WEB EXCLUSIVE: The T-Shirt Provocateur Of Orchard Street

Apollo Braun modeling one of his off-color, anti-Obama T-shirts. Was the
story on the cover of Metro a publicity stunt to sell his shirts?

Apollo Braun modeling one of his off-color, anti-Obama T-shirts. Was the story on the cover of Metro a publicity stunt to sell his shirts?

by Randi Sherman
Staff Writer

It was the best of weeks and the worst of weeks for Apollo Braun.

The Israeli-born T-shirt designer with a shop on Orchard Street got the kind
of publicity businesspeople dream about: On July 17 he (and his off-color
product) landed on the cover of a New York tabloid < the made-for-the-subway
handout Metro.

But the story that accompanied the photo of Braun modeling the “Obama is my
slave” T-shirt strained credulity. It claimed that a grad student wearing
the shirt was attacked by a group of four African-American girls who took
offense and proceeded to yell and spit at her.

And the sole source of the story < which claimed the woman threatened to sue
the designer “for all he’s got”

< was none other than a press release from
Braun’s PR flak, one that even included the alleged victim’s cell number.

All of it < the cover exposure, the scent of a hoax and the raw sentiment
behind the T-shirt’s message < has made it quite a week for the 31-year-old
Braun, aka Doron Braunshtein.

When The Jewish Week paid him a visit at his cramped shop on Tuesday
afternoon, the long-haired, fast-talking Braun claimed to have summoned the
police to his store twice the day the story hit the streets, to deal with
berating visitors. His mother has urged him to return home to Israel, after
some have called for his head, literally.

“I’ve received death threats on the phone, especially from black people,”
Braun said. How did he know, over the phone, their ethnicity? “They sound
African-American.”

But for now, Braun is standing behind the story, claiming that there
actually was a woman who was beaten for wearing the shirt and that she is
suing him. But he’s offering no details.

If the alleged victim exists, no one has yet to unearth her. In reporting
the story, Metro tried to reach her but couldn’t. We tried the number too,
to no avail. We called NYPD but they had no information on the alleged
assault.

So here’s the story, straight from the press release sent out by the
designer’s publicist, Lauren Levy: After the graduate student was attacked,
she immediately ran and called Braun’s store on Orchard Street and
complained to the store < not the police< about the incident. The employee
who answered the phone gave the irate woman Braun’s cell phone number and
she called him, threatening to sue him for “all he’s got.”

Five days later, Metro printed a retraction of the entire story, saying it
“cannot verify the authenticity of the facts as presented S due to a
breakdown in the editorial process.” Notably missing from the contacts list
below the retraction was national editor Mark Bulliet, who has been fired,
according to a Gawker.com tipster, because he was the editor who oversaw the
story. E-mails to remaining national editor Ron Varrial went unanswered.

When asked to elaborate on the release the day of the retraction and to
contradict media Web site Gawker.com’s speculation that it was all a
publicity stunt, the designer would only say, “Everything is true, but my
lawyer says don’t talk about it. S Gawker hates me,” Braun told us. He also
said he knew nothing about the original article, the retraction or the
rumored firing.

Braun, who left the Holy Land for New York in the summer of 2001, is no
stranger to controversy. One of his fashion shows featured a gay wedding
between two models, one with a mask of President George W. Bush, the other
wearing an Osama bin Laden mask. He doesn’t seem to be a fan of any
politicians, stating he is no fan of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and
that Sen. John McCain “is not the answer” for America. His line of
anti-Obama shirts has been on sale since March, sporting slogans like “Jews
Against Obama,” “Obama = Hitler,” and “Who Killed Obama?” the latter of
which the designer claims has sold 1,200. They sell for anywhere from $69 to
$250.

While he maintains that he isn’t racist, he’s still not thrilled about a
potential Obama presidency.

“Obama will say anything you want to hear,” Braun said. “I don’t believe a
word he says.” He said his anti-Obama stance is based on his being
“pro-Jewish, pro-Israeli,” because “some of his [Obama’s advisers] are so
pro-Palestinian it’s a joke,” not that the presidential candidate is black.
Obama, he says, reminds him of Hitler. “It’s about the way [people] go after
him, like he’s the savior, a rock star. People don’t ask questions about
him.” Braun mentioned Obama’s split from his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah
Wright, which the designer said came too late in the game.

For all his anti-Obama venom, Braun swears he’s not a bigot. In fact, he
said, some African-Americans (as well as Jews) have purchased his shirts
because they find them funny. “It’s really a mix < very funky people,
creative, hipsters.” Some people buy the anti-Obama shirts because they
agree with them, others because they find it “ironic.” Anyone who is
offended by the shirts “doesn’t have a sense of humor,” Braun said. “This is
about the power of words. S I don’t want them to understand me. People who
don’t like Obama love me.”

Web sites like Gawker believe it’s all a stunt to get people into his store,
and the designer isn’t helping matters. As this Jewish Week reporter was
leaving, he attempted to sell her a copy of his self-published book of
poetry, “America, My Whore.”

Westchester Jewish Conference

Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization