Mississippi Rabbi Ordered To Leave Restaurant in ‘Jew Size’ Flap
‘Jew Size”? Rabbi Ted Riter discusses anti-Semitic encounter in Jackson, Miss. restaurant. Image by courtesy of WAPT
A rabbi in Jackson, Miss. said he was thrown out of a local restaurant due to his religion.
Rabbi Ted Riter of the Beth Israel Congregation told local media that an employee of Wraps, a Jackson restaurant, asked him if he wanted “a full size or a Jewish size” when he ordered a Greek salad. When the rabbi asked the man what he meant by that, the employee responded: small. Everybody knows that.”
The rabbi said that the employee asked if he was Jewish and then told him to leave the restaurant, accompanied by swearing and anti-Semitic slurs.
When reached by local media, the restaurant owner said that the rabbi “didn’t know exactly what he wanted, and we offered him our services, and that’s the extent of it.” He also said the rabbi “disrespected” the business, according to the Clarion-Ledger newspaper.
Witnesses inside the restaurant verified the rabbi’s version, WAPT News reported.
Riter, the synagogue’s interim rabbi, has lived in Jackson since July and said he has visited the establishment before with no trouble.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
