Vandals Target UWS Israeli Restaurant, Riverside Park: Police
UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A popular Israeli Kosher cafe and park were both vandalized over the weekend with graffiti messages related to the war in Gaza, according to officials and police.
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“Form line here to support genocide,”read one of the messages on the sidewalk outside of Effy’s Cafe at West 96th Street and Columbus Avenue. Another message read “Free Gaza,” and red paint was splashed on the eatery’s entrance.
Local leaders were quick to denounce the targeted vandalism.
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“This is antisemitism plain and simple,” said Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who posted from Effy’s Monday morning along with Upper West Side Assembly Member hopeful, Micah Lasher
“This business was targeted for one reason: the owners are Jewish and it’s a kosher establishment.”
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In a post on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, Lasher called on Albany to expand hate crimes law.
Police told Patch that the hate crimes squad was notified if the incident, but that the vandalism is being investigated as “political speech.”
On Monday afternoon, elected officials community leaders announced an impromptu rally outside of Effy’s to denounce what they called “horrific anti semitic vandalism,” with Rep. Jerry Nadler, Rev. Nigel Pierce from the Grace Lutheran Church in Harlem and Sheikh Musa Drammeh from Masjid Al-Iman Mosque in Parkchester, NJ.
“Targeting a small business because of who it’s owned by— Israeli, Palestinian or any other group— is not only wrong, it’s self defeating,” Nadler said in an earlier social media post. “The recent attack on Effy’s Cafe is a cowardly act of anti-semitism that cannot, and will not, be tolerated in our community.”
Just a few blocks away at the entrance to Riverside Park at West 105th Street, a series of large, concrete blocks were also tagged in similar graffiti, with messages like “F— Zionism,” “Israelism is Terrorism,” and “Free Palestine.”
One reader told Patch that he was “incensed” when he found the graffiti on Sunday morning.
Council Member Gale Brewer described both incidents as “terrible hate speech graffiti,” and asked that anyone who sees a hate crime to call the NYPD and her office.
By Monday afternoon, a team of volunteers had scrubbed and power-washed the messages from the sidewalk outside of Effy’s, according to Freedomnews.tv.
Popular Effy’s Cafe has been at their Upper West Side location for over a decade.
Another Effy’s Kitchen location on the Upper East Side was hit with a wage theft suit last year.
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