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Owner of Ethiopian-Israeli Restaurant in Harlem Details ‘Unbearable’ Harassment, Death Threats That Forced Closure
Beejhy Barhany standing outside Tsion Cafe in Harlem. Photo: Provided
Ethiopian-Israeli chef and cookbook author Beejhy Barhany spoke with The Algemeiner about her recent decision to close her restaurant in New York because of consistent antisemitic harassment and even death threats that increased after she made the establishment kosher.
“The harassment has been going on for years,” said the owner of Tsion Cafe in Harlem. “It’s outside agitators, white supremacists, racist, antisemitism. I’ve been targeted by that … it kind of became unbearable. It became a burden and unsafe … to the point where somebody called and said, ‘We’re going to come and shoot you all.’” She detailed experiencing constant harassment through phone calls and her restaurant even being vandalized with swastikas.
The harassment “got worse” when Tsion Cafe, which served Ethiopian Israeli cuisine, became fully kosher after the Hamas-led terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Barhany said.
“After Oct. 7, we wanted to embrace our Jewishness, our proud heritage, and become fully kosher and vegan. The intention was that we are Jewish and we are here to celebrate our Jewishness. And that kind of amplified [the harassment] even more,” she noted.
“The intentions were very good,” Barhany continued. “We wanted to bring the diverse flavors of the Africa diaspora and have a dialogue and understanding — but apparently people took it in a different reaction. In a wrong understanding. That’s what happened, to the point where we said for the sake of safety and our mental health, I said, I cannot deal with this on a daily basis … because of the affiliation of being Israeli Jewish, all of the sudden, you are portrayed in a different way.”
Barhany was born in Ethiopia in a Jewish community and in 1983 moved to Israel, where she lived in a kibbutz and served in the Israel Defense Forces. She moved to New York in the early 2000s and opened Tsion Cafe in 2014.
Barhany announced on Feb. 12 that she was closing the restaurant. In a post announcing the closure on Instagram, she wrote: “To those who feel distant from us or disagree … we invite you to keep an open heart, to learn, and – if you’re willing – to engage in respectful conversation. Our hope is simple: that curiosity can replace assumptions, that learning can soften walls, and that, one day, we might even break bread together and build bridges.”
The decision to close Tsion Cafe was not easy, Barhany said. “We are invested in Harlem. Harlem is home,” she added. “We are part of the community. When we first opened, the community embraced us with warm welcoming, and we celebrated Ethiopian Jewish culture.”
Barhany contacted the New York City Police Department (NYPD) several times about the harassment targeting Tsion Cafe, but authorities did not provide much help, she told The Algemeiner. The restaurant owner said she was not looking to blame authorities for the continued harassment she faced but urged police to pay more attention to such complaints by business owners.
“Take it seriously – complaints like this,” she said. “Hopefully next time, a small business can complain about any harassment and people will take it seriously. As an immigrant, we are here to contribute, we provide and support the economy so they shouldn’t look at it and not pay attention, only [give attention] to big names. We all contribute to this society in our small way.”
Barhany said she hopes in the future to still serve Ethiopian Jewish cuisine through immersive cultural events and catering opportunities.
“What we need to do is really build bridges and highlight and amplify the different Jewish communities and celebrate our diversity,” she explained. “The Jewish world is a lot more delicious and diverse, a mosaic that is worth celebrating. And we should empower and celebrate one another. And I tried to do it in my own small part, through food, which is a universal language to engage with people, but yet people weaponize it and politicize it for no reason.”
“We’re still here in a different form to serve the community and nourish the community,” she added. “Through food we can help spread love, understanding and respect. And I hope to do that one bite at a time.”
Barhany is the founder of the Beta Israel of North America Cultural Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the Ethiopian Jewish heritage.
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Catholic University of America Under Fire for Requiring ‘Opposing Viewpoint’ for Combating Antisemitism Event
A general view of the Catholic University of America (CUA) campus in Washington, DC. Photo: Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
The Catholic University of America (CUA) is being criticized for denying the Students Supporting Israel campus organization approval to host events on combating antisemitism and defending Israeli security unless it agrees to feature “opposing viewpoints.”
The episode began earlier this month when Students Supporting Israel (SSI), a national organization that has faced opposition from CUA before, publicly complained that the university refused to sanction both an event in which US Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) would discuss “ending campus antisemitism” and another featuring an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier with experience in resisting jihadist terrorism along Israel’s security fence with the West Bank.
According to university policy, civil dialogue on the contemporary issues can’t be held unless it includes “speakers representing both sides.” While the policy purports to promote intellectual exchange, critics say it has the effect of compelling speech or censoring it altogether by imposing conditions on free speech to which no group could agree without undermining its mission.
