Manny’s, a Jewish-owned business in San Francisco’s Mission District, was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti in broad daylight Sunday, marking an ugly start to a week in which the Jewish community is mourning the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, the deadliest in the nation’s history.
A vandal or vandals scrawled “Zionists out of Frisco,” “death 2 the enemy” and “Manny is a Zio murderer” outside of Manny’s, a cafe and event space, during a pro-Palestinian protest in the vicinity, naming business owner Manny Yekutiel.
In a video published on X, a vandal whose face is obscured by a kaffiyeh can be seen spray-painting “Dems fund murder” and “Arms embargo now” outside the cafe, which frequently hosts political conversations, debates and forums. Someone also wrote what looked like “Zionists fund murder” in ink that was partially cleared away by the following morning.
Yekutiel is a staunch progressive who fundraises for Democrats and whose business has become a central location for candidates. During the 2020 presidential primaries, nearly every Democratic candidate, including then-Mayor Pete Buttigieg and then-Sen. Kamala Harris, made stops at the cafe.
On Monday morning, the graffiti was mostly cleared, but other forms of anti-Israel propaganda were still present. A poster placed on the window of the cafe lambasting Israel included a URL to a vitriolic anti-Israel website that calls Israel a “death cult” and celebrates the Oct. 7 attack, stating “revolution until victory!” A bus stop directly in front of the cafe displayed a large, bright pink poster that said “Shitsrael [sic] brutalizes Palestine with savage abandon.”
Since the business opened in 2018, Yekutiel has repeatedly been targeted and smeared as a “Zionist” for supporting the existence of Israel, where his father immigrated from Afghanistan and where many of his family members still live. In 2019, protesters picketed the cafe on a weekly basis, calling Yekutiel a “Zionist gentrifier” and calling for a “free Palestine.” In 2021, someone scrawled “Zionist pigz” and “racist pigz” on the cafe’s exterior.
This weekend’s vandalism was the second incident targeting a Jewish-owned business in the S.F. neighborhood since last Oct. 7.
In November, Smitten Ice Cream — about a half-mile from Manny’s — was vandalized with pro-Palestinian messages, smashed windows and a message that said “out the Mission.”
Sunday’s vandalism came during a boisterous protest in the vicinity. The demonstration was part of a weeklong commemoration that many in the pro-Palestinian movement have billed as “One year of genocide, one year of resistance.” Two protesters waved flags exalting Hamas, video from the demonstration showed. Other businesses nearby were also graffitied during the protest.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed contacted Yekutiel to “express her concerns and offer her support,” a spokesperson for the mayor told J. on Monday. “This kind of attack and vandalism has no place in San Francisco or anywhere,” the mayor said via a statement from her office.
The vandalism follows a historic rise in hate crimes targeting Jews in San Francisco, propelled by animosity toward Israel after Oct. 7. In 2023, hate crimes against Jews quadrupled in the city, according to police. Many of the crimes were categorized as vandalism, such as “death 2 Israel” and “kill a settler” scrawled on buildings in downtown San Francisco, also during a pro-Palestinian protest.
Yekutiel declined an interview request but sent a statement describing the incident as deeply upsetting.
“I’m deeply troubled and saddened to have our community attacked like this,” he wrote in a text message. “Vandalizing a Jewish owned business on the eve of the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust is disgusting and has no place in the city of Saint Francis.”
Yekutiel also sent an email to customers and others affiliated with his business on Monday morning. During the Oct. 7 attack, Yekutiel happened to be in Israel, visiting family in Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem. He recorded video of himself scrambling for safety as sirens sounded.
“A year ago today I woke up in Israel to the sounds of mortar shells intercepted above my head,” Yekutiel wrote. “We spent the day in the bomb shelter room in my little sister’s house reading with horror about what was happening 30 miles from us.”
Yekutiel described the Oct. 7 attack as an “act of barbarism and hatred that initiated a terrible and tragic war that, to my great sadness, continues to this day.” His email added he was “dismayed at the expenditure of hatred” that he encountered when he returned home, and he concluded with a quote from Saint Francis of Assisi, the namesake of San Francisco. “Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace,” the quotation begins.
The San Francisco Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for more information about the vandalism.
On Monday, a GoFundMe page was created to “support Manny’s against anti-Semitism.” Within two days it had raised more than $53,000.
J. photographer Aaron Levy-Wolins contributed to this report.