Ultra-Orthodox protesters picketed a Jerusalem restaurant selling non-Passover food this week and were accused of chasing would-be diners as they tried to eat at the establishment.
Tomer Kaiser, a co-owner of hip foodie spot Menza, said 15-20 protesters in ultra-Orthodox garb harassed customers, including tourists in the city for the holiday, on Monday and Tuesday.
“The tourists that were eating here simply got up and left,” Kaiser told Channel 12 news.
“They scared the tourists a little, who ran away. It made the customers tense.”
Videos of the protests shared by local Labor Party leader Eran Ben Yehuda showed small groups of Haredi men standing in or next to the outdoor dining area of the restaurant, loudly chanting the religious proscription against eating hametz, or leavened foods, during Passover.
Some also held up signs with the same message. At least one man had a small child in tow with him.
אני שומר כשרות וכך גם הבית שלי.
אבל אני לא מוכן לחיות בעיר שדבר כזה קורה.
אז אני, וחברים נוספים, נגיע מחר בשעה 11 כדי לחזק.
רח' בצלאל 10, מסעדת מנזה.
מוזמנות.ים. pic.twitter.com/GwGopkvjUb
— Eran Ben Yehuda (@Eran_BenYehuda) April 10, 2023
A second video showed Menza’s outdoor seating area filled with patrons beneath umbrellas as Haredi men protested in the rain, with a small cordon of police officers separating the two.
עכשיו.
בוא נראה להם שיש ירושלים אחרת. pic.twitter.com/0Qh7LcSgvj— Eran Ben Yehuda (@Eran_BenYehuda) April 11, 2023
עכשיו.
בוא נראה להם שיש ירושלים אחרת. pic.twitter.com/0Qh7LcSgvj
— Eran Ben Yehuda (@Eran_BenYehuda) April 11, 2023
After Ben Yehuda’s video of the Monday protest went viral, many patronized the restaurant on Tuesday to show support as picketers returned.
The contemporary food offered at Menza is decidedly unkosher, including shellfish, pork, bacon cheeseburgers and calamari. It is also open on Saturday. While some establishments close down over Passover, many stay open, including places like Iwo’s Meatburger, which announced this month it would offer a kosher for Passover bun for its bacon cheddar burger.
Members of the ultra-Orthodox community have long pushed for laws restricting the public display or sale of hametz during Passover, which ends on Wednesday night in Israel. Haredi politicians recently passed a law banning hametz from being brought into hospitals, bringing the issue back to the fore, while court rulings and shifting attitudes have sought to protect the rights of Israelis to ignore Jewish religious restrictions regarding Passover food.
Critics, including religious Israelis who observe the laws of kashrut, have accused the ultra-Orthodox of religious coercion.
“I keep kosher as does my household,” Ben Yehuda wrote on Twitter. “But I’m not ready to live in a city where something like this happens.”
He later tweeted a picture of him enjoying a water — ostensibly Menza’s only kosher for Passover menu item — at a table outside the restaurant.
According to Kaiser, ultra-Orthodox protesters would demonstrate outside the restaurant after it first opened in 2014, but had stopped over the last three years.
“Before then, we had a few issues with them over Passover. We were freed of it once they understood that we are not going anywhere,” he said. “What a bummer.”
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