Just got off the phone with a young professional in the Bay Area who broke down sobbing about the amount of vitriolic antisemitism coming from his colleagues. It was striking to hear a grown man cry, but my main takeaway was that the worst part is the gaslighting--
🧵A Jewish Berkeley Law student, Noah Cohen, is punched in the face by a sort of security guard at the Israel protest encampment, after he refused to stop filming and leave. He said the punch grazed the left side of his face. 1/x
Chants of "Epstein didn't kill himself" in San Francisco city hall after a man says five of his family members were murdered at Kibbutz Be'eri and two female first cousins were taken hostage.
WATCH: A San Francisco Jewish man bravely shares his experiences with antisemitism after losing five family members at Kibbutz Be'eri, including two kidnapped by Hamas, only to be met with boos and jeers from anti-Israel activists.
Ethnic studies faculty in the University of California system sent a scathing letter to UC administrators condemning the use of the word "terrorism" to describe the Hamas attacks saying it contributes "to a climate that has made Palestinian students and community members unsafe"
Baffling, hamfisted and ahistorical lesson provided to students at Menlo Atherton High School in Palo Alto. "Israel is a country created on Palestinian land. The United Nations says this is illegal." The school says it is now rolling out a program to better educate students.
the insistence that no, this isn't racism, this is antiracism. This is speaking truth to power. It's subversive in an essential way--such that any pushback only reinforces the righteousness of the cause. Second is the abject dehuminization of anyone cursed enough to bear the 2/x
Imagine if a white or Jewish person spent 15 minutes on national TV, just sort of pondering the influence of Black people in American life (and insinuating their influence is mostly negative). Other than that, Chappelle was actually very funny, which makes things complicated.
VIDEO and 🧵: A group carrying an Israeli flag was attacked at Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley yesterday evening (Wednesday). I spoke to the woman who recorded this cell phone video showing the assault.
"I'm sorry for hurting you, as a Jewish person. I'm sorry for the way that it made you feel. And I'm sorry for the entire population of a race that I feel is actually my brothers." Ye apology, speaking to
@lexfridman
, published today.
If you are a Jewish or Israeli college student I honestly have no idea how you are supposed to react when your classmates, whipped up in a frenzy, openly celebrate the murder and desecration of those close to you. Are you supposed to argue back? Plug your ears? Fight?
Has become grounds for the most heinous accusations, that you are literally a Nazi, that you not only support genocide but are complicit in it. So yeah, one can understand why this could make someone cry.
title of "Zionist," a term now worse, in popular discourse, than "racist," or "capitalist," or most any other terms one can think of. To support the existence of a Jewish state in some portion of the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. It's a belief 3/x
shared by most American Jews and their parents, grandparents, uncles, nieces, nephews, and children. It's simply a feeling that it is, well, a good thing for Israel to exist. Even passive support for the existence of a Jewish state
This truck, which says "Berkeley Bans Jews," was spotted driving around Berkeley today. It was paid for by the right wing group Accuracy in Media. Someone threw a rock at the vehicle, I am told, damaging it.
CAIR and JVP are lobbying against a new bill to establish a committee for Holocaust and genocide education in California schools because of the influence of "pro-Israel organizations."
NEW and 🧵: Here's a deep dive into anti-Zionist activism at the renowned medical school and hospital system UCSF, activism that has increasingly leaked from the campus quad and social media into hospital rooms and patient areas.
George Washington has officially joined the intifada (his statue is draped in a flag and keffiyeh at GWU in DC). Sign: "Students will go back home when Israelis go back to Europe." Photos taken today.
Below is a letter - a searing indictment - sent to Dan Kalb, a liberal, pro-Israel environmental advocate. It's from UC Berkeley undergraduates, explaining why they have disinvited him from speaking to their class.
Read more, and Cal's response here:
BREAKING: after a seven hour meeting the SF school board voted to rename 44 district schools, more than a third of all public schools in the city. Lincoln, Washington, Diane Feinstein, Sutro among schools to be renamed. Schools have until Apr. 19 to suggest new ones.
Wow. A Holocaust ed bill in California passed unanimously, 116-0, despite being strongly opposed by left-wing organizations JVP, CAIR, and Liberated Ethnic Studies. They opposed because of the involvement of pro-Israel Jewish groups. Press release from liberal Jewish group below.
