Jewish owned business- Manny's in the Mission- vandalized again.

Open for less than a year, Manny's in the San Francisco's Mission district  has already had a major impact on the local community.  The  "people powered and community focused meeting and learning place" has hosted a multiple of Democratic presidential hopefuls, and  made headlines with its live reading of the Mueller report.    Two debate watching parties at Manny's were standing room only, and were featured on the first page of the Wall Street Journal.

Its no wonder that the San Francisco Examiner proclaimed "Manny's is the perfect business for the Mission".

Yet since its opening, Manny's has been subject to anti-Semitic and homophobic attacks, meant to intimidate both Manny and the community members who patronize his business.  The  business has been repeatedly vandalized- most recently this weekend.

The following screed appeared in several extremist websites and facebook pages.  The author describes the attacks on the business as  a  "low-intensity effort to fuck with Manny’s"

We glued the locks of the gentrifying business Manny’s and tagged a circle-A and “Free Cedar.” Manny’s is run by a Democratic Party operative who worked as an LGBT advisor to the Obama administration and as a top fundraiser for the Hillary Clinton campaign in Silicon Valley. His cafe is a blatant and sinister attempt to co-opt revolutionary sentiments back into the electoral shit show. This wanna-be politician is literally selling books by Frantz Fanon and James Baldwin while hosting live readings of the Mueller Report. He had the audacity, in some fluff piece about the cafe, to compare his tacky self-promotion to the riots at Compton’s Cafeteria and the Stonewall Inn. He fancies his business as a social center for #TheResistance in a neighborhood which has endured brutal waves of evictions and whose long history of actual resistance has been under threat of erasure. Several of the locks we glued were of gates preventing houseless people from sleeping in the alcoves of the business. We hope this small act highlights the hypocrisy of his “civic engagement”.

This attack is a contribution to a low-intensity effort to fuck with Manny’s which has included pickets, wheatpasting, and book expropriation. There is an ongoing boycott of the space, but clearly more action is desired.

It is easy to attack!
Free Cedar!
Go!

 When one of ours is under attack, what do we do?  Get up, fight back.

Show Manny some love and support.

Eat at Manny's.  Go there for coffee.  Host your  book club there.
Become a sponsor, or make a one time donation.
Love him on Yelp.
Go to one of the amazing thought provoking events at Manny's- check out the schedule here.

Manny's ongoing success will be our best revenge.

Manny's in the Mission: Small Business of the year.

It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

From Scott Weiner:

Today I honored Manny's as our Senate District 11 Small Business of the Yeasr.  Manny's is an amazing, unique, & progressive small business in tje Mission- a civic gathering place, a cafe, restaurant & bookstore.  Thank for Manny Yekutiel , for all that you do.

Manny's cafe, on the corner of 16th and Valencia, has been the target of anti-Semitic attacks and vandalism since its opening.  Yet the visionary  business has become a destination for progressive activists across the Bay area.  Its become a mainstay on the Democratic presidential campaign trial, with the  Buttigieg campaign,  former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Rep. Seth Moulton, Beto O'Rouke, Eric Swallwell and Cory Booker all making appearances

Business is thriving.

Manny's and Manny Yekutiel: May you continue to go from strength to strength.

Read more about Manny's in the Mission:
Welcome to Manny's
How many hoops must Manny Yekutiel jump through before he’s deemed worthy to set foot in the Mission?

Manny’s In San Francisco’s Mission A Key Stop For Democratic Candidates

Jewish café owner in S.F. faces protests for being a ‘Zionist gentrifier’

A Tale of Two Restaurants: They go low, we go high.

A tale of 2 restaurants.

Reem’s café and bakery is adorned with a floor to ceiling image of a confessed murderer- Rasmea Odeh,  a convicted terrorist responsible for the deaths of 2 young men in a Jerusalem bombing nearly 20 years ago.   Peaceful vigils by a group of community elders opposed to the glorification of violence were violently attacked by ReemAssil’s staff and patrons.  

