Brad Lander, the Jewish former New York City comptroller who is running to unseat Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), denounced attacks on his Jewish opponent on Tuesday, after a coffee shop owner returned Goldman’s money and said that he wasn’t welcome in the eatery due to his support for Israel.
Lander took aim at both that attack on Goldman and others. “Over the last few days, the online rhetoric targeting Dan Goldman and his staff have been over-the-top toxic, from right and left and who knows where,” stated Lander, who recently said that Goldman should follow his lead and accuse Israel of “genocide.”
“I’m pleading with people to turn it down,” Lander said of the rhetoric. “Thankfully, out in real world, New Yorkers are overwhelmingly good neighbors, lots of high-fives, some spirited disagreement, with the goal of building a better city for all. That’s the New York we know and love. Let’s do all we can, online and off, to keep it that way.”
Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City who has said that he would have the Israeli prime minister arrested in the Big Apple and whose spokeswoman said that synagogues violate international law when they host pro-Israel events, did not comment for hours on the shop owner saying he wouldn’t serve a Zionist.
On Tuesday afternoon, the New York Post shared video footage, in which the mayor was asked if the shopkeeper was expressing political disagreements in an acceptable way.
“I have many a political disagreement with Congressman Goldman when it comes to his votes and his views on Israel,” Mamdani said. “I think that what we saw online goes beyond.”
The mayor didn’t appear to respond to the question about the way the shopkeeper treated the congressman.
Harmeet Dhillon, assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights, said that her office was “aware of the denial of service taunts to Rep. Daniel Goldman by Poetica Coffee in Brooklyn.”
“Federal law prohibits public accommodations such as coffee shops from discriminating against patrons based on their race, religion or national origin. These actions are not only reprehensible, they’re potentially illegal,” she stated. “The Civil Rights Division has opened an investigation and will bring an enforcement action if warranted.”
Eric Dinowitz and Inna Vernikov, co-chairs of the New York City Council’s bipartisan task force on Jew-hatred, both decried the way the congressman was treated.
