“The building has been vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti, is the target of weekly protests, and the business has been ideologically extorted,” said cafe owner Manny Yekutiel.
By Josh Plank, World Israel News
Manny’s, a popular Jewish-owned cafe in San Francisco’s Mission District, again became the target of anti-Semitic vandalism over the weekend, local KTVU reported Monday.
The phrases “Zionist pigz,” “Racist pigz,” and “Free Palestine,” spray painted in large blue letters, were discovered on the cafe’s exterior Sunday.
California State Senator Scott Wiener tweeted photos of the graffiti, noting that Manny’s has been repeatedly targeted since it opened in 2018.
“Targeting Jewish businesses is straight up antisemitic. We must speak out & condemn this hate,” Wiener tweeted.
“This anti-Semitic attack on Manny’s happened just a few weeks after the Noe Valley Chabad’s childcare center was vandalized with this antisemitic graffiti. San Francisco isn’t immune to antisemitism. We must push back,” he said.
Manny Yekutiel, who worked for the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, founded Manny’s to be a “people powered and community focused meeting and learning place in the heart of San Francisco that combines a restaurant, political bookshop, and civic events space.”
In January 2019, Yekutiel wrote an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle in response to the demonization of Manny’s by “fringe activists.”
“Claims such as the space is a Zionist takeover of the Mission has emboldened people to walk in off the street and demand to know if the owner is Jewish,” said Yekutiel.
“The building has been vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti, is the target of weekly protests, and the business has been ideologically extorted: tell us if you’re a Zionist so we can try to drive you out of business,” he said.
Yekutiel described himself as a proud Jew, whose father had escaped persecution in Afghanistan and journeyed to Israel.
“As a liberal American Jew, I have complicated feelings about Israel,” he said.
“Israel and the United States have provided my family with safety when other countries haven’t, but that doesn’t mean I support the ending of innocent life. My hope for the Israeli and Palestinian people is to soon live in peace with mutual recognition in sovereign and safe borders,” said Yekutiel.