BROOKLINE — Michael’s Deli owner Steven Peljovich became a cause célèbre in early May when he vented on Instagram about a sticker he found on the window of his Coolidge Corner eatery proclaiming, “End the Israeli occupation of Palestine.”

Over 40 stickers have appeared on his storefront since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, with messages ranging from “End the occupation” and “Free Palestine” to “Boycott Jews” and “Death to Israel.”

“I’m getting really tired of finding stickers like this on the door and windows of my business,” Peljovich wrote on May 3. “It wouldn’t bother me so much if it was on the door/windows of other businesses or street signs around me and not just the proudly Jewish owned business.”

The Instagram post has since been viewed over 40,000 times and elicited 1,200 likes and 150 comments. Elected officials and Jewish leaders have made appearances at the deli. The Boston Globe solicited an op-ed that was published on May 15.

Peljovich describes the community’s reaction as “overwhelming and very positive,” if a bit “surreal.”

“When I was writing that post, it was just to get it off my chest, so I wouldn’t be angry all day,” he told this reporter. “I was just venting on social media, because I was gonna cuss out the first customer who came in if I didn’t. It’s become so much bigger than that.

“I’m just a guy that makes food to try to make people happy, and at the end of it, I just want to get back to what I used to do.”

Whatever political message the vandals want to convey, Peljovich thinks the window of his Jewish deli is the wrong place to do it.

“If you’ve got a message you want to send out, send it out everywhere, put the stickers all over the sidewalk,” he said. “Because if you’re trying to teach people something, if you’re just putting the sticker on my door, you’re a schmuck.

“I can’t fathom how that mindset works. I don’t go to Chinese restaurants going, ‘Holy f—, your country is like the most oppressive regime on the planet.’ I just go, ‘Damn, that’s pretty good wonton soup.’”

Peljovich’s family is from Cuba, and inside Michael’s Deli, which he bought 14 years ago, are two miniature flags.

“I have an Israeli flag, and I have a Cuban flag, as well,” he said. “That’s my heritage. I’m going to be proud of my heritage. Doesn’t mean that my heritage has always done good things. We live in America; doesn’t mean America’s always done good things. Still be proud to be American. So unless you’re going to go attack everybody for everything they’ve ever done through their heritages, leave me alone. Let me make food.

“Go to the embassy, go to City Hall, go to the places that can effect change. Because even if I agreed with you, what the hell am I gonna do about it? Am I gonna call and say, ‘Yo Bibi [Netanyahu], how you doing, buddy?’ The only point of [the vandalism] is to stick a middle finger at me, or the person doing it is so stupid that they don’t realize that I can’t do anything anyway.”

After he posted, Peljovich was willing to let the matter drop. He only reported the latest incident to the police at the urging of two customers, state Rep. Tommy Vitolo and American Jewish Committee New England Assistant Director Scott Gladstone.

That investigation is ongoing, said Brookline Police spokesperson Russell O’Neill. He described the surveillance footage as very grainy and of very poor quality, which makes it difficult to identify the suspect.

That’s fine with Peljovich. While he agrees the vandalism is “a bad, bad thing,” it pales in comparison to some of the “real bad stuff they’re investigating. It’s just stickers. I’m a big boy, I can defend myself – from stickers, at least.”

Sixteen current and former town and state elected officials, local rabbis, and officers of large Jewish organizations appeared at Michael’s Deli for a TV and social media photo op on May 8.

One of them, Anti-Defamation League New England Executive Director Samantha Joseph, said in a written statement that the 40 anti-Israel stickers were not a political protest but “relentless antisemitic vandalism.”

She noted that according to ADL’s 2025 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, four of the 23 business establishment incidents in Massachusetts in 2025 targeted Jewish-owned businesses. Among those, Joseph said, was the June 15, 2025 incident when a brick reading “Free Palestine” was thrown through the window of The Butcherie, the kosher market on the other side of Coolidge Corner.

While stickers similar to those found at Michael’s Deli were posted along Harvard Street on the night of The Butcherie attack, Brookline Police said they have no concrete evidence linking the two incidents.

Spokesperson O’Neill said incidents of antisemitic vandalism in Brookline are rare. Some yard signs have been damaged since 2023, he said, but those were also considered unrelated incidents.

Chris Mutty, director of Brookline member engagement for the Charles River Regional Chamber, a commercial and nonprofit member organization that covers Brookline, Newton, Needham, Watertown and Wellesley, said what happened at The Butcherie and Michael’s Deli may be isolated events.

“We haven’t heard of any other incidents of this kind of vandalism, but we’re definitely keeping an eye out for it, and we’ll be aware if something else happens within our communities,” Mutty said.

Peljovich is less interested in fighting antisemitism than he is with offering his customers the finest Jewish deli food and beverages he can.

“If Cel-Ray and Moxie can hang out in my place together, why can’t we all just get along?” he said. Θ

Contact reporter Brett M. Rhyne at brett@jewishjournal.org.