Ellen Brotsky of JVP attacking an elderly man at Reems, Fruitvale Oakland

Lara Kiswani of the Arab Resource Organizing Center and Ellen Brotsky with posters
ripped out of the hands of community elders.  

When the physical attack failed to silence their voices,  the police were repeatedly called to break up the vigils.  Ultimately, Reem Assil attempted to take out restraining orders to quash the communities rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of speech.

Contrast and compare

Mannys in San Francisco is under protest by alt-left fringe groups, threatening to run him out of town.

Its not about the artwork Manny has chosen to display- glorious representations of our diverse community.  Its about who Manny is- a proud and  progressive queer Jew who happens to fail the litmus test of political correctness- and accepts the right of the Jewish people to self determination.  Manny’s business has been vandalized with anti-Semitic imagery.  His windows have been broken.

Mannys vandalized with spray painted Jewish star.  Photo from Mission Local 

Manny’s response to the protesters harassing his customers was to invite them in to talk.  They refused.  The community response  has also been open and loving. There have not been violent attacks against the protesters, or attempts to silence their voices.   The community instead has embraced Manny, his shop and his mission.  On Wednesday evenings, the day of the protests, Manny’s restaurant has been packed with patrons, celebrating in the community gathering space that Manny has created. . 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. knew best: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. "  

The community will continue to respond to these attacks with light and with love. 
Read more about Manny's:

How many hoops must Manny Yekutiel jump through before he’s deemed worthy to set foot in the Mission?

Manny’s builds a real-life space for civic discourse in SF

Jewish cafe owner in San Francisco hounded over his ‘Zionist ideals’

The Alt- Left eat their young

The protests at Manny's, a social justice cafe in San Francisco's Mission district have been very limited in scope.  In spite of pleas for "solidarity", the group remains a minuscule fringe of bullies with bullhorns showing up at any given time. 

Not only has JVP ignored the request,  their response has been to promote social justice events at Manny's.  Imagine being too extreme even for JVP?

Lynn Gottleib of the JVP Rabbinic Council promotes event at Manny's

Even at Indybay, the agitprop site of Bay area organizing, commenters have called the protesters out for their hypocrisy and for their antisemitism.

It is laughable for you to falsely accuse Manny's of gentrifying Valencia Street - where have you been the past 30 years, as expensive restaurants and high fashion clothing stores have moved in. Manny's food is provided by the nonprofit Farming Hope, which provides transitional work in its gardens and training in the culinary industry to people experiencing homelessness and poverty. They feature local beers. Black Lives Matter founder Alicia Garza, Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs, and Jason Collins, an openly gay former Basketball player have spoken at Manny's. Talks focused on criminal justice reform and LGBTQ rights are coming up next month. Local treasure Dog Eared Books will provide reading material. This place should be celebrated and supported. 

Fess up: The only thing you care about is that the owner is Jewish and does not advocate for the destruction of Israel. You don't care that his father is an Afghani Jew. You don't care that Manny is openly gay. You don't care that his motivation for opening Manny's is to create a welcoming place for people to gather, to meet, discuss, and become civically engaged. You can't look past his being Jewish. Shame on you.

Even in the shadowy Facepage pages where the Israel-haters congregate, the attacks on Manny's are viewed quizzically.  David , who describes Palestine as his  "main political focus"  considers the boycott "FOS"

Over at the "Gay Shame" (Yes, really) Facebook page, it is asked   "Can anyone explain to me-because I honestly don't understand- how harrassing the owner of a cafe in San Francisco helps Palestinians......"

We are all wondering that, too.

Equipto's attack on a progressive establishment in San Francisco

Manny's is a welcoming and inclusive community gathering spot in San Francisco's Mission district.
Its advisory board is reflective of the diversity and values of our local community.

A local musician (member of Bored Stiff ) and a self described "thug", Equipto (given name Illych Yasuchi Sato) has been spearheading an active campaign against Manny's on social media.

