A Jewish resident of Oakland, Calif., and his 5-year-old son were aggressively confronted by the owner of a local cafe on Oct. 26 and asked to leave the establishment. The incident was caught on video.
Jonathan Hirsch was wearing a baseball cap with a prominent Magen David, or Star of David—a symbol of Judaism and Jewish identity—when he was approached by Abdulrahim Harara, the owner of Jerusalem Coffee House in North Oakland.
Harara’s family is from the Gaza Strip. After Israeli forces killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar on Oct. 16 (the mastermind of the Hamas massacre of 1,200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023), he updated the cafe’s menu to feature a juice called “Sweet Sinwar,” appearing to honor the terrorist, a charge he denied.
According to the video documentation, after purchasing drinks and sitting down with his son, Hirsch was confronted by Harara, who said that the cap was “a violent hat, and you need to leave.”
Harara also repeatedly asked Hirsch, whose son began crying, if he was a Zionist.
WATCH: On Saturday, a Jewish man and his five-old-son were directed across the street to Jerusalem Coffee House in Oakland while looking for a restroom.
— JCRC Bay Area (@SFJCRC) October 30, 2024
After purchasing drinks and sitting down, the cafe owner confronted the man about the Star of David on his hat, stating it was… pic.twitter.com/aJEKybkbQW
‘Clear-cut case of anti-Jewish discrimination’
Harara called the police and after the officer arrived, he accused Hirsch of “using his son as a human shield.” The officer escorted Hirsch and his son out of the premises to separate him from Harara, who called him “B*tch” in Arabic as he was leaving, and claimed, “I love Jewish people, I love them. Tikkun olam,” followed by F**k Israel, f**k Zionists.”
According to the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the San Francisco Bay Area, Hirsch has owned the hat for years, “a vintage 1938 Hebrew Orphan Asylum baseball cap, a historic institution his grandmother had been an orphan at.”
Jeremy Russell, spokesman for the Bay Area JCRC, told Jewish Insider: “I’ve been with the JCRC for 10 years now, and this is just the most clear-cut case of anti-Jewish discrimination by a business owner that I’ve seen in my entire 10 years here. It just seems very cut and dry.”
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said in a statement on the incident: “Kicking a patron out of a restaurant for no reason other than their Jewish ancestry is blatant antisemitism. No one should be turned away because of their faith. This kind of bigotry has no place in California.”
