The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table - NYC’s Only Ethiopian-Israeli Restaurant Forced to Close Due to Antisemitism

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

Noam Dworman, Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand are joined by Beejhy Barhany. Hailed "Harlem’s queen of Ethiopian Jewish cuisine," Barhany is the owner of Tsion Cafe, the Ethiopian Jewish restaurant, where she recently ended dine-in service, due to anti-Israel harassment. She is also the author of Gursha: Timeless Recipes for Modern Kitchens, from Ethiopia, Israel, Harlem, and Beyond. The book has been heralded as one of the best cookbooks of 2025 by The New York Times and The Boston Globe.

This is live from the table, the official podcast of the world famous comedy seller, available wherever you get your podcast, available on YouTube for that multimedia experience. This is Dan Aderman. We have Noam Dorman joining us all the way from the great state of Maine. He's joining us via Zoom. Noam, hello. I don't see you. I don't see him, but I assume I'll see him soon. Oh, there he is.

Hello, Noam. He's at his country estate in Maine. Why do you cut the music off? That's my favorite thing. I had this switched. We have Peri-Al-Ashan brand as usual, and we have with us in studio, BJ Barhani, owner of the Cyan Cafe in Harlem, and author of the book, Gersha, timeless recipes for modern kitchens, from Ethiopia, Israel, Harlem, and beyond Bija Barhani.

Welcome to our show. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. That has to be the worst pronunciation of a far name that's ever been committed. to podcast sphere. Why do you say that? He did excellent. It was excellent?

Yes, she said I did quite well. Can you say it? Well, why don't you say it for us and then we'll compare. Sure. The name of the book is Gusha. Okay, we're talking about your name, though. My name is B.J. Barhani. That's exactly what I said, B.J. Barhani.

Oh, okay. So there you go, no. Yes. As well you should. How are you at it? Go ahead. Are you enjoying May? What are you doing?

It's the offseat. isn't up there. Yeah, we go up. It's very peaceful here. There's the beach, kids, we play games and fight, you know,

it's very, it's very pleasant. Okay. Yeah, I guess it's sort of like being, like the shining, you know, it's not isolating,

but anyway. Yeah, except we have a very small little house here, but go ahead. So, BJ, we invited her here

because her restaurant was the object of vitriol from people that didn't like the fact that, you know, you're Israeli and a proud Israeli and a Zionist. And so your restaurant was the subject of hatred. Yes, it's unfortunate. I was born in Ethiopia when I grew up in Israel. So I have multifaceted identities. I'm Ethiopian. I'm Israeli and the food that I grew up eating in Israel is going from Injera to Shaksuka to Malawakh. And when I came to the U.S. an open C-On Caffa, I wanted to share it with the Harlem community and everybody else.

Apparently, having on a menu, Malawak and Shaksuka and Injera was an insult for some people. Funny enough, that we had a review on Google that came off. It was there about eight years now. And now, three, four days ago, it came off. I guess Google deleted. And, you know, the complaint was one star saying, stop using or stop serving Malawakh and Shaksuka. Is neither Ethiopian, neither Israeli.

That kind of sentiments, you know, I am just wondering sometimes where that is coming from. We're here to break bread together, celebrate the multifacetate, of people who does a whole. Why politics? Whatever sentiment somebody have towards whatever situation happening in that particular region,

especially Israel, why manifested towards somebody that is in the other part? Just, I know what Shaksuka is. That's like tomato stew. Yeah, tomato base. And mine was quite different. You know, it's native to Tunisia in Morocco.

So you have tomato. onions, garlic, and we infuse a little bit with jalapino, and of course we put a little bit of berber. So it's quite delicious, and then you poach in it eggs, and you eat it with pita, with injera. That's Shaksuka, native, and I grew up eating that, and Malawakh is native to Yemen, right? You eat it in sometime, you know, they have it in Sudan, they have it in Somalia, and they have it in certain parts of Ethiopia. People call it a different name, but this is native. This is a food that I know. It's not fun to me, but people want to box it.

It's like a bread. What was the issue that you were calling it Israeli cuisine? And a lot of people take issue with that? Well, I mean, we call ourselves Cion, Céon, Céon Cafe, Ethiopian Mediterranean restaurant, established over 11 years to celebrate the multi-flavors of the Jewish diaspora. What's the problem there? Okay, so I have a few questions. By the Steve, if you get a chance, can you bring up the New York Post headline about this story? So let's just start.

So the end of the story is obviously this was an anti-Semitic outburst in Harlem against your restaurant. But before we get to that, I think this is a very fascinating story. You were born in Ethiopia and you came to Israel at what age? Seven years old. And you were brought over in one. of these operations that where Israel snuck in? No, no, no, no. I never been brought up by anyone.

So how did you get out? Okay, I'll tell you my story. You know, this is the narrative that's circling around. My community in the northern part of Ethiopia, Tigray, live peacefully and harmoniously with our Muslim Christian neighbors. And we receive correspondence from cousins and relatives that emigrated in the 1780s to Israel. difficulties of course integrating but there was a whole encouragement to make alia so my immediate family over 300 people literally put organized of course it happened for months and so organized together

and start the migration the oxidars from Ethiopia to Sudan and that is a determination that wanted to make alia and from there of course there were a lot of you can read it on the book and all of that stuff But what I can say is nobody brought us, nobody did anything for us. We did it for ourselves because we wanted to be in the promised land in Jerusalem. We finally made it to Sudan. It was a treacherous journey. We lived in Sudan for almost three years because there were some biocracies and issues going on in the land of Israel. If we can bring them, not bring them, you know, let them make Aliyah, what have you.

