Kosher bakery, under fire for refusing to make Pride pastries, welcomes Supreme Court ruling
A view of rainbow cupcakes at the Brunch Out With Trevor at Kimpton Hotel Event in New York City. Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for Kimpton Hotel Eventi and Abercrombie & Fitch
By Louis Keene June 30, 2023
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that a Colorado web designer was justified in refusing to work on same-sex weddings for religious reasons, it delivered a timely measure of vindication to an Orthodox Jewish bakery in New Jersey.
West Orange Bake Shop, which has been in business for nearly 25 years, has been the target of social media vitriol and a mini boycott in recent days, after rejecting a local synagogue’s order of rainbow pastries for Pride month.
The Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest New Jersey announced June 20 that it was withdrawing its business, according to an article in the New Jersey Jewish News, along with a number of area rabbis who inveighed against the bakery’s policy in sermons and online.
But some expressed support for the bakery, noting a Supreme Court ruling in a 2018 case that allowed a Colorado cake shop to reject same-sex wedding orders, and MetroWest’s vice president, Dov Ben-Shimon, issued a statement June 27 saying: “We sincerely regret that our actions have caused divisiveness in our community.”
In an interview Friday hours after the latest Supreme Court decision, the proprietor of the West Orange bakery, Yitzy Mittel, said he was grateful for a decision that “protects the rights of Americans in the realm of free speech” — and that he had been inundated with messages assailing him based on a misconstruing of the situation.
“We are tolerant, and we are understanding, we are sympathetic,” Mittel said. “But that goes both ways.” Regarding the court ruling, he added: “Thank God there are people that stand up for what’s right.”
In Friday’s ruling, the last of the term, the justices sided with the evangelical Christian plaintiff 6-3. It was the latest in a series of decisions backing individuals’ religious freedoms — or, depending on your perspective, blurring the line between church and state. Orthodox Jewish groups have generally welcomed these decisions, and sometimes file briefs supporting them.
The court on Thursday expanded protections for religious employees by siding with a postal worker who refused to work on the Sabbath. Last year it expanded voucher programs that use public money to pay for religious-school tuitions, and affirmed a high school football coach’s right to pray on the field.
The West Orange Bake Shop controversy highlights a hardening cultural divide between the Orthodox and other Jews, especially over LGBTQ+ issues.
The trouble with rainbow cupcakes
West Orange is a bedroom community of about 47,000 people in easy commuting distance from Manhattan. It is next door to liberal, gay-friendly Montclair, and home to both the area’s nondenominational Jewish day school and a growing Orthodox community. The Bake Shop is one of few kosher options in the area, known for making excellent challah.
The trouble began with an order placed on a Tuesday by Congregation B’nai Israel, a Conservative synagogue in nearby Millburn: a Pride-themed cake.
Mittel said he called the next day and told the synagogue he could not make the cake, but did not offer a reason. Later that day, the synagogue called back to add 10 pounds of cookies to the order, he said, and he gave them a discount.
When Rabbi Julie Schwarzwald came to pick up the synagogue’s order that Friday, she tried to engage his wife, who works at the bakery, in a conversation about the matter. But Mittel’s wife demurred, saying she was more comfortable with her husband answering those questions.
“When I went in and asked the woman at West Orange Bake Shop if they were canceled because of Pride, the answer that I got was that I would need to speak with her husband, who makes those decisions,” Rabbi Schwarzwald, B’nai Israel’s director of congregational learning, told the New Jersey Jewish News.
“It seems clear that the bakery has made the decision that Pride is not something they want to support,” she added. “It’s their choice, it’s their legal right, and I can choose to spend my dollars wherever I want.” (Rabbi Schwarzwald did not respond to a message on Friday.)
Mittel elaborated on his reasoning in an interview for the Forward.
“It’s antithetical to an Orthodox Jew,” Mittel said in the interview Friday. “When somebody asks me to do something which is uncomfortable as a Torah-observant Jew, then I’m going to say, well, I’m uncomfortable doing that.”
The administrator of the Facebook group Secret Montclair posted June 15 that she was “extremely disgusted and disappointed” that the Bake Shop had canceled a Pride order. Sixty-seven commenters weighed in, some urging complaints to local politicians, others suggesting a discrimination lawsuit.
“I’m kinda happy when businesses show their prejudices up front. Makes it easier to boycott,” one said. “It’s better than worrying that a homophobe messed with my food.”
Standing their ground
Mittel, for his part, insisted that he is not homophobic. He said he regularly serves gay customers and has continued to since the outcry began. And he said that some had privately voiced their support for his religious freedom, including one gay Orthodox Jew and a member of a different Conservative congregation in the area.
Others continued to be rankled. A mom in Montclair who patronizes the bakery — and who spoke on the condition she not be named because she works in the Jewish community — said that after hearing about the controversy, she decided to see for herself.
She went to the Bake Shop and ordered a pareve cake to bring to a family cookout. No problem. Then she asked for rainbow cupcakes to celebrate her son’s birthday. No way.
“It makes me sad because I don’t think there’s a place in the Jewish community for people to be closed-minded in that way,” she said. “I really don’t want to patronize a bakery that feels that way. By not making Pride cupcakes, they’re saying, ‘We’re not helping you to celebrate who you are.’”
Mittel said he had not seen a decline in business despite the uproar, and that he had recently spoken to Ben-Shimon, the federation’s vice president, and expected the federation to soon restore its business with the bakery. (Ben-Shimon could not be reached on Friday afternoon.)
And Mittel thanked the Supreme Court for supporting his religious prerogative.
“The amendments are there to protect us and provide us all with freedoms,” Mittel said, referring to the Bill of Rights. “That’s what makes this country a beacon to the world, and hopefully, it’ll continue to be so with the Supreme Court’s decision.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled Yitzy Mittel’s first name.
Correction: An earlier version of this article mischaracterized Mittel’s interaction with the first customer who ordered the Pride cake. He did not offer a reason when he canceled the order.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated that Mittel would rather close his store than make Pride cupcakes. Mittel did not say that and the sentence has been removed.
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