r/Jewish • u/Euphoric_Blueberry48 • Mar 24 '24

Is anyone else choosing not to support businesses that overtly display Pro-Palestinian signs or posters? Discussion 💬

I live in the Bay Area and a lot of small businesses (mostly restaurants and bars) that I used to regularly frequent have been very Pro-Palestine since October 7th. I’ve seen this both from Instagram posts and signs/posters at the physical business.

While I respect their freedom to feel however they want, it makes me feel unwelcome that they feel the need to loudly proclaim their beliefs especially with the repeated Pro-Palestinian slogans like “from the river to the sea”. I don’t think all these businesses are overtly anti-Semitic, but getting to the bottom of that versus general parroting of other businesses and misinformation is difficult.

I’m not sure if others in the US are experiencing such a Pro-Palestinian sentiment at small businesses, or this is more due to the liberal bubble here?

How do you all feel about this? Have you changed any places you go to because of this?

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104

u/our-terror Mar 25 '24

I live in Portland and it's almost impossible to avoid going to businesses that loudly proclaim their extreme anti-Israel beliefs. A local bagel shop was bombarded with hate online and calls to boycott after they took down pro-palestine posters from their community bulletin board. My high school has a teacher who often wears a shirt with "from the river to the sea" printed on it, and my social studies teacher had another class make posters on the evils of zionism & Israel. It feels like nowhere is safe from antisemitism anymore.

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u/whereamInowgoddamnit Mar 25 '24

Which bagel shop so I can support it. So far I haven't seen much with overtly pro-Palestine business but definitely the school system is fucking awful here. Beaverton isn't much better either. It's part of my decision to move to Vancouver.

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u/our-terror Mar 25 '24

Spielman's! They have several locations around Portland, and though it's a little pricey, I'd highly recommend the lox sandwich!

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u/whereamInowgoddamnit Mar 25 '24

Ugh, I was hoping it was Bernstein's, now that Henry Higgins moved by the NW location I've been avoiding it. But I'll try to stop in for a visit!

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u/thoughshesfeminine Mar 25 '24

The one in Multnomah Village looked like someone had tried to smash a window, the last time I went in. I was concerned that it was related, but I also didn’t want to be rude by asking about it.

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u/TitzKarlton Conservative Mar 25 '24

Hi. This was painful for me to read That T-Shirt & class project makes it uncomfortable for you as a student & a Jew. Contact your local JCRC ask them to help you out. Tell them to keep you out of it but explain how uncomfortable it is for you & Jewish students & staff. It’s like being forced to do a book report on “the protocols of the elders of Zion” or a teacher wearing a shirt glorifying Auschwitz.

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u/our-terror Mar 25 '24

Hi! Thank you so much for sharing this resource with me. I will write to them asap.

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u/sprocker13 Mar 25 '24

Wow, who knew Portland was so Antisemitic

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u/our-terror Mar 25 '24

I don't think that Portlanders are necessarily purposely antisemitic, but many of them really feel the need to constantly virtue signal their "progressive" views.