San Francisco’s mayor joined Jewish community leaders on the steps of City Hall on Friday to decry two recent events: an alleged antisemitic assault in the Marina District and the targeting of a Jewish-owned business in the Mission District.
“For everyone in this city, no matter your race, religion or sexual orientation, I want to be clear that we have zero tolerance for acts of hatred,” Mayor Daniel Lurie said. “If you commit a hate crime in San Francisco, we will find you, and we will arrest you.”
The press conference took place just hours before the S.F. District Attorney’s Office announced that a second man has been arraigned on charges in the June 14 Marina District incident, which prosecutors have described as an “antisemitic group beating.”
Both the Marina District attack and the Manny’s Cafe vandalism are linked to the rise in antisemitic violence related to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. They followed a May 21 shooting in Washington, D.C., that killed two Israeli Embassy staffers and a June 1 firebombing in Boulder Colorado, that injured at least eight Jews at a vigil for Israeli hostages. In both of those attacks, a suspect shouted “Free Palestine!” and related phrases.
Lurie, who is Jewish, commended law enforcement for what he described as “swift actions” to find those “responsible for the recent acts of antisemitism in the Marina and prosecute them as the hate crimes that they are.”
Elected officials, including S.F. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, and leaders from the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund, the Anti-Defamation League and the San Francisco Interfaith Council were on hand for Friday’s press conference, which was organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area.
State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-S.F.), who is Jewish, spoke of a grim reality that Jews currently face in the city.
“This is so real, it is so horrific, it is so dangerous,” he said. “It must never be normalized. You must never become numb to it.”
Around 2:20 a.m. June 14, according to police, a group of people assaulted a Jewish woman and her non-Jewish male friend in the Marina District. Immediately before and during the attack, the group shouted “Free Palestine!” and “F*** the Jews!” according to one of the victims and police.
JCRC Bay Area President Jan Reicher read a statement from one of the victims of the attack, Alana Gans, 28.
“I told him I was Jewish and asked him to stop. Following that, my friend was violently attacked for standing up to hate,” Reicher read. “To beat someone for their perceived connection to anything is egregious and should concern anyone who values living in a society where no one should be in fear of being attacked because of their religion, race, nationality or any identity.”
On Tuesday, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office charged Juan Diaz-Rivas, 36, with two counts of assault “with force likely to cause great bodily injury,” one of them carrying a hate crime enhancement.
Diaz-Rivas pleaded not guilty to both charges at an arraignment Wednesday in San Francisco County Superior Court, according to D.A. Office spokesperson Randy Quezada. Diaz-Rivas was ordered to remain in custody pending trial.
The D.A.’s Office has also charged a second man, Alejandro Flores-Lamas, 22, with the same counts as Diaz-Rivas. Flores-Lamas pleaded not guilty at an arraignment Friday, according to the D.A.’s Office.
Prosecutors sought to detain Flores-Lamas pending trial due to the “public safety risk he poses,” but the judge released him pending a preliminary hearing.
Both defendants are scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on July 2.
Several speakers at Friday’s press conference referenced antisemitic attacks across the country in recent months, including the arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home during Passover.
Manny Yekutiel, owner of Manny’s Cafe, spoke about the most recent targeting of his business on June 9. Vandals broke windows of his cafe and spray-painted graffiti with phrases such as “Death to Israel is a promise,” “Die Zio” and “F*** Manny.”
“Last week was the first time that I really started to question whether or not this city was actually meant for me,” Yekutiel said at the press conference. “We have to say as a community that antisemitism has no place in San Francisco. So we are not going anywhere, and I am not going anywhere.”
The San Francisco Police Department is investigating the vandalism as a hate crime, SFPD Public Information Officer Paulina Henderson said Friday. No arrests have been made.