Sydney-based bagel shop Lox in a Box has been targeted by review-bombers after its owners shared a post addressing the terrorist attack in Bondi last week.
The Jewish-owned business, which has stores in Bondi, Coogee and Marrickville, shared a screenshot of the multiple one-star reviews it received on Google on Wednesday.
Reacting to the reviews, Lox in a box co-founder Candy Berger said it was “disheartening” in a lengthy post on Instagram.
“Where’s our collective humanity? Antisemitism is not a joke. Posting negative antisemitic reviews can really harm a small business like ours,” Berger wrote.
Lox in a Box said the reviews were particularly distressing given that Sydney’s Jewish community is still in mourning after the terror attack — which targeted Jewish people who were celebrating the first day of Hanukkah and left 15 people dead.
“Went to bed heartbroken and completely devastated. I couldn’t sleep, I stayed up all night thinking about what we can do as a Jewish business to give back to our community,” Berger wrote.
“My alarm went off, I had to gain all my strength and courage to get out of bed this morning and show up for my team and community. This is what I woke to in my inbox,” she added, recalling the moments before discovering the one-star reviews.
Lox in a Box elaborated on the “wave of coordinated one-star reviews” in a statement to PEDESTRIAN.TV.
“While deeply upsetting, we were unfortunately not surprised. Moments like this often expose the undercurrent of antisemitism that still exists, even here in Australia,” the statement read.
The business thanked the “powerful” response from the community in counteracting the reviews, saying the support has “been overwhelming and has reminded us that we are not alone”.
Lox in a Box briefly closed all of its stores the day after the terror attack as the owners shared a message in solidarity with the Jewish community.
“We are not okay. Our hearts are broken. Our staff are terrified. We are devastated,” the business wrote immediately after the tragedy on Sunday.
The business has since reopened, with Berger reminding the public that Lox in a Box has always intended to be “super inclusive”.
“We have always been a super inclusive business, we have always tried our hardest to never exclude anyone, so reviews like this actually do hurt, personally,” Berger wrote.
Lox in a Box encouraged customers to leave positive reviews to counteract the targeted ones. The one-star reviews are no longer visible at the time of writing, with Georgia Anderson, a Senior Account Manager at Google, claiming in the comments of Berger’s post that the reviews “have been removed”.
“We’ve implemented additional measures to prevent further reviews like this. We are so sorry that the Lox team has experienced this, and we’ll continue to support you and other local businesses through this time,” Anderson wrote.
It comes after key members of Sydney’s Jewish community also reacted to the terror attack on Monday.
“At the moment, we’re broken. We have to grieve. We have to process this,” Alex Ryvchin of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said.
“This destroyed whole worlds and things will always be different for us.”
Lox in a Box is hosting an end-of-Hanukkah lighting ceremony at its Bondi store on Sunday, December 21.
“We are continuing to trade, to show up, and to serve our community with pride,” Lox in a Box told PEDESTRIAN.TV
Lead images: Instagram
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