PHILADELPHIA — A bicycle protest meant to empty six Jewish-owned restaurants around Rittenhouse Square on Sunday, November 8, produced the opposite result: long lines of customers, packed dining rooms and an outpouring of public support for the businesses the riders had urged the city to boycott. The 'Boycott Ride,' staged on the eve of the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht, drew protesters and counterdemonstrators into heated confrontations that police kept apart, and it ended by early afternoon with no property damage reported.

Source: NBC News / NBC10 Philadelphia

The ride was organized by Philly Bike On Your Left, a group that describes itself as an anti-fascist, anti-Zionist social cycling collective, alongside Philly Writers Against the War on Gaza and the Boycott CookNSolo campaign. A flyer circulated on Instagram from October 31 placed red prohibition symbols over the six businesses and declared: 'NO BUSINESS FOR ZIONISTS! THESE ZIONIST ESTABLISHMENTS MUST GO! NOT IN OUR CITY!' The riders gathered at Rittenhouse Square at 11:30 a.m. and set out to pass each restaurant in turn.

The six restaurants in the crosshairs

The businesses named on the flyer were Mac Mart, K'Far Café, Huda, Goldie, Dizengoff and Schlesinger's — all in or near the Rittenhouse Square neighbourhood in Center City Philadelphia. NBC reported that three of the six belong to CookNSolo, the restaurant group of Israeli-American chef Michael Solomonov and his business partner Steve Cook, whose Israeli co-owners have publicly supported and raised money for Israel. Goldie and K'Far Café are among Solomonov's best-known Philadelphia restaurants. Schlesinger's Deli is owned by former city councilmember Allan Domb, and Mac Mart is run by owner Marti Lieberman — who told NBC her mac-and-cheese shop has nothing to do with Israel.

NBC News estimated roughly 300 pro-Palestinian protesters and about 200 pro-Israeli counterdemonstrators at the scene, although photographs from the square raised questions about those figures, and other reports described the riders themselves as a much smaller group — one account put them at about 75 people, many masked. Police formed a line to keep the two sides apart before the ride started and separated the groups as confrontations flared. NBC reported that police arrested three people on charges involving assault, disorderly conduct and assault on police, while other coverage noted that police had not published a full official arrest count by Sunday evening. By early afternoon, police said, all demonstrators had dispersed and no property damage was reported.

Officials condemned the targeting before the first bicycle rolled

Pennsylvania's leaders condemned the ride in advance, in unusually direct language. Mayor Cherelle Parker said: 'Singling out businesses because their owners are Jewish is unacceptable and has no place in our city.' Attorney General Dave Sunday called the timing — the eve of the Kristallnacht anniversary — 'deeply unsettling,' according to CNN, and the Anti-Defamation League said: 'That's antisemitic, plain and simple.' After the crowds turned out for the restaurants, Governor Josh Shapiro wrote on X: 'In the midst of blatant antisemitic targeting of Jewish-owned restaurants on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the City of Brotherly Love showed up to support our neighborhood businesses and prove once again that hate has no place in our Commonwealth.' District Attorney Larry Krasner had joined officials and faith leaders at a Friday solidarity lunch for the restaurants and warned in a video that violence against ethnic or religious groups would land on his desk.

Source: National Jewish Advocacy Center (NJAC) press release, Nov 6, 2026

The organizers reject that framing. They say the protest targeted businesses over their owners' support for Israel, not Jewish people, and they denied deliberately scheduling the ride around the Kristallnacht anniversary, according to NBC's reporting. The Boycott CookNSolo campaign defended the riders on Instagram as 'a small group of bicyclists against genocide' and said the restaurateurs were being protested for supporting what the campaign calls the occupation of Palestinians. No organizer has announced any change to the campaign, and FOX 29 Philadelphia reported that a second demonstration, described as a 'ride of return,' has been discussed for November 15.

Why the date carried so much weight

Kristallnacht — the 'Night of Broken Glass' — was the Nazi-organized pogrom of November 9–10, 1938, in which Jewish-owned businesses were smashed and looted, synagogues were burned, homes were ransacked and tens of thousands of Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps across Germany and Austria. Sunday's ride fell on the eve of its 88th anniversary, which is marked today, November 9. The Philadelphia branch of the NAACP condemned boycotts aimed at businesses because of their owners' Jewish identity, saying: 'The civil-rights principle is simple: we cannot demand freedom from prejudice for ourselves while tolerating prejudice against someone else.' Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, wrote that not all anti-Zionism is inherently antisemitic, but argued that broadly boycotting people identified as Zionists risks targeting Jewish Americans who support Israel's existence while opposing its government's policies.

One of the day's most quoted critics was Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Palestinian-American writer and policy analyst who grew up in Gaza City and has said 33 of his relatives were killed in Israeli airstrikes during the war. Alkhatib called the boycott a 'pointless hate rally' and 'performative activism at its worst,' arguing that targeting Jewish-owned restaurants in Philadelphia would do nothing to improve Palestinian lives or change Israeli policy. 'In the face of such hate and foolishness, I encourage all Philadelphians to support these restaurants,' he wrote, recalling that he had been warmly welcomed at Solomonov's restaurants despite his criticism of the Israeli government.

What happens next

Three threads now run forward. First, the criminal cases: anyone arrested on Sunday faces charges in Philadelphia courts, and police have not yet published a complete official account of arrests and charges. Second, the legal fight prepared in advance: in a November 5 letter, the National Jewish Advocacy Center asked the District Attorney, the Police Commissioner and the Attorney General to keep body-worn cameras active at all six storefronts, to have a hate-crimes prosecutor reachable during the ride, to preserve the flyer and social-media posts as evidence — including a preservation request to Meta — and to open a file under Pennsylvania law so the Commonwealth could seek a court injunction today, Monday, November 9, if conduct crossed the line. Third, the calendar: statements are expected through today's Kristallnacht anniversary, and organizers have discussed returning on November 15 for a 'ride of return,' which would test whether Sunday's show of support can be repeated. The restaurants themselves have not released sales figures, and CookNSolo declined to comment before the ride.

For Awaaz Punjab's readers in Pennsylvania and across the United States, the episode is a reminder of how quickly a local business dispute can become a national argument about identity, protest and the limits of boycotts — and of how a city's response is written not only by its officials but by the ordinary people who decide where to stand in line. Awaaz Punjab will follow the November 9 anniversary statements, any court filings, and the announced November 15 ride.