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Dave’s Gone By Skit: RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #211 (6/27/2026): Bad Coffee

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Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #211 (6/27/2026): BAD COFFEE

Subject: Rabbi Sol reflects on a Brooklyn coffee shop’s anti-Semitism.

This Rabbinical Reflection first aired June 27, 2026 on the “Dave’s Gone By” video podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

Rabbi Sol’s Rabbinical Reflections air on the long-running Dave’s Gone By program (davesgoneby.com) and are also archived on the Rebbe’s blog, Shalomdammit.com.

Rabbi Sol is also the creator of the stage shows, “Shalom Dammit! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon” and “Hate Speech…With Love: Another Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon.”

TRANSCRIPT:
RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #211 (6/27/2026): Bad Coffee

Shalom, Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon, with a Rabbinical Reflection for the end of June 2026.

What the hell has happened to coffee? It wasn’t so long ago that if you wanted a morning brew in New York, there’d be a guy in a cart, and for a buck he’d hand you a fresh Folger’s, with cream and two sugars, napkins, a donut, and a tip on the third race at Belmont. Okay, maybe that was so long ago. For decades we’ve grown inured to the Starbucking of America. Jackie Mason said it best when he warned us, “Coffee in a coffee shop? Sixty cents, with cream. At Starbucks, it’s Cafe Latte: 3.50. Each French word costs another four dollars. No tables, no chairs, no busboy, you have to clean up — and it’s burnt coffee. If you get burnt coffee at a coffee shop, you call a cop. But when it’s burnt at Starbucks, it’s a blend.”

But at least Starbucks, which became a global powerhouse when led by a proudly Jewish CEO, stays mostly out of politics. Three years ago some of the unionized workers got mouthy about Gaza, but that simply triggered the most Jewish result of all: competing lawsuits. Since then, Starbucks has been extremely careful to say, “We don’t support Israel; we don’t not support Israel. We have stores all over Arabia, but the terrorists don’t get gift cards.” Like Switzerland in World War II, Starbucks’s neutrality is disingenuous and cowardly, but at least they didn’t join the other side like the French and Italians.

Nowadays, however, self-righteous identity politics is everything. It’s not enough to sell an eight-dollar mochaccino to some Gen Z schmuck; you also have to treat them to your Instagram-based musings on social justice. It shouldn’t surprise us that coffee pourers think they’re experts on decolonization. The whole point of coffee is de-colonizing – getting the crap out of our colons.

But a different kind of crap is being served up at one java shop in Brooklyn: Poetica Coffee, which is run by a jerk named Parviz Mukhamadkulov – and I wish this Mohammedan would cool off. Poetica refused to serve a pro-Israel Jewish politician. The store wrote on its official Facebook page, “Hey Congressman Dan Goldman. Do you see how our coffee doesn’t taste like genocide juice? Here at Poetica we don’t serve genocide enablers. We issued you a refund – your money’s probably coming from AIPAC anyway. Don’t ever come to Poetica.” Unquote. Obviously, this Parviz guy is chock full of nuts. But he’s getting away with this garbage! Hordes of Brooklyn millennials who fancy themselves baby Nelson Mandelas are cheering this douche-nozzle as he sells his rancid Robustas and gives only the Arabs Arabica. You gotta love a coffee shop that creams itself over equal rights while denying a customer . . . equal rights!

Tuesday’s primaries showed the New York Democratic party moving even further towards radical anti-Semitism, so Poetica’s perversion should not shock us. Still, the gall of this guy’s blatant Israel-bashing, that crosses way past altruism into straight-up Jew hate, can be met only with incredulity and rage. I am heartened by the counterprotestors who staged a pro-Israel, anti-Mamdani rally outside Poetica, telling those progressos to drown in their espressos. I am disheartened by Congressman Goldman losing in the primary to Jewish kapo Brad Lander, a bleeding-heart socialist who parrots all Hamas’s talking points about the “horrors” of Zionism. You know he’ll be getting free refills from the eyebrow-piercing crowd.

But the funniest part of all this – and none of this is funny – is that when Poetica refunded Dan Goldman’s cup of coffee and tip (because, yes, Jews do tip), he got back $9.82. That’s nearly ten dollars for heated brown water. And people pay it!

So here’s my idea: the most expensive coffee in the world is called kopi luwak. That’s the one where an Asian cat called a civet eats the coffee beans and then excretes them. Supposedly, the bowel movements taste fantastic with non-dairy creamer. Well, Parviz, let me go the civets one better. I will eat a dozen coffee beans then climb up on your counter and shit into your mouth and down your throat. The flavor will be rich, distinctive, and, if you have an enema handy, sustainable. Oh, sure, you might choke to death, and that would be poetic – and Poetica – justice.

