Demonstrators attempted to disrupt a Shabbat dinner at a San Francisco synagogue Friday — featuring one of the world’s most beautiful women — with a grisly, theatrical protest outside accusing attendees of genocide.
More than 100 protesters demonstrated against Israel with a mock beauty pageant that began at Lafayette Park in Pacific Heights, replete with gallons of fake blood, before moving to nearby Congregation Sherith Israel where the event was taking place. The dinner was put on by Value Culture, a San Francisco nonprofit with a Jewish bent, and Malka Productions, a San Francisco-based Jewish production company.
Organized by Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and others, the protest proved a stark contrast to the goings-on inside the historic synagogue. There, Miss Israel 2021 pageant winner Noa Cochva told of a sobering experience as a reserve combat medic for the Israel Defense Forces who treated the wounded — Israeli and Palestinian alike — in Gaza after Oct. 7.
“We’re saving Palestinian lives. We’re saving terrorist lives,” said 25-year-old Cochva, before reading the oath that all Israeli combat medics are required to take.
Protesters, meanwhile, who called Cochva “Miss Genocide” in social media posts leading up to the event, held a banner across the street reading, “There’s nothing pretty ’bout genocide.”
Starting at Lafayette Park on the rainy evening, they poured what appeared to be red paint out of a 5-gallon water jug onto the steps, according to photos and videos. They also held a mock beauty pageant, with carefully designed sashes decorated with the colors of the Palestinian flag. Each sash carried a caustic award using a gender-nonconforming salutation: “Mx. One Solution,” “Mx. Until Liberation and Return” and “Mx. Right to Live.”
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The protest was organized by people in the Bay Area art world, according to an organizer of the Shabbat dinner who asked not to be named to protect himself from harassment. One of the key protest leaders, who uses the Instagram handle @jersey.noah, is a self-described “autistic, trans, disabled, jewish abolitionist.”
The mission of Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism is “to build support in the Bay Area queer communities for Palestinian liberation.” A slogan on its TikTok page: “From the rainbow to the sea.”
Meanwhile, inside the rented synagogue ballroom, about 150 people shared a Shabbat meal and afterward listened to Cochva, who wore a pink suit and a yellow pin on her lapel in honor of the estimated 100 Israeli hostages who are still held in Gaza and are believed to remain alive.
Cochva, whose war-time reserve duty has ended for now, published an Instagram post last month that appeared to address American protesters who weigh in on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
“The problem with putting an American lens on the Israel-Gaza war: it’s really NOT that simple,” the Feb. 4 post said. “From the thousands of missiles being sent into Israel, to daily terrorist attacks at busy street corners, to the murderous rampage that happened on October 7th, our survival is something we fight for every day. So understand that you might NEVER understand what we’re going through.”
J. interviewed a second organizer of the event who was also reluctant to provide a name. The person said the protesters outside gravely misunderstood the purpose of the event, which required private security costing “thousands.”
“Nobody was pro-violence at this Shabbat,” the person said. “The only people who were pro-violence were outside, with their name-calling. The Shabbat was so beautiful. It’s unfortunate that people did not read about the event. All they saw was ‘Israel,’ and they wanted to hate.”