Smitten Ice Cream, the Jewish-owned ice cream shop vandalized with pro-Palestinian graffiti (and smashed windows) on Wednesday, has closed, at least for now. The owner has declined to speak to the press so far.
From
@sfchronicle
I've been thinking about the phrase "pro-Israel." It's used often, everywhere. I can't think of another country to which such a phrase is applied with regularity. A very "pro-Mexico" politician. A "pro-Germany" pop star. "Pro-Japan" demonstrators.
A liberal Jewish lawmaker and climate change policy expert was disinvited from speaking to undergrad environmental students at UC Berkeley after they accused him of "retweeting and spreading pro-Israeli propaganda."
An exclusive ⬇️ in
@jewishsf
.
A Zionist is someone who supports the existence of a Jewish state in some portion of the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. You can vehemently oppose this, but let’s at least agree on what we’re talking about.
A public menorah in Oakland was cut into pieces, some of which were tossed in a lake.
The Jewish community is holding a rededication ceremony tonight at 7 p.m.
UCSF releases a statement condemning a "tired and familiar racist conspiracy theory" after one of its professors, Rupa Marya, went viral with a tweet that said "the presence of Zionism" in medicine should be "examined" as an impediment to health equity.
A Palestinian restaurant was accidentally targeted in a boycott of "Zionist businesses" in San Francisco.
“My restaurant is here to serve everyone, Jews, Arabs, Palestinians, Israelis, doesn’t matter," the owner said.
From
@LoebLea
in
@jewishsf
By saying "Zionists are not welcome here, you are saying Jews are not welcome here," Berkeley undergraduate Shay Cohen says just now during
@SFJCRC
forum.
This is an Oakland school district administrator referring to “Zionist apartheid pedophiles” and directing a homophobic slur toward a gay Jewish lawmaker who defends Israel.
NEW: In a statement to
@jewishsf
, SF Mayor London Breed sharply criticized the board of supervisors for taking up “complex matters over which we have absolutely no jurisdiction," following divisive public meetings culminating in a ceasefire resolution.
Speaker at Berkeley tent encampment critiques the infiltration of "Zionism" into American feminism.
Naming Betty Friedan, she says, "Jewish women participated vivaciously in this, and sometimes imported Zionist political operations into feminist networks themselves."
The ethnic studies debate in Washington is arguably even more fraught than in CA on Jewish issues. Here's the director of the nonprofit hired by the state to implement ES question why "white Jews" make such a big deal about their "experiences with oppression and genocide"
The Mapping Project, an initiative from left-wing groups in Massachusetts marking Jewish places that support Israel, is used by white supremacist Goyim TV in a July 13 stream. “This is super, duper, ooper important,” streamer Jon Minadeo says pointing at the map. 1/x
Polish police arrested American tourist Jon Minadeo today, according to his Gab account, after the antisemitic influencer published photos of himself smiling at Auschwitz and holding a sign attacking the
@ADL
.
An exclusive, in
@jewishsf
.
NEW: A striking federal complaint filed yesterday against UC Davis lists dozens of incidents targeting Zionist students, a rash of graffiti, pro-Israel Jews being excluded from groups and housing, and calls for violence, including from faculty.
@jewishsf
I asked Noah whether he considered the encampment to be a form of peaceful protest.
"It's peaceful until you don’t comply," he said. "It's peaceful if you follow everything these random people are telling you to do. It was peaceful for me until I wanted to film." 4/x
NEW: Pro-Palestinian activists took credit for another arson Sunday after attempting to set fire to a Berkeley construction site which will become a center for disabled students. It was the third arson this month. In
@jewishsf
Neo-Nazi white supremacist Jon Minadeo, Jr., currently on a tour of Europe, visited Auschwitz, where he took smiling photos at the extermination camp where over 1.1 people--mostly Jews-- including more than 200,000 children, were murdered in gas chambers by the Nazis 1/2
Just learned several law students at Berkeley refused to shake dean Erwin Chemerinsky's hand at graduation today. (Chemerinsky is a Jew who supports the existence of Israel. In 2007 he represented the family of an American killed by an Israeli bulldozer in a high profile case).
American Jews are particularly sensitive to the insult of being called racists, fascists, colonizers, white oppressors, etc. This stuff is anathema to the soul of American Jewish identity. It immediately ratchets up the emotional valence of any debate. It is kerosene.
