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?
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.”
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