A cafe owner in Oakland, California kicked out a man for wearing a Star of David emblazoned on his baseball hat this past weekend, arguing that the religious symbol possesses a “violent” connotation and identifies him as a “Zionist.”
In a video posted on social media, Jonathan Hirsch, who is Jewish, was angrily confronted and asked to leave the Jerusalem Coffee House on the afternoon of Oct. 26 because of his hat. Hirsch and the cafe owner, Abdulrahim Harara, engaged in a heated exchange of words, in which the Jewish man accused the venue of practicing unlawful discrimination.
The star of David is specifically a Zionist symbol. It was never widely adopted until well into modern Zionism, only becoming a specifically Jewish symbol on the graves of Jewish wwi soldiers. Non-Zionist Jewish groups generally use a menora instead.
It is a political symbol, adopted by an extremist terrorist movement, that later got conflated with all Jews. It’s like if the isis flag a hundred years from now became the official symbol of Islam.
No matter its historical meaning, which is admittedly less clear than I thought it was (there was definitely non-Zionist use of the symbol but it still appears Zionist popularized it), it’s now used as a symbol of Judaism in general. I guess we can call it contested, but either way kicking a guy for wearing one when they didn’t otherwise do anything is just a bad look.
It certainly was used as a symbol of Judaism in general, until Israel escalated it’s genocide and started claiming that all Jews globally must support their genocide or they’re not real Jews.
Many Jewish groups, unsurprisingly, fought back against that. Pretty much any Orthodox Jewish community at this point has abandoned the symbol along with the concept of Zionism(since it’s not supported by the Torah in any way), with many less religious communities now also joining in. As it turns out it’s pretty easy to abandon a symbol that was only adopted a century ago in your multi thousand year old religion.
Anyway, anyone wearing a star of David at this point in Israel’s genocide, especially one coloured in blue and white, colours that have nothing todo with the symbol outside the context of a zionist Israel, is a Zionist actively wanting to broadcast their support for Israel and it’s actions.
Any restaurant that features themes of the region but isn’t itself owned by Zionists would want to ensure no one with, especially a blue and white, star of David is on their premises; the same way a Bavarian grill outside of Germany in the 1940s would desperately not want to accept anyone with a fasces, eagle, or swastika on their clothing entering their property – despite the former two being long time German symbols.
Okay I’m way out of my depth here but it sounds correct enough so I’ll accept it with a grain of salt and hope someone will correct you if you’re wrong. If that someone comes please tag me.