An Oakland coffee shop is facing two simultaneous lawsuits brought by Jewish customers who say they were discriminated against because of their religion.
Plaintiff Jonathan Hirsch, a Jewish resident of Oakland, was “ejected from the coffee house because he is a Jew,” alleges one lawsuit filed in state court. Another lawsuit, filed in federal court, alleges that Michael Radice, a Jewish man from Los Angeles, was “harassed and excluded” from the business “explicitly because he is Jewish.”
The lawsuits allege violations of state and federal civil rights laws by the Jerusalem Coffee House, a trendy cafe near the Temescal neighborhood in North Oakland. The shop, an homage to Palestinian culture and a hub for political activism that opened in 2023, serves up regionally inspired fare like date tahini lattes and za’atar focaccia.
The cafe is also explicitly anti-Zionist, embracing radical politics and describing itself as “rooted in revolution.” In the fall, the coffee shop found itself in an internet firestorm after publishing a new menu around the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel. The menu advertised a drink called the “Sweet Sinwar,” an apparent reference to Yahya Sinwar, the now-deceased Hamas leader who masterminded Oct. 7. In response, angry internet posters flooded the cafe with negative Yelp reviews.
Now, the cafe is facing challenges that may prove more serious than internet grief.
The Anti-Defamation League announced one lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law announced the other lawsuit, filed Monday in California Superior Court in Alameda County. J. reported on the Brandeis Center lawsuit in mid-February before it was filed.
In each suit, a plaintiff claims that he was refused service because he is Jewish.
“No one should have to hide who they are to order a cup of coffee, but at Jerusalem Coffee House, antisemitism was literally on the menu,” Marc Levine, regional director for the ADL in San Francisco, said in a statement. “Bigotry against Jews is on the rise, but we will not be turned away — this behavior cannot be tolerated anywhere.”
The Jerusalem Coffee House did not respond to a request for comment.
The state lawsuit, filed by lawyers with the Brandeis Center, focuses on an October 2024 incident that was captured in a series of videos and shared widely online. The videos show a tense and emotionally charged encounter lasting more than half an hour between Hirsch, proprietor Abdulrahim Harara, others in the shop and Oakland police, who attempt to defuse the situation. Hirsch’s lawyers published the footage in a public Dropbox.
Hirsch entered the shop on Oct. 26 wearing a blue baseball cap with a Star of David on it. The video shows Hirsch sitting in front of a chess board with his young son. Harara approaches.
“Are you a Zionist?” Harara says, telling Hirsch he is causing a disruption. “This is a violent hat and you need to leave.”
Hirsch refuses and tells Harara to call the police. Police arrive, and after a lengthy back-and-forth during which Hirsch’s son expresses some anxiety and police try to calm him, Hirsch says he will leave if Harara makes a trespassing claim, which he does, and Hirsch and his son are escorted out.
Throughout the video, Harara periodically taunts Hirsch, making kissing noises in the direction of the camera, while Hirsch calls Harara a “bigot” and tells the police officers, who are Black, that he is taking a stand against bigotry and that Harara is “ignorant.”
“Are you a Zionist?” Harara asks repeatedly, to which Hirsch does not answer. “F*** Israel! F*** Zionists!” Harara says. At other points, Harara says, “I love Jewish people! I love them!”
The other case, filed in federal court by the ADL along with lawyers from the international law firm Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff, centers on an incident that was not captured on publicly available video.
It revolves around Radice, a Los Angeles man who works full time for an Oakland-based nonprofit serving formerly incarcerated adults and travels to the Bay Area frequently. According to the complaint, on July 10, 2024, he approached the cafe wearing a hat with a Star of David on it and the words “Am Yisrael Chai” in Hebrew.
An unnamed employee of the shop allegedly asked him, “Are you a Jew?” and “Are you a Zionist?” The employee “proceeded to spew a series of accusations about Mr. Radice’s Jewish identity, including accusing him of complicity in events taking place in the Gaza Strip,” the complaint states. Radice “was concerned for his physical safety” and walked away, the complaint says. As he was leaving he saw a man, whom he believed to be Harara, speak with the employee and they both went inside.
About three weeks later, on Aug. 3, 2024, Radice returned to Oakland and “stopped into JCH with the intent to purchase a cookie or other item as a token of appreciation” for what he believed was an attempt by Harara to de-escalate the previous situation, the complaint states.
“Before Mr. Radice could place his order, one of the men from the July incident said, ‘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 complaint.
Radice left. But as he did so, three men, including Harara, the complaint states, “followed him out of the cafe.”
“Mr. Radice felt threatened due to the three men’s pursuit,” according to the complaint. “Concerned for his safety, Mr. Radice walked into the street to create more distance between him and the three men.”
Harara is named in both lawsuits. Each suit seeks damages for civil rights violations, plus attorney’s fees and any “other relief” that the court may find appropriate.