A federal lawsuit filed in a California court on Feb. 27 is a clear example of modern antisemitism, according to two Cleveland-based lawyers associated with the case.
The Anti-Defamation League and Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP (aka Benesch Law), filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against the operators of a cafe in Oakland, Calif., for allegedly refusing to serve Jewish customers.
“At its base, this is a case in point of where antisemitism and the fight against antisemitism stand in this country,” Dave Hopkins, senior managing associate at Benesch Law’s Cleveland office, told the Cleveland Jewish News on March 3.
The ADL national litigation team filed the complaint alongside Benesch Law, representing Michael Radice, who was ejected from the Jerusalem Coffee House “simply because he was Jewish,” Corena Larimer, an associate with the ADL’s national litigation counsel, told the CJN on March 3.
“The ADL has a lot of touch points in the community and hears about bias and discrimination incidents that community members report,” she said. “… We knew this coffee shop had already made news for other anti-Jewish stances. When our client was considering his options, we spoke with him about various ways he could look to redress the civil rights violations that occurred at the coffee house. … When he decided to speak up about it so that others don’t have to endure the same treatment, our legal team was honored to stand alongside him in this fight against antisemitism.”
According to a news release from Benesch Law, which is handling the case pro bono, Radice, a former Cleveland-area resident who runs a nonprofit in Los Angeles, visited Jerusalem Coffee House twice. He was subjected to antisemitic harassment both times, violating his civil rights under both federal and state law.
In July 2024, he wore a baseball cap with a Star of David icon and the phrase Am Yisrael Chai (Hebrew for “the people of Israel live”), per the release. He encountered a man sitting outside the cafe who demanded, “Are you a Jew?” After Radice answered affirmatively, the man allegedly spewed a series of claims about the Israel-Hamas war and loudly accused Radice of being “responsible” for “killing children.”
As Radice, concerned for his safety, turned to walk away, he noticed the coffee shop owner talking with the man, according to the release.
Believing the coffee shop owner had intervened on his behalf, Radice returned the following month to make a purchase at the cafe, according to the release. When he entered the coffee shop, he discovered that the man who harassed him in July was working there, along with the owner and a third employee.
Instead of being able to make a purchase, Radice found himself being ejected by all three employees as they yelled, “You’re the guy with the hat. You’re the Jew. You’re the Zionist. We don’t want you in our coffee shop. Get out,” according to the release. As Radice walked away, three men followed him, and he heard them calling him “Jew” and “Zionist.”
“We’re very confident in the story that we have and very confident in our client, and I’m not in the habit of trying cases in the press, but this is about as open-and-shut a case of discrimination as you’re ever going to find,” Michael Meuti, a partner of Benesch Law’s Cleveland and San Francisco offices, told the CJN on March 3.
‘The case came together very quickly’
According to the release, the Jerusalem Coffee House’s behavior toward Radice was part of a pattern of antisemitic discrimination.
Around the first anniversary of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the cafe introduced new menu items seemingly celebrating the murder of Jewish people, including drinks called “Iced in Tea Fada” and “Sweet Sinwar,” with Hamas symbols decorating the menu, according to the release. The owner was also videotaped ejecting a Jewish man and his child while declaring that he could refuse to serve customers simply because they are Jewish.
“This is about as open-and-shut a case of discrimination as you’re ever going to find.”
Michael Meuti, a partner of Benesch Law’s Cleveland and San Francisco offices
The next steps in the litigation process include serving the defendants and giving them time to respond to the complaint, said Meuti, a resident of Brecksville, Ohio. Meuti will have an initial case management trial with the judge, go into a discovery phase and, if necessary, go to trial.
This marks the first case that the ADL has filed to halt discriminatory business practices by establishments refusing to serve Jews, according to the release. However, these cases are not rare, stated Larimer, a graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland and a former resident of Cleveland Heights.
“We are bringing the litigation fight to the areas where antisemitism [is] growing and festering,” she said. “In this case, we have seen a rise in discriminatory business practices targeting Jewish customers, and so we have broadened the scope of our litigation practice at ADL to continue to fight against antisemitism and hate wherever it’s happening.”
The ADL has filed more lawsuits in 12 months than in its first 111 years of existence, including litigation against corporations, extremist groups, universities, school districts and state sponsors of terror, per the release.
Larimer urged the community to report incidents of anti-Jewish discrimination, bias and retaliation to the ADL through its website. When the community reports to the ADL they can request legal assistance or have the legal team review the incident.
“We want the community to know that ADL has a long and proud history of fighting antisemitism, hate and extremism,” said Larimer, a Boston-area resident. “In the last year-and-a-half, we’ve entered the court system to continue advancing the mission of ADL in fighting antisemitism, hate and extremism.”
Due to the leadership of James Pasch, the national litigation director at the ADL and former director of the ADL’s Cleveland office, the case came together “very quickly and very forcefully,” Hopkins, a University Heights resident and congregant of Congregation Shaarey Tikvah in Beachwood, Ohio, told the CJN.
Pasch had preexisting relationships with Cleveland’s “sophisticated legal community” and leadership at Benesch Law, Meuti said. Benesch Law was involved in a couple of investigations relating to the rising tides of antisemitism that stopped short of litigation, but when Radice’s case was brought to the ADL in the fall of 2024 it determined it was “worth investigating and pursuing.”
“I’m very happy that the firm has supported our taking on this case,” Meuti said. “I’m proud to be a part of a firm that will take a stand for what is right as we are doing here. It’s never been okay to discriminate against somebody on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin or religion, never, and it’s been illegal to do so for decades upon decades now. It’s a shame that this case even needs to be brought, but if it does need to be brought, we are very proud and honored to do it.”
This story originally appeared in the Cleveland Jewish News.