Statement from Jim Berk, CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Philadelphia is known as the City of Brotherly Love. So why, on the eve of Kristallnacht, are Jewish-owned businesses being singled out for boycotts and exclusion simply because they are Jewish?
No one would think to target a Chinese restaurant over Beijing's policies or a French bistro over decisions made in Paris. Yet Jewish businesses are being held responsible for the actions of a government thousands of miles away, regardless of their actual beliefs or affiliations. That is not a legitimate political protest. That is antisemitism.
History rarely announces itself with shattered glass. It begins quietly, with boycotts and whispered exclusions, with the slow narrowing of who belongs. Kristallnacht was not the beginning, but the culmination of a process that started with the simple act of deciding that Jews were outsiders.
We call on Philadelphia’s leaders to condemn this targeting unequivocally and ensure that Jewish business owners, employees and customers are protected from threats and intimidation.
Kristallnacht’s warning was never only about broken glass. It was a lesson in what unfolds when a society quietly decides that Jews no longer belong. Philadelphia, if it is to remain true to its name, cannot afford to forget what history has already taught.