Café Hillel

Café Hillel began as an Italian-style espresso bar intended to offer Jerusalem residents a café format not then available in the city.[1] The original establishment attracted a loyal clientele before developing into a chain, with a second Jerusalem location opening on Jaffa Road in 2000.[1] By 2006, the business had 14 locations nationwide, most operated by franchisees.[4]

The chain’s Jerusalem locations included its original Hillel Street café, a branch in Beit Hakerem, and another on Emek Refaim Street.[7] Emek Refaim is the main thoroughfare of Jerusalem’s German Colony.[8] The branch there had opened only a few months before the September 2003 bombing and had quickly become a major gathering place on the street.[2]

The chain combined coffee service with an extensive food menu: a 2018 profile listed salads, sandwiches, toast, focaccia, breakfasts, pasta, children’s dishes, and vegan options.[1] Some branches also catered specifically to English-speaking customers through English menus, English-speaking staff, and wireless internet for customers working on computers.[7]

Kobi and Yossi Sharaf opened the first Café Hillel on Jerusalem’s Hillel Street in 1998.[1] The business took its name from the street on which it began.[9] Expansion beyond the original café started in 2000 with the opening of the Jaffa Road branch.[1]

By 2006, two of the chain’s 14 locations were owned by the founders, while the remaining cafés were operated by franchisees.[4] Proposals for outlets in Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands had not been implemented at that time.[4] The business also planned to move its core decision-making operations to Tel Aviv, while Hanit, Kobi’s daughter, managed its flagship café.[10]

In 2010, the chain had 27 café branches and eight coffee carts; all of the café branches were operated by franchisees.[6] Co-owner and chief executive Yossi Sharaf described a policy of measured growth, limited to no more than five new cafés annually, with investment of NIS 1.5–2 million per café.[6] A separate report put the chain’s 2009 sales at approximately NIS 150 million and described plans for about five additional cafés by the end of 2010.[11]

The emphasis shifted in 2012, when the chain paused new openings to concentrate on its existing locations.[5] Eight branches had been renovated, the menu had been expanded, and some locations had added meat dishes to attract more customers.[5] Management was concerned about the declining success rate of new franchisees and preferred strengthening the existing business to further expansion.[5]

The reported branch count fell from 27 cafés in 2010 to 14 branches in a 2018 profile.[6][1] The latter profile also placed the chain’s central bakery at Kibbutz Kiryat Anavim near Jerusalem.[1] The original Hillel Street premises had already been vacant for several months by 2015, when a hummus restaurant was expected to take over the site.[9]

On September 9, 2003, a Hamas suicide bomber attacked the Café Hillel branch on Emek Refaim Street late at night, killing seven people and wounding dozens.[12] The café was crowded when the bomber approached.[2] Security guard Alon Mizrahi confronted him as he tried to enter, and Mizrahi was among those killed in the explosion.[13]

A contemporaneous account described one of the café’s two guards attempting unsuccessfully to stop the bomber, who moved several meters inside before detonating his explosives.[2] The explosion caused extensive damage to the café.[2] Witness accounts also described the bomber first trying to enter the neighboring Pizza Meter business, where a guard stopped him.[2]

The seven victims were Dr. David Appelbaum and his daughter Nava Appelbaum; David Shimon Avizadris, 51, of Mevaseret Zion; Shafik Kerem, 27, of Beit Hanina; Alon Mizrahi, 22, of Jerusalem; Gila Moshe, 40, of Jerusalem; and Yehiel, also known as Emil, Tubol, 52, of Jerusalem.[8] David Applebaum headed the emergency department at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center.[14] He and Nava were U.S. citizens originally from Cleveland.[15]

Nava, who was 20, was due to marry the next day.[3] A few hours before the bombing, she had attended a nearby mikveh; she and her father planned to collect drinks at the café for relatives working at home on preparations for the wedding.[3] Both were identified among the Americans killed in the attack.[16]

The bomber was identified as Ramez Fahmi Izz al-Din Abu Salim, a 22-year-old Hamas operative from Rantis.[12] He was a student who had been released from administrative detention in February 2003.[12] Investigators identified a Hamas-affiliated cell from Beit Liqya that supplied the bomber and explosive belt, and another cell whose members received him and transported him to the café.[17] The operation involved recruits from East Jerusalem and direction from Hamas headquarters in Ramallah.[12]

During an October 2004 investigation, two residents of ‘Isawiya said they had led Abu Salim to the café; other suspects described helping establish contact with Hamas headquarters and carry out the attack.[12] Preparations also involved making an empty apartment belonging to Abdul Aziz Umar’s father available in the Ras Hamis neighborhood of Anata refugee camp.[18]

On January 19, 2006, Abdul Aziz Umar received seven life sentences and an additional 30 years after convictions that included murder, attempted murder, and aiding an enemy in wartime.[18][19] Four life sentences were to run consecutively and the others concurrently.[18] Two other East Jerusalem men were also convicted in connection with the bombing and sentenced to seven life terms each.[19] Umar was released in the October 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange and deported to the Gaza Strip.[18]

Franchising became the principal means of operating Café Hillel’s expanding network: most branches were franchised in 2006, and all 27 café branches listed in 2010 were run by franchisees.[4][6] The chain also developed a customer club and a birthday benefit as part of an effort to serve customers seeking a more sophisticated café experience.[6]

At some Jerusalem branches, service was adapted to English-speaking customers and people using cafés as places to work.[7] Alongside English-language menus and internet access, offerings included whole-wheat croissants, special salads, hot chocolate with marshmallows, and an Americanized version of sahleb.[7] By 2018, the chain imported coffee specifically for its cafés and supplied an extensive menu that included vegan and children’s options.[1]

In 2010, the founders launched a separate boutique pizza venture, Pizza Italia, with its first outlet in the German Colony.[11] The venture planned to sell pizza by weight, supplied by Café Hillel’s bakery in Jerusalem’s Talpiot neighborhood.[11] A later profile placed the chain’s central bakery at Kibbutz Kiryat Anavim.[1]

In 2013, a friend of Alon Mizrahi pursued plans to open a burger restaurant at the former Café Hillel premises on Emek Refaim.[13] He and Mizrahi had shared a dream of opening a business together, and the planned restaurant was to include a memorial to the security guard.[13] The proposal connected the reuse of the café site with remembrance of Mizrahi, who had confronted the bomber before the explosion.[13]

Published accounts give differing injury totals for the bombing: the Israeli government document records approximately 70 wounded,[12] Ynet reported 57,[2] and a U.S. government chronology lists 47.[20] Accounts of responsibility also differ in their treatment of public claims: one U.S. chronology says that no one claimed responsibility, while another records a Hamas claim the following day.[20][21] These differences in reporting are separate from the investigative identification of Hamas-affiliated cells involved in supplying and transporting the bomber.[17]