Nonetheless, my personal story is very so different than many aliots. Lucky enough I had a relative. In Israel, his name is Farada Akulam. He worked with the Mossad. Actually, they made a movie about it on Netflix, what have you, and all of that. So he actually hired driver a landover jeep. We drove Fom Khartoum through Kenya, Uganda. and eventually made it to Israel.

That is the journey, that the sacrifice. So oftentimes when I hear they brought you, you know, it's not the case. How long did that take that right? It took three years. No, the drive, the drive. The drive about a couple of months. From Nairobi, we flew to Europe and from Europe to Israel. And of course, there was a different collaboration with the AAEJ.

It was American Association for Ethiopian. Jews that worked here and mobilized for the Aliyah of Ethiopian jury. And of course, there are different immigration at Aliyo. There was Operation Moses, which happened a little bit after us, 1984, 85, and 1991-94 Operation Solomon. That's the story of Ethiopian Jews, but I want to focus on the aspect of many times throughout the narrative, throughout everywhere I go, oh, so you are saved, you are done, you are rescued. No, we rescued ourselves. We immigrated because we wanted to be in Zion and in Israel. So, so, okay, so Operation Moses and Operation Solomon, that's what I was referring to,

because Israel flew in in the dark of night and snuck out thousands or I don't remember how many thousand, you know, 20,000 in total, something like that out. But you left on your own. So it had to be, it must be some adversity to tell. take all those chances and all that inconvenience, for lack of a better word, to leave a country without even the certainty of being able to get to the other country. Do you remember what it was like? What was it that precipitated your family's decision to get into a Jeep and drive across the Middle East to make it to Israel on the hopes that they could get, be received?

This is the spiritual connection of yearning to the, and return to the promised land in Jerusalem, and eventually unifying with our brothers and sister from all over diaspora. That's the drive. Ethiopian Jews been exiled for thousands of years, but yet they always thought that they were the only Jews remaining in the world. Mind you, when a few scholars and the 1800 came to Ethiopia encounter with the Ethiopian Jewish community, they were like, are you really Jewish? Because we were under the belief that we're the only one remaining. We didn't anticipate to see white Jews, for example, vice versa.

But, you know, wait a minute. Yes. So let me ask you this. Now you know, now you're back in America. I don't know how long you've been in America. Quite sometimes. Was Israel a disappointment? Were you not well received?

Was it too difficult to integrate? Was there racism? What was it that made you not decide to stay in Israel after all that sacrifice? to get there to begin with. Okay, well, Israel is home after all at the end of the day. Well, you stayed there for a long time. That's where I grew up. I, you know, arrived at when I was seven.

I went to a kibuz because I wanted to be a contributing member of society and then joined the army. All of that. I am proud of being, growing up in Israel. That's who I am. But yet, like a typical wandering Jew, you want to explore the world. There were difficulties and racism and integration to you. Israeli society? Yes, for sure. Still going on. Should we fix it for sure? And all of that. But

like anybody else, I wanted to come to New York, to Harlem, a hub of culture and history of black excellence, and wanted to be part of it. So that's basically what happened. And I wanted to promote that. So you find yourself, this is a fascinating profile. Well, no, I had a quick question about her being accepted in Israel, if I may. go ahead well you mentioned racism was there an issue with your Judaism did the government questioned that at all or was was where you immediately granted citizenship on the law of under the law of return or was that an issue well there was a little bit of issue I mean rabbi Ovadya yosef I think it was in the 70s I don't remember the exact he kind of wrote

a declaration that the beta israel Jewish community is from the tribe of Dan and it should be under the law of the right of return like anybody else throughout the diaspora, yes. But yet, within the rabbinical institution, there was a doubt of our Jewishness and came the notion of you might need to go diving into the make of way in order to become fully immersed to Judaism. And for us, Ethiopian Jews, I'll tell you a little bit more, it was striking. it was very offending to see what exactly we're converting to from what to what. And that is because for the Beta Israel Jewish community that had been celebrating and adhering to the ancient practices of the Torah.

For example, I give you an example of how we observe the Shabbat. Strictly you get ready since Thursday to welcome Shabbat. You do all your cooking in preparation. so you cease midday, Friday from doing any labor. When you say labor, you do not work when you do. You do not light fire. You do not cook. You do not do all of that because this is within the Torah.

That's how we're supposed to observe and welcome Shabbat. And yet, this is the life we lived in Ethiopia with the excitement. So midday, Friday, people will be just busy taking their shower, putting the beautiful garb, and then eventually finalizing, baking the dabbo, which will welcome Shabbat, the special bread, and going to the synagogue. That's the life we knew in Ethiopia. To the point we'll finally immigrate to Israel,

here, these people, those Jews, blasting their music on a Friday night, doing laundry on a Saturday, and yet they're questioning us on our Jewishness. So that was kind of conflict. Who is who to judge and question of your Jewishness? We believe that we practice strictly to the ancient practice of the Torah. For example, we preserve a particular holiday called Sigd.

Sigd is now a national holiday in Israel, which is actually commemorating the Matan Torah and kind of renewal of the covenant with God, and that is called SIGT is always falling 50 days after Yom Kippur. This is the ancient tradition and practices that I come from. And yet they tell us, oh, you're a little bit behind. All of those traditions are gone now. There is no law and halakhah. So you're not up to date. We don't do it like that.

