Pink Peacock (

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

: , ) was a

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargi ...

and

infoshop Infoshops are places in which people can access anarchist or autonomist ideas. They are often stand-alone projects, or can form part of a larger radical bookshop, archive, self-managed social centre or community centre. Typically, infoshops offer ...

in the Govanhill area of

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. Described by its founders as "

anti-Zionist Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the Palestine (region) ...

" and "the only

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

Yiddish

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

vegan pay-what-you-can café in the world", it opened physically in 2021, after being delayed by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, and announced its closure in June 2023. The owners plan to reopen in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

's Crown Heights neighborhood in mid-2025.

Establishment

Pink Peacock was founded by Morgan Holleb and Joe Isaac, both active participants in ''Irn-Ju'', a Jewish anarchist collective in Scotland. The founders formed plans to open a

and

café in 2019. They chose the name Pink Peacock, or () in Yiddish, after the

golden peacock Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall *Golden Cap, Dorset *Golden Square, Soho, London *Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome, Stroud#Golden Val ...

that is a traditional Yiddish symbol. They were motivated by the lack of queer and Jewish spaces in Govanhill, and the lack of Yiddish spaces in Scotland; the café was the country's first physical Yiddish-focused space to open in decades. In July 2020, Pink Peacock campaigned to crowdfund £10,000 to cover the costs of running the café for three months. They successfully raised a total of £15,885 by the end of the campaign in August 2020. The

disrupted the planned opening of the café. During the

COVID-19 lockdowns During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of Non-pharmaceutical intervention (epidemiology), non-pharmaceutical interventions, particularly lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar socie ...

, Isaac and Holleb distributed packages of food in Govanhill and organised various queer and Jewish online events.

Operation

Pink Peacock operated on a pay-what-you-can model, telling customers the break-even price but allowing them to pay any amount. The café was alcohol-free and

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...

, and had a community fridge outside the café stocked with food. In addition to food, they sold what '' Jewish Currents'' described in 2021 as "Jewish lefty merch". The café was run as a

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

by workers and community members.

Use of Yiddish

Pink Peacock maintained a Yiddish version of its website, and used the language on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

, unlike many other Yiddish-focused organisations. In a 2020 article for the

Jewish Telegraphic Agency The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) is an international news agency and wire service that primarily covers Judaism- and Jewish-related topics and news. Described as the "Associated Press of the Jewish media", JTA serves Jewish and non-Jewish news ...

, Holleb explained that "Yiddish is a way of connecting with a Jewish language that isn’t modern Hebrew. There isn’t Yiddish nationhood. It is a diasporic language."

Anti-police policy and tote bags

In June 2021, Pink Peacock was the subject of reporting in the tabloid '' The Scottish Sun'', which criticised their policy of "no cops, no terfs". Subsequently, the café's storefront was vandalised when a man painted over it. The cafe had also experienced vandalism a month prior to these events, in May 2021 when a window had been smashed in an incident which also saw windows broken in adjacent branches of

Farmfoods Farmfoods Limited is a Scottish frozen food and grocery supermarket chain based in Cumbernauld, Scotland. It is owned by Eric Herd, and has over three hundred shops in the United Kingdom, of which more than a hundred are in Scotland. Farmfood ...

and Semichem. Additionally, the coverage led to a complaint about the café displaying in its window a pink

tote bag A tote bag is a large, typically unfastened bag with parallel handles that emerge from the sides of its pouch. Totes are often used as reusable shopping bags. The archetypal tote bag is made of sturdy cloth, perhaps with thick leather at its h ...

with the words " fuck the police" in English and Yiddish, which in turn led

Police Scotland Police Scotland (), officially the Police Service of Scotland (), is the national police force of Scotland. It was formed in 2013, through the merging of eight regional police forces in Scotland, as well as the specialist services of the Scottis ...

to visit Holleb and Isaac's home. Holleb was subsequently charged with

breach of the peace Breach of the peace or disturbing the peace is a legal term used in constitutional law in English-speaking countries and in a public order sense in the United Kingdom. It is a form of disorderly conduct. Public order England, Wales and Norther ...

, and Glasgow police seized one of the tote bags from Pink Peacock as evidence. After the seizure, which was publicised in local media and on Pink Peacock's Twitter account, the café sold out of the bags.

Handcuff key sales

On 30 September, the café launched the sale of universal handcuff keys. They were met with criticism online as this coincided with the sentencing of a police officer convicted of the murder of Sarah Everard after falsely arresting her and restraining her in handcuffs. The café later issued a statement claiming the keys had been promoted with the upcoming

2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as COP26, was the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference, held at the SEC Centre in Glasgow, Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, coun ...

protests in mind and not the Sarah Everard case and said the timing was insensitive. Using such keys while being arrested would count as

resisting arrest An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be Interroga ...

, potentially creating more trouble for any potential buyer of such keys.

Book burning

In May 2023, for the Jewish holiday of

Lag BaOmer Lag BaOmer (, ''LaG Bāʿōmer''), also Lag B'Omer or Lag LaOmer, is a Judaism, Jewish religious holiday celebrated on the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer, which occurs on the 18th day of the Hebrew calendar, Hebrew month of Iyar. Accordin ...

, Pink Peacock members burned a copy of '' Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'' on the pavement outside the cafe, to protest transphobia and antisemitism from author

J. K. Rowling Joanne Rowling ( ; born 31 July 1965), known by her pen name , is a British author and philanthropist. She is the author of ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume fantasy novel series published from 1997 to 2007. The series has List of best-sell ...

. A spokesperson denied that the act was similar to

Nazi book burnings The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the German Student Union (, ''DSt'') to ceremonially Book burning, burn books in Nazi Germany and First Austrian Republic, Austria in the 1930s. The books targeted for burning were those viewed ...

, due to differences in power between a government and a café.

Closing

Pink Peacock closed on 14 June 2023, with the organisation citing a number of reasons including burnout, backlash from TERFs, antisemitism from the left and right, and racism within the collective toward minority members. One of the group's co-founders said that the organisation faced more antisemitism from the left than from the right. One volunteer said that the café had faced rumours from other left-wing groups that the members were secretly wealthy

American Jews American Jews (; ) or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by culture, ethnicity, or religion. According to a 2020 poll conducted by Pew Research, approximately two thirds of American Jews identify as Ashkenazi, 3% id ...

exploiting workers.

Re-opening

Co-founders Moishe Holleb and Miles Grant emigrated back to the United States, where they are citizens, and are planning to re-open in

's Crown Heights neighborhood, known for its Jewish community, during mid-2025. As of February 2025, they did not have a lease.

References

External links