The owner of an Israeli restaurant in New York City that was defaced with antisemitic graffiti over the weekend told Fox News Digital Monday that he thinks the vandals got the “opposite of what they wished for.”
The New York City Police Department said its Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating after the phrases “Israel steals culture” and “Genocide cuisine” were found painted on the exterior of Miriam in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood early yesterday morning. However, owner Rafael Hasid said there has been an outpouring of support ever since.
“I think they got the opposite of what they wished for. They wish to put us out as the bad people. We’re not the bad people. We’re just people,” Hasid told Fox News Digital, mentioning how Miriam has gotten “a lot of love and support from everywhere around.”
“I think if they would just come and approach us and come to talk to us and hear our side of the story, they wouldn’t have had to do what they did,” Hasid added.
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It’s not the first time a restaurant owned by Hasid has been defaced. A second Miriam location in Manhattan’s Upper West Side neighborhood was vandalized in 2022.
Three masked individuals were seen targeting the Brooklyn property around 3 a.m. Sunday, according to the New York Post.
Speaking on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Hasid told Fox News Digital that “history kind of repeats itself.”
“There was hate against Jews – at that time it was Jewish people. Now it’s Jews and Israelis. And you hope people won’t be ignorant and understand that those things are not leading us to any good places,” he said. “Hate, there’s nothing good about it.”
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams called the graffiti painted on Miriam a “despicable act of antisemitism.”
“As mayor of the city with the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, I am particularly heartbroken by this evil act. Make no mistake, the NYPD is investigating and will find those responsible,” he wrote in a post on X.
The NYPD told Fox News Digital that as of Monday morning, “there are no arrests, and the investigation is being handled by the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Rep. Ritchie Torres, both Democrats from New York, posted messages of support for Miriam in the wake of the incident.
“I visited Miriam this evening, the Brooklyn restaurant that experienced despicable vandalism last night. I met with the owner, the workers, and their patrons,” Schumer wrote on X. “I told them I stood with them, and that vandalizing a restaurant because the owner was Jewish was outright antisemitism. Period. Hate has no place in New York.”
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“Jew-hatred will find no refuge in the City of New York,” Torres added. “A hate crime against the Jewish community is a hate crime against all of us.”
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