So for us, it was like, no. This is what we know. Let me ask you a question. You know, I'm sure you follow the politics and we're going to get to the story of the restaurant. But, you know, if the left-wing progressives and the right-wing anti-sems, semis have their way, are you prepared to go back to Poland? Oh, Poland. I didn't know I come from Poland. What's the deal? So you see, to answer your question here, all of those people who saying colonizer go back to Poland, the Jewish world is so diverse,

so beautiful, it's kind of like a rainbow. Jews come from Ethiopia, Yemen, Nigeria even, Uganda, Morocco, Tunisia, Poland. That is the mosaic of the Jewish world. We are very much diverse. And for those ignorant people who don't know any better, they should go and learn a little bit about the history of the Jewish people from antiquity and being the native of that land for millennia's thousands of years.

That's what I have to say. So, yeah, I mean, you know, it burns us all when they say things like that. There's an erasure from the precincts of the people who are supposed to be so sensitive about color. When it comes to the Jews, they're very quick to erase anybody that's of color in the Jewish population in order that they can make their political points,

which are really nonsensical in face of the reality that more than 50% of Israel is in some shade of non-white color. And even many European Jews don't look white to me. You know, I mean, Harry Anton, you know, Google him if you don't know who he is. I thought he was Indian when I met him. And Esty's not a white woman. I've known, I used to, I'm a music club. A lot of Ethiopian Jews used to come to the club, but I've known many.

And I, you know, they were always in this crossroads of, black culture and Jewish culture because they were as black as any black person I ever met, you know, in terms of integrating into black communities, music and dance and, you know, full African American, as it were. And yet also very apart because not only were they Jewish while African Americans are usually Christian, but there's animosity between the black communities and the Jewish communities in America. And this is just an odd dynamic. And what seems to have happened to your restaurant

seems to be the most current manifestation of this resentment between the African, between the black communities and the Jewish communities fueled by the war in Gaza and left-wing politics. Am I correct in everything I'm saying? Well, I, you know, so let me just clarify. here. I am black Jewish women. So it always has to be either black and Jewish. Why is that? I encompass all of that. I came to Harlem because I wanted to integrate and be part of the

heritage of the history of Harlem, right? And here, when we opened Cion Cafe, Harlem welcomed us with the open arm, and we introduced the nice flavors, the delicious flavors, of Ethiopia, Israel, and beyond, right? The community did not, I don't know if it's somebody within the community. It's not the African-American, I don't think it's the African-American community that made the phone calls or what have you.

You know what I mean? I'm not pointing fingers at anybody at this point. It's most likely the fact that me, being black, and Jewish women, for some white supremacists, he couldn't fathom that and decided that, okay, she is, let's just harass or what have you. And that is the case.

And the relationship between black and Jews are, there is a lot of parallel and similarities. It's two groups that have been always the other oppressed, you know, through Jim Crow, African-American suffering here in the U.S. and Jews, white Jews suffering through Crystal Macha, whatever, you name it. There is a lot of similarities. In some point, African-American and Jews, white Jews, did work and collaborate because they recognized the suffering and all of that.

So somewhat, you know, forming of the NWACP, it was with collaboration with white Jews and the African-American. There was an ally ship somewhat during history things, you know, people drifted apart. But I think in order to conquer the hate of white supremacy, all those two groups coming together and really fighting that hate that floating up in the air that's the way to go out. How do we unify? How do we bring together those people?

You know, you mentioned Jim Crowe. I thought you were going to say Jim Class, which is actually where the Jews and blacks often differ. But from the article, so this is very interesting. So from the article in the post, may I should have read other things, the clear implications, of the article was that within the neighborhood, there was, you were given grief that it wasn't just a phone call, but that's not the case. It wasn't from within the neighborhood?

Well, I could not tell you, but somebody managed to do a swastika, to put a swastika there. Who is the person we cannot tell you? We cannot point at the community where I live, I invested, and point pictures. It's not that. It was just one phone call? No, this is harassment that I've been going for years from reviews online and phone calls. Is this before October 7th? Before October 7th. And it's so happened that after October 7th, I grew up in Israel, in Otef Azak, Kibbutzalumim, it broke my heart to see what happened. And as an Ethiopian-Israeli woman, I said, how can I shine light on my Jewishness, on my Israelisness?

and we become kosher. So that kind of make, oh, or you go, you're just going and, you know, celebrating this colonizer, Zionist. So we're going to definitely, it kind of add to the fuel. But how would any white person not in your neighborhood be aware that you went kosher? That's what I'm not understanding. Say it again? How would anybody outside of your neighborhood react to the fact that you changed to become a kosher restaurant? And it sounds like that would be people close to you.

Well, we announced, we are, you know, we announced everywhere. People know of us from all over the parts of the U.S. It's the only Ethiopian, Israeli restaurant in the U.S. So there is some, you know, momentum out there. And the fact that we became kosher, there was a whole, you know, writing and talking about it. So, you know, there is no, you know, where I am right now in a point where I don't want to finger a point in anybody. What I can do is I know how to facilitate

dialogue and understanding through food. How can we have an interfaid dialogue, come and converse and learn about one another, immerse yourself on the rich flavors of Jewish diaspora. That's what I want to focus on. All the haters did accomplish what they wanted. They intimidated us, but I am not going to deter from it. I am. I deter for the sake of security, but we're going to do it in a different way. We're going to pivot and celebrate Jewish food, Jewish diaspora. Just on the pipeline, we are planning a Shabbat dinner honoring the flavors and tradition of Ethiopia and Yemen. And again, we're working on something like interfaid dialogue with different community members. That's what I want to do. That's what I want to focus on.

