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Supporters line up outside Jewish-owned restaurants in Philadelphia during a boycott protest
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Jewish Restaurants Targeted For Boycott Draw 90-Minute Lines In Philadelphia

An attempted boycott of Jewish restaurants in Philadelphia turned into a very public customer revolt Sunday, with lines running around blocks and supporters ordering food by the load. The businesses were supposed to feel economic pressure. Instead, they received a rush of customers and street-level solidarity on the eve of the anniversary of Kristallnacht.

Pro-Palestinian cyclists from Philly Bike On Your Left and allied groups rode into Rittenhouse Square, targeting Mac Mart, Goldie, Dizengoff, K’Far, Huda, and Schlesinger’s Deli. Flyers declared, “No business for Zionists” and called the owners “disgusting humans.” Organizers said the campaign was about Israel, not Jews, and denied intentionally choosing the date. Police estimated roughly 200 people in the bike contingent, with about 300 protesters overall.

Hundreds of counterprotesters and customers from across the East Coast answered with an old-fashioned tactic: spending their own money. Lines stretched around the blocks for hours, with some people waiting 90 minutes or more for a bowl of mac and cheese or a falafel. Supporters waved Israeli flags, flipped off the riders, and shouted, “This is America, not Nazi Germany” and “Shame!” One New Yorker who drove down called the boycott “the biggest bust” imaginable and joked that the protesters had turned the restaurants into “rock stars.” For a boycott, it had an impressive talent for generating customers.

Jewish organizations helped turn the backlash into a coordinated food crawl. The ADL urged people to eat at the targeted restaurants, while the Jewish Federation encouraged people to spend money rather than argue. Synagogues placed large group orders, and JewBelong billboards told the city to “boycott the boycott ride.” Local rabbis, the AJC, StandWithUs, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum condemned the demonstration as straight-up Jew-hatred.

The restaurant owners said the response was overwhelming. Mac Mart’s Marti Lieberman said everyone remains welcome. Huda’s Yehuda Sichel explained why the protest struck such a personal nerve: “It’s pretty personal to me. Not okay. My grandfather witnessed [Kristallnacht] as a 10-year-old child in Germany … people singling out Jewish businesses, using Zionism as a euphemism to attack Jewish people is not okay.”

The timing added another painful layer. November 9-10 marks the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the 1938 Nazi pogrom across Germany and Austria. After a Jewish teenager shot a German diplomat in Paris, Nazi leaders used the killing as an excuse for coordinated terror. Mobs burned more than a thousand synagogues, smashed the windows of roughly 7,500 Jewish businesses, ransacked homes and schools, and killed at least 91 Jews. About 30,000 Jewish men were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. The broken glass in the streets gave the night its name, marking the move from legal discrimination toward organized violence and, ultimately, the Holocaust.

In Philadelphia, the attempted boycott produced the opposite result. Instead of isolating Jewish restaurants, it filled their registers and put supporters in the streets. Three people were arrested during the pro-Palestinian bicycle protest, but the larger public response came through food orders, flags, and customers refusing to look away. The campaign arrived promising punishment and wound up providing free publicity, which is not usually how a boycott is supposed to work.

Source: The Daily Wire

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