New Kamala Harris Ad Targets Jewish Voters in Pennsylvania – The Forward

Hymie’s Deli in Merion Station, Pennsylvania. Photo by Hannah Beier for The Washington Post via Getty Images

By means of Lauren Markoe
October 31, 2024

A Philadelphia deli owner faced outrage — and hate mail — after allowing an ad for former President Donald Trump to be filmed at his restaurant. Hymie’s Deli owner Louis Barson responded that he would have allowed an ad for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to be filmed there as well.

A film crew arrived on Monday to take up that offer. The ad shows a group of Pennsylvanians at a Philadelphia deli stall — including Jewish former Governor Ed Rendell — discussing the Trump ad and explaining why they support Harris. The ad aired on Wednesday, about two weeks after the Trump ad was released.

“Did people think I would lie?” Barson joked, explaining that the request to use his deli as the location for the Harris ad came to him through a friend, as did the ad paid for by the Republican Jewish Coalition, whose director, a friend of Barson’s from high school, had reached out to him. This time, Barson said, it was a friend involved with the Harris campaign.

It was inevitable – here it is @KamalaHarris #refutation to a pro @realDonaldTrump @RJC ad in swing states, filmed in the same suburb #Philadelphia deli (@HymiesPA) but with locals, including @GovEdRendell.
Read more from the @PhillyInquirer pic.twitter.com/cuRNRIyqIU

— Michael Smerconish (@smerconish) October 31, 2024

The Harris ad, sponsored by Patriot Majority USA, features Rendell, along with Silvi Specter, the granddaughter of Jewish former U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, and others.

The Harris ad takes aim at the Trump ad.

Rendell, holding a sandwich, opens the ad by saying he loves the turkey special.

“And I like the lox and the bagels,” replies Lita Cohen, who identifies herself as a former Republican member of the Pennsylvania House who is voting for Harris. “But I am very angry about that recent Trump ad stereotyping Jewish people.”

The first ad featured three women at a stall at Hymie’s, a nearly seventy-year-old Jewish deli in the Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion. The actors, who were Jewish or played Jewish, expressed fear about Israel’s rising anti-Semitism and security. It was criticized for stereotyping Jewish women and spreading fear.

On Sunday, the Republican Jewish Coalition released this TV ad in which three Jewish women — including a first-time Trump voter — discuss how Jews will be safer under a second Trump presidency.

The RJC spent $15 million on Jewish voters this year pic.twitter.com/Xr39vC9Av4

— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) October 21, 2024

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Jewish Democrats’ response to the Trump ad

Many took to social media to accuse the advertisers and Barson of trafficking in stereotypes of Jewish women, pointing out the actors’ sloppy clothing, Yiddish accents, a reference to an Ivy League student and one of the sighs from the actor of ‘oy vey’.

Barson said he handled threats to boycott the deli just fine. When he upset customers that the deli was just the setting for an advertisement, and made it clear that the deli’s logo would not be prominently featured in an advertisement filmed there, most people understood, he said.

But he said he was traveling last week and returned to find 10 to 15 pieces of hate mail, some of it threatening and containing swastikas and references to Hitler.

“Where are we in this world?” he said.

Barson, a registered independent who said he has registered as a Democrat and Republican in the past, declined to say how he would vote in this presidential race.

“I’ll give you this, and I swear by it,” he said. “I voted R’s for president and I voted D’s for president.”