their Lives, an organization devoted to drawing attention to the hostages seized in the aftermath of Hamas’ 2023 attack on Israel.
Rabbi Yisroel Wilhelm, the Chabad director at the University of Colorado, Boulder, told CBS Colorado that the 88-year-old victim was a Holocaust refugee who fled Europe.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Soliman had entered the country in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023. He filed for asylum in September 2022. “The suspect, Mohamed Soliman, is illegally in our country,” the spokesperson said.
The FBI raided and searched Soliman’s home in El Paso County, Colorado, the agency said on social media. “As this is an ongoing investigation, no additional information is available at this time.”
The attack in Boulder was the latest act of violence aimed at Jewish Americans linked to outrage over Israel’s escalating military offensive in Gaza. It followed the fatal shooting of two Israel Embassy aides that took place outside Washington’s Capital Jewish Museum last month.
Ron Halber, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, said after the shooting there was a question of how far security perimeters outside Jewish institutions should extend.
Boulder Police said they would hold a press conference later on Monday to discuss details of the Colorado attack.
The Denver office of the FBI, which is handling the case, did not immediately respond to emails or phone calls seeking clarification on the homicide charges or other details in the case.
Officials from the Boulder County Jail, Boulder Police and Boulder County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to inquiries.
The post Colorado Attack Suspect Charged with Assault, Use of Explosives first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Poised to Dismiss US Nuclear Proposal, Iranian Diplomat Says
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi attends a press conference following a meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, April 18, 2025. Photo: Tatyana Makeyeva/Pool via REUTERS
Iran is poised to reject a US proposal to end a decades-old nuclear dispute, an Iranian diplomat said on Monday, dismissing it as a “non-starter” that fails to address Tehran’s interests or soften Washington’s stance on uranium enrichment.
“Iran is drafting a negative response to the US proposal, which could be interpreted as a rejection of the US offer,” the senior diplomat, who is close to Iran’s negotiating team, told Reuters.
The US proposal for a new nuclear deal was presented to Iran on Saturday by Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, who was on a short visit to Tehran and has been mediating talks between Tehran and Washington.
After five rounds of discussions between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, several obstacles remain.
Among them are Iran’s rejection of a US demand that it commit to scrapping uranium enrichment and its refusal to ship abroad its entire existing stockpile of highly enriched uranium – possible raw material for nuclear bombs.
Tehran says it wants to master nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and has long denied accusations by Western powers that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
“In this proposal, the US stance on enrichment on Iranian soil remains unchanged, and there is no clear explanation regarding the lifting of sanctions,” said the diplomat, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Araqchi said Tehran would formally respond to the proposal soon.
Tehran demands the immediate removal of all US-imposed curbs that impair its oil-based economy. But the US says nuclear-related sanctions should be removed in phases.
Dozens of institutions vital to Iran’s economy, including its central bank and national oil company, have been blacklisted since 2018 for, according to Washington, “supporting terrorism or weapons proliferation.”
Trump’s revival of “maximum pressure” against Tehran since his return to the White House in January has included tightening sanctions and threatening to bomb Iran if the negotiations yield no deal.
During his first term in 2018, Trump ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy. Iran responded by escalating enrichment far beyond the pact’s limits.
Under the deal, Iran had until 2018 curbed its sensitive nuclear work in return for relief from US, EU and U.N. economic sanctions.
The diplomat said the assessment of “Iran’s nuclear negotiations committee,” under the supervision of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was that the US proposal was “completely one-sided” and could not serve Tehran’s interests.
Therefore, the diplomat said, Tehran considers this proposal a “non-starter” and believes it unilaterally attempts to impose a “bad deal” on Iran through excessive demands.
NUCLEAR STANDOFF RAISES MIDDLE EAST TENSIONS
The stakes are high for both sides. Trump wants to curtail Tehran’s potential to produce a nuclear weapon that could trigger a regional nuclear arms race and perhaps threaten Israel. Iran’s clerical establishment, for its part, wants to be rid of the devastating sanctions.
Iran says it is ready to accept some limits on enrichment, but needs watertight guarantees that Washington would not renege on a future nuclear accord.
Two Iranian officials told Reuters last week that Iran could pause uranium enrichment if the US released frozen Iranian funds and recognized Tehran’s right to refine uranium for civilian use under a “political deal” that could lead to a broader nuclear accord.
Iran’s arch-foe Israel sees Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat and says it would never allow Tehran to obtain nuclear weapons.
Araqchi, in a joint news conference with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo, said: “I do not think Israel will commit such a mistake as to attack Iran.”