Noam, is there any way that Abijah maybe can contribute a dish to the olive tree? Yes, of course. That would be wonderful. You know, chef E. Not Admoni? Of course. Yeah, yeah. She helped us a lot with our menu. Lovely. So we should have some Ethiopian sambusa or red lentils stew. That will be Jewish diaspora. It will be great. Yeah. So is your restaurant currently open or is it currently closed?

We are not open to dining in. We are kind of finding our way. to facilitate events, private events and catering. That's what we focus on right now. I mean, leaving aside, even if you weren't Jewish, a small business owner who was shut down, my heart goes out to them of any religion, if you can believe it. I mean, I'm being kind of tongue-in-cheek, but honestly, just I can't imagine what you're going through

because a business owner puts their heart and soul and needs the living into their restaurant and then to have it have to be shut down for any reason, but let alone because of some sort of harassment, it's just I can't imagine the psychological burden you're facing. How do you get up in the morning and remain cheerful? You have to keep moving. I went through a lot in my life,

the journey from Ethiopia to Sudan. All of that kind of build me for those kind of moments, I am not giving up. I'm finding a new solution, a pivot, how to conquer hate with love and nourishment and food. That's where it is. It's unfortunate that we need to be in this scenario, but my intentions are really to amplify the story of Jews of the African diaspora. Let's incorporate more and celebrate one another. When people ask what is Jewish food or who is Jew, there are many flavors and colors in the Jewish world. I want to focus on that. And of course, if people want to support and be kind, there is book. They can learn about the history, the

tradition of Ethiopian jewelry. We have a product online that they can purchase, even though they cannot come physically to the venue. So, you know, there is hope at the end of the day. By the way, your jacket is, can you show her jacket? I just, as a Palestinian, that's a wonderful jacket she's wearing. It would, no. It's like two jackets cut down the middle, put together. That's right. This is very fashionable.

But half the jacket looks a little kaffiae. Oh, boy. Oewe. What's wrong with you? Yeah, it's quite artistic. It's very, we're all about the art. It's very cool. Yeah, it's different.

You have this particular pattern and colors, and then you have this brown. It's very vintagey. So, you know, we are creative. That's awesome. So, you know, unless we have more to talk about the restaurant. Do you, what do you notice that Jews of all colors have in common? Do you notice any common traits between us all? We all come and support one another.

When there is trouble, there is a problem. Whenever somebody is hurt, I see the love and support, pouring from all over the world and the U.S. to support. And it's unfortunate. I was just telling them that we all come together and a bad scenario in events. We are there for one another for sure. And the love and support that I'm getting

is beyond description. I appreciate it. And I want to collaborate with everybody and shine light on love. Because, you know, at the end of the day... But when you meet like a white, Yenta, Karen, you know, winy Jap, like Periel... Do you look at her and say, these are my people?

Where, yes, these are my people. This is the rainbow of people that we, I'm Israel. This is where we are. I'm a lot of things. I don't think a Karen is one of them. It's to be clear here. You look at Nebashi men like me and Dan. Thank you for including yourself in that.

You picture us as Ethiopian princes. This is quite... Do the Jews in Ethiopia, are there stereotypes that the non-Jewish Ethiopian community has toward the Ethiopian community? And do they correspond at all with the stereotypes of Ashkenazi? Well, you know, usually there's... Christianity came to Ethiopia only on the 4th century. So the ancient biblical Torah practices was there with my community. So when the rest of them converted to Christianity, the Beta Israel hold on to their tradition and the Torah and went to the mountains.

So then the people who converted start calling us Falasha. That's probably you heard the terminology, Falashia. I've heard that. Which is derogatory. Now they became an outsider, somebody who do not belong to a particular community. That's the names we've been given. A lot of people use it. So I recommend do not use the term falasha.

use Ethiopian Jews or Beta Israel. So, yeah, there was animosity. Were there stereotypes, though, that the non-Jewish Ethiopians had toward the Jewish Ethiopians had toward the Jewish Ethiopian? Stereotypes, such as they are the talented blacksmith, you know, and they give them, they say they would call them Buddha, the evil eye, stuff like that. But, you know, stuff like that that kind of circulated throughout the diaspora, per se, anything else, you know, there is hate everywhere.

There is, it's unfortunate. I'm a big advocate of intermarriage and interbreeding. And because I really think the world is really the only thing that is going to help save the world. And you go to Israel now and you see these beautiful mixes of black and white and Ashkenazi and Sfarida. You've seen it, Peria, right? This is just a it fills my heart. Perriot hasn't just seen it. She is it.

She is? I think, well, my son is. I mean, my husband is, you know, his son is, yes. His parents are my mother-in-law is from Iran and my father-in-was from Romania. I meant a little bit more. You know what I'm saying? You're seeing these beautiful people, right? and you can recognize their heritage in their faces,

and there's more and more of them. And, you know, you just have no real point except that if you go to Israel and you see this, it's very heartwarming to me. Yes, but you met our nephew too, and his father's Indian. Remember, he came to Maine last summer, Nati? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But Noam, you say that, but at the same time, you want the Jewish community to continue. So there's sort of a contradiction there.

