| NEW YORK – “A Brooklyn coffee shop refunded Congressman Dan Goldman’s $9.82 and told him never to return. The store owner called Mr. Goldman’s money ‘genocide juice’ and AIPAC cash. The meaning is plain: a Jewish congressman was shown the door for being a Jew who supports the Jewish state. “A private business enjoys wide latitude over its own affairs, and the First Amendment protects a great deal of ugly speech. What neither protects is the denial of service on the basis of race, religion, creed, or national origin, conduct flatly prohibited by the New York State and City Human Rights Laws. “When ‘AIPAC’ and ‘Zionist’ are wielded as coded substitutes for ‘Jew,’ as a civil-rights attorney noted this week, political pretext collapses into religious discrimination, and religious discrimination in a place of public accommodation is illegal in this state. As attorney general, I would order an immediate investigation of this incident. “It didn’t happen in a vacuum. Weeks ago the Park Slope Food Coop voted to purge Israeli products from its shelves, a measure that some legal scholars have warned may itself amount to national-origin discrimination. Now a New York coffee chain is refusing to serve a Jew. Where does it end? “Mr. Goldman and I disagree on a great many things, but I defend him here without hesitation. The incumbent attorney general has spent eight years in office deciding which New Yorkers merit her protection. That’s wrong. As attorney general, I will protect all of us, including every Jewish New Yorker now made to feel like a stranger in the state they call home. “Everyone of good will has a responsibility to speak out about this growing crisis. This is not the New York we know and love.” |
