Customers lined up for lunch at the Goldie falafel restaurant in Philadelphia in 2023. Goldie is part of the CookNSolo restaurant group. State and city officials in Pennsylvania labeled a planned bike protest in Philadelphia as antisemitic. The protest calls for boycotts of several Jewish-owned restaurants.
The event, scheduled for Sunday at noon, is organized by various groups, including Philly Bike On Your Left, according to local station WPVI-TV. Officials and critics stated that the businesses were targeted due to their Jewish ownership, condemning the protest organizers.
Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) issued a statement on Thursday, describing the bike ride as a pretense for justice that only serves as evident antisemitism. He stated it seeks to intimidate and drive Jewish businesses out of communities. Attorney General Dave Sunday called the event “unconscionable.” He noted the protest’s timing, happening a day before Kristallnacht’s anniversary, a deadly 1938 pogrom in Nazi Germany and Austria against Jewish synagogues and businesses.
Organizers of the ride referred WPVI-TV to a statement from a group advocating a boycott of CookNSolo’s Israeli cuisine restaurants. The statement claimed an owner partnered with the Israeli Ministry of Tourism and hosted events for Israeli soldiers, among other reasons. A request for comment from CookNSolo was not returned on Friday.
The organizers’ statement also mentioned a “coordinated campaign” by Zionists to discredit and villainize them, detracting from their anti-genocide message. Critics’ Kristallnacht references were deemed “cynical.”
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