If you believe in intermarriage, then how do you at the same time keep the Jewish community going, if that's something that's important to you? Yeah, I haven't figured that part out yet. But you can intermarry to an Indian Jew. You can intermarriage. No, no, I've said it's wonderful. But he's saying, of course, because the Jews are all intermarrying, so hopefully that will take care of the tribal, for lack of a better word,

you know, resentment between Ashkenazi and Ethiopia. and Spartan, and we know this is Ghana. And then there's the larger zoom out to the entire world. And, you know, Dan is touching on a more difficult, a profound question is, you know, we want to keep our Judaism. And yet, you know, ethnic pride is a huge source of hatred. Speaking of that. B.J.

B.J.'s husband is a Caribbean. I guess Christian? He's a human being. He's a human being, okay. But he's not a Jewish. No. That's interesting too. My wife's Puerto Rican, so don't worry about me.

But Nome is making sure to the extent that he can, and there's limits to it, that his kids are as Jewish as he can make them. Yeah, I mean, you know, what I, yes, there is a concern of losing your Jewishness by intermarrying. So we're going to go back to David. Naomi, Ruth, that's what happened.

That's the Jewish people. That's the foundation. As long as you're strong with your belief and where you come from, I don't think Judaism will be diluted by marrying somebody. If there is true love between two people, eventually it will create a diverse human being that contribute to society and create harmonious world. So, yeah, look at the story of David.

Is it David, if I'm not mistaken? Boaz and Root. Who did they bring to us? Well, you lost me. Because as you mentioned earlier, I'm one of the Jews that plays music on Sabbath and, you know, that you were referring to earlier. No judgment here, yeah? Can I have permission to change the subject for a minute?

So, B.J. and I spoke, like, for a while yesterday about this. Did she get a word? wise? About Spike Lee, and I was really lit up about this whole thing. I don't know, Noam, I know you've been, I don't know, like at the White House or something. Did you see that Spike Lee showed up at the All-Star game two days in a row with a red triangle and Kaffia sweatshirt? No, I didn't see that. Oh, wow.

I'm not shocked by it. I mean, it was all over the. news, but I was really incensed because Denny Avdiya is the first Israeli person to be in the NBA All-Stars. So it really, and he's like a lovely guy. But other than that, like, it seems like a real like fuck you to Denny. And people were really upset by this. I was one of them.

I was really furious about it. And then I read that Spike Lee posted an apology to Danny and said that this was not meant as like a personal affront to him. And he didn't know that Danny was the first Israeli to be in the All-Stars. And I don't know, like, I really took that apology to heart. And some people told me I was being naive. but... He's still, you know, on the side of the Palestinian cause.

He's just... Well, you can be on the side of... I mean, what he said actually was that this was in concern of Palestinian children and civilians and, you know, for all human beings. So anyway, which of course is great.

But I don't know. I was sort of curious to your... take on that. And I also wanted to tell Bijae that happened because we had this long conversation about it yesterday. So, Noam? Well, I mean, I would just say that, I mean, Spike Lee,

what the hell was it? He got in trouble, you know, 30 years ago or more for Jewish characters in his, in his movies. Was it Moe Better Blues? I think, yeah, Mo Better Blues, I think, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And

he had to, he had to writer an op-ed or something. You know, I mean, he's always been aligned with the types of people who were not fond of Israel or the narrative of Zionism. So, you know, I'd be shocked, much more shocked if the opposite story came out where Spike Lee was wearing something supportive, you know. Okay. So you're not buying the apology.

Well, if he says that he didn't mean it in response to this one Israeli player, I don't have any reason to doubt him. But then why would he wear that to the only game that there's the first is, like he's never worn. I did some deep research. I'm a little bit embarrassed to say because I was really so incensed about this. Like has Spike Lee ever worn any other flag to any of like the tens of thousands of basketball games he has attended? And the answer. My answer to that is this. Yes, of course, what you're saying is a circumstantial point of evidence.

But the older I get, more and more and more and more, I note coincidences like this that I happen to be aware of or then, you know, certain incontrovertible evidence finally emerges. And they just turn out to be coincidences. You know, I heard a story recently. I can't even give the details. but some guy who was involved in something and then the guy who ended up saving him was a CIA agent

just by coincidence like the guy, like he was a bystand and he turned out to be a CIA agent and but if you knew the whole story well I would like to but you don't tell me no I can't I can't but if you knew the whole story if you would be like you expect me to believe

a CIA agent just happened to be on location when this particular person like you know what I mean Like, it would just be, so, yes, you're not wrong to raise an eyebrow and wonder if Spike Lee's telling the truth. But I wouldn't assume. Well, I hope he was. I would not assume he's not. I would not assume he's not. It could also be that Periel, that he was wearing the CAFEA pattern in response to the Israeli player.

And then, but legitimately, the apology could still be legitimate insofar as he might have regretted it. That's a third possibility, I suppose. I suppose so. Well, that's not what he said. But I mean, I hope you're right. Like, I was actually, I thought that as far as apologies go and Mayaculpas go, it was a really good one. Like, I really appreciated it. So I do hope that it was genuine.

