Dozens of pro-Israel demonstrators rallied outside a Park Slope coffee shop Wednesday morning after the business publicly refused service to a Jewish congressman and its owner was found to have compared Israel to Nazi Germany on social media. A smaller group of counter-protesters showed up to confront them, and the NYPD had to physically separate the two sides on a Brooklyn sidewalk.
The confrontation outside Poetica Coffee capped a week of escalating fallout over what began as a social media post targeting Rep. Dan Goldman, a pro-Israel Democrat. The shop posted a photo of Goldman, who had stopped in over the weekend with his daughter, and asked whether its coffee tasted like "genocide juice." It demanded he "never again set foot inside the shop" and declared, as the New York Post reported, "here at Poetica, we don't serve racists, fascists, homophobes, genocide enablers, or anyone in between."
Then came the LinkedIn posts. Owner Parviz Mukhamadkulov had written that "Israel is the Nazi Germany of our time." Those posts were unearthed after the Goldman incident went viral, adding fuel to an already incendiary situation.
The DOJ's Civil Rights Division has opened a federal investigation into whether Poetica Coffee violated anti-discrimination laws. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon issued a pointed warning, as Newsmax reported:
"Federal law prohibits public accommodations such as coffee shops from discriminating against patrons based on their race, religion, or national origin."
Dhillon's division warned that an enforcement action against the shop could be coming. Goldman, for his part, received a refund for his purchase, $9.82, Breitbart noted, and was told he was no longer welcome at any Poetica location.
Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, called the shop's actions an affront. "Turning a cup of coffee into a Jewish identity litmus test is an affront to the law, our values, and every New Yorker who rejects discrimination," Treyger said.
The federal civil rights investigation into Poetica Coffee marks a rare instance of the Justice Department moving swiftly on a case of alleged religious discrimination at a retail business.
Wednesday's protest drew an organized coalition. Daniel Rosen, president of the IMPACT organization, flew in from Israel to attend. He framed the demonstration as a new phase of Jewish advocacy:
"We will not allow businesses or individuals to discriminate against anyone, including Jewish people, simply for supporting Israel, which is the only Jewish community in the whole world."
Rosen went further, promising consequences for businesses that single out Jews. "Our new strategy is that, whenever and wherever these types of things occur, there's going to be an organized response and there's going to be some type of price to pay," he said.
End Jew Hatred sent two leaders. Director Michelle Ahdoot put the stakes in plain terms:
"No New Yorkers should have to pass an Israel loyalty test to buy a cup of coffee."
Jayne Zirkle, the group's 24-year-old communications director, struck a more philosophical note: "The measure of a free society is not how it treats those who agree with us. It is how it treats those who we disagree with. And on that principle, we must stand together to end Jew hatred."
The personal testimonies were sharper. Gina Friedlander, whose parents survived the Holocaust, said she refused to be intimidated. "I'm not hiding and I'm not being quiet... I'm wearing my t-shirt on the subway. I'm not gonna be intimidated, I refuse. I'm too old for that."
Stephianie Benshimol, a Brooklyn native who carried a "Proud Jewish New Yorker" sign, drew a direct line to the darkest chapter of European history: "If my grandmother was alive, she's probably turning in her grave right now on the Mount of Olives in Israel. This is how it started in Nazi Germany."
Benshimol also posed a question that cut to the heart of the matter: "If I walked in there, would they refund me or throw me out if I want a coffee on a hot day? I wouldn't do that if they came into my synagogue or even to my business. I treat them the right way, I don't care what your belief is."
A smaller contingent from Jews United Against Zionism arrived to back the coffee shop. They waved Palestinian flags and used a bullhorn to denounce Israel. Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, the group's representative, applauded Poetica's decision to ban Goldman:
"When the people in this coffee shop decided to say to a politician who supports bombing, sends money that they should bomb innocent people, it's perfectly justifiable, it's godly and right to stand up and say 'you have no place in humanity, and you shouldn't be getting coffee, what you should be getting is a bottle of urine.'"
