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A pro-Palestine “boycott” bicycle ride targeting Jewish-owned businesses in Philadelphia for supporting Israel has been condemned as antisemitic by multiple state officials.
Philly Bike On Your Left, which describes itself an “anti-facist, anti-Zionist, anti-cop” group, has organized the demonstration against six named cafes, delis and takeaway businesses in Rittenhouse Square on Sunday, the eve of the 88th anniversary of Nazi attacks on Jewish businesses, homes and synagogues.
The group called on people to join and “show these Zionist business owners that we see them for the disgusting humans they are.” Its flyer singles out the eateries Mac Mart, Huda, Schlesinger’s deli, Goldie, K’Far Cafe and Dizengoff.
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A post shared by Philly Bike On Your Left (@phillybike.onyourleft)
Philly Bike On Your Left has insisted it is targeting the business owners for their support of Israel, not for being Jewish, but several lawmakers, including Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Attorney General Dave Sunday, have slammed the demonstration for antisemitism.
“The bike ride, masquerading as a protest to advance the cause of justice, is nothing more than blatant antisemitism designed to intimidate and drive Jewish businesses out of our communities,” Shapiro’s office said.
Many have highlighted the timing of the protest, set to take place the day before the anniversary of a Nazi pogrom known as Kristallnacht, ('the Night of Broken Glass'), when mobs in Germany and Austria burned synagogues, looted Jewish-owned businesses and homes, and assaulted and killed Jewish people.
Philly Bike On Your Left have pushed back against those “invoking Kristallnacht,” sharing a post from an allied activist group calling it a “cynical take that is not only offensive to the historical victims of Nazi persecution but an intentional distraction.” It also stressed that the anniversary is the day after the ride.
CookNSolo, the parent company of Goldie, K’Far and Dizengoff, is owned by Michael Solomonov and Steve Cook who have publicly supported Israel, along with Schlesinger’s owner Allan Domb and Huda’s owner Yehuda Sichel, who has said he is “proud to be Jewish and supportive of Israel.”
Mac Mart co-owner Marti Lieberman has said protesters have just assumed she supports Israel because she wears a Star of David necklace.
Newsweek reached out to Philly Bike On Your Left, via social media, as well as CookNSolo, Schlesinger, Huda and Mac Mart, via email, for comment on Friday.
The Jewish Businesses Targeted and How They Are Responding
Philly Bike On Your Left’s flyer, which has more than 600 likes on Instagram, tells participants to meet at Rittenhouse Square at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, before setting off at noon. It demands that “these Zionist establishments must go.”
Philadelphia Police Department has said it is involved in plans to make sure everyone is safe on Sunday.
CookNSolo owners Solomonov and Cook have long supported Israel publicly–in March this year, they were awarded the Jewish National Fund-USA’s Tree of Life Award for their donations to rebuild communities in northern Israel after the October 7 attacks in 2023, when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people and abducting 251 to the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s response has since killed 74,620 people in the Gaza Strip as of Friday, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths.
Schlesinger’s owner Domb, whose grandparents Joseph and Molly Schlesinger first opened in the deli in the 1920s, has also been open about his support for Israel, telling the Jewish Insider in 2023 that, when he was a Democratic Philadelphia City Council member (from 2016 to 2022) he was a “big supporter of all Jewish causes, including Israel.”
But, on Tuesday, he told the outlet: “It clearly seems to me to be a high level of antisemitism because I’m Jewish.”
He said he is planning on opening as usual and being at the deli himself. He said that “most of the time the initial noise is much greater than the reality” and he is “hoping there won’t be any type of violence” but has contacted the local police to help “be prepared.”
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Huda’s owner Sichel told the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) that this issue is “deeply personal” for him as the grandson of Holocaust survivors. He said he and his colleagues “won’t cower,” praising the Jewish community for their show of support since the protest was announced. “I’m proud to be Jewish and supportive of Israel,” he said. “Neither should make my business a target.”
Mac Mart’s owner Lieberman has said that her kiosk has nothing to do with Israel. “I literally am just a Jewish girl from the suburbs who started a business,” she told the New York Post.
The eatery is not usually open on Sundays, but Lieberman told the JNS she plans to open the kiosk this weekend “to show that we won’t be scared into closing but most importantly, to say thank you to everyone who has rallied around us and the other businesses.”
Ride Condemned as Antisemitic
Shapiro’s office spoke out against the “boycott ride” in a statement from his spokesperson Rosie Lapowsky to the Jewish Insider on Wednesday, saying Pennsylvania State Police was coordinating with local police to “to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our neighbors in Philadelphia.”
Attorney General David Sunday said in a statement on X that the “bike ride boycott of Jewish-owned restaurants in and around Rittenhouse Square on the eve of the anniversary of Kristallnacht is deeply unsettling.”
“By explicitly targeting businesses because their owners are Jewish, the organizers are engaging in a form of discrimination that falls back on some of the oldest antisemitic tropes and tactics in history,” he wrote on Wednesday.
He argued that the march is not “not simply a protest directed at the policies of Israel” but that “it singles out our fellow Pennsylvanians based on their Jewish identity, targeting them for policies they have nothing to do with and no ability to affect because of their faith.”
Similarly, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said in a statement on Thursday that the ride “falls on the eve of the anniversary of Kristallnacht, a date that carries profound pain for our Jewish neighbors and for all who remember where unchecked hatred can lead.”
“Everyone has the right to peacefully protest and express their political views,” she said. “But singling out businesses because their owners are Jewish is unacceptable and has no place in our city.”
The Jewish advocacy organization Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called the protest a “an attempt to intimidate a Jewish community that has faced generations of violence, exclusion and antisemitism” and called on Philadelphians to dine at Jewish eateries this weekend, along with the American Zionist Movement, a coalition group of 51 national Jewish organizations.
Group Behind the Ride Pushes Back
Philly Bike On Your Left addressed accusations of antisemitism in a statement on Thursday, shared in an Instagram Collab post with other local pro-Palestinian activist groups.
They called the reaction from officials and Jewish advocacy organizations a “a coordinated campaign to discredit and villainize the organizers and detract from their anti-genocide message” from Zionists.
It said critics were “disingenuously conflating Zionism with Judaism” and “invoking Kristallnacht” was an attempt to draw attention away from “the actual pogroms currently taking place in the West Bank and the wholesale destruction of life and livelihood in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran.”
“We do not answer to enraged supremacists, fake civil rights organizations whose primary purpose is defending a genocidal apartheid state and demonizing resistance to its actions,” it said.
Israel has long denied that its military campaign constitutes genocide, a position that has been supported by President Donald Trump's White House.
In arguments before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where it faces a genocide case filed by South Africa, Israel said: "Israel is fighting Hamas terrorists, not the civilian population," and described the conflict as "a war of defense against Hamas, not against the Palestinian people."
South Africa has rejected this account, with lawyer Vaughan Lowe telling the ICJ in 2024 that Israel’s methods and resulting death toll “cannot credibly be argued to be a manhunt for members of Hamas.”
A date has not been set for the ICJ’s final ruling. South Africa has until November 27 next year to file its next written submission, and Israel until May 22, 2029.
Contact Newsweek editor on this story: Edward Pearcey.
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