Even with the apology, he don't like you, okay? But boy, boy, he made some good movies. Well, I do have to say that somebody wrote me who I know personally on Instagram and she told me that I was an idiot and that she worked for him for several years and he's really not a fan. So of the Jews that like this was. Of course not. Of course not. Well, I thought Malcolm X. Malcolm X is my favorite one of his movies and that, that I think wasn't typical of his movies. Well, I guess he was complaining when Schindler's List won the Oscar at the same time that he,

He was up for an Oscar and he said, well, if I'd made a movie about the Holocaust, I'm sure I would have won. He's probably right, Perry. We're kidding here. Every Holocaust movie wins. But listen, I didn't like Malcolm X. I thought Malcolm X was a bit dull. But do the right thing. Boy, I've seen it recently.

It's really, really good. And I love, she's got to have it, even though it's kind of rudimentary. He was just starting out, but I really liked it. He's a big talent. I'm going to accept the apology. I really makes me feel more hopeful about the world to... First of all, people don't apologize because they're sorry. They apologize to get themselves out of trouble.

I think that that's like a really jaded view of... That I would prefer not to adopt. I think that sometimes that's true but like sometimes people fuck up and people make mistakes and they're allowed to do that and to like man up and apologize I think like you're supposed to be gracious

when somebody apologized you're like supposed to allow people the space to be human. We have lost Pat, long past on this show tried to convince Periel to be realistic about the world but a little bit of up

optimism would not kill. Maybe he's sincere. I do think some people, you know, when they're told, you know, that their actions hit a certain way. No, listen, I find, let's be clear what I'm saying here. I find it very easy to believe that this was a coincidence. I just have me wearing that at the time in this Israeli player. That's very believable to me. What is not believable to me is that he did it on purpose and now he's sorry about it

because all of a sudden he realized how he's offended people. I call bullshit on that. Spike Lee, if he wore Kaffir or the triangles, whatever it is, in order to protest or to provoke because there's an Israeli in the All-Star game. Believe me, he's not sorry about it unless he thinks it turned out to hurt him. Well, you know, I'll give a recent example. He's not emotionally sorry about it. That's for sure.

I'll give you a recent example for my own life. I posted something on Instagram, a video about the anti-Semitism. commercial at the Super Bowl. Remember the commercial? That was a dumb commercial. Well, I said, anyway, so I said, well, you know, I was waiting for the surprise ending where the black kid comes over to the Jewish kid and says, hey, you know, tries to comfort him. I said, I was waiting for the surprise ending where the Jewish kid said, we don't need help from you people. Now, I thought that, which I thought was funny and it killed at the cell. When I posted it, somebody said to me, said to me that, that joke was hurtful and offensive.

to them and to a lot of people that she was in contact with. And I hope you didn't apologize. I said, I didn't, I said, I didn't mean it to be offensive or anything like that. But if it hits people that way, then I will take it down, which I did. That's fine. But that, but you don't have a 30 or 40 year history of being known for being antagonistic to the people. you're now claiming, oh, I never meant to offend those people.

I will take it down. If, you know, Spike Lee is position on Israel and Jewish things is long known. The people that he hangs with, everything about the guy is well known. Also, the fact that he has a middle finger to the world, this is Spike Lee, right? So the fact that all of a sudden, because somebody was offended, if this is what he intended to do, that he's actually contrite and sorry, I find a very low degree of possibility to that. But having said that, I'm totally open to the fact that he never meant to do it at all. I would like for you at your leisure to please read his apology and then come back and tell me what you think.

I find it very hard to believe that it was a coincidence that the one time this Israeli player made it to the All-Stars is the one time that Spike Lee happens to wear the exact thing that would antagonize him. I was driving in a little village on a little highway. in Italy, like a little tiny small, and I'm so hungry. And I pulled off the, I pulled up the exit. It says, restauranti, restaurant. And I, and I pull on the, and the lady says, I'm sorry, we're, you know, I'm sorry. We're we closed. And I said, please, we're so hungry.

Can we just have something? And she said, let me go ask the chef. And then she comes out and she says, okay, the chef will give you just pasta, just pasta. I said, oh, thank you. Thank you. I'd love to thank him. She says, I'll get him. The chef comes out. He looks at me, he goes, comedy seller?

No. Yes. Yes. This is, these are the coincidences that actually happened. You know, so like, these things happen. What are you going to do? Who was the chef? Was it BJ?

He used to work in Manetta Tavern. He used to work at Manetta Tavern until he made Aliaa back to Italy. Oh, wow. That's incredible. That is incredible. That is incredible. That's an incredible story. He was an American Italian or?

No, he was an Italian-Italian, Italian. He'd been an immigrant. You know, he worked at Monaco finally went home. But it wasn't even like Rome. It was literally like, you know, I can't even imagine, you know, like pulling up the highway somewhere in the desert in Arizona. It was out of nowhere. So, and these coincidences happen. So, you know, whatever.

Anything else? And we get, let's get back to BJ. Yeah. So are you going to open up, you've planning to open up another restaurant? I know you're saying you're into private. I have it catering now. And Shabbat. She's planning a...

So at this point, the plan is really to focus on cultural immersion activities, events, and Shabbat dinners, interfaid dialogue and forums on inclusion and diversity, together with food. That's the main focus. Day to day is not going to happen at this point. And beside that, I'm actually touring with the book as well. So, you know, talking about the stories, integration, and resilience of the community, of the Beta Israel and Jewish community.

