From the Jerusalem Post, more on the Cristal™nacht at the corner of Fairfax and Melrose:
Jewish business owners describe vandalism, looting of businesses in LA
These are the descriptions Jewish business owners cited when talking about how their stores were looted and ransacked, and synagogues were vandalized with graffiti.
By KELLY HARTOG JUNE 3, 2020
LOS ANGELES – Masks. Hoodies. Sledgehammers. Crowbars. Baseball bats.
These are the descriptions Jewish business owners cited when talking about how their stores were looted and ransacked, and synagogues were vandalized with graffiti after peaceful protests spiraled out of control in Los Angeles beginning on Friday night and continuing into the weekend. …
Many of the business owners whose stores were looted in the Beverly Hills, downtown Los Angeles and the heavily Orthodox Fairfax district, are observant Jews who had shut off all electronic devices and connection to the outside world on Thursday night in observance of both the two-day Shavuot holiday and Shabbat. Calls from alarm companies and multiple text messages and phone calls from non-observant friends, family and nearby store owners jolted them out of their safe bubble. …
The sentiments were echoed by other Jewish business owners. Avida Giloh, who owns Revere Jewels in Beverly Hills, had his second-floor business looted late Saturday night.
Originally from Ra’anana, Giloh came to the US 18 years ago. Outside video footage (the looters disabled his own video cameras) showed “13 guys coming into the building with masks and hoodies,” Giloh said. “They used a sledgehammer, broke the door of the main building and took our office apart.” He said they tried to move his safe but couldn’t.
Like Naim, Giloh said, “Nobody minds a peaceful protest. But this is far from that. It’s not even a protest. It’s a riot. I don’t think any of these protests are sanctioned or organized by any law enforcement.”
Both Aryeh Rosenfeld of Hancock Park and Na’ama Aviv of Pico-Robertson had their businesses looted in the Fairfax area. Rosenfeld owns The Hat Box and Family Fashion clothing stores and Aviv owns Mensch’s Bakery – neither of which trade in anything worth reselling.
After receiving a notification shortly after Shabbat, Rosenfeld raced to his store with some other men and discovered four men coming out of his store carrying his computer. “I chased [them] down and got them to drop the computer,” he said.
Rosenfeld described the scene late Saturday night with people driving down the Fairfax district streets screaming, “effing Jews,” at them. He said when they saw a police car, they waved it down, hoping they would arrest a looter they had pinned down, but the cop said, “We can’t do anything, we have officers who need assistance.”
Israeli-born philanthropist and activist Adam Milstein, who lives in Los Angeles, concurred. He said, “The Jewish community is in denial. The fact that synagogues got tagged and Jewish businesses were looted with [signs saying] ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘Kill the Jews,’ is not a coincidence. The rioters are antifa and Black Lives Matter and they are inherently antisemitic.”
Aviv of Mensch’s Bakery, whose register and iPads were stolen on Saturday night and whose windows were shattered, didn’t know who was responsible for the looting. She said, “I’m very supportive of the peaceful protests. I’m not supportive of the riots and the looting and I don’t think it’s a black and white thing anymore. It’s an all-race thing, and everyone’s mad at the world and wants to destroy it.”
For Jonathan Friedman, who owns Syd’s Pharmacy, also in the Fairfax area, he’s unclear if he was targeted because he is Jewish or if it’s because looters were after narcotics – all of which were taken from his store.
“It’s frustrating,” he added. “We had no part in this. They had no reason to involve us. I understand the [protesters’] cause. They’re actually right. Someone was murdered and they’re right, but I don’t see where myself and other businesses, that were suffering with corona, have the extra $3,000 to cover the deductible for their insurance, fit into this whole thing.”
