A Texas shop owner has gone viral after refusing a couple’s request to “re-Nazify” a Hitler Youth knife.
Jonathan Sibley and his wife Rhian co-own the Blade Bar situated in Ben Wheeler, an unincorporated community in Van Zandt County, Texas.
The veteran bladesmith, who appeared on season five of the History Channel’s Forged in Fire, was propelled to internet stardom after sharing surveillance footage of the encounter “in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day,” he wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
A couple, who remain unidentified, entered the store at about 1 p.m. carrying two sheathed knives.
“What are we wanting to put in,” Sibley can be heard asking the customers in the exchange caught on video.
“I need the emblem out of that,” the woman begins in the muffled audio, pointing to a Nazi symbol from the handle of one knife, adding she wants it placed in the hilt of a second weapon.
“Nope, won’t do it,” Sibley responded sternly.
“Oh, really?,” the woman replied.
Sibley continued: “Nope, you’ve got Nazi bulls**t,” he continued, shaking his head. “If you wanted a modern German forestry seal of something in… I will de-Nazify s**t but I won’t re-Nazify s**t.”
“OK,” the woman said before the couple left the store.
The clip, which is overlaid with “Hitler youth knife repair… We only have a few shop rules…,” has garnered more than 300,000 views across Facebook and TikTok.
Members of the Jewish community were quick to thank Sibley for “standing up to hate.”
“As a person of Jewish ancestry, I want to say thank you. If I am ever in Texas I would like to buy you a beer,” one person commented on Faceboook.
A second added: “Thank you for standing up to the hate by refusing these people’s disgusting beliefs!”
Sibley told CBS 19 that he’s spent more time on TikTok in the last three days than he has cumulatively in his life, responding to an outpouring of positive comments about his service denial.
Rhiannon Sibley said that it’s important for businesses – particularly those that sit at the heart of a community – to uphold their morals.
“We stand our ground and we hold our morals and it’s incredibly important to us to show integrity in our business and our life and in everything we do,” she told the news station. “We want to make sure that we are a part of the change we want to see in this world.”
Rabi Niel Katz, who has served at the Congregation Beth El in Tyler since 2003 commended Sibley for refusing the customer’s request.
“Kudos and thank you to the owner of the store and saying what they said and being who they are,” he told the news station. “Shame on the people who walked in there.”
The Secure Community Network, which bills itself as North America’s largest Jewish security organization, found that incidents – which included racist remarks and Swatzika graffiti – against the Jewish community in Texas nearly doubled between 2022 and 2023 from 97 to 187.
In the first nine months of 2024, 138 incidents against Jewish people were reported in the Lone Star state.