(JTA) — A soldier stationed at Fort Polk in Louisiana was arrested last week after he told users on the popular messaging platform Discord that he planned to conduct a mass shooting at a synagogue.

Jakob Marcoulier, 22, was arrested last Thursday and charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce after the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center received a tip in February that he had made threats toward synagogues, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the western district of Louisiana.

According to court documents, the FBI obtained audio from Discord in which Marcoulier allegedly said, “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.”

During the communications, Marcoulier told the other users, “You guys will never do anything about but I will. I just have to finish this, I have to go back overseas and do what I have to do. And then you’ll see me in the news. I promise you.”

He also allegedly said that he would “kill these motherf—kers in order to make sure the white youth is f—king secured.”

It was not immediately clear when Marcoulier made the comments, but the United States and Israel jointly attacked Iran on Feb. 28 following a buildup of U.S. troops in the Middle East.

The Iran war has put Jewish institutions across the country and the around the world on high alert, with attacks on synagogues including arsons in Europe and a synagogue ramming in suburban Detroit last month.

“Threats against synagogues and Jewish Americans are threats to the religious freedom promised to every single one of us, and this Office and our law enforcement partners are committed to protecting those freedoms,” United States Attorney Zachary A. Keller said in a statement.

The post US soldier charged for threatening to ‘kill every single Jew’ inside of a synagogue appeared first on The Forward.

(JTA) — Acclaimed author J.D. Salinger asked his publisher to remove references to his Jewish heritage in the book jacket of “The Catcher in the Rye,” newly surfaced letters from 1951 reveal.

The request came in a letter from Salinger, a notoriously private man, and his editor, John Woodburn at publisher Little, Brown and Co. The correspondence, which took place in early 1951, predates the first publication of “The Catcher in the Rye,” Salinger’s hit coming-of-age novel.

“I don’t know that I’d like to have that Jewish-Irish business slapped on the jacket,” Salinger wrote. “Surely if it’s catchy, that is.”

The letter has come to light because Peter Harrington Rare Books, a bookseller based in London, has listed it as part of a package for sale in the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, which begins on Thursday.

“The Catcher in the Rye,” a contemporary classic following the life of angsty boarding school student Holden Caulfield, is one of the best-selling books of all time.

Caulfield’s character is of Irish heritage, like Salinger’s mother. But Salinger was the son of Sol, a cheese salesman (whose wares might have been kosher) and the grandson of a rabbi on his father’s side. His mother, Marie Jillich, went by Miriam to appease her in-laws who disapproved of the mixed marriage. He learned his mother’s real name only around the time of his bar mitzvah.

To Woodburn, Salinger wrote that he worried about being pigeonholed as a Jewish-Irish writer if the book broadcast that information.

“My Jewish-Irishness isn’t quite so bizarre, as, say, [James] Thurber’s eyesight,” Salinger wrote, referring to the American author and cartoonist, who was legally blind by that time. “But nonetheless, second-rate reviewers would probably find the information just provocative enough to use and misuse over and over again, and I’d end up being expected to wear a Star of David and a Shamrock on the back of my sweatshirt. So, please, let’s be careful.”

Salinger’s other famous works include the 1948 short story “A Perfect Day for a Bananafish,” which follows the Irish Catholic-Jewish Glass family, who also make appearances in “Franny and Zooey.”

The letters, previously unpublished, were acquired from a private collector and will be on view at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair at the Park Avenue Armory from Thursday to May 3.

The bookseller is also currently offering a first edition of the script of West Side Story, inscribed by all four writers of the play, book, and music: Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents, and Stephen Sondheim. Peter Harrington has also sold a rare, first printed edition of “De Bello Judaico” by Josephus Flavius, the first-century Roman-Jewish historian.

The triad of letters is currently offered at a set price of $47,500 and includes two typed letters by Salinger, with his signature, and a carbon copy of Woodburn’s reply. It also includes a reference to one of Salinger’s “lost stories,” a prequel to “Catcher in the Rye” that was not to be published until 50 years after his death.

Salinger died in 2010 at the age of 91. The “lost story,” “The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls,” was set to be published in 2060, but in 2013, it was pirated and leaked online.

The post J.D. Salinger asked publishers to remove references to his Jewish heritage, newly surfaced letters reveal appeared first on The Forward.

Broken glass and shattered storefront windows mark the façade of an Israeli restaurant in Munich after assailants smashed the windows and threw pyrotechnic devices inside during an overnight attack on April 9-10, 2026. Photo: Screenshot

As escalating tensions in the Middle East ripple into Europe, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has raised the alarm over a growing threat from Iran-linked terrorist networks, prompting Jewish communities to heighten security amid fears of targeted attacks.

On Tuesday, the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution warned of a rising threat level across the country and Europe more broadly from pro-Iranian extremist groups, specifically citing the expanding activities of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya and signaling broader concerns about coordinated operations on the continent.

“What’s new is [the terrorist group’s] warning that they will no longer limit themselves to ‘simple’ attacks but will also include more dangerous means in the long term,” an agency spokesperson told the German newspaper Handelsblatt, pointing to an apparent shift toward more sophisticated and potentially lethal methods, including the use of explosives or weapons.

Since the start of the US-Israeli campaign against Iran earlier this year, European governments have tightened domestic security amid mounting fears that Tehran could activate proxy networks across the continent to retaliate against US, Israeli, and Jewish targets.

But even with increased security and heightened intelligence monitoring, Europe has seen a string of attacks targeting Jewish and Israeli institutions, several of them claimed by the newly emerged Iran-linked terrorist organization.

Just in April, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya claimed responsibility for a wave of attacks across the UK, Germany, North Macedonia, Belgium, and the Netherlands, many of them concentrated in London.

Since emerging in early March, the group has taken credit for at least 15 attacks against Jewish and Western targets across Europe.

German intelligence has identified a recurring pattern, with young individuals repeatedly recruited via social media and encrypted platforms to carry out attacks in exchange for modest payments.

German officials suspect the terrorist group may be part of a broader Iraqi Shiite network with ties to Iran’s regional proxy infrastructure, raising concerns about cross-border coordination and external direction.

“The organization uses various channels from the Shiite extremist and pro-Iranian sphere on different social media platforms to report on its activities,” the agency said in a statement. 

“The group has also recently stated its political motivation behind its actions and openly threatened Israeli institutions as well as the so-called ‘enemies of Islam’ in Europe,” it continued.

In recent weeks, six sites across Greater London have been targeted, including a Jewish ambulance service and a Persian-language media outlet. In the latest incident on Saturday, an accelerant-filled bottle was hurled through the window of a synagogue in Harrow, on the outskirts of London.

Marc Henrichmann, who chairs the parliamentary oversight committee of Germany’s intelligence services, told Handelsblatt that the surge in incidents is “closely linked to the escalation of the Iran conflict,” warning that the spillover is already being felt across Europe as alarm grows among security experts.

“The threat to Jewish, Israeli, and American institutions remains high, even though they are already under special protection,” Henrichmann said.

“Our objective must be clear: to identify and dismantle these foreign-controlled terrorist networks, and to do so we must significantly strengthen our intelligence capabilities, particularly in the digital domain,” the German official continued.