A Jewish resident of Oakland, Calif., and his five-year-old son appeared on video being harassed and forcibly removed from a local cafe by its anti-Israel owner over the weekend for wearing a hat that brandished 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 on Tuesday, shows Abdulrahim Harara, the owner of Jerusalem Coffee House in North Oakland, speaking to Jonathan Hirsch and his son over the former’s hat, which has a Jewish star emblazoned on the front. Harara said that Hirsch’s cap was “a violent hat, and you need to leave,” as Hirsch’s five-year-old son began crying. 

Harara, whose family is from Gaza and who has used his establishment’s menu to honor terrorists such as the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, said that he wasn’t asking Hirsch to leave because his hat had a Jewish symbol, but then repeatedly asked if he was a Zionist. Another worker at the shop later accused Hirsch of inciting a problem by coming to the cafe as a Jew, something a female co-owner of the business pushed back on in the moment. Hirsch and his son came into the business looking for a bathroom to use, and played chess at one of the tables in the store 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 refusing him service for being Jewish. The female co-owner of the establishment told Hirsch that he was in a shop “owned and run by Palestinians,” something Hirsch noted did not mean they were entitled to deny him service for being visibly Jewish. The co-owner incorrectly stated that any establishment would have the right to deny service to customers for being gay, which Hirsch also pushed back on. 

Harara eventually called the police despite saying that it was “against my ethos” to utilize law enforcement. When police arrived, Hirsch was eventually removed from the store for alleged trespassing, which the officer said she was enforcing to separate him from Harara. He said that once outside, Harara walked out and was shouting at his son that, “Your dad’s a b****.”

The JCRC Bay Area posted an abbreviated version of the video, which was edited to protect the young boy’s identity, and noted that, “The rise in antisemitic incidents in Oakland since October 7 is alarming and out of control. This incident stands as one of the most blatant acts of discrimination, and we call on our leaders to take a stand against such behavior and speak out NOW.”

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

“I’m doing OK, but I’m concerned for my kid and concerned for our safety. This is all a bit surreal, but it’s something that we’re dealing with here in Oakland,” Hirsch said. 

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

He added that he hopes to get “some sort of acknowledgement from the city of whether or not they’re going to be enforcing these laws of protection for Jews in the way I would expect them to for any other group.”

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

Schiff, who is leading in the state’s Senate race, 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.”

Jeremy Russell, the spokesman for the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, told JI that, “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.”

Russell warned that the incident was “consistent with a pattern of escalation by activists in the East Bay, and it’s very concerning as tensions continue to increase here in the Bay Area.”

“I definitely encourage anyone and everyone to reach out to 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. 
Representatives for the Oakland Police Department did not respond to JI’s request for comment on the matter.