Tehran’s regional influence has meanwhile been diminished by military setbacks suffered by its forces and those of its allies in the Shi’ite-dominated “Axis of Resistance,” which include Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iraqi militias.
In April, Saudi Arabia’s defence minister delivered a blunt message to Iranian officials to take Trump’s offer of a new deal seriously as a way to avoid the risk of war with Israel.
The post Iran Poised to Dismiss US Nuclear Proposal, Iranian Diplomat Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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The Islamist Crescent: A New Syrian Danger
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool
The dramatic fall of the Assad regime in Syria has undeniably reshaped the Middle East, yet the emerging power dynamics, particularly the alignment between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, warrant profound scrutiny from those committed to American and Israeli security. While superficially presented as a united front against Iranian influence, this new Sunni axis carries a dangerous undercurrent of Islamism and regional ambition that could ultimately undermine, rather than serve, the long-term interests of Washington and Jerusalem.
For too long, Syria under Bashar al-Assad served as a critical conduit for Iran’s destabilizing agenda, facilitating arms transfers to Hezbollah and projecting Tehran’s power across the Levant. The removal of this linchpin is, on the surface, a strategic victory. However, the nature of the new Syrian government, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa — a figure Israeli officials continue to view with deep suspicion due to his past as a former Al-Qaeda-linked commander — raises immediate red flags. This is not merely a change of guard; it is a shift that introduces a new set of complex challenges, particularly given Turkey’s historical support for the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization deemed a terror group by Saudi Arabia and many other regional states.
Israel’s strategic calculus in Syria has always been clear: to degrade Iran’s military presence, prevent Hezbollah from acquiring advanced weaponry, and maintain operational freedom in Syrian airspace. Crucially, Israel has historically thought it best to have a decentralized, weak, and fragmented Syria, with reports that it has actively worked against the resurgence of a robust central authority. This preference stems from a pragmatic understanding that a strong, unified Syria, especially one under the tutelage of an ambitious regional power like Turkey, could pose much more of a threat than the Assad regime ever did. Indeed, Israeli defense officials privately express concern at Turkey’s assertive moves, accusing Ankara of attempting to transform post-war Syria into a Turkish protectorate under Islamist tutelage. This concern is not unfounded; Turkey’s ambitious, arguably expansionist, objectives — and its perceived undue dominance in Arab lands — are viewed by Israel as warily as Iran’s previous influence.
The notion that an “Ottoman Crescent” is now replacing the “Shiite Crescent” should not be celebrated as a net positive. While it may diminish Iranian power, it introduces a new form of regional hegemony, one driven by an ideology that has historically been antithetical to Western values and stability. The European Union’s recent imposition of sanctions on Turkish-backed Syrian army commanders for human rights abuses, including arbitrary killings and torture, further underscores the problematic nature of some elements within this new Syrian landscape. The fact that al-Sharaa has allowed such individuals to operate with impunity and even promoted them to high-ranking positions should give Washington pause.
From an American perspective, while the Trump administration has pragmatically engaged with the new Syrian government, lifting sanctions and urging normalization with Israel, this engagement must be tempered with extreme caution. The core American interests in the Middle East — counterterrorism, containment of Iran, and regional stability — are not served by empowering Islamist-leaning factions or by enabling a regional power, like Turkey, whose actions have sometimes undermined the broader fight against ISIS. Washington must demand that Damascus demonstrate a genuine commitment to taking over the counter-ISIS mission and managing detention facilities, and unequivocally insist that Turkey cease actions that risk an ISIS resurgence.
The argument that Saudi Arabia and Turkey, despite their own complex internal dynamics, are simply pragmatic actors countering Iran overlooks the ideological underpinnings that concern many conservatives. Turkey’s ruling party, rooted in political Islam, and its historical ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, present a fundamental challenge to the vision of a stable, secular, and pro-Western Middle East. While Saudi Arabia has designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, its alignment with Turkey in Syria, and its own internal human rights record, means that this “new front” is far from a clean solution.
The Saudi-Turkey alignment in Syria is a double-edged sword. While it may indeed serve to counter Iran’s immediate regional ambitions, it simultaneously risks empowering actors whose long-term objectives and ideological leanings are deeply problematic for American, Israeli, and Western interests. Washington and Jerusalem must approach this new dynamic with extreme vigilance, prioritizing the containment of all forms of radicalism — whether Shiite or Sunni — and ensuring that any strategic gains against Iran do not inadvertently pave the way for a new, equally dangerous, Islamist crescent to rise in the heart of the Levant.
Amine Ayoub, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is a policy analyst and writer based in Morocco. Follow him on X: @amineayoubx
The post The Islamist Crescent: A New Syrian Danger first appeared on Algemeiner.com.