Parnes and Pestronk
Fourteen members of Matthew Pestronk’s family died in the Holocaust. Brothers and sisters who stayed behind in the rural shtetls of Central Europe. He has spoken about this publicly. He co-chairs the Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation, which operates the first public Holocaust memorial in the United States. He is a Trustee of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History. He gave the opening remarks when the memorial was dedicated in 2018. He wrote one op-ed, quoting George Washington: “the government gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”
He co-founded Post Brothers, which built Goldtex Apartments at 315 N. 12th Street in Philadelphia.
What Happened at Goldtex
On August 22, 2025, a Jewish tenant was assaulted in the lobby of Goldtex Apartments in an attack lasting eleven minutes. The assault produced left orbital rim, bilateral nasal, and left maxillary (jaw) fractures. The criminal case — Commonwealth v. Talley, CP-51-CR-0000673-2026 — includes ethnic intimidation charges.
Before the assault, the tenant reported antisemitic content to building management on three documented occasions. No action was taken.
After the assault, building staff told responding police that the Jewish tenant was the aggressor and that no surveillance footage existed. Both statements were false. The tenant self-collected the footage. It produced the arrest warrant.
Matthew Pestronk issued no public statement about any of it. Not the assault. Not the ethnic intimidation. Not the false statements to police. The company he co-founded issued no statement. The building proceeded to label the assault victim a “defiant trespasser,” expose him to aerosolized VOC chemicals requiring emergency ambulance transport, and demand he vacate — all while the building’s rental license was expired.
Why This Is a Community Problem
Any leader of a Holocaust memorial institution who remained silent about a documented antisemitic assault at his own property faces a straightforward question from the Jewish community: why?
The PHRF’s stated mission is preserving the lessons of the past to build a future of tolerance. Its programs teach students to recognize antisemitism, to understand what happens when institutions do nothing, and to act rather than remain silent. Pestronk himself wrote that sunlight is the best of disinfectants.
The silence is a matter of public record, and in my view it is not a private matter but an institutional contradiction. A person who holds the position he holds, who has said publicly what he has said, who carries the documented institutional roles he carries — and who has said nothing publicly when antisemitic violence occurred at his own building — puts, as I see it, the institution’s credibility at stake, not just his own.
But the silence raises a harder question than hypocrisy.
A normal landlord’s response to an assault in the lobby is cooperation with police, a statement, a unit transfer. None of that happened. What happened was false statements to responding officers, three separate chemical exposures requiring emergency medical transport, a fabricated incident report filed sixteen hours after the fact, a letter sent to the victim’s father rather than the tenant calling the exposure “unfounded,” and a Notice to Quit labeling the assault victim a “defiant trespasser” — all while the building’s rental license was expired.
Analysis — the author’s view, not a documented fact
In my view, this is not negligence and not even ordinary retaliation; to me it reads as a pattern consistent with suppression. I cannot prove what was in anyone’s mind. The question the record raises — and it is a question, not a finding — is whether Pestronk’s institutional exposure (his co-chair role at PHRF, his trusteeship at the Weitzman, his published words about bigotry and sunlight) created a motive for it. What is documented is that a person with that much public, reputational stake in Holocaust remembrance has more to lose from a documented antisemitic hate crime at his own building than an ordinary landlord would; whether that translated into intent is something I am asking about, not asserting.
The shape I believe the documented conduct takes is this: discredit the witness, challenge his credibility, expose him to conditions that force him out, and keep the story from reaching the institutions Pestronk leads. That is my reading of the pattern, offered as opinion.
To be clear: this site does not assert any of that as a proven fact. It asks the question the documented record makes unavoidable.
The Jewish community has every reason to ask what it means when the people entrusted to lead Holocaust remembrance do not apply its lessons to themselves — and, in my view, every reason to ask whether the conduct documented here was driven by exactly that exposure.
This is not about destroying a person. It is about a standard that Pestronk himself set publicly, in his own words, under his own name.
The Parnes Record
My grandfather was Izio Parnes.
Izio was one of seven children born to Ester and Samuel Parnes in Skalat — a small village in eastern Poland, from the same rural shtetl world Matthew Pestronk has described losing 14 members of his family to.
On the first day of Operation Barbarossa in 1941, Ester Parnes led her seven children east, away from the advancing German army. They fled through Ukraine, Russia, and into Asia. They survived.
That survival is documented. In 1999, author Avraham Azrieli published One Step Ahead: A Mother of Seven Escaping Hitler’s Claws, based on interviews with Ester’s children and grandchildren. My family is in that book.
My mother is Pauline Parnes. Her name is already on this site — in the record of this case — because she is co-trustee of the trust that was supposed to protect me while all of this was happening.
