Jewish Voice for Peace, the anti-Zionist group founded in Berkeley in the 1990s, took credit for organizing a protest outside of the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area’s anniversary gala Sunday in San Francisco.
The JCRC was celebrating its 75th year as the Bay Area Jewish community’s most visible liaison to the general public, with an event at the Palace Hotel attended by San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín and other public officials. Dozens of protesters, some wearing prayer shawls and other Jewish ritual garments, stood outside the hotel and waved signs calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and proclaiming “Jews for Palestinian freedom.”
In a series of X (Twitter) posts on Monday, JVP Bay Area confirmed that it had organized the protest, saying that the demonstration was “led by Jews” opposed to JCRC’s approach to Israel and that “Asian & Pacific Islander, Palestinian, Arab, LGBTQ & others” joined them.
“We gathered to protest @SFJCRC b/c time & time it chooses the side of Israel in this ongoing genocide,” JVP said, alongside a photo of a protester holding a sign stating, “J.C.R.C does not speak for me.”
The Bay Area’s JCRC was founded in 1948 “to safeguard the conditions under which Jews, individually and communally, could live and flourish,” according to its website. Most major American cities have similar nonprofits advocating on behalf of the Jewish community. While the specifics of their politics on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may differ, all of them support the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. The local JCRC was active in the movement to rescue Soviet Jewry in the 1960s and 1970s and has long held liberal positions on issues such as gay rights and abortion rights.
JCRC Bay Area has also emerged as a leading, and highly public, local voice against the normalization of anti-Zionism in schools and at public forums such as city council meetings. Its work has intensified since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in Israel and amid the ongoing war.
The organization’s gala program shifted after Oct. 7.
“Before October 7, we had envisioned an evening celebrating our multigenerational efforts to ensure a thriving Jewish community across the Bay Area and to renew our longstanding commitments to social justice and democracy,” JCRC noted on its website. “With the alarming antisemitic attack in our wake, this event now takes on new significance.”
JCRC’s advocacy on behalf of Israel and of the American Jewish community’s ties to Israel has placed it directly in the crosshairs of anti-Zionist activist groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, a San Francisco group that advocates vociferously on behalf of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel.
Since Oct. 7, there has been little love lost between JCRC and these anti-Zionist groups, which consistently spar both in testy exchanges on social media and in public forums such as city government and school board meetings.
JCRC responded to the protest in a statement Sunday.
“This afternoon, the Jewish Community Relations Council held our 75th anniversary gala to celebrate decades as a pillar of the Bay Area Jewish community. Unfortunately, before and during the event, protestors showed up on the southside of the Palace Hotel shouting, chanting, and intimidating guests,” according to a statement emailed to J. “We unequivocally condemn antisemitism in any form and stand with Israel’s right to defend herself.”
State Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco also criticized the protest in a series of X posts on Monday that provoked harsh rebuttals from JVP.
“Many local Jewish orgs, local Jewish leaders & synagogues were part of the event,” Wiener wrote. “We’re seeing an escalation where instead of simply protesting the war, protesters are also targeting Jews & their community orgs.”
JCRC was founded in response to the rise in European antisemitism that led to the Holocaust. Over the decades, it’s worked to support the Jewish community & oppose antisemitism here & around the world. JCRC also works in coalition with other communities. https://t.co/t2ChIopjkE pic.twitter.com/sDGC8NXCGF
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) March 11, 2024