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Tuesday The Rabbi Ordered A Salad And Was The Subject Of Antisemitism

A Rabbi walks into a restaurant…no, this is not the beginning of a joke, but rather the beginning of yet another tale of antisemitism.

A Mississippi rabbi and a restaurant owner have agreed to sit down and talk about a salad order gone wrong.

Very wrong.

Rabbi Ted Riter, of Jackson’s Beth Israel Congregation, says he was kicked out of a Wraps Greek restaurant in Jackson because of his faith. But restaurant owner John Allis claims the whole thing was a big misunderstanding about a “Jewish Salad” that his restaurant sells.

The controversy between the two men began soon after Riter entered Allis’ restaurant on Tuesday.

“I asked the owner if I could have a Greek salad to go and he said, ‘The regular size or the Jewish size?'” Riter told WAPT. “He just goes into a tirade, throwing out all these expletives, ‘Get out of here.'”

Riter claims the owner told him, “You know Jews are small and cheap! Everyone knows that.”

The rabbi reportedly responded, “Did you really just say that to me?”

After asking whether Riter was Jewish, the rabbi was allegedly ordered to leave the restaurant.

“Expletives, F-bombs, and since I’d never been the recipient of that before, I was in shock, so I didn’t register it until the second or third time he told me to leave,” Riter told the Clarion Ledger. “It was a bit surreal. So I left.”

But Ellis has a different version of events. He claims the restaurant was extremely busy at that time and that Riter was acting indecisive. Ellis says he harbors no ill will toward the Jewish people.

“The guy said he didn’t want to do any business with us. He was probably offended because we offer different salads — that’s all,” Ellis told WAPT. “I said, ‘Greek salad or Jew?’ We have different salads. We have Carlito’s Way Salad. We have Grecian Salad. We have Jewish Salad. We have Greek Salad. We have Cesar Salad — we have a lot of salads. Names of salads derive from people; they don’t derive from the sky.”

The “Jewish salad” in question featured French-fried potatoes, feta cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, flat-leaf parsley and mint, according to Ellis. It doesn’t appear on the store’s printed or online menus.

The only thing that surprises me about this story is that Ellis did not mention Israel, or try to cloak his antisemitism in “anti-Zionist” language.

I think the Rabbi gave in too easily.

Meanwhile, a look at reviews for the restaurant shows some foreshadowing of obnoxious behavior by staff, but no antisemitism per se.

Will not be back!!!
DINER FROM JACKSON • Halina-Halina • 1 Review
Horrible service with a nasty attitude from the owner who barks out insults to customers . Food is mediocre at best and not consistent.
They left off pita bread on my order and when I asked for it the owner got some from the kitchen with his bare hand and flung it into my box.
Yukkkkk

Mobile review
DINER FROM BIRMINGHAM • MrsR • 6 Reviews
The food was good but the servers were very rude. When I was waiting for someone to take my order, I rang the bell for service. The waitress came out from the kitchen and gave me the most awful go-to-hell look. Why have the bell if you are annoyed by your customers using it to get service? Also, a woman came in to order gyros, but mispronounced the word. The whole waitstaff very loudly made fun of her mistake. So unnecessary. I enjoyed my lunch, just not the hateful atmosphere.

A Google User
reviewed 2 years ago
Went there a moment ago ordered lunch, had our kids with us. The kids had subway. They ate their lunch while we waited on our order. The crazy young lady bag our order to we were dining in. And tell us you can’t eat it here because you have outside food. She also yells in a hostile tone that we were rude and disrespectful people and should never return. I informed her we were unaware she yells its posted on the door. We explained we didn’t see it and the situation could have been handled better in front of our children. She yells Just get out. Her behavior and actions were truly out of order.

A Google User
reviewed 2 years ago
While the food is great, the manager, Judy, is awful and unprofessional. Wraps has now lost 3 customers after her behavior today.

Beth A.
River Oaks, Memphis, TN
6/30/2014
I want to rate this place highly, I do. Nothing better than a local hole in the wall with great food right? And the food was good. And it was ready relatively quickly. But my experience was horribly bad, due to the rudeness of the worker behind the counter. She was mean, and angry. She also substantially overcharged us, and acted terribly inconvenienced when she had to issue a refund. I left with a pit in my stomach, the kind that you get after a confrontation with someone, or after you’ve been bullied. Yes, it was just that bad. If there had been even a hint of a smile, I’d give it 3 or 4. But when I tapped the bell to get her to the front to issue our refund, I saw and heard her yell, “Jesus!!!” before she came out. My husband is orthodox Christian, so that made him feel kind of ashamed that an orthodox establishment would have workers that behave that way. The really good food is why I didn’t give a 1 rating. 🙁 If mean people don’t upset you like they do me, by all means go there. I’ll never ever go back. So much negativity! (For reference, our visit was late January 2014, on a Friday night, so no owner seemed to be present.)

Update: Reading about this Salad Nazi provides just the excuse to post these Soup Nazi highlights.

About the author

Picture of David Lange

David Lange

A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media
Picture of David Lange

David Lange

A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media
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