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She lost a friend in Hamas’ attack. Then neighbors called for a boycott of her ‘ugly zio’ juice bar
When Brooklyn juice bar owner Reut Levi woke up in Israel on Oct. 7, the morning after a friend’s wedding near the Sea of Galilee, she saw she had missed 35 calls from her parents and over 100 push notifications from news outlets about Hamas’ attacks in the south. She soon learned that the terrorists had killed another friend of hers at the Nova music festival. Levi spent the next two weeks in her native Israel, grieving and worrying for her family’s safety.
The turmoil followed her home to Bedford-Stuyvesant, the Brooklyn neighborhood where she lives and opened Tamar Juice Bar in June.
Levi, 37, moved to what locals call Bed-Stuy 15 years ago, she said, because it seemed a safe, tolerant place for a lesbian like her, a person who feels most comfortable in multicultural places. In the few months since the juice bar opened, it had become somewhat of a neighborhood landmark, especially for young, queer Brooklynites.
But Levi learned after Oct. 7 that she has some neighbors who want to see her business fail, and that they said and wrote that it’s because she’s Israeli and Jewish.
“I didn’t expect this and I don’t feel safe anymore,” Levi said. “But I have no choice but to go on with what I’ve always done here.”
She also learned that she has friends she had never met before, mostly Jews and Israelis, who want her business to thrive in Bed-Stuy.
Her experience mirrors that of other business owners targeted since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war because they are Israel, pro-Israel or Jewish, and comes at a time of spiking antisemitism in the U.S. and and globally. Vandals defaced the facade of Canter’s Deli in Los Angeles, for example. And a Greek diner on Long Island withstood a boycott after its owner flew the Israeli flag outside the restaurant and plastered its windows with posters of those kidnapped by Hamas. Business tanked until droves of customers angered by the boycott began eating there. Levi’s juice shop has also enjoyed such support, but she still wonders whether it can survive war in the Middle East.
‘They ain’t welcome here’
Levi knew Tamar Juice Bar might be vulnerable in the aftermath of Hamas’ attack, as Israel began retaliating in Gaza. Both she and her business partner Michal Mualem are Israeli, Tamar is one of the most popular names in Israel and their menu has a strong Middle Eastern flavor. Levi decided to post only on her personal Instagram account — not the juice bar’s. Most of her posts memorialized the victims of Oct. 7. She did not call for retribution.
“My political view is that I really wish that the people of Gaza will have the most beautiful life as soon as possible,” Levi told me as she lit a cigarette. “They can have it. They must have it.”
Reut Levi serving customers in Tamar Juice Bar in Brooklyn on Nov. 8, 2023. Photo by Camillo Barone
But last Saturday, one of Levi’s customers on Instagram accused her of supporting genocide and called for a boycott of the juice bar. “The same way we are asked to boycott big corporations participating in the oppression of black/brown, let’s keep the same energy with those promoting racism and support of genocide right under our noses,” the customer wrote, tagging the the juice bar’s profile so her followers would know which business to boycott.
Levi decided not to respond so as not to stoke the vitriol. But then other Instagram influencers in Bed-Stuy began posting photos of the juice bar and screenshots of its Instagram profile, with some seemingly inviting neighbors to harass Levi. “Don’t go to this trash ass place yall. Matter of fact feel free to let them know how much they ain’t welcome here,” wrote one.
They posts kept coming: “Bed-Stuy Neighbors Beware: Tamar Juice bar is a Zionist establishment;” “Liberation from apartheid, from colonizers, from occupiers in Bed-Stuy;” “There are ugly zio businesses in our very own neighborhoods who steal & appropriate Pali food & culture.”
The next day the action moved from online to the real world. A woman showed up outside the juice bar, Levi said, and began taking videos of her and calling her a “racist Zionist who supports genocide.” Reut locked herself in the bar and called the police, who told the woman to get away from the premises. A few hours later seven other women entered the bar without ordering anything. Levi said one of them asked her: “Are you the Israeli Jewish person here?” They laughed at her, frightened her “like never before,” Levi said. Shortly after they left she found stickers outside the juice bar calling for “Global Intifada.”
“I lived in Israel. I know what an Intifada is, and I can assure you it’s not a good thing,” Levi told me.
A future in Bed-Stuy?
Levi got the idea for her business when she first moved to the U.S. and began working at a mall in upstate New York managing two kiosks which sold smoothies and ice cream. One day, she decided, she would also sell smoothies, but infused with the flavors of Israel. Tamar Juice Bar — tamar means “date” in Hebrew — offers a date-flavored smoothie. Another is called “Chic or Shuk,” a reference to Middle Eastern markets. Spiced honey cake is also on the menu.
The juice bar seemed a good fit for the neighborhood, but after Saturday’s incident, Levi feared her five-month-old business was about to die.
Then, on Monday afternoon, customers began showing up by the dozens, not to heckle, but to order smoothies, encouraged in private Facebook groups by Israeli and Jewish New Yorkers who had heard that she was being doxxed. A rabbi from Brooklyn ordered ten juices for ten police officers, and made them aware of the harassment Levi faced.
