An ad hoc group of supporters of Ali’s Cookies in Emory Village have raised more than $18,000 in a GoFundMe account to support the bakery, which has suffered a loss of business and antisemitic threats since Israel was attacked by Hamas five months ago.
Ali’s Cookies owners Nofar and Sagi Shabilis said the store has received online and in-person anti-Israel and antisemitic abuse since the Oct. 7 war began.
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Sandy Springs resident Sherwin Krug said he started the fundraising campaign to assist Ali’s Cookies owners after he read about and visited the bakery.
“I saw a young couple trying to sell cookies and make a living in a state of despair after their business was targeted,” Krug said. “Their sales had tanked due to a boycott” which the owners said started after they displayed an Israeli flag in support of their native country. The Shablis’ moved from Israel to Atlanta in 2021.
Nofar Shablis has witnessed potential customers enter the bakery and leave upon seeing the Israeli flag, watched customers drape Palestinian flags on their tables and place stickers alleging genocide by Israel. She received a phone call threatening to burn down the bakery with everyone in it.
In late February, the store received an antisemitic postcard with a drawing of Anne Frank, who died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during the Holocaust, with a speech bubble that read, “So much fun!”
Shablis said she reported all the hate messages to the police and she and her husband mounted a camera inside the bakery.
“We are being more careful now,” she said, noting that they have two young children. “It’s scary and terrifying but we’re fighting back.”
The support they have received from both the Jewish community as well as the wider Atlanta community “has been like a light in the darkness. There are so many good people and the support is really helping us.”
Still, sales have not returned to where they were last September, she said.
Krug said he felt compelled to do something, enlisting friends to help raise funds and support for Ali’s Cookies. After contacting the owners, he raised over $18,000 in just eight days.
At this time, 332 contributions had been made for a total of $18, 398.
“Even as we speak, people are contributing,” Krug added, including “a friend from New Zealand, a friend from South Africa and people from Israel.”
Krug and his wife started distributing the cookies to first responders around the metro Atlanta area. That included Grady Hospital’s emergency medical services, various police and fire departments, emergency rooms at Scottish Rite Hospital and Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital.
The former South African, who has lived in Atlanta for more than 30 years, Krug said that he has a full-time job, so he gathered a team of people to help distribute the cookies.
Amy Lewis “texted everyone in my network of friends and family” to encourage their support. Lewis drove from the suburbs on Super Bowl Sunday to buy cookies.
Lewis gave most of the credit to Krug. “He likes to do projects. That’s just the kind of guy he is,” she said.
One of Krug’s projects was to buy, along with friends, an ambulance for the Magen David emergency service in Israel. He said the ambulance is in production at GM.
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