Pittsburgh Restaurant Manager Fired Over Anti-Semitic Facebook Post
Pittsburgh Image by Haizhan Zheng/iStock
(JTA) — The manager of a popular restaurant in Pittsburgh was fired after he shared an anti-Semitic post on Facebook.
Yokoso Japanese Steakhouse owner Jeff Kim apologized in a Facebook post for the action of his employee, calling it “inexcusable.” He also wrote: “Please know that his comments and views do not reflect the values of the restaurant and its employees. His employment has been terminated.” The restaurant is located on the city’s waterfront.
The post was a meme that shows the interior of an oven and read “Jewish bunk beds for sale.”
The restaurant staff learned of the post on Sunday and the employee was fired on Monday.
The employee, identified as Stephen Guyer, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that the post was a “huge mistake” and that he thought the meme “was something about a Danish bunk bed.”
He added: “My life has been ruined now. I would never disrespect Jewish people intentionally. I love all people no matter their race, color or religion. I made a mistake and I’m very sorry for the outcome.”
The post comes eight months after an attack on the Tree of Life synagogue that left 11 worshippers dead. The restaurant is located about four miles from the restaurant.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
