Philly's "Boycott Ride" says it's about Gaza. Its targets were picked by bike distance.

Filed Nov 5, 2026.

Record no. HR-0014
Logged: Nov 5, 2026
Platform and place: Instagram flyer and post by phillybike.onyourleft and collaborators promoting a "Boycott Ride" from Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, Sunday Nov 8, 11:30 a.m.
What: a bike ride past six Jewish- and Israeli-owned restaurants, with a flyer declaring they "must go"
Status: ride still scheduled at filing; the promotional post has been edited and remains live
Names: the organizing groups promoted the event publicly and are named; individual riders are not

On Sunday, November 8, at 11:30 a.m., a group of Philadelphia activists plans to ride bicycles out of Rittenhouse Square to six restaurants: Dizengoff, Huda, Schlesinger's, Mac Mart, K'Far Cafe and Goldie. The flyer says "These Zionist establishments must go! Not in our city!"

The date is the eve of the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night in 1938 when Nazi mobs smashed the windows of Jewish shops across Germany and Austria.

The main organizer appears to be Philly Bike On Your Left, with Philly Solidarity Calendar and Boycott CookNSolo listed as collaborators. Historian Rafael Medoff also names Philly Writers Against the War on Gaza among the groups behind it.

This is the detail that matters most. When people online suggested more Jewish-owned businesses to add, an organizer explained that the six restaurants were chosen because they were within cycling distance of Rittenhouse Square.

Not because of a contract with a weapons maker. Not because of a donation, a statement or a policy. Because they were close enough to ride to.

A boycott targets conduct. This list targets an address book. The only thing the six have in common is who owns them.

The ride's own Instagram post, from phillybike.onyourleft with collaborators including boycottcooknsolo and phillysolidaritycal, says the ride will show "these zionist business owners" that organizers see them as "the disgusting humans they are." The post has been edited since it went up. It is still live.

Disgusting humans. Not a bad policy. Not a wrong vote. The people themselves.

That is the move hate always makes. It stops arguing about what someone did and starts describing what someone is.

The organizers will say the word on the flyer is Zionist, not Jew. Look at what the word is being pinned to.

Schlesinger's is a Jewish deli. The family patriarch opened his first deli in New Jersey in 1930. A pastrami sandwich has no foreign policy. When "Zionist" gets stamped on a deli because the owners are Jewish, the word has stopped meaning a political position. It has become a label for Jews who haven't passed a loyalty test.

That is the double standard at the center of this. No one is riding bikes to Russian-owned restaurants, Chinese-owned restaurants or any other business whose owners share an ethnicity with a government at war. Only Jews are being asked to answer, by name and storefront, for a country they may never have lived in.

A boycott says: I won't buy from you. "Must go. Not in our city" says: you don't belong here.

That is expulsion language, and Jews have heard it before. On April 1, 1933, the Nazi regime staged a national boycott of Jewish-owned stores, posting men outside the doors with signs telling Germans not to buy from Jews. Five years later came Kristallnacht. The boycott was not the violence. It was the rehearsal: name the shops, mark them as foreign, tell the neighbors they're the enemy.

Picking the eve of Kristallnacht for a ride past a list of Jewish-owned shops is either an accident of the calendar or a message. Either way, the Jews of Philadelphia received it.

Philadelphia's leading Jewish organizations, the ADL Philadelphia, AJC Philadelphia/Southern New Jersey, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and StandWithUs, issued a joint statement calling the ride "Jew-Hatred, plain and simple." They drew the line clearly: criticizing a government is one thing, targeting businesses because their owners are Jewish or seen as tied to Israel is another. They asked Philadelphians to show up and eat at the six restaurants on Sunday.

Sen. Dave McCormick (R) called it pure antisemitism that echoes some of the darkest chapters in history and said his office will monitor it.

Sen. John Fetterman (D) went further, calling the riders "the Left's pro-Hamas, Jew-hating, BDS assholes-on-wheels."

Gov. Josh Shapiro's office said the ride is "nothing more than blatant antisemitism designed to intimidate and drive Jewish businesses out" and that Pennsylvania State Police are working with local partners to keep people safe.

Mayor Cherelle Parker has not issued a statement of her own. Her office pointed to remarks from Renee Chenault-Fattah, who runs the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, who said bigotry and hate can't be tolerated and that businesses will not be run out of the city. The Philadelphia Police Department said it would take appropriate measures to keep everyone safe. District Attorney Larry Krasner has not commented.

You can protest Israel in Philadelphia. People do it every week, and that's their right. What you can't do and still call it justice is draw a circle on a map, find the Jews inside it, and tell them to leave.

That's not a movement for anyone's liberation. It's a list. And history has a long, ugly record of what happens to the people on lists.

If you're in Philadelphia on Sunday, the Jewish community has a better idea: go have lunch at Schlesinger's.

Method and disclosure: drawn from the organizers' flyer and their Instagram post, which we viewed directly on Nov 5, 2026, plus reporting by Jewish Insider, City & State, Fox News and historian Rafael Medoff, and public statements from the officials and organizations named. The Hate Record has asked the offices of Mayor Parker and DA Krasner for comment, is seeking comment from the organizing groups, and will add any response here. The Hate Record is the reporting arm of ANIA, a privately held, independent intelligence firm, not a government agency. The publisher, Pesach Lattin, is an Orthodox Jew, lives in Phoenix and has no financial relationship with any of the businesses or groups named. Corrections and tips: [email protected] or 505 932 9060.

Update Nov 5, 2026: This record originally said Mayor Parker had not commented; her office has pointed to a statement from the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, and the Philadelphia Police Department has said it will take steps to keep everyone safe. It also described the organizers' Instagram post as deleted and quoted an earlier wording; the post has been edited but remains live, and the text above now quotes it as it currently reads.