And where can people find the book? Will you hold it up? Probably anywhere you can find a book. It was published by Penguin Random House, and you can find it at the website or at Amazon. And just to tell you the title of the book is Gursha. For anybody who never had Ethiopian food is literally taking a morsel of food and feeding one another by hands to showcase nourishment, love and friendship. You know, Ethiopian food is all about communal, sitting around the table and having a big platter with different stews like chicken stew, fish, red lentil, cabbage, and you take the injera, which is the flat bread, and that is your utensils. and you feed one another.

And I'm hoping to nourish any reader that want to learn about the rich history of Ethiopian Jews with personal stories of my family and extended relatives of the struggle or determination to make Alia, you know, actually access to new ingredients, getting used to new a way of cooking. Because, for example, when Ethiopian Jews immigrated to Israel,

they had no access to TEF. To access to what? Teff is the smallest grain. Native to Ethiopia is naturally gluten-free, and this is how we make our bread in Jera. And there was no access to it in Israel. It took over 20 years to import that grain. But meanwhile, being resourceful,

they made in Jera with corn flour and wheat flour, because this is the only access they had. Or many other things. Or Ethiopian juice all of a sudden started cooking with chicken boulogon, which never, you know, the powder, which never done it in Ethiopia. Or infusing spicy food with a little bit of Ceylandate, which is, you know, syrup, date to mild down the spiciness of the food in order to accommodate the Israeli-born children. because Ethiopian food could be spicy. It's all, you know, according to the amount of spice. And Barbara used in your cooking.

So in order to accommodate those pallets, we kind of, you know, shifted a little bit of the style and cooking. Yeah, that's good. Are there any Ethiopian places you could recommend? But I'm hungry right now. Dan, we have one right across the street. Mesquedum, I think, I don't have to pronounce it. On McDougal Street, right across the street. Yes. Maybe you should have dinner over there.

I have other plans tonight for dinner, but it really made me hungry for Ethiopian food. And it's flavorful and his vegan is delicious. It is delicious. I've never eaten there, the restaurant across the street, but I've heard for many, many, many years that it's quite a good restaurant. So I've all been meaning to. Oh, so this is an opportunity to go and try Ethiopian food. Unfortunately, it's not a Cian cafe. Maybe you will come for our private events.

Oh, we love to. But Ethiopian food is quite versatile. delicious, ancient and flavorful. All right. All right. Have we said all the needs to be said? Unless you want to just, you know, talk about some money. Oh, I have a question.

I have a question. When you contacted the mayor's office, our new mayor, Mountani, who is suspected of being not that keen on our people, how did they respond to you? I did not contact them. No. Oh, you didn't? I thought I read somewhere.

I thought I read that in the post. He told her to go back to Poland. It was definitely in the post. No, I never contacted. Never contacted the mayor. I have no direct contact to him. Or his office. You never.

No, no, never did. Or maybe somebody contacted him. It was definitely in the post. Well. Okay. Well. I know, could we just briefly, I saw what you did around the corner at the McDonald's in the windows.

The images in the windows of the new club. Yes, sir. That looks great. Oh, does it? Oh, you haven't seen it? It looks really amazing. It really looks good. It's just the static images?

Yeah, the static image. But you can have moving images there too, I guess. You can have whatever you want. Yes, yes, yes, yes. But it looks great, yeah. What's in the window is just the static images of the stick figure with the microphone. Yeah. So what I did is I uploaded the medes,

I haven't been there to see the whole thing. Liz's having your picture. I took a picture of our stained glass sign and then I Photoshopped it to look more stained glass because I just took the one part of the sign that actually doesn't have those you know the telltale lead lines

that make it look like stained glass so though I photoshopped it to I did a little tutorial on YouTube of how to make a picture look like stained glass so I turned it into stained glass and then I did different hues and filters on it so there's three different kind of almost like Andy Warholish like three different colors of it.

And I hope it looks like three stained glass windows, sort of. Yeah, and I just thought it looked good. I didn't notice if it looked like stained glass around. Okay. I'll look on my way. Is the ETA now for the opening? He's opening a new club around the corner. Is still in March or is it now April?

All right. I understand may never get open. Don't say that. Well, and you've got to staff it up, too, which I don't know how long that takes. but that's got to be, you know, that's a project. The staffing we can do, I think, we can get together a skeleton staff just based on hiring a few people and using people we already have on other places.

But, I mean, everybody is just letting us down. Everything takes a long time, and the money is just piling up. It's daunting. It's daunting. But hopefully, at some point I'll look back on it and say it was all worth it. Well, I think it will. I mean, I don't, you know, I think that overwhelming probability is that you will look back on it and say it was the right move. I mean, the world is demanding more Dan Natterman and Lenny Marcus.

Well, they're demanding more comedy seller. That's for sure. All right. Go ahead. So are we wrapping it up? Or are there more questions for BJ? Let she has something she'd like to say. I mean, there's all sorts of stuff about politics we can get into next week.

But I've just been really enjoying a little vacation. I will say this. Yeah. I spent five days in Wahaka, Mexico. And I'd say two things. First of all, it was the, okay, it's only Jews here, right? It was the cheapest vacation I have ever taken. Like, I'm shocked at how inexpensive Mexico is.

compared to other places you might go. But that really wasn't the point I was going to make. It is just wonderful in Mexico. The people, the food, the, the, the, the hotels, the culture. I had almost never had a more pleasant five days. And my goodness, the food there is fantastic. And the ruins and, you know, like little waterfalls there. I highly recommend Oaxaca, Mexico.

