Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Food

WATCH: Bagel Bombs Versus Pepsi Projectiles At Berkeley Protest

During the Tax Day protests across the country on April 15, Antifa — short for anti-fascist — protestors at the University of California at Berkeley gathered to oppose both President Donald Trump and conservative pundit Ann Coulter, who was scheduled to speak at the school.

The alt-right came out in droves, some driving hundreds of miles to confront Antifa. Predictably, chaos ensued.

A viral video posted by Youtuber Vito Gesualdi shows Gesualdi trying to bring the two sides together by re-enacting the controversial Pepsi commercial starring Kendall Jenner. He approaches mobs of brawling men and women, and as they roll about punching each other in the face, Vito stretches out his arm to offer them a Pepsi.

Unfortunately, his efforts for the most part were rebuffed and Pepsi cans that were accepted, were thrown at the opposing side — generally Alt-righters towards Antifa.

In response, the Antifa protesters managed to get ahold of some bagels (and even some pumpernickel bread), and threw it at the Alt-right protesters. In the video, Gesualdi is seen picking up a bagel and taking a bite, saying, “It’s a plain bagel. It’s not good.”

The Alt-right protesters (possibly offended at the blandness of the bagels?), started chanting, “Soros bagels off our streets.”

It’s possible that the chant had more sinister motives, referencing the oft-cited “worldwide Jewish conspiracy” that supposedly has Soros at its head. However, we can’t confirm whether there was a broader meaning behind the chant beyond the bagel bombardment that immediately preceded it.

Michelle Honig is the food intern of the Forward. Find her on Instagram and Twitter.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

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. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.