Jerusalem café bows to Haredi protests, will no longer open on Shabbat

JTA – Café Basimta, the Jerusalem coffee shop that became a flashpoint in the city’s long-running dispute over Shabbat observance, will stop opening on Saturdays beginning this weekend after two months of weekly ultra-Orthodox protests. 

The café said on Thursday that the decision was made, “after prolonged deliberation and with a heavy heart”, out of a desire to lower tensions and restore calm. 

Eli Birnbaum, chief executive of the messianic group Jews for Jesus, which runs the café, called the move a “difficult and painful decision” in the statement, saying it stemmed from a responsibility to its customers, its faith, and Israeli society. 

“Over the past few months, the café has become a focal point of friction and danger, a reality that contradicts our identity as Jews who believe in Jesus and our belief in loving others, respect, and bringing people closer together, even with those who oppose us,” Birnbaum said. 

He thanked Israel Police, the Jerusalem municipality, and those who had come to support the café during the protests. “We now want to return Café Basimta to what it was intended to be: a calm, pleasant, and open place for coffee, culture, and dialogue.” 

The decision marks a reversal for Café Basimta and its operator, Yoel Ben David, who said after the first protest on 4 July that the business would continue opening on weekends despite pressure from demonstrators. By late July, Ben David told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) that the protests had actually helped business financially, but added, “Me and the staff, we don’t love it. We’d all love it to just chill out.” 

Café Basimta opened earlier this summer in Jerusalem’s central Nachlaot neighbourhood, near the Mahane Yehuda market. It later emerged that the café was operated by Jews for Jesus, a missionary organisation whose members identify as Jews who believe Jesus is the Messiah. 

The demonstrations began on 4 July and continued for nine consecutive Saturdays through to 29 August. At the first protest, dozens of ultra-Orthodox demonstrators, many of them minors, surrounded the café, banged on its windows, and overturned tables, according to staff and videos from the scene. 

Later protests saw demonstrators break through police barricades and try to approach the café, while a bag containing faeces was thrown at its entrance on another weekend. In August, a woman was accused of putting glue in the front-door lock, delaying the café’s opening. 

Supporters meanwhile began turning up each Saturday to patronise the café, at times forming long lines outside, while police deployed officers and barricades to separate the two sides. Politicians including Yisrael Beytenu chairperson and former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and Democrats chairperson Yair Golan, a former Israel Defense Forces deputy chief of staff, also visited or backed supporters of the café. 

Golan denounced Thursday’s decision as the result of “Haredi terror”, saying weeks of violence, demonstrations, and threats had ultimately forced the café to give in. Liberman said the closure showed growing religious coercion, writing on X that in “Israel 2026”, drinking coffee on Shabbat was forbidden while “hating, attacking, and rioting on Shabbat was permitted”. 

Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Adir Schwartz, who heads the pluralist Hitorerut municipal faction, also criticised the closure. Hitorerut said it was examining ways to operate a café on Saturdays in response to Café Basimta’s closure. 

A spokesperson for Jews for Jesus told JTA that any such initiative was unrelated to Café Basimta or the organisation. 

Café Basimta’s ties to Jews for Jesus have also prompted a separate campaign against the café by anti-missionary activists. Rabbi Binyamin Vulcan, who heads the counter-missionary activities of Or LeAchim, told JTA in July that it was planning a weekday demonstration focused specifically on the café’s connection to Jews for Jesus and was seeking to have it closed through municipal channels.