USA
Detroit Jewish bagel shop shuts after staff walk out over owner’s Zionist views
The founders aimed to bring ‘Jewish comfort food’ back to the city
August 8, 2024 11:50
The founders aimed to bring ‘Jewish comfort food’ back to the city
August 8, 2024 11:50An Israeli bagel shop owner has been left abandoned by his staff after they walked off the job because of his views on Israel.
Arad Kauf, an Israeli entrepreneur was left “embarrassed” after staff walked off the job at the the Detroit Institute of Bagels.
The shop, which has been a Detroit fixture since before the pandemic was recently sold to Kauf and his business partner Philip Kafka, a Jewish property developer.
According to JTA, one staffer wrote in an email to the bagel shop’s new management that their “own core beliefs do not allow” them to “work for a Zionist”.
“I cannot allow my creativity and work to be associated with Zionism when this is something I vehemently reject, and am very vocal about”, they added.
The first two staffers to resign cited the “new ownership’s Zionist leanings” and another member of staff compared the owner to a “vulture”.
Kafka, who is also Jewish, was called a “coloniser” and “Zionist land baron” on social media by left-wing groups who also objected to his plans to develop parts of Detroit.
Defending himself against the backlash, Kafka, writing in a letter to business partners said: ““All people deserve peace, security, and safety. War and death is terrible. I support the cause of any and all people to assemble a nation whose priority is the security, safety and happiness of its citizens. However, I will never support a country whose primary objective is the destruction of its neighbor. Period. This is not the forum for further discussion on this topic.”
He added: “we made our best efforts to try and move forward productively until it became clear that the staff had preconceived notions about us, our work and beliefs.”
Staffers rejected claims that opposing a Jewish homeland is antisemitic, with one stating, “Judaism is beautiful, but Zionism is deeply antisemitic.”
Kauf, from Tel Aviv, moved to Detroit in 2021 and was set to manage the shop before the staff resigned. He found the anger after the sale announcement confusing, noting that “Zionist” to him meant community and culture, not politics.
The Bagel store is one of the only Jewish-identifying bagel stores in the city, with the store’s founders Philip and Ben Newman saying they aimed to bring “Jewish comfort food” back to a city with a diminished Jewish presence.