Days after a Brooklyn coffee shop said he was unwelcome there because of his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Representative Dan Goldman said on Tuesday that he did not think the incident warranted a federal civil rights investigation.
Mr. Goldman, a Democrat vying for a third term in Congress, visited the Williamsburg location of Poetica Coffee on Sunday. Poetica soon posted a photo on Instagram of him at the store, along with a message that the coffee shop does not “serve racists, fascists, homophobes, genocide enablers or anyone in between.” The post added, “Too bad we didn’t recognize you right away, or we would have turned you away.”
Harmeet Dhillon, an assistant attorney general overseeing the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said on Monday that her office was investigating the incident. But at a campaign stop in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday, Mr. Goldman said, “I think there are other people in the Jewish community who are really scared and that the focus of the Civil Rights Division should be on them, more than a public figure.”
Still, Mr. Goldman, who had taken his 7-year-old daughter to the shop to use the bathroom, said: “It’s scary that something like that could happen. They clearly have a misunderstanding as to who I am and what I believe in and what I advocate for.” As of Tuesday, the post was still up on a Poetica Facebook account, though the Poetica Instagram account that published the same post has been deactivated.
In addition to the federal investigation, a group called Lawfare, which describes itself as the “legal arm of the international Jewish community,” said it had requested an investigation by New York City’s Commission on Human Rights for “discriminatory denial of a public accommodation.”
Mr. Goldman said his opponent, Brad Lander, the city’s former comptroller, was partly to blame for the hostility. Mr. Lander, he said, had run an “underhanded campaign” and misrepresented his stance on Israel. Both candidates are Jewish. Mr. Goldman’s support of Israel has sometimes drawn fire from the left. Mr. Lander has been more critical of Israel and its military campaign in Gaza.
Mr. Lander said on Tuesday that he was grateful the post had been taken down. “There’s lots of ways to express your feelings” about elected representatives, he said during a campaign stop, “but politicizing our coffee shops — it’s not a great idea.”
The owner of Poetica, Parviz Mukhamadkulov, could not be reached for comment. On Tuesday, a barista at the Williamsburg location, which is not in Mr. Goldman’s district, declined an interview.
Still, the post continued to draw attention. Around the corner from the store on Tuesday morning, a parked truck displayed a large message urging people to “PROTEST THE COFFEE SHOP THAT DISCRIMINATES AGAINST JEWS.”
Stanley Isaacs, 44, who was walking his two dogs past the truck, said he had seen the Poetica post and called it “distasteful.”
“I’m not even voting for that guy,” he said of Mr. Goldman. “But I thought what they did was nasty and inappropriate.”
On the other hand, Mr. Isaacs said, he was not crazy about the message being broadcast from the truck.
“This is kind of making me want to go back and actually get a coffee from them,” he said. “Everybody’s obnoxious! I feel like I’m the majority of Americans at this point, where it’s like, ‘This is wrong, but this is also wrong.’”
Tim Balk contributed reporting.
The post Goldman Says Cafe’s Hostile Post About Him Does Not Warrant Civil Rights Case appeared first on New York Times.
