It’s one thing to say “bring them home,” with regards to the Israeli hostages currently held captive by the terrorist group Hamas – it’s another to display their names and faces on a busy Main Street.
But that’s exactly what owner Peter Tsadilas of the Golden Globe Diner in Huntington has done since a few days after the Oct. 7 attack, and despite facing some backlash, he has no regrets.
“We say we’re gonna keep them as long as the hostages are not released,” Tsadilas told the Press. “We never, in our wildest dreams, thought we’d still be talking about it seven months later. If that was my child at that concert I would appreciate somebody giving them a voice or putting their pictures up.”
Tsadilas says that the backlash he has faced includes loss of customers, DoorDash drivers refusing to pick up food from other businesses, and even people attempting to rip the posters down and replace them with pro-Palestinian messages.
“They were ripped off in the front when they were on the outside of the window,” Tsadilas added. “So we decided to put them on the inside of the building, meaning on the inside of the window, to make them inaccessible.”
It’s not political, Tsadilas adds, saying that the hostages need to be remembered until they come home.
Despite some negativity, the diner has received positive feedback from the community as well.
“A lot of Jewish people came to [offer] support from all over the country,” Tsadilas said. “People come in from Israel and the first thing they do is come to us. We can’t forget about people that are going through [this] because one day we might be going through it, too, and we will need help.”
In addition to the posters of the hostages, Golden Globe Diner also flies Israeli flags outside the diner.
“It’s not easy,” Tsadilas said. “A lot of people are not happy about it. Some people are silent about it. Some people are more vocal about it. But it’s gotten a lot better because we haven’t really given up and we’ve kept it all up there the whole time.”
