Mayor Daniel Lurie is not particularly helping San Francisco’s image at the moment, as he posted a false claim that SF protesters were chanting “Tax the Jews” at a Wednesday event, even though video from the scene debunks the claim.

There’s an old often misattributed but very clever quote that "A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can put on its pants,” which is particularly true in the era of Twitter. Mayor Daniel Lurie gave San Francisco an unfortunate taste of that maxim on Wednesday afternoon, and he’s left the lie up lingering, with a false claim that makes our city look pretty damn bad.

What we see in Lurie’s tweet above looks pretty reprehensible. “At an event this afternoon, a group of individuals that were chanting ‘tax the rich’ began to shout ‘tax the Jews,’" Lurie claimed on Twitter Wednesday afternoon. While video has since come forward debunking this claim, it was retweeted hundreds of times, including by the likes of Governor Gavin Newsom, Tom Steyer, Rep. Eric Swalwell, Reps. Ro Khanna, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, state Senator Scott Wiener and CNN analyst David Axelrod.

Meanwhile, the New York Post’s new right-wing propaganda machine the California Post is blaring “Vile antisemitic chant breaks out at San Francisco press conference.”  The international Jewish media is following suit.

Except it’s not true. Mission Local has the breakdown that Lurie’s claim, presented without any evidence, shows that no "group of individuals” ever made such a chant. Instead, a random, solitary woman known for her mentally unstable outbursts, who was not associated with some assembled protesters outside the event, yelled “Tax the Israel!" and "Tax the Jews” alongside the protesters for several moments before she was forced to move along.

This is verified in the video above from the SF Standard’s Gabe Grechsler. To set the scene, Lurie is attending a press conference announcing legislation that would slash taxes on real estate development. As such, members of the SF Chapter of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are there chanting “Tax the Rich," which is hardly an uncommon or anti-Semitic chant.

The crazy lady comes along and briefly joins in with “Tax the Jews.”

“Then two minutes in, she starts saying weird shit,” DSA SF protester Matthew Pancia (who is Jewish) told Mission Local. “She started saying ‘Tax Israel,’ ‘Tax the Jews,’ and immediately I was like ‘No, no, no, not that one, don’t say that — I’m a Jew, I don’t think you should say that.’”

According to Pancia, a construction worker told him, “We know her, this lady comes out and just yells shit at us.”

Further video taken of the same woman shows she kept up on her anti-Semitic rant.

It is true that Lurie, his podium, and the assembled media and crowd watching the speech were separated from the DSA protesters by a fence and could not see each other. So of course they would have different perspectives on all this. But Lurie has now tarred his own city with a reputational stamp of anti-Semitism, despite video proof that the claim is inaccurate.

It may feel like good revenge on SF DSA for disrupting his press event, but by extension, this reflects poorly on all of San Francisco as the smear remains out there.  

So when Lurie records his next "Let's go, San Francisco” social media video, remember that his desire to score political points against some small-bore, ragtag opponents may be one thing that’s holding us back, if Lurie is willing to let the city suffer reputational damage over very minor political disputes.

Related: Newsom and Lurie Distance Themselves From Campaign Against California Billionaire Tax [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 21: San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie looks on during a Domestic Violence Awareness Month rally on October 21, 2025 in San Francisco, California. Mayor Lurie joined local leaders on the steps of San Francisco City Hall for a rally to observe Domestic Violence Awareness Month. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

A suspect has been arrested in connection with a suspected arson fire at Hillel House near the San Francisco State University campus on December 5.

The incident happened around 2 pm on December 5 at Hillel House, which is located on Banbury Drive near the SF State campus. Students were inside preparing for a Hanukkah-themed Shabbat service, and a suspicious fire was set outside the building, which ultimately caused damage to the structure and the building's basement, a second-floor bathroom, as well as "most student programming materials" according to a Facebook post by the Jewish Community Relations Council.

