Café Hillel is a cafe

Café

A café , also spelled cafe, in most countries refers to an establishment which focuses on serving coffee, like an American coffeehouse. In the United States, it may refer to an informal restaurant, offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches...

, espresso bar, and sandwich bar chain in Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

.

History

The first branch opened on Hillel Street

Hillel Street

Hillel Street is one of the central streets of Jerusalem. It connects King George Street to the small Ben Sira Street and the Mamilla neighbourhood and is parallel to Ben Yehuda Street...

 in Jerusalem in 1998, which became the source of its name. The chain now has 24 branches all over the country. The café has a red and black color scheme, and sells its own private label coffee.

Most of the branches are run by franchises, with only two or three owned directly by the company. Eddie Katz is the vice president of operations. By 2004, the chain was operating 12 cafes in cities around Israel.

In 2003, seven people were killed and over 50 wounded in the Café Hillel bombing

Café Hillel bombing

The Café Hillel bombing was a Palestinian suicide bombing carried out on September 9, 2003 in a coffee shop in the German Colony neighborhood in Jerusalem...

, a suicide attack at the Jerusalem branch of the cafe in Jerusalem. Dr. David Applebaum

David Applebaum

David Applebaum was an American-born Israeli physician and rabbi. He was chief of the emergency room and trauma services of Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center. Applebaum was killed in a Palestinian suicide bombing at Cafe Hillel in Jerusalem on September 9, 2003.-Biography:David Applebaum...

, a renowned emergency room doctor who treated numerous suicide attack victims, was killed along with his 20-year-old daughter Nava Applebaum

Nava Applebaum

Nava Applebaum was a 20-year-old Israeli-American woman who was murdered together with her father on the evening before her wedding by a Palestinian suicide bomber....

who was to be married the next day.