The name Parnes on jlegal.pro is Ester’s name. It is Izio’s name. It is the name of a family that survived the Holocaust from a Polish shtetl — the same world Matthew Pestronk memorializes — and whose grandson was assaulted in Matthew Pestronk’s building, in a documented antisemitic hate crime, while Pestronk said nothing.
The name Parnes appears in the header of jlegal.pro’s main page alongside Pestronk. Most readers don’t know that Parnes is Ester’s name — or that the grandson of a documented Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivor was assaulted in Pestronk’s building while Pestronk co-chaired Philadelphia’s Holocaust memorial.
Now they do.
Everything that follows — the 2012 eviction, the racial discrimination lawsuit, the union exposé, the L&I violations, the law firm, the political donations — was documented before any of this was known. That record reads differently now.
The Evidence
The Record, by the Numbers
What happened. In what order. With what response.
Every number above is sourced from contemporaneous records, court filings, government databases, or physician documentation.
Who They Are
Matthew Pestronk — Co-founder and President of Post Brothers.
- Drexel University (history and political science)
- Former Managing Director at Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group, NYC — youngest in firm history
- Born 1977 in Alexandria, Virginia
Michael Pestronk — Co-founder and CEO.
- Drexel University (engineering, did not graduate)
- Previously at NWJ Companies, Historic Landmarks for Living, then Iron Stone Real Estate Group ($300M+)
- Born ~1980–81
Their father: Mark Pestronk — Washington DC attorney (800 Connecticut Ave NW, K Street corridor). Johns Hopkins BA, Georgetown Law JD. Over 40 years practicing travel industry law. Their mother Deborah was a Pan Am travel agent turned Coldwell Banker real estate agent in Reston, VA.
The company name “Post” comes from their great-grandfather Max Pestronk (1895–1957), who founded Post Manufacturing in Manhattan making uniforms. By the family’s own account, he chose the name “Post” to conceal his Polish heritage.
The company: 40+ properties, ~8,000 apartments, $4 billion+ capitalized cost. Major projects include One Thousand One ($750M), The Piazza, Presidential City (sold to KKR for $357M), The Atlantic (Bill Ackman/Pershing Square holds 75% equity).
The Holocaust Connection
Matthew Pestronk has stated that approximately 14 of his mother’s extended family — brothers and sisters who remained in the rural shtetls of Central Europe — died in the Holocaust. Only two survived. (PhillyMag, December 2017)
His institutional roles:
- Co-Chair, Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation (PHRF)
- Trustee, National Museum of American Jewish History (now Weitzman Museum)
- Immediate Past Chair, Jewish Federation Real Estate (JFRE)
- Gave opening remarks at the Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza dedication (October 2018)
He wrote one published op-ed: “George Washington Would Not Be Impressed With Poland’s Revisionist Holocaust Bill” (The Forward, February 15, 2018), criticizing Poland’s law banning the phrase “Polish death camps.” He quoted George Washington’s 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport: “the government gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”
Michael Pestronk has made zero public statements about antisemitism, the Holocaust, or Jewish identity — ever.
The Silence
On August 22, 2025, a Jewish tenant was assaulted in the lobby of Goldtex Apartments — a building the Pestronk brothers built — in an attack that lasted eleven minutes and resulted in left orbital rim, bilateral nasal, and left maxillary (jaw) fractures. The criminal case includes ethnic intimidation charges.
Before the assault, the tenant reported antisemitic content to building management on three separate occasions. Management took no action.
After the assault, building staff told responding police that the Jewish tenant was the aggressor and that no surveillance footage existed. Both statements were false.
No public statement was issued by either Pestronk brother about the assault.
No public statement was issued by Post Brothers about the assault.
No public statement was issued about the antisemitic harassment that preceded it.
No public statement was issued about the false statements made to police.
Matthew Pestronk — who co-chairs a Holocaust Remembrance foundation, who lost 14 family members in the Holocaust, who wrote that “sunlight is the best of disinfectants” — has said nothing publicly about an antisemitic assault at his own building.
Also: zero public statements from either brother about the October 7, 2023 attacks. Zero about the rise in antisemitism post-October 7. Zero about BDS. Zero about Israel. The one op-ed (2018) addressed historical Holocaust revisionism in Poland — a topic with no domestic political risk.
The silence is documented, and so is the choice it represents: a public statement could have been made and was not. In my view, a person who leads Jewish communal institutions while remaining silent about antisemitic violence at their own property has failed the standard of leadership those institutions teach. The judgment is mine; the silence is the record.