And I have to say it, not that I've ever been, we're talking about this while we're still there, not that I've ever been particularly anti-immigrant. I'm not at all. But even whatever lingering doubts I had, I had quite how to put it, it made me more and more comfortable with an American future that has, you know, that becomes highly influenced by Mexico in a way, which we probably never suspected it would be. And then that's why it is because they were just terrific. It was just terrific.

I'll say this about it. Sometimes when I hear Spanish, I say, you know, I mean, you know, would it be so bad if we, that's a sexy language? And would it be so bad if we spoke Spanish? The big lie on all this, even if you really don't want the country to change, is that we're not, we don't have. replacement level fertility rates in this country. So who's going to do the work around here, right? We need new bodies. And if we're going to have to have new bodies, we're actually blessed by God to have Mexicans next door to us as opposed to, you know, we can look around the world and the problems they're having. You know, it's just wonderful people. They work

hard. They don't cause trouble. We took away, as somebody said to me, we, we robbed their land, right? And they're not beefing about it to this day. They're not complaining about them. They're not trying to get it back. They're not, you know, blowing us up. Well, we robbed who's land because the Mexican, the Spanish conquistadores are the ones who. In the Mexican-American War, we took whole big swaths of Mexico. Well, what? We took, what was Mexico? California? I don't even know. But the people, the, the people, the, native Mexicans, the indigenous Mexicans, were not indigenous to Colorado or California. No, no. Other people took, other people colonized them, and then we took land from them,

only to say that they have more than ample reason to have resentments towards the outside world. And obviously, I'm making a kind of comparison here to the Israeli situation, which is that they are looking to settle things, move on, and that is a, they are practical about what's possible. As we've said many times on this show, there's a practical issue in the Arab-Israeli conflict, which goes beyond the rights and the wrongs of it, however you see them, is that Israel's not going anywhere, right? How many times have we said, there's a moral obligation to the practical, Israel is not going anywhere?

How many generations of poor Palestinian children are going to be. suffering because they just won't ever accept the fact that Israel is there to stay, right? Regardless of Israel should have never been there or not and, you know, knowing that that's one model that that the world can take here's the Mexican model, which they have probably equal, if not greater beefs and they they see differently, you know, and that's to be commented on anyway. It's really just free association is what I'm doing now. But I just couldn't be more keen on Mexico right now. I really had a wonderful time.

Okay. Well, what I can say is at the end of the day, I wish we all coexist and live in this world. You know, going to the fact of native, not native, I think Mexican is more native to the Americas than anybody from Europe. So, in a way. So, you know. Louis C.K. is Mexican, too.

so they're not all like that. There are a lot of Europeans in Mexico. But it's the Europeans who came and conquered Mexico. That's right. But the whole of Americas, you know, the native people, the Incas, the Mayas, they were there, the Mexicans. They were there before anybody came and conquered and took over. So, you know, are we going to, because this hardworking people coming to the U.S.

for a better opportunity, all of a sudden they are the enemies, Any immigrant that are looking to better themselves, like myself, coming here, building an establishment to contribute to society, I think we have to be a lot more open, receptive as human being and not finger pointed anybody that might look different than us and hate. There is no room for that. That's my final conclusion. I tell this to Periel all the time. It doesn't seem to be getting through. By the way, I'm reading up here. It says Mexico lost about 50.

I'm astounded. I didn't even know it was like this. Mexico lost about 55% of its pre-1836 territorial claims in the 1848 settlement of our war. But again, but again, the indigenous, the Incas and the Mayas, they're not indigenous to the parts that America took to California, Colorado. Devala. Texas. The Texas and. I don't say. All right, anyway.

But we took those places from the tribes that are indigenous to those places. Yes, the Pute, the Pueblo, etc. My dad's just showing off now. All right. Okay, well, I think that was a very, I'm sorry I'm not there to meet you in person. Are you going to eat? And because, you know, gnomes have the opposite feeling. Gnome grew up and his father was a restaurant tour before he was a comedy club owner,

and Nome is a restaurant owner. And I don't know if you're going to eat with us. We'd love to, of course. Why not? Amazing. All right. Go down now and take her for something to eat. I will. I will.

Maybe she wants to hear some Jewish jokes in the comedy cellar. All right. Thank you very, very much for coming to join our show. I'm very sorry that I couldn't be there in person to shake your hand. But, you know, we've had a lot of, you know, when you're separated on Zoom, I notice it's very easy, like, just to like, wisecrack. And I hope that you don't take that to me, not being actually deeply sympathetic to what you went through in your restaurant. I can only imagine, as I said at one time, that what it's like because I on a restaurant myself

with a big star of David in the window, by the way. And yes, I'm doubling down now on being Jewish and being defiant about it. It's a very tough business, a restaurant business. Yes, it is. Even under the best of circumstances. So as being the Jewish business, that's also a tough business. Oh, Cariel, shut up. Okay, BJ Bahani, the title of a book is Gersha.

And it can be found wherever you can find books. We thank her for being here and we'll see you next time. Thank you for having me. How do you say goodbye? I'd say goodbye in Ethiopia. Well, there's either. See, there are 87 languages. It's like saying, how do you say goodbye in Mexico?

That's quite all right. You can say, goodbye to white people. Say salam. That's good enough. That's Arabic, though. Well, it's Semetic. Saddam al-a-a-salaam.

Al-a-salam. Mar-ha-ba. No problem. We love you all. Of course. Bye-bye. Okay. Bye-bye, everybody.

Bye.