In SSI’s case, the group has said that CUA’s policy demands the participation of anti-Israel, even antisemitic voices who would leverage a speaking engagement to utter dehumanizing opinions about Jews or propaganda confected by the Hamas terrorist organization and other groups which seek to destroy the world’s only Jewish state.
The case has now become the cause of the Foundation for Individual Right and Expression (FIRE), a group which has at times disagreed with the pro-Israel community’s outlook on free speech issues.
“While CUA is a private university and therefore not bound by the First Amendment, it is legally and morally bound to adhere to the institutional commitments it has voluntarily made to protect students’ freedom of speech,” FIRE said on March 18 in a blistering demand letter to the university. “Forcing student organizations ‘to host or accommodate another speaker’s message,’ even in the service of providing a greater range of views, inevitable ‘alters the expressive content’ of the event. Having made these free speech commitments, it is no more appropriate for CUA to require Students Supporting Israel to host speakers who oppose Israel than it would be for the federal or state government to force CUA to couple its institutional pro-Catholic messages with anti-Catholic viewpoints.”
This is not the first time that the Catholic University of America has allegedly trampled on the rights of pro-Israel advocates.
In October, it allegedly used bureaucratic obstruction to suppress Jewish grieving and commemoration of the children, women, and men whom Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists murdered during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel by canceling a memorial display that was approved in August.
According to the school’s SSI chapter, university officials cited an arcane policy which proscribes flying the flag of any foreign nation, except for that of the Vatican, on campus. However, SSI maintains that it was selectively applied to it with malice, citing that anti-Israel organizations have flown the Palestinian flag on campus numerous times, with and without official permission, as have many other organizations.
At the time, The Algemeiner requested photographic evidence of SSI’s claims of selective enforcement, to which the group responded by sending several pictures showing dozens of foreign flags flying on the campus, including those representing the nations of Brazil, France, and Ukraine. The group added that after canceling SSI’s memorial for the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 atrocities, university staff marched toward the event spaces and dismantled everything SSI had set up and topped off the act by stuffing Israeli flags into a plastic bag, which was left on a random office chair as an afterthought.
On Monday, SSI president Felipe Avila told The Algemeiner that CUA has a pattern of squelching pro-Israel speech.
“These event details are not isolated incidents; they represent a systemic pattern of discrimination we have faced since our founding,” Avila said. “From the dismantling of our Oct. 7 memorial to the unequal enforcement of event guidelines today, administrators consistently place insurmountable hurdles in front of our students. We should not be forced to platform competing viewpoints as a condition of discussing our own community’s safety and security.”
Citing the Second Vatican Council’s rejection of antisemitism in the Catholic Church, he added, “Students Supporting Israel will continue to vigorously defend our right to speak out against antisemitism, in the very spirit of the Church’s own teaching in Nostra Aetate.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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London Jewish Community Feels ‘Anxious’ but ‘Resilient’ as It Prepares for Potential Future Attacks
A person holds a sign near the scene where four ambulances belonging to Hatzola, a Jewish community organization, were set on fire in an incident that the police say is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime, in northwest London, Britain, March 23, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Isabel Infantes
The Jewish community in London is feeling “very anxious” while trying to stay vigilant and prepared for potential incidents in the future after four Hatzalah emergency vehicles were destroyed in an antisemitic arson attack last week, the president of the UK’s main Jewish umbrella organization said on Sunday.
“We’ve had two-and-a half-years of very high levels of antisemitism, obviously, the deadly attack at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester just in October, and now this incident, an arson attack in the heart of London’s Jewish community in Golders Green,” Phil Rosenberg of the Board of Deputies of British Jews said during an appearance on “BBC London Politics.”
“It is nonetheless a very resilient and proud community, and we are looking at how we push back and build back stronger,” Rosenberg added.
Roughly 150,000 Jewish people live in London.
Rosenberg, a deputy at a north London synagogue and former Labour councillor in Camden, was also asked about the British government’s response to the arson attack. He said that, with help from the government, the Jewish community in London is now equipped with specialist kits designed to help during future attacks, including equipment that could help with chemical exposure. The equipment was provided through a £28.4 million government grant to the Community Security Trust (CST), a Jewish charity that safeguards the safety and security of Jews across the UK.
“On the way here, I was looking at my WhatsApps. I saw one come in from my synagogue, and it was talking not about the great services we put on, the outreach to local communities, the wonderful art and charity that we do, but about a series of kits we’ve just received that will help the community if there’s an attack to stem the flow of blood, or if there’s a chemical attack. That is the situation we’re facing,” Rosenberg explained.
“It’s sad that it’s needed, though,” he added. “Because what we need to do is prevent this and create a situation where those things are not the things we’re talking about, and those are not the things we need. We want to be celebrating the Jewish community, and all communities in this city, and not [be] in fear of those sorts of attacks happening.”
