The Philadelphia Anti-Jewish Campaign
On Sunday, the 8th of November 2026, a bicycle ride “protest” took place past a number of Jewish owned restaurants in downtown Philadelphia. The bike ride was in the vicinity of the Rittenhouse Square area.
Of significance is that the ride is planned to coincide with the beginning of the Holocaust in Europe. November 8th is the anniversary of what is known as Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass. Pogroms, riots, and attacks against the Jewish community in Germany started on this date in 1938. It was the run up to the Holocaust which resulted in the destruction of what remained of the European Jewish community. 6 million Jews died in what is known as the Shoah, following more than 1,000 years of destruction of the Jewish community in western Europe.
The restaurants being boycotted in Rittenhouse Square are owned by Jews. They have no formal connection with the wider Jewish community or Israel. Perhaps what is most telling is that the restaurants are not even kosher. Kosher restaurants do not serve milk and meat together, use kosher ingredients, and are supervised by a proper kosher authority. One of the restaurants is vegan and has a certification to that effect.
So, if the restaurants have few ties to Israel, the greater Jewish community, or any particular religious observance, then what is going on here? The bicycle ride organizers have made it very clear that they are simply antisemites, opposed to Jews living in Philadelphia, or anywhere on earth for that matter. They are bigots, no different than the southern Democrats who rode in on horses wearing white sheets and burning crosses intended to intimidate their African American neighbors.
During those trying times in the post-Civil War era, it was frequently the Jewish community that stood up for African Americans. Rabbis, Jewish college students, and Jewish congregations throughout the United States became followers, devotees, and admirers of Martin Luther King who proudly proclaimed himself a Zionist! Is the Jewish community in America today, under unbridled attack, receiving the same support from minority communities? Perhaps “yes,” in some places, but a big “no” in many others. No one in their right mind is boycotting African American businesses because of genocide in Africa.
The Jewish community in and around Philadelphia and the suburbs is significant in size. The mainline of Philadelphia which was, not so many years ago, offline to Jew and was unwelcoming, now has a significant Jewish population. The City of Philadelphia still has noteworthy Jewish communities, as does both East and West Philadelphia. And yet, there are very few kosher restaurants anywhere in or around the Philadelphia area. For those of who keep kosher, and follow the biblical dietary laws, dining out is almost impossible. We will not give the names here of the few kosher restaurants that do exist in the Philadelphia area lest they become targets of the repulsive bigotry which grips our historically open-minded Commonwealth.
Few people will remember that it was the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania which was one of the first objectants to slavery. In the first Congress of the United States of America, it was the Pennsylvania delegation which introduced Resolutions to ban the slave trade. Pennsylvanians proudly stood at the forefront of fighting discrimination in every form. Are we standing up for our Jewish community today the way we should be?
The Philadelphia school system and even libraries in and around the Philadelphia area utilize notoriously crude antisemitic material. They call Israeli Jews baby killers and falsely claim that Israel has been guilty of genocide in the Middle East. Nowhere in our august city do we hear that 7 million Jews in Israel have a legislature with 20% Muslim membership. People are not aware of the fact that almost 25% of healthcare providers in Israel are Muslim. Druze, Christians, Muslims, and other discriminated against minority groups seek and find refuge in Israel.
Genocide does occur in the world. It is mainly occurring in China, India, and Africa. In China, cultural genocide is practiced by those without any religion. In India, it is the Hindus preying on Muslims. In North Africa, it is Muslims causing millions of deaths and dislocation to Black African Christians and animists.
Israel gave Gaza a chance at independence and agreed to self-rule for the West Bank of the Jordan River by the Palestinian Authority. Both the PA and Hamas in Gaza resorted to terrorism, kidnapping, rapes, and murder. It is not genocide for Israel to seek the peace and quiet which its people deserve.
To those who have served America, love this country, and respect our diverse freedoms, it is physically nauseating to see a minority group preyed upon by those with minds that hate. I have spent a significant portion of my legal career handling civil rights cases. I have represented virtually every type and kind of minority. Yet, today I see a very tepid response to standing up for the Jewish community whether on college campuses, in the streets, in the halls of our hospitals, or in the legislature.
Fighting for the rights of others cannot be selective. We cannot long endure as a people of integrity by saying that we will stand up for the rights of some people and trash others. That is not the American way.
In the wake of the Civil War, the United States passed 42 U.S.C. §1983(3), specifically intended to prevent African Americans from suffering the indignity of conspiratorial attacks on their newly obtained civil rights. That law is still available today. Unfortunately, it is not utilized to prevent discriminatory actions against Jewish people. Even more importantly, the courts, especially the more “liberal” judges, have reinterpreted the protections afforded minority groups by statutes such a Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to protect those who would interfere with the rights of Jewish students to attend classes peaceably. Title VI was passed to assure that institutions that received federal money would not discriminate, but there are judges who have distorted those laws so dramatically that not only do they not afford the protection designed by those who passed the laws, but they are used to provide a safe haven for those intimidating Jewish students and staff at America’s most elite universities and colleges.
Hopefully, the incoming class of Democratic Congressmen and Senators will not abandon America’s quest for decency, equality, and protection for minorities. There are those newly minted legislators who have made transparent their disdain for Jewish Americans or anyone who could be suspect as supporting a free, independent, and democratic State of Isarel.
It is often claimed by the bigots that all they are trying to do is separate Jews from Israel. They are not telling the truth. Israel is simply an excuse for those with minds that hate to spew their nonsensical conspiracy theories in a way intended to drive the Jewish community into oblivion.
Finally, there is the disgrace of using bicycles to attack Jews. I say this because I am an avid bicycle rider and have been for most of my life. Bicycles have always represented to me freedom of access, beauty in motion, and a route to a healthy lifestyle. To use an instrument of health, transportation, and grace in motion to support a racist message is repulsive in the extreme.
I think I will go for a beautiful bike ride through the hills and valleys of North Central Pennsylvania to look at the autumn leaves and to think about the great Jewish American legacy of peace, freedom, and justice for all.