The Record
Factual documentation of Post Brothers’ conduct:
The 2012 “Slander” Eviction
Filed eviction against tenant Marissa Damato at Rittenhouse Hill for “slander” and “interfering with the landlord’s business” after she complained about malfunctioning elevators, water outages, rodents, and unsealed windows. Two attorneys called it “bizarre.” (PhillyMag, November 30, 2012)
Racial Discrimination Lawsuit (2013)
Two Black maintenance workers sued alleging hostile work environment and threats, including “If you come back in here again, I will shoot you myself.” Armed security delivered termination notices. (Roberson et al v. Post Commercial Real Estate, EDPA Case No. 2:13-cv-06730)
Union Documentary (2013)
Philadelphia Building Trades produced “Deconstructing Post Brothers: Exposing the Truth Behind the Cheap Facade” — alleged unsafe construction at Goldtex including workers urinating into bottles sealed within walls, exposed high-voltage cables, missing fire safety equipment. Congressman Bob Brady referenced a fatal building collapse.
L&I Shutdown (2013)
L&I shut down a Post Brothers rooftop party at Goldtex — no Certificate of Occupancy, no fire alarm system.
NLRB Unfair Labor Practices (2013–2014)
IBEW Local 98 filed charges for denial of access. ALJ decision January 2014.
Goldtex Violations
124 lifetime L&I violations, 48 cases. One open Unfit Structure citation. Rental license expired February 28, 2026. Worst in Post Brothers’ portfolio.
The Law Firm
Cohen Marraccini LLC — 660 2nd Street Pike, Southampton, PA.
The firm represents Post Brothers/Greystar at Goldtex. Key facts:
- Their website has a page titled “We Do Evictions” with the tagline “Nobody knows landlord tenant law like us.”
- Paul Jay Cohen (founding partner) is simultaneously General Counsel to HAPCO Philadelphia (the city’s largest landlord lobbying group, ~2,000 landlords) AND a property owner through VRAP LLC — he lobbies for landlord-favorable laws while personally benefiting from them.
- Paul Cohen chairs the PA Joint State Government Commission Subcommittee on Landlord Tenant Law — meaning the landlord lobby’s lawyer helps write the landlord-tenant laws.
- Matthew R. Bradley (the attorney who signed the Notice to Quit and the “unfounded” letter) previously worked at Legal Services of Northwest Jersey representing tenants before switching to landlord-side work.
- A former associate attorney described the firm as “a mill” and wrote: “You have to make homeless good honest people.”
- On May 4, 2026, the firm issued a Notice to Quit labeling the assault victim a “defiant trespasser” — while the building’s rental license was expired.
- On June 11, 2026, the firm sent a letter to the victim’s father (not the tenant) calling the documented chemical exposure “unfounded” — contradicted by FLIR data, physician documentation, ambulance transport, and SERVPRO’s refusal to remediate.
Others Like Them
Steven Croman (NYC) — owned 140 buildings, convicted of grand larceny and tax fraud. Employed ex-NYPD officer to intimidate rent-stabilized tenants. Called “the Bernie Madoff of landlords.” Sentenced to Rikers.
David Merryman (Hampton, VA) — targeted Black families with racial slurs, slavery references, death threats. Stole $77K in COVID rent-relief. Sentenced to 17 years federal prison.
Joseph Czuba (Plainfield, IL) — landlord who stabbed and killed his 6-year-old Palestinian-American tenant in a hate crime. Sentenced to 53 years.
Daniel Ohebshalom (NYC) — 80 counts including first-ever prosecution under NY tenant harassment statute. 700+ violations.
Francis v. Kings Park Manor (2d Cir.) — Black tenant reported antisemitic AND racial harassment three times. Landlord took no action. The assailant pleaded guilty to a state hate crime. The landlord was not held liable (en banc reversal).
Note: The Post Brothers have not been charged with or convicted of any crime. The comparison is structural: each case above involves a landlord whose response to documented harm — whether through action, inaction, or silence — enabled the harm to continue.
Political Donations
From FEC records:
| Donor | Total | Recipients | Israel-Related PACs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matthew Pestronk | ~$38,400 | Overwhelmingly Democratic: Cory Booker, Joe Biden, Donald Norcross, Ritchie Torres, Dan Goldman. Two Republican donations: Jeff Bartos (fellow PA real estate developer) and James Comer (House Oversight chair). | Zero |
| Michael Pestronk | ~$11,500 | Cory Booker, Donald Norcross | Zero |
The Pestronk brothers built Goldtex Apartments. They named their company after a great-grandfather who, by the family’s own account, chose the name to conceal his Polish heritage. One of them co-chairs a Holocaust memorial and has said nothing publicly about the antisemitic violence at his own building. The other has never spoken publicly about any of it. The record is what they have done and what they have not done; what they knew, and what they intended, is for them to answer.