"And then it wasn’t peaceful. And if someone wanted to walk into the entrance of California Hall with an Israeli flag on their back, it definitely would not be peaceful."
It's fine to refer to these colloquially as "Gaza encampments" or "pro-Palestine protests" but it's also important to be specific: In large block letters, Berkeley demonstrators make clear this is in support of Palestinian armed resistance. aka Hamas.
Jewish Berkeley Law student: "These bylaws make Jewish students choose: either it's ok to denounce an important part of who they are, or to quietly exclude themselves" from campus groups.
"Ya'll became like the Nazis, man," a CA-based imam, Amir Abdel Malik Ali, tells a Jewish doctoral student at Stanford yesterday during an event at the pro-Palestine encampment. Audience snaps/claps. Ali has a history of antisemitic statements, per the
@splcenter
.
Note: The suspect, "Jay," did not identify themselves as a Berkeley student nor a professor and it didn't seem like they are one. When asked "Where are you from" she said "Berkeley." Noah said she appeared older than the vast majority of students.
Within certain activist circles today, a Jewish artist (or scholar) can only perform/teach if they have publicly renounced Jewish nationalism and the state of Israel.
Noah said he had just left writing "for four hours" and saw the demonstration and started quietly recording. Video footage shows two people tried to stop him from recording and first asked him to leave, then told him to do so. 2/x
Read the full story below, including the response from UCSF, reactions from Jewish donors (who have given $1 billion+ to the hospital), and interviews with Jewish doctors who said that a culture of activism at UCSF had gone too far. ⬇️
Otherwise fine NYT article published today about Columbia. Though I was shocked at this description of "intifada": "used to describe periods of violent protests by Palestinians." "Violent protests" are throwing rocks or burning tires. Blowing up public buses is called terrorism.
The Diller family maligned here as Zionists by a UCSF professor have pledged more than $1 billion to the hospital system. Also, Zuckerberg-Chan family have committed over $600 million...the Zuckerberg General Hospital is considered one of the best public hospitals in the U.S.
Here on the National Mall for a rally in support of Israel. Massive crowds. Minutes ago Rep. Ritchie Torres delivered a passionate speech, saying Israel should do to Hamas what the US did to ISIS—what the Allies did to the Nazis.
NEW from
@EmmaAudreyGoss
: at least 30 Jewish families in Oakland have requested, and were approved for, transfer from the school district since Oct. 7, amid anti-Israel statements from teachers, unauthorized "teach-in for Palestine," & antisemitism fears.
NEW: Pro-Palestinian groups in SF claim they successfully lobbied the school district to "cancel" an antisemitism training today because the group leading the training, AJC, is pro-Israel.
Story in
@jewishsf
⬇️
A man walked into a Jewish center in San Francisco last night and started firing blanks.
“This is a terrorist attack. The point of this was to cause terror,” Alon Chanukov said. “Not to kill people. But to literally terrify Jews, as best as I can see.”
Here's one of the statements they are condemning, from UC president Michael Drake and board of regents chair Richard Leib, dated Oct. 9. Drake and Leib plainly calls the Hamas attack two days prior an "act of terrorism."
.
Oakland coffee shop Farley's, which shut its doors temporarily after a video went viral showing three employees blocking a Jewish woman from entering the restroom, said the staff members are no longer employed.
I spoke with Amanda Morgan, a young mom who felt "a little bit extra nervous" giving birth when three of her nurses were wearing pro-Palestinian pins in the maternity ward, including the one administering oxygen to her infant son.
Notably, the AIM truck isn't the only driving around Berkeley this week confronting antisemitism. JewBelong, a Jewish-run nonprofit known for its eye-grabbing pink billboards, is doing the same in part in response to the law school controversy.
"It was one of my most vulnerable and painful moments," she said. "The thing that I really didn't want to think about the most is the Israel-Gaza conflict."
Incredible bias from
@latimes
providing no evidence for this ridiculous claim. "Chemerinsky has been a vocal critic of pro-Palestinian activists at Berkeley." Of course Chemerinsky has defended the free speech rights of activists at great personal cost to himself. Such silliness.
The decision was not unanimous: the board's lone no vote came from commissioner Kevine Boggess who said he was opposed to naming schools after people to begin with.
The suggestion was made to do away with school names altogether and use a number system, like New York City.
