The Protest: Jewish Defense League vs Freshjive, The Hundreds' Account

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

Photo via The Hundreds—JDL chairman Shelley Rubin protesting outside Reserve

We posted yesterday about the Jewish Defense League (JDL) protesting outside Reserve, streetwear label Freshjive's flagship shop on Fairfax. The issue at hand are T-shirts with Arafat and Palestinian children soldiers on them. The JDL's main target is Freshjive CEO Rick Klotz. Streetwear label The Hundreds chronicled the protest on its blog, which features video, starring JDL chairman Shelley Rubin—there are lots of expletives involved. Per the blog: The JDL was "storming up and down the sidewalk with picket signs, bullhorns, and an artillery of verbal warfare...belligerently claiming Rick hates Jews, support Muslims, and is gay." In defense of Klotz, the post continues:

"The ironic part being that Rick himself is Jewish and has done more than anyone else on the block in terms of enlightening the streetwear kids on Judaism through apparel and literature, and preserving Fairfax’s historic Jewish community. (The other parts about supporting Muslims is not necessarily a bad thing, last time I checked. And the Rick being gay thing, it would explain a lot, buuut I don’t think that’s so accurate either.)"

The blog links to a Wikipedia page on the JDL, which describes it as "...a militant Jewish organization whose stated goal is to protect Jews from antisemitism.[1] It has been implicated in many terrorist attacks..." In the end, The Hundreds describes the "showdown" as "anti-climatic," ending when "The cops finally showed up and the crowd dissipated. Yawn." There's no post-protest commentary on the JDL blog at this time.
· JEW ON JEW CRIME. [The Hundreds]
· Protest! Jewish Defense League Not Jiving with Freshjive [Racked]