A planned boycott of Jewish-owned restaurants in Philadelphia collapsed under the weight of hundreds of counterprotesters who flooded Rittenhouse Square on Sunday.
The demonstration, timed for the eve of the Kristallnacht anniversary, drew roughly 75 masked cyclists from Philly Bike On Your Left. Matt Sheldon, 52, traveled from New York to join the response. “It’s the biggest bust of a boycott there is,” he told The Post. “They made these Jewish restaurants rock stars.”
Sheldon added that lines to support the restaurants stretched through the door.
The boycott’s social media posts had demanded the businesses leave the city. “Show these zio business owners that we see them for the disgusting humans they are,” one post said.
One targeted business owner, who runs a mac and cheese shop, said her establishment had nothing to do with Israel. She believes she was targeted because she wears a Star of David.
Throughout the neighborhood, supporters shouted at the masked cyclists as they rode through. “This is America, not Nazi, Germany, coward,” they yelled.
Outside the Israeli restaurant Dizengoff, counterprotesters waved Israeli flags and flipped off bikers. “Shame on you!” they shouted.
One boycotter on a megaphone tried to connect the restaurants to the war in Gaza. “They support 22,000 children being unalived!” the demonstrator shouted. “They’re demons!”
Police arrested at least one masked boycotter at the scene. The protest shut down early, with organizers citing “safety concerns.”
The Anti-Defamation League had issued a call for people to patronize the targeted restaurants during Sunday’s boycott. “This protest is an attempt to intimidate a Jewish community that has faced generations of violence, exclusion and antisemitism,” the organization said in a statement. “It’s the latest in a string of incidents that hold Jewish businesses responsible for events in the Middle East.”
“That’s antisemitic, plain and simple. But we refuse to let hate win,” the ADL continued.
Both Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry and Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker condemned the boycott as an antisemitic act with no place in the city.
Philly Bike On Your Left claimed the event has been “grossly misrepresented.”
The boycott fell on the eve of the 1938 anniversary when Nazi forces sacked Jewish-owned businesses and neighborhoods across Germany and Austria, murdering at least 91 Jews and rounding up others for concentration camps.
The massive counterprotest turnout transformed what organizers billed as an “anti-Zionist” action into a show of solidarity with the targeted businesses, with supporters lining up for hours to make their support visible.
