PHILADELPHIA — In a victory against Jew-hatred, at least 1,000 Jews and their supporters turned out here Nov. 8 to support six restaurants owned by Jews who faced an organized campaign to drive them out of the city. An antisemitic “Boycott Ride” took place on the eve of commemorations around the world marking the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom — the Night of the Broken Glass — in Germany and Austria, that presaged the Nazis’ Holocaust.
A “food crawl” and broad mobilization to defend the restaurants was organized in just a couple of days by Jewish organizations and opponents of Jew-hatred, including the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, the Anti-Defamation League Philadelphia, StandWithUs and the American Jewish Committee Philadelphia/Southern New Jersey. “Let’s be clear: This is antisemitism. It is Jew-Hatred, plain and simple,” read their joint statement.
“This was not a protest of policy. It was a public campaign to intimidate Jews and drive them from their livelihoods because of who they are,” B’nai B’rith International said in a statement condemning the attack on Jews.
At the same time that opponents of the push to drive Jews out of Philadelphia lined up outside the restaurants, hundreds of others gathered at Rittenhouse Square Park at the kickoff spot for the pro-Hamas bike ride, outnumbering the bikers, blocking their way and forcing some of the cyclists to climb over a wall to get out of the park.
A disciplined response
The organizers of the pro-Hamas action failed in their plans to march on the streets unchallenged. “Take off your masks, cowards!” protesters chanted to bikers who had their faces covered with keffiyehs and masks. When one thug with a megaphone told people to “go back to Israel,” one woman responded, “I live here.” The counterdemonstration was firm and disciplined largely preventing physical confrontations.
The bike ride was led by a group called Philly Bike on Your Left, which describes itself as an “anti-fascist, anti-Zionist social cycling collective.” The ride was promoted by Philly Writers Against the War on Gaza, which hails “martyrs” like Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas terrorist leader who was key to organizing the Oct. 7, 2023, murderous pogrom in Israel.
The leaflet promoting the ride said, “These Zionist establishments must go! Not in our city.” A reactionary social media post by its organizers stated, “Ride around Rittenhouse with us as we show these zio business owners that we see them for the disgusting humans they are.”
The Democratic Socialists of America, and a list of more than 20 other organizations, including campus groups Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine at both Temple and the University of Pennsylvania, lent their support to the antisemitic action.
The six restaurants targeted were Dizengoff, Goldie, Huda, K’Far Cafe, Mac Mart and Schlesinger’s Deli. Goldie, one of several local restaurants owned by Israeli-born chef and James Beard Award winner Michael Solomonov, had been attacked by a pro-Hamas mob in December 2023. Solomonov had raised over $100,000 for a volunteer emergency services in Israel after Oct. 7.
Huda owner Yehuda Sichel told the media that his grandfather had survived the Holocaust and witnessed Kristallnacht. He said he is being targeted because he raised a few thousand dollars for injured and traumatized children after Oct. 7 that he sent to Israeli municipalities. “We’re not going anywhere,” he said. “Replacing the word ‘Jewish’ with ‘Zionist’ does not change who is being targeted.”
The opponents of Jew-hatred were buoyed by the large turnout and their ability to push back the pro-Hamas forces.
“Why did they pick the day before Kristallnacht? It’s an insult to people who are Jewish,” Jonathan Riley, a 22-year-old African American worker, told the Militant in front of Huda’s. “If they can do this to Jews, they can do this to anyone. As we know from the history of fights by Blacks, you have to stand up.”
Some demonstrators had come from New York. The Philadelphia Jewish Exponent interviewed and ran a picture of Osborne Hart and Willie Cotton, who have run as candidates of the Socialist Workers Party in Philadelphia and New York respectively. “It’s important to stand up to every manifestation of Jew-hatred that you can find,” they quoted Cotton saying.
Rabbi Phyllis Berman told the Militant she had taught a class for both Haitian and Russian-Jewish immigrants. They learned to overcome their prejudices toward one another, she said. “We must oppose those who use intimidation and vilify groups of people as a fear tactic,” she said of the demonstrators. “First they say, ‘Israeli-owned businesses.’ Then they say, ‘Jewish-owned businesses,’ then ‘Zionist-owned.’ The Nazis pushed the Jews out of Germany. We have to draw the line.”
Nov. 9-10 is the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht. Armed with axes and sledgehammers, with gasoline and pistols, Nazi thugs murdered at least 91 Jews across Germany and occupied Austria and Sudetenland — today part of the Czech Republic — raped hundreds of women, destroyed at least 267 synagogues and 7,000 Jewish businesses, vandalized cemeteries and schools and destroyed an untold number of homes.
Over 30,000 Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration camps, where thousands perished.
“Everyone has the right to peacefully protest and express their political views,” Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said in a statement addressed to the press. “But singling out businesses because their owners are Jewish is unacceptable and has no place in our city.”
Shira Yoshor, of the Am Yisrael Chai Philadelphia congregation, and who had organized actions calling for the release of the Oct. 7 hostages, reported that “the Boycott Bikers will be back Nov. 15. We need to come out in full force with flags and signs.”