As she and I spoke outside the juice bar earlier this week, an Israeli man installed security cameras inside and outside the business. “I had bought them months ago but always felt safe here, so I didn’t install them,” Levi told me. “Today, however, I’m afraid, and this Israeli guy offered to install them for me for free to make me feel safer.”
Levi, who has removed every symbol of Israel and Judaism she ever had in her shop, worries about its future.
“I didn’t want to bring politics here. Jews and Israelis from all over New York have been coming in this week, but what will happen when they leave? Will my old customers from the neighborhood come back?”
The post She lost a friend in Hamas’ attack. Then neighbors called for a boycott of her ‘ugly zio’ juice bar appeared first on The Forward.
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‘We Are Being Held Hostage’: Lebanese TV Host Says Hezbollah Taking Lebanon Toward War, ‘Certain Death’
Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addresses his supporters through a screen during a rally commemorating the annual Hezbollah Martyrs’ Day, in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Photo: Reuters/Aziz Taher
A Lebanese TV host said last week that Hezbollah has essentially taken Lebanon hostage, comparing what the Iran-backed terrorist organization has done to the country to the hijackers who carried out the 9/11 attacks in the US.
Dima Sadek, who hosts a show in Lebanon on MTV, expressed her fear and outrage over what Hezbollah is doing to Lebanon and the path of near-certain war it is taking, according to a report and translation from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
Hezbollah, which wields significant political influence across Lebanon, boasts significant military capabilities much greater than those of other terrorist organizations in the region such as Hamas. The Lebanese Islamist group has long declared it seeks to destroy Israel.
“We are in danger of a hellish, existential war,” Sadek said on June 24 regarding the threats Hezbollah has made to countries such as Cyprus, which is in the European Union. “We are being held hostage. We have been hijacked by a group that has no clue of what is going on in this planet.”
She pointed out that “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin, who was the only one who managed to save your axis in the Syrian war, cannot overcome Europe, so how come you are threatening Europe with such confidence?”
Regarding the fear and helplessness she and some other Lebanese feel over the direction Hezbollah is taking, she asked, “Do you know who we resemble? The passengers on the 9/11 airplanes. We are like airplane passengers who do not see what is happening around them. We are being led by one person, and we have no idea where we are heading.”
She added, “The only thing that we know for sure is that this person is taking us to a catastrophe and certain death.”
#ICYMI: Lebanese TV Host Dima Sadek: There Is Nothing Left of This Country Besides Hizbullah and Its Weapons; They Are Holding Us Hostage; We Are Like the Passengers on a Hijacked Plane on 9/11 Heading Towards Certain Death #Lebanon #Hizbullah @DimaSadek pic.twitter.com/v7WDtIQqEV
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) June 30, 2024
Hezbollah terrorists have been firing drones, rockets, and missiles at northern Israel daily from southern Lebanon since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre, leading Israeli forces to strike back. Tensions have been escalating between both sides, fueling concerns that the conflict in Gaza — the Palestinian enclave ruled by Hamas to Israel’s south — could escalate into a regional conflict.
More than 80,000 Israelis have evacuated Israel’s north and been unable to return to their homes. The majority of those spent the past nine months residing in hotels in safer areas of the country.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah has also stepped up its threats against the rest of the world, including Cyprus.
Last month, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah made a speech in which he said an “all-out war” with Israel was “getting very close.” He added that if Cyprus, a European Union member, were to help Israel in some way during that war, then “Cyprus will be part of this war too.”
Israeli officials have said that, while they seek a diplomatic resolution to the current situation along the border with Lebanon, they are prepared to escalate military action against Hezbollah to push the terrorist group back in order to allow displaced Israelis to return to their homes.
Hezbollah, like Hamas, has been accused of using civilians as “human shields” when fighting Israel.
The post ‘We Are Being Held Hostage’: Lebanese TV Host Says Hezbollah Taking Lebanon Toward War, ‘Certain Death’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hezbollah Launches Big Attack on Israel, Sonic Booms Rattle Beirut
Rockets launched from Lebanon to Israel over the border are intercepted, amid the ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Israel, near the border with Lebanon, July 3, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ayal Margolin
Lebanon’s Hezbollah launched a big rocket and drone attack at Israel on Thursday and threatened to hit new targets in retaliation for the killing of a top commander, in the latest surge of violence in the steadily worsening conflict across the border.
Sparked by the Gaza war, the conflict between the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah and Israel has been gradually intensifying for months, raising fears of a full-scale war, which both sides have indicated they want to avoid and diplomats are working to prevent.
As the latest violence played out in areas at or near the frontier — in keeping with the pattern of the last nine months — the sound of sonic booms rattled nerves for the second successive day in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon.
Israeli jets broke the sound barrier over several areas of the country, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.
Hezbollah said it launched more than 200 rockets and a swarm of drones at 10 Israeli military sites in retaliation for Israel‘s killing of Hezbollah commander Mohammed Nasser in the south on Wednesday. Nasser is one of the most senior Hezbollah commanders to be killed by Israel during the conflict.