The San Francisco Police Department announced Wednesday that they had made an arrest a day earlier in connection with the incident, which has officially been deemed an arson by the SFFD. 36-year-old Mitchell Hoyt of San Francisco was re-arrested Tuesday on suspicion of arson, and for causing a fire to an inhabited structure, after he was already in custody at SF County Jail on an unrelated matter.

The SFPD Arson Task Force linked Hoyt to the incident, though they did not reveal how. And, the SFPD said, "there is no probable cause to arrest Hoyt for a hate crime" at this time.

Charges in the case were expected to be filed by the district attorney's office today (Thursday).

Hillel House, which serves Jewish students from across the city of San Francisco and not just at SF State, was founded in 1982 and has been fully closed since the fire, and the final Shabbat of the semester was canceled.

The center was previously targeted with antisemitic graffiti on the front of the building last year, and there was evidence of an attempted break-in.

The arson arrest comes after last weekend's deadly terror attack on Jews gathered at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia for a Hannukah celebration.

In an email statement, Roger Feigelson, SF Hillel’s executive director, said of the Sydney attack, "We will never let these antisemitic attacks be normalized." And, he added, about the arson, "The administration at San Francisco State has been amazingly supportive," and, "The top priority is to abate all the asbestos and lead that were let loose into the building."

Feigelson added, "What a mess, though," and asked for community support in replacing materials that were destroyed and making building repairs.

While an arrest has been made, this is still an active investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call the SFPD tip line at 415-575-4444, or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the message with “SFPD.” Tipsters can remain anonymous.

A man who was seen on surveillance video shooting off blank rounds from a gun during a religious study class at a San Francisco synagogue two years ago has been convicted of hate-crime charges.

53-year-old Dmitri Mishin was convicted this week of six counts of interference with religious worship with a hate-crime enhancement, and six counts of brandishing an imitation firearm. Mishin was the man seen entering the Outer Richmond's Schneerson Center, on the 2600 block of Balboa Street, on the evening of February 1. He reportedly began speaking to Russian to the group of elderly people who were there attending a religious class, then brandished a replica firearm and shot it seven to eight times. It was filled with blank rounds.

Witnesses said that before leaving, Mishin said something to the effect of "Say hello to the Mossad." It was reported at the time that Mishin lived just a few blocks away, and he was arrested two days later.

Rabbis at the Schneerson Center called the incident a terrorist attack, and within a week, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins filed hate crime charges against Mishin.

A Twitter account that is no longer live, which appeared to belong to Mishin, then surfaced showing posts that celebrated Nazis, and one photo of Mishin, posted one day after the incident, showed him wearing "a military-style uniform with a bird symbol and swastika on bottom," and holding a grenade.

Following his conviction, Jenkins said in a statement, "There is no place for antisemitism in our community. My office is committed to vigorously prosecuting hate crimes and will do everything we can to fight hate in the courtroom."

Jenkins added, "Hate crimes deeply impact victims and whole communities. Antisemitic incidents like this have lasting impacts and must be addressed. Fighting these crimes and getting justice in the courtroom rights these grave wrongs and restores some of the unity, dignity and humanity that is lost when these crimes are committed."

Assistant District Attorney Abigail Adams, who prosecuted the case, said in a statement, "I commend the victims for overcoming their continued fear and testifying at trial and I am grateful to the jury for their very careful consideration of the facts and law."

Mishin is scheduled to be sentenced on August 29.

Previously: San Francisco DA Files Hate-Crime Charges Against Man Who Allegedly Shot Blanks Inside Synagogue

North Oakland cafe Jerusalem Coffee House was sued by the Trump administration for allegedly kicking out a customer wearing a Star of David hat. Now two months after that lawsuit was served, the owner made his first public remarks.

A full nine months ago, the outrage du jour on both sides of the Bay Area’s Israel-Palestine debate was a video where an Oakland cafe owner asks a customer with a Star of David ballcap to leave the shop. The video, seen below, went viral. The cafe in question is Telegraph Avenue’s Jerusalem Coffee House, and the patron asked to leave was Jonathan Hirsch, whom the SF Standard found had a curiously long history of smartphone-recorded arguments that were often posted online.

