(JTA) – The two black men whose arrest at a Starbucks in Philadelphia has gone viral were waiting for a local Jewish businessman, Andrew Yaffe, who tried to stop their arrest. Yaffe, who runs a real estate development firm, was meeting the men to discuss business investment opportunities. In the viral video, he arrives at the Starbucks and tells police that they were waiting for him. “Why would they be asked to leave?” Yaffe says on the video. “Does anybody else think this is ridiculous? It’s absolute discrimination. A video of the arrest of the two men on Thursday led to national and international outrage. It was viewed more than eight million times by Saturday. In a statement, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson offered “our deepest apologies” for the “reprehensible” incident. Yaffe is founder and president of AY Industries, a Philadelphia-based real estate development, investment and management firm, and is active in the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, according to the Jewish Exponent.