A Jewish resident of Oakland, California, and his five-year-old son appeared on video being harassed and forcibly removed from a local coffee shop by its anti-Israel owner over the weekend for wearing a hat bearing a star of David, drawing condemnation from local Jewish leaders as well as Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA).

Video of the incident, which began circulating online Tuesday, shows Abdulrahim Harara, the owner of the Jerusalem Cafe in North Oakland, talking to Jonathan Hirsch and his son over the former’s hat, which has a Jewish star engraved on the front. Harara said Hirsch’s cap was “a violent hat and you have to go,” as Hirsch’s five-year-old son began to cry.

Harara, whose family is from Gaza and who used his establishment’s menu honor the terrorists such as the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, said he did not ask Hirsch to leave because his hat had a Jewish symbol on it, but then repeatedly asked if he was a Zionist. Another shop worker later accused Hirsch of stirring up trouble by coming to the cafe as a Jew, which a female co-owner of the business denied at the time. Hirsch and his son entered the business looking for a bathroom to use and played chess at one of the store’s tables while waiting for a coffee he ordered.

After Harara repeatedly ordered Hirsch and his son to “get out,” Hirsch responded that Harara was discriminating against a protected class, as part of a religious minority, by denying him service because he was Jewish. The female co-owner of the establishment told Hirsch that she was in a store “owned and operated by Palestinians,” which Hirsch noted did not mean they had the right to deny her service because she was visibly Jewish. The co-owner incorrectly stated that any establishment would have the right to refuse service to customers because they are gay, which Hirsch also rejected.

Harara eventually called the police, despite saying it was “against my ethos” to use law enforcement. When police arrived, Hirsch was eventually removed from the store for the alleged violation, which the officer said required him to be separated from Harara. He said that once outside, Harara came out and shouted at his son: “Your father is ***”.

JCRC Bay Area posted a shortened version of the video, which was edited to protect the identity of the young man, and noted that “The increase in anti-Semitic incidents in Oakland since October 7 is alarming and out of control. This incident is one of the most egregious acts of discrimination and we call on our leaders to take a stand against such behavior and speak out NOW.”

Talking to Jewish Insider On Wednesday about the encounter, Hirsch claimed one of the employees made a lewd comment to his son as they were being escorted out of the store, at which point he said the individual tried to push him out of the store. He also said the officer, who was not identified in the video, allowed Harara to film his clipboard as she filled out her information, with her driver’s license writing her home address at the top of the forms.

“I’m doing well, but I’m worried about my baby and our safety. It’s all a little surreal, but it’s something we deal with here in Oakland,” Hirsch said.

Hirsch said he was trying to get his son to focus on the “layers and layers of support” they received from “our non-Jewish community and from our Jewish community.”

He added that he hopes to get “some kind of recognition from the city as to whether or not they will enforce these protective laws for Jews, as I would expect them to do for any other group.”

“If we’re on our own here, I want to know that. And if we’re not, I want to see,” he said, noting that he is pursuing his legal options in the meantime.

Schiff, who is leading the state Senate race, said in a statement about the incident: “To kick a patron out of a restaurant for no reason other than their Jewish ancestry is blatant anti-Semitism. No one should be rejected because of their faith. That kind of bigotry doesn’t happen in California.”

Jeremy Russell, spokesman for the Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council, told JI that, “I’ve been with the JCRC for 10 years now, and this is just the clearest case of anti-Jewish discrimination by a business owner who I have seen here all 10 years. It just seems very cut and dry.”

Russell warned that the incident was “consistent with a pattern of escalating activists in the East Bay and is very troubling as tensions continue to rise here in the Bay Area.”

“I certainly encourage anyone and everyone to contact all of these officials to let them know about this incident. The more they hear from the community, the more likely they are to respond, and they need to respond to this,” Russell said.
Oakland Police Department representatives did not respond to requests for comment.S request for comments on this topic.