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<\/a><\/p>\nPro-Israel counterprotesters confront a “boycott bike ride” targeting Jewish businesses in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Nov. 8, 2026. (Jon Marks)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The protest ultimately drew some 300 bikers. But thanks to communal organizing among dozens of Jewish, pro-Israel and interfaith groups, it was met with an estimated 200 counter-protesters \u2014 plus hundreds more who turned up, waiting in hours-long lines, to patronize the affected businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly had a hard time hearing what the boycotters were saying,\u201d Michael Balaban, the federation head, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency the day after the protests. They were drowned out, he said, by counter-demonstrators singing Israeli songs. <\/p>\n
The restaurants hardly felt any effects from a boycott, Balaban said \u2014 all of them sold out of their inventory. At one shop, the mac-and-cheese kiosk Mac Mart, a visitor offered to buy the open box of baking soda its proprietor kept to eliminate pantry odors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was supposed to be a boycott of Jewish businesses turned into a food festival of Jewish businesses,\u201d Balaban said. \u201cI had several people say, \u2018I feel safe walking as a Jew today\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
A left-wing group called Philly Bike On Your Left had organized the event. Its flyer proclaimed, \u201cNo business for Zionists!\u201d with the names of six local Jewish-owned restaurants listed with red \u201cNo\u201d signs drawn through them. The planned date fell just before the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the \u201cNight of Broken Glass\u201d targeting Jewish businesses and homes in Nazi-occupied Europe, which protest organizers have said was unintentional.<\/p>\n
Some of the targeted business owners, including acclaimed Israeli restaurateur Michael Solomonov, had donated to causes including United Hatzalah, the Israeli first responder organization. Others had simply posted online that they were Zionists. Allan Domb, the owner of Schlesinger\u2019s Deli, told the local CBS affiliate that he believed his business was on the list because he had donated to the local federation after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel.<\/p>\n
In its rhetoric and conflation of Jewish- and Israeli-owned businesses with the state of Israel, the bike boycott seemed like a perfect storm of the biggest Jewish concerns with pro-Palestinian protests. Yet the sheer audacity of the boycott, which Balaban compared to \u201cthe proverbial person poking you in the back over and over again,\u201d spurred a broad show of force from Jews and their allies to fight back.<\/p>\n
\u201cA real line was crossed here,\u201d he said. \u201cYou want to boycott something going on in Israel, we\u2019re not that far from DC or New York. Go to an embassy, go to a consulate. But to think that someone selling tahini milkshakes or macaroni and cheese has a red phone to the prime minister, that\u2019s just silliness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Local authorities speaking to the Philadelphia Inquirer said that three people were arrested and two police officers suffered minor injuries.<\/p>\n
Local elected officials also spoke out strongly against the ride, including Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, a favorite of the progressive movement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is widespread perception that this action is antisemitic,\u201d Krasner, whose father was Jewish, said in a video he filmed from his car prior to the event. \u201cThat perception is real.\u201d He cited the timing, the targets and the rhetoric around the event as his reasons for making the determination.<\/p>\n
Krasner and Lori Shapiro, Pennsylvania\u2019s first lady and wife of Jewish Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, joined state lawmakers who attended a \u201csolidarity lunch\u201d with some of the targeted businesses days prior to the boycott. The Philadelphia Jewish Community Relations Council had organized the event. <\/p>\n
On social media following the protests, Gov. Shapiro called the boycott \u201cblatant antisemitic targeting of Jewish-owned restaurants on the anniversary of Kristallnacht,\u201d and said local support of the businesses \u201cprove once again that hate has no place in our Commonwealth.\u201d Pennsylvania Sens. John Fetterman, a pro-Israel Democrat, and Dave McCormick, a Republican, had also condemned the ride.<\/p>\n
Among the groups that did support the ride were Faculty for Justice in Palestine chapters at Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania; the local Students for Justice in Palestine chapter; a pro-Palestinian group of Temple law students; and Writers Against the War on Gaza, a literary activist group that previously helped upend leadership at the free-speech organization PEN America over Israel-related statements and actions.<\/p>\n
The local Democratic Socialists of America chapter, which had initially promoted the event, said in a statement on Sunday that it \u201cdid not and does not endorse the bike ride on Sunday, 11\/8.\u201d But the Philly DSA\u2019s lengthy statement went on to accuse the event\u2019s critics of \u201cpolitical repression of anti-Zionism\u201d orchestrated by \u201corganized Zionist lobbying groups.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ahmed Moor, a Palestinian writer who on Monday announced his intent to challenge Fetterman for the Democratic nomination in 2028, wrote on X on Saturday that he had spoken to Jewish women on both sides of the protest. Without taking a side, Moor concluded, \u201cSometimes being a leader means turning the temperature down.\u201d <\/p>\n
Though some of the bikers who spoke to media identified themselves as Jewish, local Jewish pro-Palestinian groups were absent from the bike ride\u2019s list of co-sponsors. Neither the Philadelphia chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace nor IfNotNow commented on the ride on their official social media pages, and representatives from both groups did not return JTA requests for comment. <\/p>\n
The Nexus Project, an antisemitism watchdog that has criticized what it says is Jewish communal overreach in describing some criticism of Israel as antisemitic, also criticized the ride and its organizers. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen \u2018Zionist\u2019 can cover almost any Jew who has ever expressed even a modicum of sympathy or support for Israel, Jewish business owners are facing a test no one else does: disavow Israel or lose your livelihood,\u201d a statement from the group reads, adding that the organizing groups\u2019 rhetoric \u201chas also crossed the line.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Prayers for Peace Alliance, an interfaith pro-Palestinian group in Philadelphia that includes Jews, criticized the boycott in its own statement on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be effective, boycotts must be targeted toward companies with the greatest complicity in injustice,\u201d the group said. The planned ride, they added, \u201cdoes not align with the priorities of the anti-genocide and anti-occupation movement.\u201d They added, \u201cThe decision to target only Jewish-owned businesses threatens to undermine trust within this broad, intersectional movement, which includes many American Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n
Early on, Balaban said, the federation briefly wondered if they should avoid giving the protests much oxygen. They changed their minds after last week\u2019s midterm elections, which Democrats dominated and which, in his mind, elevated candidates who \u201cuse \u2018Zionist\u2019 as a code word.\u201d He did not specify any.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing individuals who use anti-Israel and anti-Jewish as part of their platform come into the fold, it was time for us to let loose and push back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Philly Bike On Your Left is also planning a follow-up bike protest for this coming Sunday, named \u201cGreat Ride of Return,\u201d a nod to the Palestinian right of return. The group had promoted the follow-up ride on social media before the first one took place.<\/p>\n
Balaban knows more is coming; he says they\u2019ll be ready. \u201cWe know that they\u2019ll be out again, and we\u2019ll be out again.\u201d<\/p>\n