Jewish Pharmacist on Looters Who Destroyed His Store

Kylie Ora Lobell

---

The outside of Syd’s Pharmacy, vandalized during protests May 30 in Los Angeles.

The looters smashed the pharmacy’s windows, knocked down the shelves and took all the street drugs including painkillers.

On May 30, as protestors marched down Beverly Boulevard, Jonathan Friedman stood with cops and watched as they looted his store, Syd’s Pharmacy, at 7111 Beverly Blvd.

“I watched them from across the street,” Friedman said in a phone interview with the Journal. “I’ve been broken into before, but to watch people viciously destroy your store for no reason is a whole different ballgame. I was standing here with the cops and there was nothing anyone could do.”

The looters smashed the pharmacy’s windows, knocked down the shelves and took all the street drugs including painkillers. Friedman said the protest started at Pan Pacific Park and then police pushed the crowd down Beverly.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Friedman

It was then that they “looted every single store. They went from store to store. They took hammers out and smashed windows. What’s more upsetting than the theft is that they destroyed everyone’s place of work. People take pride in where they work. They want to come in Monday morning and have their papers in order. They destroyed people’s place of work, which is like their home.”

While witnessing the destruction to his business, as well the kosher bakery Mensch Bakery and Kitchen and the Jewish-owned clothing store Go Couture across the street, Friedman went back home for a few minutes to tell his wife and children what was happening. He walked to and from his store since he was observing Shabbat and Shavuot at the time.

“The 15 minutes I was gone, someone chased three people out of my store,” he said. “At 9 o’clock last night, there were cops driving up and down the block. There was not an ounce of fear in these [looters’] eyes.”

Friedman stayed up until 2 in the morning cleaning the store and boarding up the windows. “It looked like the aftermath of a hurricane,” he said.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Friedman

Still, he will be ready to open his doors on Monday to serve his customers.

“We’re cleaning up. We’re a pharmacy. We have to serve our patients tomorrow. We don’t have a choice. What happened was terrible.”

---

---