Bomb threat after Jewish-Greek Shabbat dinner

An Elsternwick restaurant has been targeted with online abuse, including a threat to blow up the premises, after it hosted a Shabbat dinner celebrating Jewish and Greek culture on Friday night.

The Mediterranean Greek Tavern opened its doors to Shabbat Club Australia, a pop-up dinner series for an event marking the club’s six-month anniversary.

Guests were asked to dress in white as though they were in a Greek village. Challah sat on the tables, prayers were said before the meal, and a bouzouki band played Jewish songs like Hava Nagila and music from Zorba the Greek.

“It was the most innocent of gatherings there to celebrate life,” restaurant owner Perry Le Greco told The AJN.

Most guests were Jewish, Le Greco said, but a number of Greeks attended as well.

“We share the same values, same food, and same traditions: family, love, and life and community,” he said. “It was amazing how both cultures were exactly the same.”

Le Greco posted about the night on social media the following day, praising the behaviour of the young people who attended. The response was initially warm.

“All of a sudden some comments were filtering in. Then the comments have just spread, spread, spread, spread,” he said.

Some commenters called the hosts sellouts and asked why he would support “genocide killers”. One called for the restaurant to be bombed.

One even called for Jews to be deported from Australia.

“They’ve actually put on a public place [a threat] to blow up the tavern because we held an event,” Le Greco said. “It’s just insane.”

After taking legal advice, Le Greco has made the about 23 posts public, including the names of those who wrote them. He said the commenters had made no effort to conceal their identities.

“They’re openly showing their profile, their photos. They’ve got no problem with it,” he said.

“We’re hoping some of their work colleagues, their family, friends, sees their posts and calls them out,” he said.

“We’re not bringing our culture here to invade Australia. We’re embracing the Australian values along with our culture.”

Le Greco said the timing, so soon after the Royal Commission into antisemitism, made the abuse harder to understand.

“You would think now’s not the time to be as racist as they are. This is pure racism,” he said. “I don’t see other people hosting cultural events and then being threatened to be bombed.”

Chrystal Dias, who founded the Shabbat Club in Melbourne before trademarking it nationally, said she started it to counter antisemitism by giving people outside the community a way in.

She said the purpose was for young people to “come hang out with the Jewish community and come experience what a Shabbat themed dinner is,” she said.

The dinners draw a largely young adult crowd, and Dias said the club was built to bring them together around Shabbat in a form that would not put anyone off.

“It’s about being together, essentially in a progressive and modern context, and not a religious context, to make everyone feel inclusive and comfortable, and not intimidated to come into a place of worship or sitting there and not understanding Hebrew,” she said.

Her dinners are usually capped at 22 guests, with the venue kept secret until 48 hours beforehand and every attendee screened. Previous events have been held at Ripponlea Food and Wine, the Prince Hotel in St Kilda, and in a private room at the back of a Syrian restaurant.

Dias said the backlash has hurt the restaurant and the club’s reputation.

Some restaurants have declined to host the club, she said, though she could not say why with any certainty.

“I’m concerned that some restaurants will see this and say we don’t want our names in the paper or out there, and we don’t want this sort of backlash on our restaurant,” she said.

Dias told The AJN the club intends to continue – a sentiment echoed by Perry Le Greco

“If I back down, it will show that we’ve got no courage about us, and that hate beats common sense,” he said.