{"id":281706,"date":"2026-06-29T22:43:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T22:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/281706\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T22:43:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T22:43:40","slug":"lgbtq-jews-face-cheers-heckles-at-new-york-city-pride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/281706\/","title":{"rendered":"LGBTQ Jews face cheers, heckles at New York City Pride"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dillon Perez was both heckled and embraced for being Jewish as he waved a large rainbow flag with a Star of David at New York City<\/a>\u2019s Pride March on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Marching earlier in the day with \u201cJew York Pride,\u201d Perez was greeted with cheers and cries of \u201cJewish pride\u201d from spectators. But hours later, after joining a second Jewish contingent hosted by the liberal pro-Israel group Zioness, Perez endured booing and spectators shouting \u201cfree Palestine, f**k Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a sensitivity over this word, a Zionist,\u201d Perez, 30, said. \u201cThe way that it sparked something in the crowd was definitely different between the two, you know, that\u2019s just a fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

While both groups waved Pride flags featuring the Star of David and aimed to celebrate the intersection of their identities Sunday, the split-screen experience reflected the complicated reality many LGBTQ Jews say they face at Pride events<\/a> post October 7, and in the LGBTQ community at large.<\/p>\n

Sheri Krell, 39, marched with the Zioness contingent, which carried a large banner featuring the name and slogan \u201cunabashedly progressive, unapologetically Zionist.\u201d She said that despite the heckles the group faced, the experience underscored the importance of showing up with outwardly Jewish symbols at Pride.<\/p>\n

\"DillonDillon Perez waves a Jewish pride flag at the New York City Pride March on June 29, 2026. (credit: Grace Gilson\/JTA)<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, there was verbal harassment, but on the other hand, I think it was important to still be there and still take up space and to still represent queer Jews in the Pride parade,\u201d Krell said. \u201cBecause as much hate as we received, we also received a lot of positivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

LGBTQ community reaching ‘boiling point’ with antisemitism, anti-Israel sentiment<\/p>\n

Alex Kaufman, 33, a partner of Zioness who organized their contingent Sunday, said that things had come to a \u201cboiling point\u201d in queer communities, with spaces becoming \u201clargely inhospitable to Jews, often who are Zionist or who maintain some semblance of ties to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason why we came together today was to offer Jewish queer people a safe space to celebrate Pride, where they could bring their full identities in safely and be who they are without any reservation,\u201d Kaufman said.<\/p>\n

But while the Zioness group was met with hostility on Sunday afternoon, the Jew York Pride group experienced a much different reaction.<\/p>\n

A marcher in the Jew York Pride contingent, Rivka Schafer, had also braced themself for the antisemitic heckling they had endured in past years at NYC Pride, but the boos never came.<\/p>\n

Instead, as Schafer and dozens of LGBTQ Jews made their way down the parade route under the blazing sun, they were met with cheers from spectators as they handed out hundreds of Pride flags featuring a star of David.<\/p>\n

\"JewishJewish marchers join the ”Zioness” contingent at the New York City Pride March on June 28, 2026. (credit: Courtesy Alex Kaufman via JTA)<\/p>\n

\u201cThings definitely have cooled down a lot in the past few years,\u201d Schafer, 21, said. \u201cI think the Pride two years ago was pretty scary. I think this year, I was not afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n

An estimated 75,000 marchers, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, and 2 million spectators packed the streets for the 56th annual NYC Pride March Sunday, which was themed \u201cFor All of Us.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for many Jewish participants, the festivities unfolded against a backdrop of growing unease.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot harder to be Jewish in queer spaces, and often hard to also be queer in Jewish spaces as well,\u201d Schafer said. \u201cAnd so I think that we\u2019ve seen record numbers of people here needing to find community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Ottawa\u2019s Pride Parade was canceled after pro-Palestinian protesters blocked the route, and in 2024, Jewish Lesbians in New York began hosting their own Pride celebration, Shalom, Dykes, after organizers of the Dyke March hosted their parade under the theme \u201cDykes Against Genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday, California Jewish State Sen. Scott Wiener<\/a> said in a post on X\/Twitter that he had been harassed \u201cverbally and physically\u201d while attending a trans march in San Francisco earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

Nate Shalev, the co-founder of Shalom, Dykes, said that LGBTQ Jews had begun to \u201cunderstand where they\u2019re being excluded and where it\u2019s okay to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the distinction is when we\u2019re talking about a connection to Israel, and that we\u2019re talking about being inclusive of Zionists,\u201d Shalev said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re talking about that side of things, there can become this dichotomy of what kind of Jews are welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jew York Pride offers opportunity for LGBTQ Jews to celebrate both identitied<\/p>\n

For many attendees Sunday, the Jew York Pride contingent offered a rare opportunity to celebrate both their LGBTQ and Jewish identities without feeling forced to choose between them.<\/p>\n

Alec Burroughs, a 32-year-old Modern Orthodox paradegoer, said it was increasingly challenging to be deeply steeped in both a Jewish and an LGBTQ identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarching with this group is a beautiful way of bringing those two things together in a way that feels open and accepting,\u201d Burroughs said.<\/p>\n

For the Jew York Pride contingent, the day began at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, New York City\u2019s pioneering LGBTQ-oriented synagogue, where paradegoers and supporters schmoozed over rainbow bagels and rugelach.<\/p>\n

Parade-goers were warned Sunday morning of potential \u201checklers\u201d during the festivities, but the Jew York Pride contingent encountered little hostility along the route.<\/p>\n

Carrying signs reading \u201cWe\u2019re Here, Queer, and Jewish!\u201d and \u201cFrum and Proud\u201d as well as Israeli and Jewish pride flags, the Jew York Pride contingent was flanked by four security guards trained in de-escalating potential confrontations with spectators.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like such a bracha [blessing] to me that I\u2019m able to even have a flag like this, to be able to wave it around, to be in a space where I can say yes, I\u2019m Jewish and I\u2019m queer and I\u2019m here and I\u2019m not gonna disappear,\u201d Schafer, who carried both Israeli and Jewish pride flags, said.<\/p>\n

Dancing and cheering behind a car adorned with Jewish pride flags and blaring music, the Jew York Pride marchers this year were split into two groups: A youth group hosted by Keshet, the national LGBTQ Jewish advocacy group, and Jewish Queer Youth, and an adult group led by Shalom, Dykes and Eshel.<\/p>\n

For Rachael Fried, the executive director of Jewish Queer Youth, a nonprofit that supports LGBTQ youth from Orthodox, Hasidic, and Sephardic\/Mizrahi homes, Sunday\u2019s march was a reminder that some Jews can still have a place at Pride.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might be easy to look at the broader scope of what\u2019s going on in the country and the world, and assume that queer Jews are not welcome in pride,\u201d Fried said. \u201cThe concerns are real, and we should take them seriously, and also not let the fear of that get in the way of our Jewish queer joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaimie Krass, the president and CEO of Keshet, said that rising antisemitism and anti-LGBTQ hate across the country has only reinforced the importance of showing up at Pride.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to model that we do belong, that we understand that belonging is sometimes something that we have to fight for, and that we\u2019re not alone in that fight,\u201d Krass said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dillon Perez was both heckled and embraced for being Jewish as he waved a large rainbow flag with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3862,79,410,1360,9,24,11,10,102127],"class_list":["post-281706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-antisemitism","tag-diaspora","tag-lgbt","tag-lgbtq","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-pride-parade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}