EDINBURGH (JTA) — The Jewish owner of a bagel chain in Scotland said she was “shocked” after the landlord of one of her stores called her request for an alternative rent payment because of the coronavirus crisis “typical Jewish behavior.”
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Larah Bross, who owns Bross Bagels, told the Edinburgh News late last week that she has had to close her five stores and furlough 39 of her 47 staff members because of the pandemic. (The rest are filling limited delivery orders.) Like many other small-business owners, she realized she would not be able to pay April’s rent and so reached out to her landlord.
Landlord Mario Aydemir Demirezen, currently in Turkey for private medical care, told her in a text message that her desire to negotiate the rent in writing was “typical Jewish behavior.”
He told the newspaper from Turkey that he is certain Bross has the money to pay him, as his other renters have. He said it would be difficult to make arrangements from out of the country.
“She is a clever Jewish lady and she is taking advantage of Covid-19 and making more (money) than anyone else,” he told the newspaper. “When I say typical Jewish, I mean they are the richest people in the world and very clever people. She should be proud of her Jewish identity. Jewish people are always clever and there’s nothing wrong with that, she should be proud.”
Edinburgh Council leader Adam McVey in a tweet called Demirezen’s comments “disgraceful” and “casual anti-Semitism.”
Bross told the newspaper she is not sure that she will be able to maintain a relationship with her landlord now, even if anticipated government support allows her to pay the rent.
“I would love to know in any context at any time where the term ‘typical Jewish’ was used as a compliment,” she told the Edinburgh News. “I will be happy to offer free bagels for a year to anyone who can provide me with one.”
I thought that “typical Jewish behavior” was to close bagel shops during Passover.
Bagels on פסח? Definitely not Jewish behavior.
Hope the landlord typically dies from whatever medical condition he is suffering from
scratch a moron, find an anti-Semite.
The people that sell bagels on Pesach get offended from such stupid things.. like why is this even in the news?
Typical mohammedan.
Jews whining about anti-semitism while living in the golus.
Wake up..its been going on for centuries.
We have a State, you refuse to go there so as they say learn to eat it and enjoy it.
there’s a pandemic of people who do have the money to pay rent but aren’t paying because they think they can get away with it. Landlords have bills and tuition too. Not saying bagel lady has the dough, just in general. Of all times to be dishonest , this is not one of them. Shame on the people who can afford the rent, whose businesses are operating, and don’t pay.
To Bezalel and the ganif; nowhere in the article does it says she was open on Pesach. She could have been delivering bagels week before Pesach.
And as for “pay the rent” so cute how u say “I’m not saying” then u say it. If she closed five stores and laid off 39 people, and the stores are empty- maybe there should be a negotiation.
These are certainly not normal times.
Typical turkish behavior.vile and not clever
Well you can see the trading hours displayed on the store front. Not very Jewish?