An Israeli-owned restaurant in Brooklyn, New York, was vandalized overnight between Saturday night nad Sunday. The front of the business were sprayed with red paint resembling liquid blood, and graffiti denouncing Israel was also sprayed on the windows.
Watch the security camera footage:
Attack on an Israeli-owned restaurant in New York
Miriam is one of the most iconic Israeli restaurants in New York. The restaurant's facade and storefront were sprayed with graffiti, including "Genocide Cuisine" and "Israel Steals Culture."
Security camera footage obtained by Ynet shows two women and a man arriving at the restaurant around 3 a.m. and causing extensive damage to the area. The New York Police Department has opened an investigation, and so far no arrests have been reported.
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'Genocide Cuisine' - Graffiti and red paint on the front of Miriam restaurant in Park Slope in New York City
(Photo: Courtesy of Miriam restaurant)
Neighborhood residents who passed by Sunday morning were amazed by the sight. Yasmin Segal, a regular customer, said that "seeing all the demonstrations and signs with cute illustrations of watermelons is one thing, but when it happens close to you, it's really scary. I've heard of things like this, but when it's physically close to home it's offensive."
"This is my favorite restaurant," she said. "It tastes like home. When I don't have the strength to prepare food for the children, I come here for the schnitzel, challah and salads. I really hope the Israeli community will mobilize to help the place."
And indeed, according to owner and chef of the restaurant, Israeli-American Rafi Hasid, he has been receiving calls non-stop since the morning hours. "Customers, people from the city council, the Israeli consulate and people from the Jewish community are calling and offering help. We are not excited, because unfortunately this already happened to us two years ago. I don't know if we can say we are used to this, but it is certainly not new," he said.
He added that, despite the vandalism and hateful graffiti, the restaurant continues to operate as usual.
"We haven't had time to clean the graffiti yet, but we bought graffiti removal materials and we'll get to that later. We've been here for 20 years, and everyone knows us. I even got calls from the local Jewish school saying they'd come to support us . It's exciting - most people are good, not all of them are shit," Hasid said.
Miriam, which opened in Brooklyn 20 years ago, was one of the pioneers in bringing Israeli cuisine to New York. The restaurant became famous for its breakfast and brunch, with dishes like schnitzel, baked beets in green tahini, shakshuka, hummus and a selection of fresh salads. The success led to the opening of another branch on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Eater magazine called it "the ideal place for comfort food" and wrote, "Mirjam and her breakfast epitomize the simple, unpretentious style of food: short ingredient list, lots of butter, comfort food that satisfies without surprising. Food can heal, how have people dealt with heartbreak in New York before?"
The restaurant is named after the owner's mother, who also took part in the design of the place: she sewed the curtains, pillows and upholstery for the chairs and benches with her own hands from special fabrics she brought from Nahalat Binyamin Street in Tel Aviv. For many, Miriam is not just a restaurant – it is a second home.
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"This restaurant is part of our community. I believe that we will all come together to give back to her what she has been giving us for years," according to Segal.
This is not the first time that the Israeli culinary industry in America has found itself the target of protests. In November 2023, about a month after the outbreak of the war, 900 chefs and restaurateurs in North America signed a petition calling for a boycott of Israeli restaurants and Israeli food, in protest of the attacks in Gaza. Shortly thereafter, pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrating outside an Israeli restaurant in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City during which they broke tables, spray-painted the Israeli flag that hung at the entrance with a red triangle associated with Hamas videos, and threatened the employees there.