This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches, in Great Neck, New York. Good to the last plop.

Dave’s Gone By Skit: RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #210 (6/20/2026): NEW YORK KNICKS

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Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #210 (6/20/2026): NEW YORK KNICKS

Subject: Rabbi Sol reflects on the Knicks’ championship season.

This Rabbinical Reflection first aired June 20, 2026 on the “Dave’s Gone By” video podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

Rabbi Sol’s Rabbinical Reflections air on the long-running Dave’s Gone By program (davesgoneby.com) and are also archived on the Rebbe’s blog, Shalomdammit.com.

Rabbi Sol is also the creator of the stage shows, “Shalom Dammit! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon” and “Hate Speech…With Love: Another Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon.”

RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #210 (6/20/2026): New York Knicks

Shalom, Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon, with a Rabbinical Reflection for late June 2026.

When the Jews exodused from Egypt, they spent 40 years wandering the desert. In fact, by the time they got to Israel, they were dead, literally; only the next generation made it to the Holyland. Well, 40 years plus 13 is 53 years. That’s how long New Yorkers have waited for a basketball squad to lead us out of exile into the NBA promised land.

In 1973, nice Jewish coach Red Holzman led the New York Knicks to a 700 record and a championship win over the L.A. Lakers. `Twas the season of Phil Jackson, Dave DeBusschere, Walt Frazier, Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, and Bill “The Senator” Bradley. Who knew then it would take five decades of often lousy B-ball to be-good?

But it happened this week! Kicking away the San Antonio Spurs in only five games, the Knicks, led by superstar Jalen Brunson, went the distance and gave New Yorkers a legitimate reason to set fires, overturn cars, and cavort like happy lunatics instead of oppressed ones.

After years traipsing through a wilderness of bad teams, selfish players, and dumb drafts, the Knickerbockers finally knicked their bockers. And let me tell you — it wasn’t always easy to cheer them on. Remember those two knucklehead Knicks who were interviewed by the New York Times, and when bringing up the bible, took the opportunity to bash Jews and call us Christ killers? That was 25 years ago, but let’s face it, with celebrities and athletes today, it could’ve been last week! And just in terms of incompetence, twice in the last decade, the Knicks went 17 and 65. Those happen to be my two favorite ages of a woman, but be that as it may… The Knicks were so bad, they made the New York Jets look – no, nothing can make the Jets look good, but it was easy to think the Knicks were equally sunk.

So there’s your object lesson of the day! No matter how hopeless, no matter how long the trail of failure, no matter how many fickle fingers of fault get pointed – there’s a way out of the desert if you work hard, change your attitude, get a little lucky, and make your own luck. Easy, right? No, if it was easy I’d be at Universal Studios directing Adam Sandler movies in Yiddish. But it is possible.

We celebrate the triumph of the New York Knicks — or any team — because they prove that collaboration, skill, and endurance can lead to glory. Alas, I couldn’t go to the Knicks’ victory parade on Thursday because of a bursitis issue. But I was there in spirit. (Interesting that Mayor Mamdani was there in the flesh and attended two playoff games – yet somehow had no time in his calendar for the Israel Day Parade. Priorities.)

But this moment is not for politics or nitpicking. It’s for the Knicks finally clicking and rewarding the true fans who kept sticking.

This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches, in Great Neck, New York. Slam dunk!

—> https://davelefkowitzwriting.wordpress.com/?p=15763

Dave’s Gone By Interview (6/13/2026): JOE FOX & Rabbi Sol Solomon

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Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with filmmaker JOE FOX

Topics include: Don’t Cry for Me My Yeshiva, Rwanda, Orthodox Judaism, homosexuality, L.A. riots

Segment airs June 13, 2026 as part of episode #1036 of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio/video podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

Please Note: Segments extracted from “Dave’s Gone By” may have music and other elements removed for timing and media re-posting considerations. For the full interview with all elements, please visit the audio of the complete original broadcast.

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com

More information about Rabbi Sol Solomon: shalomdammit.com

Dave’s Gone By Skit (5/30/2026): STORYTIME-Rabbi Sol Solomon Shares an A.I. Rap and Reads “Miriam and her Dancing Shoes”

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Dave’s Gone By Skit (5/30/2026): STORYTIME – Rabbi Sol Solomon shares an A.I. rap and reads “Miriam and her Dancing Shoes”

For this week’s StoryTime segment on Dave’s Gone By, Rabbi Sol Solomon reads a Jewish rap concocted for him by Artificial Intelligence and then reads Sandy Eisenberg Sasso’s “Miriam and her Dancing Shoes”

This segment aired April 25, 2026 as part of episode #1029 of the “Dave’s Gone By” video podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz. Full episodes also available on youtube, Facebook (davesgoneby), and on DavesGoneBy.com.

