Boycotts targeting Jewish-linked businesses and products are nothing new

What do a shopkeeper in 1890s Vienna, a merchant in 1920s America, and a bakery in Archway, London, in 2026 have in common? All became targets of the same ancient weapon: the antisemitic boycott.

The boycotts and intimidation of Jewish-linked businesses are nothing new. They are among the oldest tools in the antisemitic playbook.

In late 19th-century Vienna, the antisemitic mayor Karl Lueger openly championed boycotts of Jewish shops as a political weapon, urging “good Christians” to shun Jewish traders and professionals. At the same time in Hungary, similar campaigns targeted Jewish merchants in the wake of emancipation, as resentment at Jewish success was whipped into organised economic exclusion.

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In 1920s United States, the Ku Klux Klan orchestrated boycotts of Jewish-owned shops, branding them “not 100% American”. They stationed activists outside storefronts, pushed antisemitic propaganda into customers’ hands and used public intimidation to choke off trade.

Most notoriously, in 1930s Nazi Germany, Sturmabteilung thugs stood guard outside Jewish businesses, daubed stars on windows, smashed glass and blocked entrances. It was the prelude to the theft of Jewish property, the destruction of livelihoods and, ultimately, the destruction of lives.

And so we turn to today.

Once again, businesses with even the most tenuous Jewish link are being singled out. In May last year, activists from Palestine Action attacked a Jewish-owned business in Stamford Hill, smashing windows and daubing red paint. In January, the Miznon restaurant in Notting Hill was surrounded by so-called protesters who sought to intimidate diners and staff. Most recently, it was Gail’s Bakery, whose new north London branch was vandalised with red paint and slogans including “Free Gaza” and “Reject Corporate Zionism” – a phrase that lazily repackages the oldest antisemitic trope of Jews and money.

Gail’s apparent crime? That it was founded by a Jewish entrepreneur in the 1990s, who sold the business in 2021.

Make no mistake: targeting Jewish-owned or Jewish-linked businesses under the banner of “Free Palestine” is not novel protest. It is the recycling of a tactic as old as modern antisemitism itself. And these shameful boycotts do not exist in isolation. They form part of a wider climate of intimidation.

In cities across the UK, activists are going door to door urging residents to sign pledges to boycott Israeli goods. In Bristol, the local Green party Member of Parliament has supported and released a social media video joining this deeply divisive and hateful campaign. The Jewish Leadership Council has warned that many Jewish residents will interpret it as an attempt to create a ‘Jewish Free Zone’.

Meanwhile, former leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, has amplified grotesque and baseless claims that the IDF returned bodies to Gaza with organs removed – a modern mutation of the medieval blood libel.

For two years, many of us have warned that antisemitism is being normalised – shrugged off, rationalised, excused. The inevitable result is that antisemites feel emboldened, louder and more brazen.

So, this must be a moment for clarity. At a time when conflict once again roars and the Jewish community will feel under increased threat, it is imperative for our political leaders to be clear in their condemnation of this anti-Jewish hatred and back these words with action. Police must treat intimidation and vandalism for what they are.

Education has a pivotal role to play in preventing the antisemitism of tomorrow, but it is up to the Government and the authorities to show that antisemitism today and the intimidation of Jews will not be tolerated.

If we do not draw a firm line now – at smashed windows, at daubed paint, at whispered conspiracies dressed up as activism – history teaches us exactly where that road can lead.

Bradley Langer is Public Affairs Manager at the Holocaust Educational Trust