The insistence on racializing Jews, often by non-Jews in the DEI space and in activist circles, is striking. Everyone must fit neatly into a racial category.
NEW: The Stanford pro-Palestinian encampment announced plans to host an imam tonight who has advocated for a global Muslim caliphate and who has spread "naked" antisemitism, per
@splcenter
and video published online. In
@jewishsf
So, California taxpayers paid more than $9M to CAIR since 2019, mostly via social services grants and & government consulting. Here is CAIR's San Francisco head mourning (but also celebrating) the death of Hamas' leader as "martyrdom" in the "cause of Allah" and a free Palestine
A Krav Maga studio in San Francisco was targeted with anti-Zionist messages this week. Krav Maga is an Israeli martial art --- it's become quite popular in the U.S. because of its focus on real-world situations for self-defense. Combat Krav is a studio in Nob Hill.
Morgan said lots of her Jewish friends and "people in female empowerment communities" often say that if something is off with your care team, you should ask for "somebody who supports you."
BREAKING: The Los Angeles shooting suspect last year emailed a photo of a Goyim TV flyer to his former dental school classmates, according to the FBI. The flyer said "Every single aspect of the Covid agenda is Jewish" h/t
@thislouis
(An *example* of such a flyer is below)
"In theory," she said. "But in actuality, at no point was I going to do that. I was having contractions, and I did not want to make the situation any more difficult or worse." "I kept my mouth shut," she said. "I didn't want to make a scene."
NEW: 100 Berkeley middle schoolers left school to march for Palestine on Friday, the same day an antisemitic message was discovered scrawled on a whiteboard at the school. It said, (the name of the student redacted): "“A— hates Jews. We stand with A—.”
Her name is Atara, she’s an undergraduate. She asked not to publish her last name for the sake of privacy. She’s affiliated with the group Students Supporting Israel or SSI. 2/x
NEW: A Jewish dad is suing Berkeley schools for records re: an ethnic studies lesson on Israel-Palestine that his son took. We obtained the curriculum-- it "could have been worse," the dad said, but includes a number of slides from Al Jazeera.
@jewishsf
American-born imam tells pro-Palestinian protesters at UC Irvine their chancellor is a "Zionist Jew" (whom he identifies by his name) who worships the "Sunnah of Satan."
"They don't believe that people's lives are worth more than money," he says.
The truck says "All in favor of banning Jews, raise your right hand." It was a response to the controversy surrounding Berkeley Law groups banning Zionist speakers.
"I've gone so far, just psychologically, on this journey, since that statement [the death con 3 tweet]. I didn't want to give up the candy in my pocket. I didn't want to say hey, I stuck my hand in the candy jar.
"I wanted to defend my freedom of speech."
I’m proud of this story that sheds light on the extent to which an activist group helped facilitate massive school walkouts for Gaza, 11 days after Oct. 7, that *everyone* including the local Bay Area media claimed were organic, student-led protests.
Rupa Marya tweet: "The presence of Zionism in US medicine should be examined as a structural impediment to health equity."
48 Hills: "Marya raised questions about how the views of doctors who support the state of Israel’s war in Gaza might impact...Arab or Palestinian patients."
I recently underwent surgery which went totally fine and am now making a full recovery (sorry enemies). During my hospital stay an incredibly warm and friendly nurse named Doug learned that I was Jewish. Before my surgery, he asked if he could pray for me. 1/x
Do other Jewish journalists, each time they get a new follower, have to check if they're a Nazi? And about 15 percent of the time they are? I assume this is a common experience.
Also today, the Israeli actress and pro-Israel activist Noa Tishby visited Sproul Plaza to show solidarity with Jewish and pro-Israel students. Reporting from
@lilsleygreene
in
@jewishsf
.
Anti-Zionist activists including Jewish Voice for Peace were out in Berkeley this morning in support of vandalism of JewBelong billboards that said anti-Zionism is antisemitism. (via press release)
From what I can tell, their opposition stems from the involvement of Jewish Family and Children's Services, a more than century old social services nonprofit with a well-funded Holocaust Center that is involved in the state project.
A rare Goyim TV arrest in the town of Brownstown, Michigan. For some reason this report doesn't name the suspect, it might be the newspaper's policy or the police's. I do plan to find out.
Here's background on the whole thing, including why the board chose to rename Feinstein Elementary and why some parents and staff at the school say their reasoning is bogus.