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com

Pet potato: https://youtu.be/Js_fkVmkH4Q

Dave’s Gone By Interview (5/23/2026): JENNA ESPOSITO & Rabbi Sol Solomon

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Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with singer JENNA ESPOSITO

Topics include: Italian song, San Gennaro, cabaret, Marilyn Maye, Connie Francis

Segment airs May 23, 2026 as part of episode #1033 of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio/video podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com

More information about Rabbi Sol Solomon: shalomdammit.com

Dave’s Gone By Skit: RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #208 (5/23/2026): Mosque Attack

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Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #208 (5/23/2026): MOSQUE ATTACK

This Rabbinical Reflection first aired May 23, 2026 on the Dave’s Gone By video podcast.

Rabbi Sol’s Rabbinical Reflections air on the long-running Dave’s Gone By program (davesgoneby.com) and are also archived on the Rebbe’s blog, Shalomdammit.com.

Rabbi Sol is also the creator of the stage shows, “Shalom Dammit! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon” and “Hate Speech…With Love: Another Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon.”

TRANSCRIPT:
Shalom, Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon, with a Rabbinical Reflection for late May 2026.

So often in these mini-sermons, I am mourning and expressing rage at attacks on Israel, synagogues, and the Jewish community. It came as almost a shock this week when a mosque, the Islamic Center of San Diego, became the target of terror. Three innocent people, including a security guard, were murdered by a couple of teenagers, whose stockpile of weapons included 30 guns and a crossbow. This is a horrible story, yet another in a long line of gun-crazy crazies ruining life for the rest of us. Condolences to the survivors of the dead, and compassion for the Moslem community enduring an unquestionable hate crime.

However, that said, there’s also room for gratitude. (And yes, here comes the politically incorrect part). As Jews, we should be grateful that the shooters were named Clark and Vazquez, and not Cohen and Vogel. All we needed now was another excuse for the watermelon crowd to bash us.

Speaking of the Intifada, I hate to say it (actually, I don’t hate to say it; I’m just gonna say it), but this is the Muslims getting a taste of their own medicine. For 78 years, Jews have lived with both the threat, and the realization, of terror violence. Year after year of bombings, blastings, stabbings, hijackings, four all-out wars, and then the atrocities of October 7th, 2023. Jews are forever the targets of blind hatred and slaughter – all too often at the hands of Arabs.

I am not saying, “Aha! This time we get one back!” That is reductive and ugly, even for me. Then I’d be like the Luigiites. They celebrate a psycho because the healthcare guy he shot was responsible for much more suffering and death than Luigi’s single killing. Still, two wrongs don’t…dot dot dot.

But perhaps this awful tragedy at the San Diego mosque will be a reminder that no matter how you despise someone else, terrorism is the wrong response. For example, just because it feels right to assassinate the guy who replaced supermarket cashiers with automated kiosks doesn’t mean it is right. Maybe.

And let’s not forget, those teenage losers in California didn’t just hate Muslims. These white supremacists abhorred schvartes, faigeles, women – because they couldn’t get laid – Republicans and Democrats. Oh, and they wrote a manifesto blaming Jews for everything. Well, isn’t that a kumbaya moment? Muslims, white supremacists, leftist progressives, and writers for the New York Times all standing together against the Hebrews. Hey, free country. Loathe us all you want. But if you go the next step, once in a great while, it’ll be your brains on the sidewalk. You have been warned.

This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches, in Great Neck, New York.

Happy shavuis.

Dave’s Gone By Skit: RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #207 (5/16/2026): Abraham Foxman

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Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #207 (5/16/2026): ABRAHAM FOXMAN

This Rabbinical Reflection first aired May 16, 2026 on the Dave’s Gone By video podcast.

Rabbi Sol’s Rabbinical Reflections are heard on the long-running Dave’s Gone By radio/video podcast program (davesgoneby.com) and then archived as text and audio on the Rebbe’s blog, Shalomdammit.com, where a transcript of this Reflection may be read.

Rabbi Sol is also the creator of the stage show, “Shalom Dammit! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon,” which played in NYC in Nov. 2011 and Aug. 2012.

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com