H EADLINES
Despite Setbacks, Kosher Food Truck Owners
Open for Business
L OCA L
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
AFTER SIX YEARS of count-
less setbacks, personal tragedies
and a whole lot of helping
hands, Grassroots Food Truck
— also known as Th e Chosen
Mitbach — served hot kosher
meals for the fi rst time on Nov.

8. Th e maiden voyage took
place at Clark Park in West
Philadelphia, just under a mile
from the Penn Hillel building
where chefs Troy Harris and
Kareem Wallace met one
another and fi rst conceived of
their food truck/community
hub. Th at’s also where they fi rst
became acquainted with many
of the people who helped bring
Grassroots to the road.

“All these years that we’ve
been doing this, a lot of people
would have gave up,” Harris
said. “But we had this strong
support system, and I just want
to say, that was my drive, to
keep pushing this.”
LEGAL DIRECTORY
Harris and Wallace — both
Black, both West Philadelphia
natives — met in the kitchen
of the Penn Hillel. Th e two
men became close, and as their
friendship deepened, so did
their popularity with the Penn
students who frequented the
Falk Dining Commons on the
fi rst fl oor of Hillel’s Steinhardt
Hall. Over the years, when
Harris, Wallace and the other
dining commons workers
needed assistance — in labor
fi ghts, in individual calamities
— Penn students, Jewish or not,
pitched in. When Harris’ house
burned down in 2008, students
successfully petitioned the
food services provider that
employed Harris to up their
contribution to his family’s
recovery eff ort. When Harris’
son, Azir, was paralyzed in
2018, shot fi ve times, it was
Penn students, like Wharton
graduate Michelle Lyu, who
helped raise thousands of
dollars towards Azir’s recovery.

In the aft ermath of having
successfully agitated for higher
wages, aided by Hillel regulars,
Harris and Wallace decided that
they wanted to have a project of
their own. In 2014, the concept of
a food truck, one that would serve
kosher meals while functioning
as a resource for young men in
their own communities, became
an animating force in their lives.

Th e project was met with great
enthusiasm, and they raised
thousands of dollars via online
fundraisers, aided by students and
a local businessman named Gary
Koppelman, who lent the men
space to store their food truck
when it was fi nally brought to life.

But as the years passed, the
drudgery and cost of acquiring
permits slowed the roll of the
Chosen Mitbach, and when
Azir became paralyzed, there
were simply other things
to focus on. The project
languished. Greg Whitehorn, who
graduated from Penn in
2019, was initially drawn to
the Hillel by the prospect
The Chosen Mitbach on its maiden voyage, Nov. 8. Photo by Cheryl Wallace
of meeting other Jewish
students. One of the things
that kept him coming back
was the delicious food in the
dining hall. When he met
the men behind that food,
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Consequently, Whitehorn,
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H EADLINES
FBI: Anti-Semitic Hate Crimes Rose by 14% in 2019
NATIONAL BY BEN SALES | JTA.ORG
THE NUMBER OF anti-
Semitic hate crimes in the
United States increased signifi -
cantly in 2019, according to the
FBI, in a year that saw three
lethal attacks against Jews.

Anti-Semitic incidents again
comprised the majority of hate
crimes based on religion. In
addition, the number of hate
crime murders overall more
than doubled nationwide last
year. that sparked fear and anxiety
among American Jews. A
synagogue shooting in Poway,
California, killed one person
exactly six months aft er the
October 2018 synagogue
shooting in Pittsburgh in
which 11 Jews were murdered.

In December, a shooting in
Jersey City, New Jersey, that
ended at a kosher supermarket
killed two Jews and two others.

Later that month, a stabbing at
a Hanukkah party in Monsey,
New York, killed one. Th e New
York-area attacks came amid
a spate of anti-Semitic harass-
political allegiances. .

“No one person is respon-
sible for anti-Semitism,” he said.

“Th ere are those who want to
pin this all on President Trump.

I think that’s wrong. No one
was wearing MAGA hats in
Brooklyn last December when
we saw a wave of assaults.”
Th e string of attacks last
year came amid what the ADL
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unmistakable. ... In 2019 we saw a 14% increase
in anti-Jewish hate crimes.”
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM ment and assaults in Orthodox
neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

“Th e surge of hate in the
last few years is unmistak-
able,” Jonathan Greenblatt,
the CEO of the ADL, told the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency on
Monday. “We’ve been talking
about our anxiety about the
normalization of anti-Sem-
itism, and sure enough in
2019 we saw a 14% increase in
anti-Jewish hate crimes.”
Greenblatt said the anti-
Semitic attacks of last year show
that Jew-hatred transcends
See FBI, Page 20
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But the Anti-Defamation
League cautioned that the FBI’s
numbers probably represent just
a fraction of total hate crimes
committed in the country.

Th e FBI recorded 953 hate
crimes against Jews in 2019,
a 14% increase from the 835
recorded in 2018 and similar
to the 938 in 2017. In 2019, hate
crimes against Jews comprised
62% of all hate crimes based on
religion, up from 58% in both
of the previous two years.

Last year saw a series of
lethal anti-Semitic attacks
number in 40 years (though its
criteria diff er from the FBI and
the Jewish anti-bigotry agency
has recorded a higher number
of anti-Semitic incidents over
the years).

Th e FBI recorded 7,314 total
hate crimes last year, a slight
increase over 2018 and 2017, but
BUSINESS DIRECTORY
ENTIRE ESTATES
PURCHASED An FBI chart breaks down the latest stats.

has described as a years-long
rise in anti-Semitic activity.

Just days aft er 2020 began,
25,000 people marched across
the Brooklyn Bridge to protest
anti-Semitism in New York
City and elsewhere.

Earlier this year, the ADL
found, similarly to the FBI,
that anti-Semitic incidents rose
by 12% in 2019 to their highest
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