Correction
My July 15 post “The Mitzvah of Togetherness” contained a mistake, which I will now correct. I’m not backing away from or in any way apologizing for the article’s assertion that Haredi protestors do not have the right to harass staff and patrons of a Jerusalem café that is open for business on Shabbat.
I haven’t changed my mind, in other words, about the need “to refrain from condemning our neighbor whose customs and practices differ from our own.” Jewish life should be inclusive. However, there are reasonable limits to pluralism, and I have learned that the café in question falls outside those boundaries.
Further investigation has revealed that “Cafe Basimta” is run by “Jews for Jesus1. That’s a major organization among groups committed to so-called “Messianic Judaism.” It has coopted Jewish religious practices and symbols and thus, under the guise of Judaism, encourages Jews to become Christian.
Jews for Jesus has a legal right to operate in Israel but - serving an aim intrinsically hostile to Jewish religion and peoplehood - is a Trojan horse within our community.
Many rallied around Cafe Basimta because they reject ultra-Orthodox encroachments upon Israel’s character as a secular democracy. These folks have their hearts in the right place. Yet they - and I, by endorsing their activism - inadvertently gave ammunition to extremist Haredim for their campaign to impose theocracy on Israeli society.
One of the main arguments such religious fanatics make is that violating halachah / Jewish law by doing business on Shabbat is a dangerous step on the slippery slope to assimilation and abandonment of our religious traditions. Since that is exactly what Messianic Jews under false pretenses aim to accomplish, providing aid and comfort to that particular business appears to back up the claim Haredim protesting Cafe Basimta are making.
The aim of secularists advocating for civil society is laudable. They seek greater latitude for human rights, individual freedom and personal choices. They want to unshackle Israelis from tyrannically rigid canons of a narrowly defined Judaism so as to unleash human potential latent in am yisrael / the Jewish people.
However, they should be especially careful in how they go about doing this. They must not coddle establishments whose interests run counter to Jewish ones. I’m not signaling that we go on the attack against religious interests that compete or clash with Jewish ones.
Israel rightly respects freedom of religion, including of Christian sects - such as Messianic Judaism - whose values contradict and undermine ones that self-respecting Jews uphold. Law enforcement is duty-bound to let law-abiding dissidents go about their lives free from intimidation.
But I draw the line at actively supporting and siding with those seeking to convert Jews to Christianity.
The cafe’s owner, Yoel Ben David, wants to brush aside that concern. He has maintained that the conversionary goals of Jews for Jesus are not a big deal and stated that “he is aiming to strike a balance between missionary work and just offering a pleasant place to work or meet. ‘Everyone accuses us of that,’ Ben David said about Proselytizing. ‘The Jesus goal is not completely out, but it’s not front and center.’”
That is a disingenous disclaimer: another false flag. The fact that turning Jews into Christians is part of his agenda taints it irremediably.
I’m not proposing a boycott of Cafe Basimta. I’m saying: Don’t turn it into a political cause.
Instead, Israelis, other Jews and anybody else dedicated to strengthening Jewish cultural diversity in Israel and willing to confront diversity’s foes head-on should look for other, decent venues - ones not compromised by Christian evangelizing influence - where they can rally around the cause of intra-Jewish religious pluralism.
https://www.jta.org/2026/07/23/israel/a-jerusalem-cafe-became-a-symbol-of-secular-defiance-until-israelis-learned-it-was-run-by-jews-for-jesus