The Israeli military said around “200 projectiles and over 20 suspicious aerial targets were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory,” a number of which were intercepted by Israeli air defenses and fighter jets.
Israel‘s ambulance service said no casualties were reported. The Israeli military said some of the drones and interceptor shrapnel set off fires.
The Israeli air force “struck Hezbollah military structures” in the areas of Ramyeh and Houla,” it said, referring to two villages in south Lebanon.
Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, speaking at an event in Beirut commemorating Nasser, indicated his group would widen its targeting.
“The series of responses continues in succession, and this series will continue to target new sites that the enemy did not imagine would be hit,” Safieddine said.
DIPLOMATIC PUSH
The United States has been leading diplomatic efforts to deescalate the fighting. Hezbollah has said it will not cease fire as long as Israel continues its offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The hostilities have inflicted a heavy toll on both sides of the frontier, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.
Amos Hochstein, a senior US official at the heart of the diplomacy, discussed French and American efforts to restore calm in meetings with French officials on Wednesday, a White House official said.
“France and the United States share the goal of resolving the current conflict across the Blue Line by diplomatic means, allowing Israeli and Lebanese civilians to return home with long-term assurances of safety and security,” the official said, referring to the demarcation line between the two neighbors.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday that Israeli forces were hitting Hezbollah “very hard every day” and will be ready to take any action necessary against the group, though the preference is to reach a negotiated arrangement.
Hezbollah also launched rockets at Israel on Wednesday in retaliation for Nasser’s killing.
Hezbollah began firing at Israeli targets along the border with Lebanon after its Palestinian terrorist ally Hams launched an attack on Israel on Oct. 7, declaring its support for the Palestinians.
Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed more than 300 Hezbollah fighters and some 90 civilians, according to Reuters tallies. Israel says fire from Lebanon has killed 18 soldiers and 10 civilians.
The post Hezbollah Launches Big Attack on Israel, Sonic Booms Rattle Beirut first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Drexel University Professor Stole Signs From Synagogue, Police Say
Illustrative: People pass a cluster of signs outside a pro-Hamas encampment at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. on April 28, 2024. Photo: Max Herman via Reuters Connect
A Drexel University professor allegedly participated in a mass theft of items from a synagogue in a suburb outside Philadelphia, a local NBC affiliate reported on Tuesday.
Mariana Chilton, 56, a professor of health management and policy at Drexel, has been accused of stealing pro-Israel signs from the Main Line Reform Temple in Lower Merion Township, traveling there from her neighborhood of residency, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Chilton allegedly drove the getaway car while two other accomplices, Sarah Prickett and Sam Penn — who is from New York — trespassed the synagogue and absconded with the loot.
“We are just taking them because we feel like it is a representative of genocide,” Chilton told law enforcement after being caught in the act, the report stated. She then, after offering to “just put them back,” refused to identify herself and comply with other lawful orders.
Video evidence provided by a local resident placed Chilton and her accomplices at the scene of the crime, and a Main Line Reform Temple official identified the signs recovered from her car as the temple’s property. That was enough for law enforcement to charge her with several offenses, including conspiracy and theft. She is also charged with driving without a license and not registering her vehicle.
Drexel University has not responded to The Algemeiner‘s request for comment for this story.
Experts have told The Algemeiner in the past academic year that while the conduct of anti-Zionist students should be reported on, the role of faculty in fostering and engaging in antisemitic acts should be closely scrutinized. Last semester, anti-Zionist faculty attached themselves to anti-Israel, pro-Hamas demonstrations, sometimes breaking the law by preventing officers from dispersing unauthorized demonstrations and detaining lawbreakers.
At Northeastern University in Boston, professors formed a human barrier around a student encampment to stop its dismantling by officers, and at Columbia University, anti-Zionist faculty at the school, as well its affiliate Barnard College, staged a walkout in support of the demonstrations and demanded the abeyance of disciplinary sanctions against anti-Zionist students — dozens of whom cheered Hamas and threatened more massacres of Jews similar to Oct. 7 — who violated school rules.
Chilton’s case is unlike any other reported in the past year, however. While dozens of professors have been accused of abusing their Jewish students and encouraging their classmates to bully and shame them, none are alleged to have resorted to stealing from a Jewish house of worship to make their point.
Mass participation of faculty in pro-Hamas demonstrations marks an inflection point in American history, Asaf Romirowsky, an expert on the Middle East and executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, told The Algemeiner in April.
Since the 1960s, he explained, far-left “scholar activists” have gradually seized control of the higher education system, tailoring admissions processes and the curricula to foster ideological radicalism and conformity, which students then carry with them into careers in government, law, corporate America, and education. This system, he concluded, must be challenged.
“The cost of trading scholarship for political propagandizing has been a zeal and pride among faculty who esteem and cheer terrorism, a historical development which is quite telling and indicative of the evolution of the Marxist ideology which has been seeping into the academy since the 1960s,” Romirowsky said. “The message is very clear to all of us who are looking on from the outside at this, and institutions have to begin drawing a red line. The protests are not about free speech. They are about supporting terrorism, about calling for a genocide of Jews.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Drexel University Professor Stole Signs From Synagogue, Police Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.