Pouring rain and a chill wind could not dampen the mood of thousands of Bay Area Jews and allies who took to the streets of San Francisco on Sunday for a unity march against antisemitism.
Marchers gathered at Embarcadero Plaza before heading up Market Street to a rally at Civic Center Plaza. Buses arrived from cities across the region, including Santa Rosa, Walnut Creek, Pleasanton, Palo Alto and Los Gatos. Baby strollers jostled for space amid a sea of signs, banners and flags, both Israeli and American. The mood was festive, with lots of schmoozing. Still, private security teams and some 60 police officers — some on motorcycles, some with dogs — were on alert.
Berkeley resident Rita Minas came with her 10-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son.
“We’re here because we’re Jewish, and we want to be part of the community today,” she said. Her children are “aware of everything that happened” on Oct. 7 and “need to be a part of this,” she added.
“We need to stand up proudly against Jew hatred,” said Oakland resident Margaret Trowe, who is running for U.S. vice president on the Socialist Workers Party ticket.
Some people interviewed chose not to give their last names, citing fears for their safety amid the spike in antisemitism worldwide that has followed the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and subsequent Israel-Hamas war.
“I wouldn’t have come alone today,” said Jennifer of Berkeley. “I really don’t feel safe. I live alone, I feel very vulnerable.”
Describing herself as “very progressive,” Jennifer added that her Jewish identity has overtaken her politics since Oct. 7.
“I feel more aligned with people in the Orthodox community than ever before. My non-Jewish friends have stopped talking to me,” she said. “All my new friends are Orthodox.”
About 20 to 30 protesters marched alongside the main group, carrying signs such as “Jews for cease-fire” and “Never again for anyone.” Some of those in the official march chanted, “shame, shame, shame,” and police kept the groups apart.
After the march and with City Hall as a backdrop, a dozen political leaders and activists addressed the crowd.
“The antisemitism in our city is real and it is dangerous,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed told the crowd. Noting that nearly 30 percent of the hate crimes in San Francisco last year targeted Jews, she said, “It’s shocking to see how divided we’ve become in recent years.”
Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, the highest-ranking politician who spoke at the rally, noted the large number of Jewish students who have experienced antisemitism since the start of the school year.
“That’s why we are here today — to show the Jewish community it has allies, not behind closed doors but out in the open,” she said.
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s former chief operating officer, author of the bestseller “Lean In” and founder of a nonprofit of the same name, told the crowd that she has given many speeches against bias and hate in her life but that this was the first time she was speaking publicly against antisemitism.
“I isolated myself after Oct. 7,” said Sandberg, who lives in Menlo Park. “I told my son to take off his Star of David because I was afraid.”
Gradually, she said, she began calling her non-Jewish friends, all of whom offered their love and support. And when she asked her daughter what she wanted for her birthday, she asked for a Star of David necklace. Sandberg bought one for her daughter and one for herself, saying she now wears it every day. Since Oct. 7, Sandberg has also become an international advocate to raise awareness of the sexual violence committed by Hamas during the massacre.
“We need more loud and public marches like this,” she said. “And as I’m learning for the first time in my life, we need others to cry and march with us.”
Sandberg was one of several speakers who specifically thanked non-Jews for showing up at the rally.
“When good people show up in support of Jews, antisemitism recedes,” Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said. “Now is not the time to be quiet. Now is the time to be loud and proud.”
Clearly visible in a sea of blue-and-white Israeli flags was the orange, white and green flag of India, marking the presence of some 50 members of the local Hindu community.
“I am here because it’s my moral duty to be with my Jewish brothers and sisters in the fight against antisemitism and terrorism,” said Param Desai, who was in the crowd holding one of the Indian flags. “We are very proud to be here.”
Few in the crowd knew that the march and rally were spearheaded not by a Jewish organization, but by three Israeli expats living in Silicon Valley. They recruited other groups to help, but the idea came from them.
Jewish Silicon Valley CEO Daniel Klein gave them a shout-out from the podium. “The strength, intelligence and perseverance of these grassroots organizers is amazing,” he said.
Edan Tal, one of those organizers, stood off to the side of the stage. Tal told J. that he and co-organizers Rachel Batish and Michal Shoham all work in high-tech marketing and product management and have young children. They were deeply troubled by the rising antisemitism they’ve been witnessing, particularly since Oct. 7, and felt they had to do something.
“People are leveraging what happened in Israel to create a new narrative: ‘If you are Jewish, you are Zionist. If you are Zionist, you commit genocide. So Jews around the world are committing genocide,’” Tal said. “That’s the narrative we are facing in schools, on social media, everywhere.”
“We decided to take action,” he added.
“I love this community,” Shoham told J., spreading her arms to indicate the crowd around her. “We organized this in their name.”
Tal and Batish have no connection to Jewish organizations. Shoham is on the board of Jewish Silicon Valley, so she knew how to reach out to groups, asking for their support. More than 70 Jewish organizations, schools and synagogues eventually signed on, some agreeing to manage different aspects of the planning process so the three friends didn’t have to do it all themselves.
A key part of the planning, Tal said, was to keep the focus on antisemitism and hate rather than on anti-Zionism, in order to include as many organizations as possible, some of which are not Jewish.
“I know people will show up with Israeli flags. We can’t stop that,” he said. He doesn’t even want to, not personally.
“When you see a rise in antisemitism, you need to act. I owe it to my grandparents, both Holocaust survivors. I owe it to my kids and their future. For me, it’s also related to Israel — but that’s me personally, not the march.”
Despite the stated focus of the march, none of those interviewed saw a distinction between anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate in the current context.
Lior Verbitsky, a Ph.D. student at UC Berkeley, was one of many marchers who wrapped themselves in Israeli flags.
“The statement that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism is pretty old,” he told J., noting that the violent mob at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Playhouse on Feb. 26 attacked students because they were Jewish, not Israeli.
“People are using anti-Zionism to mask their antisemitism,” he said. “We are here against antisemitism but also anti-Zionism. You can’t separate them.”