Last year, there were over 1,800 antisemitic incidents in London, according to data compiled by CST. When asked if the Jewish community believes the government is doing enough to tackle the issue of antisemitism, Rosenberg said the response is “mixed.” He noted the speed at which the British government provided replacements vehicles for the Hatzalah ambulances destroyed last week and other moves by the government, like proscribing the pro-Hamas group Palestine Action.
“The government still needs to go further,” Rosenberg added, before calling for British leaders to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and to take more action to combat hatred flourishing on social media, among other issues.
“We’ve seen in our society a growth of extremism … and we are very concerned that we are seeing society being pulled apart,” he said. “We need to come together, among all communities, to push back against hatred in all its forms, including antisemitism, and marginalize those extremists.”
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Antisemitic Acts in Australia Persist With Car Attack, Statue Vandalism
A suspect commits vandalism outside the Victorian Trades Hall on March 6. Photo: Facebook screenshot.
Law enforcement in Australia has launched investigations into multiple recent antisemitic incidents, including a car attack on Hasidic men on Saturday and the vandalism earlier this month of a statue honoring an Australian Jewish feminist.
The Victoria branch of the Community Security Group (CSG), an organization focused on protecting local Jews, released a statement on Saturday alerting the community of an incident in Melbourne “on Glen Eira Road, Ripponlea, where a vehicle swerved towards community members while occupants shouted antisemitic remarks.”
The CSG reported that “Victoria Police patrols were active in the area and responded to the scene rapidly. There are no reports of physical injuries. CSG is liaising closely with police and continuing to monitor the situation.”
Ripponlea has a significant Haredi population with members of the Adass Israel community comprising 15.2 percent of the population. The neighborhood has seen other recent antisemitic incidents, including the bombing of the group’s synagogue in December 2024.
The suspects — four women — allegedly drove a black Hyundai stolen on Wednesday from a home in the Caulfield suburb. Victoria police confirmed they had opened an investigation and received reports of other incidents involving the antisemitic occupants driving erratically and throwing eggs at people while yelling abuse.
“Those responsible are brazen, bold, and appear to act with impunity,” Naomi Levin, the CEO of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV), told The Australian.
On Friday, Victoria Police announced the arrests of seven women alleged to have vandalized the statue of Zelda D’Aprano — a Jewish Australian feminist — outside the Victorian Trades Hall on March 6 at approximately 11:00 am.
In a statement, law enforcement described the women as part of an activist group and listed their ages as ranging between 34 and 71. The police stated that security footage showed that the vandals pulled out umbrellas to conceal their identities as they sprayed black and red paint on the statue. They also hung a “difficult woman” apron.
D’Aprano worked as an advocate for women’s rights from the 1950s through the 1980s and co-founded the Women’s Action Committee in 1970. She was known to have chained herself to a government building in 1969 to advocate equal pay for women. Her statue was unveiled in 2023.
The activists face charges of “criminal damage, behaving in a riotous manner in a public place, marking graffiti on a residence without consent, recklessly damaging part of a registered place without a permit, and refusing to leave scheduled public place after a warning.” An eighth suspect remains at large.
So far, the only named suspect is Jemima Demanuele, 34, who appeared in a Melbourne court on Friday and was reportedly on bail for another protesting offense.
Victoria Police officer Tiffany Lamesta pushed back on releasing Demanuele, saying that “the accused has been given bail for the last incident but is showing no respect for court orders” and warning that “police believe the accused will continue to offend if she’s granted bail.”
Demanuele is currently on paid leave from her position at St Vincent’s Hospital as staff conduct a Fair Work investigation.
Magistrate Michelle Hodgson granted Demanuele bail and instructed her that “there is no issue with protest, but it must be lawful, it must not endanger the safety and welfare of other persons and it must not cause property damage.”
Police have not yet stated a motive for the vandalism. Photographs from the scene show multiple members of the group wearing black and white keffiyehs, the symbol of anti-Israel militancy popularized by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Antisemitism surged in Australia following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks across southern Israel. On Feb. 24, Australia announced the creation of a Royal Commission led by retired judge Virginia Bell to investigate antisemitism in the country following the murder of 15 Jews at Bondi Beach in December.
Bell said that the commission needs to “investigate the security arrangements for that event, and to report on whether our intelligence and law enforcement agencies performed to maximum effectiveness.”
Australia’s intelligence authorities revealed last year that the Islamic regime in Iran had directed antisemitic acts in the country using cryptocurrency to compensate criminals, prompting the expulsion of Iran’s Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi and three other officials.
On Friday, the CSG and JCCV released an annual report on antisemitism in Australia’s Victoria state, documenting 564 incidents, the highest number ever recorded.
“Behind each of these reports is a Jewish person,” Levin said. “A child in school uniform abused on a school excursion, a man in a kippah verbally abused on public transport, a worshipper arriving at synagogue to find hateful words painted on its walls, a business owner wiping racist symbols off their window before opening for the day.”