Oakland Coffee Shop That Ejected Jewish Patrons Closes Amid Antisemitism Lawsuits

OAKLAND (VINnews) — A Palestinian-owned coffee shop that drew national attention after its owner ordered a Jewish father and his 5-year-old son to leave has closed while facing three lawsuits alleging antisemitic discrimination.

Jerusalem Coffee House, located on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood, shut its doors last week. The owners said they need to focus on legal defense, including a U.S. Justice Department case scheduled for trial Oct. 26 in San Francisco.

The shop and its owner, Fathi Abdulrahim Harara, also known as Abdulrahim Harara, along with operating company Native Grounds LLC, face separate actions by the Justice Department, the Anti-Defamation League on behalf of customer Michael Radice, and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law on behalf of Jonathan Hirsch.

In a Substack post, the cafe called the cases “the ongoing efforts of zionist organizations and the federal government to use the courts as a tool to repress free speech and public political commitments to Palestine.” It said the business had faced harassment, property damage and hate messages.

Video from October 2024 showed Harara confronting Hirsch, who was wearing a baseball cap with a Star of David, and telling him the hat was “a violent hat, and you need to leave.” Hirsch’s young son began crying. Harara repeatedly asked whether Hirsch was a Zionist, demanded that the pair get out, and later called police. Officers removed Hirsch for alleged trespassing. Hirsch said Harara followed them outside and shouted an insult at his son.

Hirsch and his son had ordered coffee and sat at a table after entering to use the restroom, according to accounts of the incident.

Radice, who runs a nonprofit, alleged he was refused service and subjected to slurs on visits in 2024 while wearing a Star of David cap that also bore the Hebrew phrase “Am Yisrael Chai.” The Justice Department complaint says employees identified him as “the Jew” and “the Zionist” and told him they did not want him in the shop. Neither man expressed political views while inside, the government alleged.

The Justice Department sued in June 2025 under Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin in places of public accommodation. A federal judge later denied a motion to dismiss, finding the government had sufficiently alleged a pattern of discriminatory conduct. The complaint also cited the cafe’s menu items announced around the first anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks: “Sweet Sinwar,” seen by critics as a tribute to the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, and “Iced in Tea Fada,” a play on “intifada.” Harara has said the drinks marked the shop’s anniversary, not the attacks.

Brandeis Center attorney Omer Wiczyk, who represents Hirsch in state court, said closing the business does not erase the harm. “Discrimination comes with a price,” he told the San Francisco Standard. “No customer should ever have to disavow their Jewish identity just to order a cup of coffee.”

Harara’s family is from Gaza. The cafe, which opened in 2023, described itself as politically rooted and hosted events. Police were called despite Harara saying it was against his ethos to use law enforcement.

The federal trial remains set for late October. The private suits seek damages and other relief under federal and California civil rights laws.