When employees arrived Sunday morning to open up Miriam, the popular Israeli restaurant in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, they discovered the same two messages sprayed in red graffiti over its windows, front door and along its patio: “GENOCIDE CUISINE” and “ISRAEL STEALS CULTURE.”
They informed the restaurant’s owner, Chef Rafael Hasid. Soon, word got out to the public. Photos of the graffiti quickly spread online as politicians, including Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams, decried the vandalism.
“It’s sad,” Hasid told the New York Jewish Week on Sunday, as he spent the day at the restaurant talking with police and greeting the steady stream of customers who came to Miriam to show their support.
Hasid said they would clean up the graffiti once brunch traffic died down. “I want people to see it,” he said. “We’re not trying to make it like it never happened. I want everybody to see, and then we’ll clean up.”
According to police, officers responded to 911 calls at around 2:59 a.m. and were informed that red paint was “thrown at the window” of the restaurant, along with a “statement made in red spray paint.” No arrests have been made, according to police; the investigation is being handled by the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force.
“People are stupid,” Hasid added. “They have an agenda, not necessarily connected to reality, and they come and vandalize the restaurant and everything.”
The vandalism sent shock waves reverberating through New York’s Jewish community. By the time brunch service got going on Sunday morning, the restaurant was packed, thanks in part to an outpouring of support from concerned New Yorkers. The response mirrored previous reactions to similar situations, including after antisemitic graffiti was sprayed outside Effy’s Cafe, a kosher restaurant on the Upper West Side, in March 2024. The month before that, hundreds of Jewish and Israeli New Yorkers lined up to dine at Gazala’s, New York’s only Druze restaurant, after it had been hit with anti-Israel vandalism.
By around 1 p.m. on Sunday, the brunch rush had died down, though there were still a few groups waiting for their tables and chatting with Hasid. “That’s terrible,” one passerby muttered as she eyed the graffiti. Inside, customers laughed as they ate their meals, the messages visible on every window. “I’m sorry about the vandalism,” one woman said to her server while she was shown to her table.
“I don’t live right near here,” said Wendy Sacks, who had decided to make the trip to Miriam after seeing photos of the vandalism online. “You know, I just want to offer them my support.”
Diners enjoyed brunch next to the graffiti that had been spray-painted early Sunday morning. (Joseph Strauss)
Sacks said she felt the spray-painted messages were a clear act of antisemitism. “It has nothing to do with any killing,” she said. “I mean, you can protest. You can be upset that so many people in Gaza have been killed. And I don’t support Netanyahu, I don’t believe Israel is right in everything — but this is absolutely antisemitic, when you attack a local restaurant that has nothing to do with it.”
That’s a sentiment that New York City Comptroller Brad Lander — who is Jewish and is running for mayor — seems to agree with.
“Infuriating to see @miriamparkslope — one of my absolute favorites — vandalized (again) overnight with antisemitic graffiti,” Brad Lander, who lives in the neighborhood, wrote in a post on X. “Vandalizing their restaurant because they serve Israeli food and their owner is a Jewish Israeli New Yorker is a clear example of when anti-Zionism becomes antisemitism.”
Lander had previously told the New York Jewish Week that his favorite spot to eat Jewish food is the Upper West Side outpost of Miriam, which he called the “best brunch in New York City.”
This isn’t the first time that Hasid has dealt with this type of vandalism. In 2022 — prior to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel the next year that launched the Israel-Hamas War — the newly opened Miriam on the Upper West Side was spray-painted with the phrase “F— Jews.” “I don’t want to say I’m used to it, but I’ve seen it before,” Hasid said. “The last one was about Jews, this one is about Israelis. It feels the same.”
“These kind of vile attacks are continuing *after* the ceasefire agreement,” Manhattan borough president Mark Levine posted on X, referring to the truce that began a week ago in Israel and Gaza. “This restaurant, Miriam, is a beloved Middle Eastern venue whose only offense appears to be that the owner is Jewish. Disgusting.”
Miriam regulars Deb and her niece, Gaia, were also dining at the busy restaurant early Sunday afternoon. “Last week we just walked right in, and this week we had to wait 15, 20 minutes,” Deb said. “It did feel like the neighborhood was coming to support.”
Deb and Gaia, who both declined to share their last names, were unaware of what had happened until they arrived. When she saw the graffiti, Deb said she felt “just rage” and “[wanted] to puke.”
“I was pretty shocked,” Gaia said, “because it seems like the whole thing is moving backwards in a way. Like, how are you stereotyping and profiling people just bringing cuisine to the neighborhood?”
“People know that we are not stealing any culture, any food, or [that there’s] any genocide that we’re doing with the food,” Hasid said.
Outside the restaurant, Jewish Community Relations Council CEO Mark Treyger waited for his takeaway falafel order. “Jews are indigenous to Israel — Mizrahi Jews come from so many parts of the Middle East,” Treyger said. “So in addition to holding bad actors accountable, it’s also equally important that we get the truth out there that this is actually very much a part of our culture.”
According to data from the NYPD, there were 345 anti-Jewish hate crimes in New York City in 2024, making up more than half of all reported hate crimes.
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