NEW YORK CITY — A former "American Idol" finalist and Jewish beatboxer claimed his ex-lover threatened to flee to Israel with their unborn child and then defamed him with anti-Semitic slurs online, according to a $1.5 million lawsuit.
Musician Jay Stone, whose real name is Jonathan Scott, charged that his former squeeze, Hagit Hamus, called him a "NATZI," on nearly a dozen of his music videos on YouTube and Vimeo, tarnishing his credibility within the Jewish and Israeli communities.
Stone, a senior management consultant for Hagerty Consulting, is the co-founder of Bagels 'n Box, a musical duo that performs modern musical interpretations of traditional Jewish prayer and folk songs for synagogues, Jewish summer camps and other Jewish events.
Stone said in court papers that he met Hamus on Jan. 14 at a deli at 28th Street and Lexington Avenue, and the pair first had sex in his apartment on Feb. 8.
By Feb. 15, Stone ended the fling with Hamus, after which the lawsuit alleges she grew increasingly hostile and harassing, forcing him to take out a temporary order of protection against her, he said.
Two weeks later, she claimed she was pregnant and took a pregnancy test at Stone's apartment on March 2 that came back positive, he said in the complaint.
She then threatened to leave the country for Israel, where her family lives, according to the lawsuit.
But Hamus said in a phone interview Thursday night that Stone is not the victim he claims to be.
"He tried to force me to make an abortion when I didn't want to do it," Hamus said. "He tried to restrict me from seeing my parents [in Israel]. Every woman who is pregnant wants her mother."
Hamus said she has lived in New York for 18 years but returns to her home country whenever there is turmoil there, adding, "I would rather die in Israel with my family than stay here."
Hamus claims Scott has tried to prevent her travel by telling the courts that Israel is too dangerous for his unborn child, a fact that enraged her given his overwhelming public support for the state as a public figure in the Jewish community.
She added that she called him a "Nazi" because it was the only type of person she could imagine that would take a child from his mother.
