NYC comptroller: End of Israeli restaurant’s dining service is result of ‘blatant bigotry’

New York City Comptroller Mark Levine condemns the “blatant bigotry” that led Tsion Cafe, an Ethiopian-Israeli restaurant in Harlem, to stop offering regular dining service.

The restaurant’s owner, Beejhy Barhany, recently told the New York Jewish Week that “so much animosity” following the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel has led her to change the restaurant’s model and to only accept group bookings made in advance.

She told the outlet that hostility increased after the restaurant became kosher in 2024.

“I was proud to be Jewish. I wanted to illuminate that,” she told the outlet. “But from the moment we pivoted to be kosher, it became worse and worse.”

Harlem’s Tsiyon Cafe is one of my favorite restaurants in NYC. Owned by talented chef Beejhy Berhan, an immigrant from Ethiopia who is proudly Jewish.

Now they are closing their doors. Why? Because of a constant stream of animosity, that got even worse when they went kosher two… https://t.co/euFQAP7lKk

— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) February 11, 2026

Levine, New York City’s highest-ranking elected official, shares the report, lamenting the decision that resulted from “blatant bigotry.”

“Harlem’s Tsiyon Cafe [sic] is one of my favorite restaurants in NYC. Owned by talented chef Beejhy Berhan, an immigrant from Ethiopia who is proudly Jewish,” he writes.

“Now they are closing their doors,” he continues. “Why? Because of a constant stream of animosity, that got even worse when they went kosher two years ago.”

“I am deeply disturbed by this and you should be too,” he writes.