A Potomac restaurant owner has received a wave of support following reports that he received a death threat in the middle of the night after hanging an Israeli flag outside his restaurant.
“I am getting responses from all over the world, it’s unbelievable,” said Benny Fischer, owner of Benny’s Bar & Grill. “Lying in my bed last night, I got an email from San Diego, next one from Thailand, then from Australia, then from London.”
He said the response has been overwhelmingly positive, but it wasn’t something he expected.
“I hung a flag, it’s all I did,” Fischer said this morning. “I said, ‘I’m hanging a flag, I’m with Israel, I’ve had enough.’ ”
Fischer shared some of the emails he has received since his story broke on Monday:
“We in Australia support Benny and your right to raise our flag!” wrote a supporter from Sydney.
“I am an Israeli currently taking a sabbatical in Thailand. Read about your brave stand. And what was it after all. Just hanging up a flag alongside the American flag. For that you receive a death threat. If the world doesn’t stand up soon to this bullying it will soon be for hanging up the American flag or for serving liquor in your bar. Good for you. There are plenty of people behind you,” wrote Nicole, from Thailand.
Fischer also received an email from South Africa and from local friends and supporters.
Since the story broke, he said, the police response has changed, as well.
“It went from what I thought was going to be a visit from a local police officer to a full-fledged investigation, with the district attorney and everyone in the county involved,” Fischer said.
On Monday, police said they’re investigating the case as a hate crime.
Fischer said he received a few negative comments, but they came in through Facebook, and he said, “that was expected.”
Fischer said he publicly shared his story about receiving a death threat “because so many people are afraid to really step up and take a stand, [and] it hit a chord in me; I felt that I needed people to know there’s anti-Semitism in the world and even here in Montgomery County.”
“Some people are hailing me as a hero,” Fischer wrote to a supporter in an email he shared with Bethesda Beat. “I am not. I simply hung an Israeli flag on my restaurant to support Israel in the current conflict and to support fellow Jews that are being persecuted around the world.”
