On Sunday, a religious Jewish mother took her 11-year-old son to “Broadway Barber Shop” in Fair Lawn for a routine haircut.
But things took a dark turn.
Here's what she wrote on Facebook:
I was in the area and looked for a place with good reviews, and this place had RAVING reviews, 4.9 stars, so I didn’t think twice and went in there. As a religious Jew, we have laws of how to cut our boy’s hair- the “Payes” (sideburns) that you see our boys using are not for fashion- it is a basic law in our religion that the sideburns cannot be trimmed above the cheekbone, so we make sure to keep them long to the bone. I’ve been to at least 20 barber shops/hair salons in Bergen County- NEVER HAD AN ISSUE WITH THIS!
When we walked into The “Broadway Barbershop”, I already felt some tension, the owner was not welcoming to us, but I thought it was all in my head and also because I was the only woman there. We waited for our turn, and the owner seemed very friendly with the other customers, he was chatting with them and giving a very professional service. You could tell that both barbers had great experience- even the guy who was there with long hair got a nice long haircut!
When it was my son’s turn, I explained to the barber very well what haircut we wanted, and specifically explained NOT to cut the sideburns. I showed him a picture and pointed with my finger as to how long we wanted the sideburns to be, he smiled said yes, and nodded in agreement. A few minutes later my son started tearing up and calling me, the Barber went and trimmed off his sideburns completely in a matter of seconds. I immediately asked him to stop, but he kept on going and ignoring me! I called the owner and asked him to talk to the barber, he spoke to him in Arabic and the barber just went to the other side and trimmed that side even shorter! They were smiling at each other, and my son was crying and feeling violated, I yelled at the barber to just stop but he kept going, so I grabbed my son with a half haircut to get up, the guys barely apologized and we both got out of there in tears.
FYI: This is a kind of assault that they used in Nazi Germany, chopping off Jews sideburns. I never dreamed I’d be in this situation in a safe NJ town in the USA. MY SON IS 11 YEARS OLD, A CHILD!!!!!! He could not get himself to go to school the next day because of all the shame and embarrassment he felt, this was the first time he had his Payes shaved off!
You should all be aware that this happened in Bergen County- PLEASE HELP STOP THE HATE!
To my Jewish Fellows: Hopefully you’re not as naive as I am, DO NOT TAKE A CHANCE at going into unknown territories like I did! These guys did something that they can’t be charged for, but they knew very well what they were doing, and the pain they caused us! I am sure they enjoyed every moment of it!
Antisemitism is still happening, please report to the police, ADL, and Jewish Federation even the smallest events. ANITI-JEW HATRED SHOULD NOT BE TOLERATED. PERIOD.
VINNews contributed to this article.
