Published Jul. 4, 2026at6:00am
On June 26, state Sen. Scott Wiener attended the Trans March, as he has annually for 22 years. He is the country’s most consequential advocate for pro-trans legislation, something that has gotten him death threats for years. It should have been a moment of celebration, but instead, a crowd of fringe activists pushed him out of Dolores Park.
They didn’t come after him for his trans record. They came after him over Gaza.
Wiener has been unambiguous on his beliefs about Israel’s war in Gaza. “I believe it’s a genocide. I’m not going to support funding for the Israeli military, and I’m not taking AIPAC money,” he reiterated last weekend. He has condemned the right-wing government of Israel.
Connie Chan, his opponent in the congressional race, holds the same positions on Gaza and Israel (opens in new tab) that Wiener has publicly endorsed, yet she faced no such harassment and marched in peace (opens in new tab). If it’s not his record, why is Wiener singled out? It’s because he’s Jewish. And because of that, nothing he can ever do or say will be enough. He will always be held to a different standard. That is antisemitism.
The incident was filmed and promoted by a supporter of Chan, who posted afterward (opens in new tab) that “we kicked his ass out.” When someone in the crowd told Wiener, “You stopped being queer the moment you started supporting Israel,” it wasn’t a political argument. And the accusation of his having “Israeli handlers” isn’t a policy critique. It’s a medieval trope about Jewish dual loyalty (opens in new tab) dressed in progressive language.
I’m the only Jewish non-ex-officio member of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee. Last year, I coauthored the SF Democratic Party’s resolution (opens in new tab) on antisemitism because of a spate of targeted attacks on Jews here in San Francisco. In it, we wrote that Jews were being made to feel unwelcome in progressive spaces “unless they renounce part of their Jewish identity under litmus tests only applied to Jews.” The resolution passed 30-0. A year later, that same hate has reared its ugly head again.
San Francisco is not uniquely hateful. But it is uniquely exposed right now. This kind of targeting is emerging wherever Jews occupy prominent roles in civic life alongside a far left that has normalized antisemitism, where Jews become proxies for Israel regardless of their positions on it. What makes SF a particular flashpoint is the congressional race. One of the two candidates is Jewish. For the subset of activists who treat Jewish identity itself as disqualifying, that makes him a visible target no matter what he says about Gaza. That dynamic will keep recurring until November unless it is named and condemned clearly.
The counterargument you’ll hear is that this is about Zionism, not Jews. But let’s be precise about what that means in practice. You can oppose settlements, condemn the Netanyahu government, and support a Palestinian state. Many Zionists do. I do. Wiener does.
Zionism, stripped of its political baggage, is the belief that after thousands of years of persecution, expulsion, and murder, culminating in the Holocaust, the Jewish people deserve a homeland where they can live safely. That’s not a political ideology most Jews would have chosen willingly before 1945. It’s the conclusion history forced on them.
For most Jews, belief in Israel’s right to exist isn’t a political position. It’s bound up in what it means to be Jewish after the Holocaust. When you demand that Jews renounce it as the price of admission to progressive spaces, you aren’t making a policy argument. You’re telling us our identity is unacceptable. The demand isn’t about what Israel does. It’s about whether Israel is allowed to exist. That’s antisemitism, regardless of how it’s packaged.
Antisemitism is rising. Jews are being attacked in San Francisco. Last year, a Jewish-owned civic space in the Mission was vandalized (opens in new tab) with “Die Zio” and “death to Israel is a promise” while patrons were inside. Two community members were assaulted in the Marina (opens in new tab) in a hate crime. Jews are being made to feel unsafe in their own city. And the response from parts of the left isn’t solidarity. It’s a demand that Jews renounce the one place in the world that exists specifically so that what happened in Europe can never happen again. You don’t get to make Jews feel unsafe here and then tell them they don’t deserve safety anywhere.
The same pattern played out in the New York primary. Brad Lander, a Jewish Democrat and former city comptroller, calls Gaza a genocide. He ran against incumbent Congressman Dan Goldman, whose more pro-Israel positions were the central issue between them (opens in new tab). Lander was the left’s candidate: Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the most celebrated progressive elected official in the country, endorsed him and put him in a television ad. And yet, some prominent New York City leftists refused to endorse him. Justice Democrats cut him from their slate entirely. A Democratic strategist explained why (opens in new tab): “He’s pro-Israel.” Lander is a liberal Zionist who won’t fully renounce his connection to Jewish communal identity. It still wasn’t enough. (He won the race anyway.)
This is a pattern on the left. The acceptable Jew renounces Israel’s right to exist and distances himself from Jewish institutions. The unacceptable Jew refuses to treat his Jewishness as something requiring apology.
This isn’t a fringe problem the extreme left can disown. The fringe exists because the mainstream tolerates and enables it. The litmus test didn’t emerge from nowhere. It has been normalized in progressive spaces, in endorsement decisions, in who gets platformed and who gets pushed out. What happened in Dolores Park last week is what that normalization looks like in practice.
San Francisco Jews, and Jews across the country, are noticing. We’re asking ourselves whether we belong in spaces where we have long been among the most committed advocates for progressive causes. Unless this behavior is loudly denounced by the left, locally and nationally, we risk being driven out in the name of a purity test that has nothing to do with justice.
Mayor Daniel Lurie called what happened (opens in new tab) “targeted, hateful, and antisemitic.” Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, who is gay and Jewish, was more blunt (opens in new tab): “I think it is about Jew hatred. It has somehow become acceptable on the left.”
San Francisco voters should ask all their representatives — elected, appointed, and aspiring — whether they agree. To her credit, Chan ultimately condemned the harassment (opens in new tab). But she stopped short of calling it what it was.
Wiener’s positions on Israel and Palestine are clear. He’s still Jewish. That was always the problem.
Eric Kingsbury is president of the District 2 Democratic Club and a member of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee representing Assembly District 19.