A massive crowd of Israel supporters swarmed a popular Jewish bakery Friday to stand in solidarity with its owners after a group of employees demanded it cut its ties with the Jewish State.
The line for Breads Bakery’s Upper West Side outpost stretched down the block on Broadway, with some hungry crusaders wrapping themselves in the Israeli flag as they waited for hours.
“We’re pushing back quietly and with Jewish dignity against anti-Zionism and a hate moment,” said Elisha Fine, 34, one of the dozens who purchased a baked good at the store said in a show of good faith.
Gabe Meister
Fine admitted he rarely visits the Big Apple’s biggest Jewish bakery chain, but felt compelled to show support the day after The Post reported on the newly formed “Breaking Breads Union.”
Instead of just usual union complaints about working conditions and pay, the employees also insisted that the owners stop supporting Israel.
The list of demands from the union — which is made up of about a third of the bakery’s workers — included “an end to this company’s support of the genocide happening in Palestine.”
The bakery’s management has denied the “genocide” claims, saying “Breads Bakery is built on love and genuine care for our team. We make babka; we don’t engage in politics.” Breads has in the past baked for Jewish events, including a fund raiser that sent money from challah sales to Israel after the Oct. 7 terror attack.
Many people who showed up Friday — some wearing stickers that said Zionist — wanted to return that support to the bakers.
“That strikes me a lot like entryism: the way that people end up walking to a place and then try to change the culture dramatically,” said Fine, a born-and-raised Manhattan Jew.
“We’re perfectly fine with them having a union, but it’s not okay to make Israel politics a part of that.”
Fine, who runs a pro-Jewish art Instagram, encouraged other “open Zionists” to swarm the bakery’s Upper West Side location in a show of support for Jewish New York.
“To see this, it’s awful because I’m born and bred here. I’ve never seen anything like this,” Leonor Katz, 71, told The Post, calling the union’s demands “very upsetting.”