Equipto is of Columbian and Japanese heritage and knows little about this conflict, beyond a few  buzzwords, repeated often and with gusto.   Equipto thinks he's  "progressive", yet Equipto's exclusionary racist banter is biased, ignorant and racist.

Empire!

  Empire? What empire?

Zionist!

"When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism,” Dr. Martin Luther King.

Yo- Equipto: Zionism is the civil rights movement of the Jewish people.  If you dont believe Jews are entitled to civil rights, well, we have a word for that.

Apartheid!

                         

In the world according to Equipto,  Jews, er "Zionists" should be relegated to special parts of the city.  We've seen that before.  Can you say "ghetto"?  I think you can.

The shallow analysis, reductionist, zero sum game of Equipto's tweets have made him today's Anti-Zionist not Anti-Semite of the Day over at Israellycool.

Classy, Equipto.  Classy.    Manny is of Afghani heritage, btw.

Support Manny's. Support Progressive Activism in San Francisco's Mission District.

Opened earlier this year by Emanuel Yekutiel, a former intern in the Obama White House, Manny’s is a community gathering place on the corner of 16th and Valencia St in San Francisco’s Mission District. Inspired by DC based Busboys and poets, the space was envisioned as a coffee shop, restaurant and event space

From Mission Housing:

Sam Moss, the executive director of Mission Housing, said he was excited about the project. “One thing about the affordable housing industry that gets lost in translation is how important our ground-floor spaces are, and should be, to serving the general community’s needs,” he said. Moss said he chose Yekutiel’s business out of a half-dozen other interested parties for precisely that reason. “16th and Valencia should be a hub of empowerment,” he said. “I see this as a way to do it.”

The community was clearly engaged by Emanuel Yekutiel’s vision. His kickstarter raised over $75,000.

From the Kickstarter campaign:

Where can you go to meet and engage socially with civic leaders, advocates, public servants, activists, elected officials, unsung heroes, artists, and poets, and writers, the motivated and the marchers?

Where can you go to plug in civically? To get inspired by your community leaders and hear about the issues that motivate them? To get informed on the fights being waged both here and abroad for a more justice and equitable society? Where can you physically go to take that first step and get involved?

With the help of many people, I am building that place - building it at a bustling intersection in San Francisco, one of the most civically engaged cities in the world. The City of the Summer of Love, of the Beat Poets, of Harvey Milk, and of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.

I'm calling it Manny's.

Manny's will be a civic social gathering space that will combine high-quality coffee, tasty food, great beer and wine, a political bookshop, and a large civic event space.

One half of the space is devoted to social: food, drink, and books. The other half will be devoted to civic: a fully functional event space that will hold nightly programming. The bookshop will be run by the 25 year old veterans of the book industry, Dog Eared Books.

It sounds like a perfect fit in San Francisco, and particularly in the Mission district, yet Manny’s is being targeted by some of the most bizarre protests since Cliff’s Variety in the Castro was tormented for daring to sell Israeli seltzer machines.

Its an astonishing level of hypocritical virtue-signaling, even for San Francisco, a city that elevated it to an art form.

Photos from the Lucy Parsons Project on Twitter

The Lucy Parson's Project calls for running the Jew, er, "Zionist", out of town.   Sounds like they are calling for a pogrom.

World salad from Indybay, the Bay Area's own agitprop site calls Manny's a " gentrifying wine-bar, cafe and fake “social justice” space", claiming the existance of this community space will  "accelerate the raising of rents and the displacement of Black, Latinx, disabled and trans/queer people in the Mission."  And worse of all  (is this the real reason for the protest?), they describe Emmanuel Yekutiel as  having "unequivocally espoused racist, Zionist, pro-Israel ideals".

What can you do?   Visit Manny's, on the ground floor of Mission Housing’s Maria Alicia Apartments, 3092 16th St., San Francisco.   Attend some of the sponsored events.  And consider donating here