{"id":275531,"date":"2026-06-23T18:30:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T18:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/275531\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T18:30:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T18:30:59","slug":"feds-probe-brooklyn-coffee-shop-for-banning-u-s-rep-dan-goldman-over-pro-israel-stance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/275531\/","title":{"rendered":"Feds probe Brooklyn coffee shop for banning U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman over pro-Israel stance"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ<\/a>) is now investigating Poetica coffee shop in Park Slope, Brooklyn, after the trendy java joint served, then rejected payment from,<\/a> and publicly banned\u00a0U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman because he strongly supports Israel in the war against Hamas in Gaza.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump appointee, announced the DOJ\u2019s Civil Rights Division\u2019s investigation into the matter by posting on X (formerly Twitter) Monday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFederal law prohibits public accommodations such as coffee shops from discriminating against patrons based on their race, religion, or national origin,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThese actions are not only reprehensible, they\u2019re potentially illegal. The Civil Rights Division has opened an investigation and will bring an enforcement action if warranted.\u201d<\/p>\n

amNewYork contacted the DOJ to ask about the percolating investigation\u2019s status. The newspaper is awaiting a response.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

The feud brewed up on Sunday when Poetica posted on social media that staffers had digitally refunded Goldman $9.82 for his coffee purchase on June 21, while he was out campaigning for Tuesday\u2019s primary with his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo bad we didn\u2019t recognize you right away, or we would have turned you away,\u201d part of the lengthy post read. \u201cWe issued you a refund\u2014we don\u2019t need your money (it\u2019s probably coming from AIPAC anyways). Enjoy your loss on Tuesday. Don\u2019t ever come to Poetica.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Poetica Coffee\/Facebook<\/p>\n

Parviz Mukhamadkulov owns the coffee shop, which is part of a chain in NYC. Ironically, as noted on Poetica Coffee\u2019s website<\/a>, each location keeps a shelf of banned books, a move that often indicates a person or business tolerant of free speech.\u00a0<\/p>\n

amNewYork tried to reach someone at the shop for comment on the DOJ\u2019s announcement, but has not yet received a response via social media or text message. The phone line\u2019s mailbox was full each time the newspaper called.<\/p>\n

Goldman, during an interview with CNN\u2019s Laura Coates, said he had a \u201cnice\u201d encounter with the barista who served him, but said the experience was a reflection on a \u201csad state of affairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is going on in the Middle East is horrific. The idea of accusing someone you don\u2019t know of supporting a genocide, it\u2019s crazy\u201d the Congress member said. \u201cNow, I may disagree as to whether or not there is a genocide, but come on. We are better than this. We have to stop dividing ourselves so much, and try to find a common ground and unify.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the organization and movement called #EndJewHatred has planned a rally for Wednesday outside Poetica\u2019s Lorimer Street location in Williamsburg. Organizers said the rally is being organized to call attention to what it describes as \u201cdangerous escalation from inflammatory political rhetoric to real-world discrimination\u201d against Jews.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this kind of discrimination becomes normal, it will not stop with one customer or one coffee shop,\u201d a spokesperson for #EndJewHatred said. \u201cRacism is wrong. Antisemitism is wrong. Targeting Jews will not be tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a press release, #EndJewHatred said that \u201crefusing service or publicly targeting Jewish customers and elected officials because of their identity or perceived views is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Social media lit up overnight with comments supporting both Goldman and Poetica in response to the incident.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is now investigating Poetica coffee shop in Park Slope, Brooklyn, after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,106001,5320,16471,95777,9,24,63,105656],"class_list":["post-275531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-coffee-shops-in-nyc","tag-dan-goldman","tag-discrimination","tag-endjewhatred","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-poetica-coffee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}