Brandon Chrostowski, the founder of EDWINS Leadership and Restaurant Institute in Cleveland Heights, wasn\u2019t focused on dwelling on the past when discussing a recent incident at his business where he was the target of vitriolic remarks and a personal attack regarding a conversation surrounding Israel and Gaza.<\/p>\n
Instead, Chrostowski was focused on how to move forward in a society where it\u2019s become normalized to say \u201cdisrespectful things about Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this culture out there right now, and it\u2019s sick and terrible,\u201d Chrostowski told the Cleveland Jewish News. \u201cIt\u2019s something I know the ADL is fighting for, and I am a (Ohio River Valley) board member, and you hear about stuff like this on the internet, but to see it firsthand \u2013 it\u2019s happening now where people feel comfortable to do this and it\u2019s not OK. And people, both inside and outside of the Jewish community, should come together and say it\u2019s not okay.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Aug. 16, Paul Blumberg posted to Facebook that he went with friends to the Oyster Bar at EDWINS on Cedar and Fairmount, writing that he has \u201calways supported their mission to help folks that have been in prison through training and employment in the culinary arts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blumberg said that when he asked Chrostowski if he knew Jose Andres from World Central Kitchen<\/a>, a \u201chero\u201d of his, the chef \u201cdescribed him as a terrible person he never wanted to meet because \u2018he got all those aid workers killed in Gaza.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was shocked and replied that most of the world knows that the IDF (Israeli army) killed the aid workers with US weapons and bombs,\u201d Blumberg wrote. \u201c(Chrostowski) went off the rails ending with \u2018God bless President Trump.\u2019 He spouted Trumpian lies. I wondered what his predominately Black employees would think about his loyalty to a racist pedophile warmonger. I\u2019ll NEVER set foot in (EDWINS) or any place having ties to Brandon Chrostowski. KNOW WHO YOU ARE SUPPORTING IF YOU DINE THERE.\u201d<\/p>\n Blumberg could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n When talking to the CJN, Chrostowski was hesitant to dive into specifics, not wanting to \u201cgive credit to someone who really is not credible,\u201d but said that a conversation happened while Blumberg was dining there about the situation between Israel and Gaza, which led Blumberg to stating \u201cthis idea that Oct. 7 never existed. That it\u2019s all bullshit,\u201d according to Chrostowski.<\/p>\n \u201cI was in Israel less than a week after Oct. 7<\/a> to cook for the displaced in Israel after hearing about the horrific things that had happened,\u201d he said. \u201cI remember specifically working in Mitzpe Ramon cooking for a kibbutz that was a displaced campground. All I could think about while they\u2019re eating was that this kibbutz was five minutes away from being ravished by Hamas and the IDF stepped in between. They lost a lot of friends in the neighboring area. I couldn\u2019t fathom this idea that these kids are smiling and the mothers were being human, eating and conversing. None of these people would exist if it wasn\u2019t for the IDF coming through. Years later, for someone to say this never happened and to think it\u2019s OK to talk like that in a restaurant is not okay.\u201d<\/p>\n Chrostowski\u2019s wife then found the post and, after diving into his profile, told Chrostowski that \u201cthis guy goes on these tangents and says things online and it\u2019s not credible.\u201d<\/p>\n This prompted Chrostowski to reach out to ADL Ohio River Valley Regional Director Kelly Fishman about the incident and the broader implications around it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe find ourselves in a time where a lot of folks are struggling to sit in a real dialogue with each other,\u201d Fishman told the CJN. \u201cMany people are operating online now, and oftentimes that same kind of keyboard warrior attitude makes its way into the public sector. Instead of sitting down with somebody who has a different perspective, we see this backlash.\u201d<\/p>\n Chrostowski said he doesn\u2019t want his five children, who range in age from 1 to 11, to come up in a world where people think it is OK \u201cto speak poorly about people.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou stand up and you say and do something,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what has to happen. It\u2019s not OK to say this kind of stuff about anyone, if they\u2019re Black or a Jehovah\u2019s Witness or Asian, it\u2019s not OK to come into places and start blowing down about someone\u2019s (identity).\u201d<\/p>\n Fishman said the incident highlights the need for \u201creal dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n Through EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute, Chrostowski provides culinary training, employment assistance, housing and other support, with 97% of graduates finding employment after completing the program, according to Fishman. He also has traveled to cook for underserved areas, such as countries in Africa and Ukraine in the fallout of its war with Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot coming down on Jewish culture right now, and every Jewish person I\u2019ve met has been kind, reasonable and, if you want to discuss a different perspective, they want to learn or hear more,\u201d Chrostowski said. \u201cThe truth is these incidents are happening more and more. There\u2019s strength in numbers, so we\u2019ll advocate at the law level, and then do it civilly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brandon Chrostowski, the founder of EDWINS Leadership and Restaurant Institute in Cleveland Heights, wasn\u2019t focused on dwelling on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[1660,77182,10826,1665,1658,37,1663,1653,10796,10799,1659,502,1650,16883,1652,1654,9572],"class_list":["post-284259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-arab-israeli-conflict","tag-brandon-chrostowski","tag-employment","tag-gaza-israel-conflict","tag-government-of-israel","tag-israel","tag-israel-defense-forces","tag-israel-related-controversies","tag-israel-palestine-relations","tag-israeli-attacks-against-the-gaza-strip","tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-jews","tag-judaism-and-warfare","tag-kibbutz","tag-military-of-israel","tag-politics-of-israel","tag-politics-of-palestine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117237641597352368","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}