That kind of rhetoric, from a rabbi, no less, captures just how far the anti-Israel fringe has drifted from any recognizable standard of civil discourse. Weiss also praised "every step people are taking to stand up to this unjust occupation and genocide."
The confrontations grew personal. One unnamed rabbi from the counter-protest, wearing a keffiyeh and holding a Palestinian flag, repeatedly shouted "You are a Zion Nazi terrorist!" inches from a pro-Israel protester's face. The pro-Israel protester's retort, "Oh you have very bad breath!", was about the mildest exchange of the morning.
NYPD officers stepped in and cordoned the two groups into separate areas. Both sides eventually dispersed after a few hours. No arrests were made. The coffee shop stayed open the entire time.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani refused to denounce the coffee shop on Tuesday, the day before the protest. Instead, he was out stumping for leftist allies seeking congressional seats. The mayor's refusal to weigh in drew pointed criticism from the pro-Israel crowd.
Brian Chenesky, who held a sign reading "FireMamdani.com," said he had been at Park East Synagogue last month when an anti-Israel mob "wreaked havoc" there. He likened that incident to Kristallnacht, the 1938 Nazi rampage against Jewish businesses and synagogues across Germany and Austria. Mamdani, Chenesky said, failed to condemn that attack as well.
Mamdani's pattern of non-response fits a broader trend of progressive leaders who openly challenge mainstream Democratic leadership while declining to address antisemitism in their own political backyard.
Chenesky's fear was not abstract. "People didn't have problems with attacking Jewish people, insulting them and bothering them, and eventually killing them," he said. "I hope that New York and the U.S. can survive what's happening to it. And I'm afraid."
Benshimol directed her anger squarely at the shop's owner: "He doesn't like the Jewish people. He doesn't love New York, and I am in fear for my life walking in the streets and also for my children."
The Goldman incident is striking in part because the victim is a Democrat, not a Republican, not a conservative media figure, but a sitting Democratic congressman targeted by a business aligned with his own party's activist base. Goldman reportedly responded graciously, praising the barista's kindness to his young daughter even after the shop publicly humiliated him.
New York State Assemblyman Michael Novakhov visited Poetica Coffee after the DOJ investigation was announced. He confirmed on video that a barista told him they would serve "everyone", a notable shift in posture. "They learned their lesson because they refused to sell it to Dan Goldman, and now there's a Department of Justice investigation against this store," Novakhov said, as the Washington Examiner reported.
The fact that a federal investigation was required to get a Brooklyn coffee shop to serve all customers regardless of their views on Israel says something about where parts of the progressive movement have landed. Sen. John Fetterman has spoken openly about how his stance on Israel has isolated him from fellow Democrats. Goldman, a less conspicuous figure, is now learning the same lesson at the retail counter.
The progressive left has spent years demanding that businesses take political stands, refuse this customer, boycott that vendor, post this statement. Poetica Coffee did exactly that. And now the Justice Department is investigating whether it broke the law.
The loneliness that pro-Israel Democrats describe within their own party is no longer just a feeling. It showed up on a Brooklyn sidewalk Wednesday morning, with police barricades between the two sides.
The DOJ investigation remains open. No charges have been filed. Poetica Coffee has not publicly responded to the protest or the federal inquiry, at least not in any statement captured in available reporting. Mukhamadkulov's LinkedIn posts remain part of the public record.
The legal question is straightforward: federal law bars public accommodations from discriminating based on race, religion, or national origin. Whether banning a Jewish congressman over his support for Israel crosses that line is now a matter for Harmeet Dhillon's division to resolve.
The political question is messier. A coffee shop owner who compares Israel to Nazi Germany publicly bans a Jewish lawmaker, and the mayor of New York City can't bring himself to say a word about it. That silence tells you more about the state of progressive politics than any protest sign ever could.