Hirsch filed a lawsuit against the coffee shop in March of this year, alleging anti-semitic discrimination. And just weeks before that, another Jewish customer filed his own lawsuit saying that he was denied service for being Jewish in a separate incident. The Trump-run Justice Department then filed a large federal lawsuit against the cafe last month, calling out the coffee shop’s owner Abdulrahim Harara and saying, “It is illegal, intolerable, and reprehensible for any American business open to the public to refuse to serve Jewish customers.”

We had not heard from Harara publicly since that federal lawsuit was filed. But the Chronicle reports that Harara spoke publicly for the first time on the matter at a Wednesday press conference.

“These lawsuits, these campaigns to silence and destroy us, they are desperate attempts to fracture our community, dismantle our faith, erase our voices, and suppress our will to fight,” Harara said Wednesday, according to Oaklandside. “But they will not succeed.”

The lawsuits against Harara and his shop all reference the cafe serving drinks on the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israelis, drinks that had the names “Iced in Tea Fada” (a play on the word “Intifada”) and “Sweet Sinwar” (an alleged reference to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar). The cafe denies this was the intent.

Harara’s attorney also spoke to the lawsuit from the Trump administration in his Wednesday remarks.“It is a cut-and-paste job of the two bogus private lawsuits,” Glenn Katon said to the crowd, per the Chronicle. “DOJ appears to have done no independent investigation.”

With the three lawsuits, Jerusalem Coffee House is facing significant legal bills. They’ve started a GoFundMe that claims Harara is a target of “smear campaigns and politically-driven lawsuits,” and that the Trump administration lawsuit is “meant to silence his stance against the genocide in Gaza and disrupt the community space that has grown around the cafe.”

Related: Department of Justice Sues Oakland Cafe for Kicking Out Guy Wearing Star of David Hat [SFist]

Image: Jim G via Yelp

A suspect in an antisemitic attack on two people last weekend in SF's Marina District has been charged with a hate crime and is being arraigned today.

A man who was allegedly shouting "Fuck the Jews, free Palestine" in the vicinity of Fillmore and Moulton streets early Saturday morning, before he allegedly sucker-punched a male victim, is being arraigned on assault and hate crime charges today in San Francisco Superior Court.

The suspect has been identified as 36-year-old Juan Diaz-Rivas, and District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced the charges against him on Tuesday. He's been charged with two counts of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, and  one count of assault with great bodily injury, with the enhancement that this was a hate crime.

Alana Gans, 28, earlier told the story of Saturday's events to the Chronicle, saying that she was standing on the street around 2:30 am with her 27-year-old friend waiting for an Uber when she heard Diaz-Rivas yelling "Fuck the Jews," and told him to stop, saying she was Jewish.

Diaz-Rivas then allegedly got in Gans's face and began screaming at her, at which point her male friend intervened, and Diaz-Rivas then allegedly sucker-punched him, knocking both her friend and Gans to the ground.

The DA's office says that the male victim "fell to the ground, hit his head and lost consciousness," and "Allegedly, Mr. Diaz-Rivas and others in the group continued to punch and kick the victim while he was down."

The DA's office announcement also adds the detail that a worker at a neighboring business who heard the antisemitic shouting came out to intervene, and "while trying to help the victim he was kicked and punched" as well.

Jenkins has not directly commented on the case as yet, but state Senator Scott Wiener gave a comment on Bluesky Tuesday commending Jenkins for "sticking up for the safety of our Jewish community."

"Antisemitism on both left and right is deadly real," Wiener said. "It happens in small ways and large, in our schools and universities, in the workplace, on social media, in public meetings, and in community spaces. The daily antisemitic statements and actions we see — demonizing Jews, holding Jews to unique standards, and promoting anti-Jewish stereotypes and conspiracy theories — inevitably lead to violence, and we are seeing that play out in San Francisco and around the country."

A second case with hate-crime implications arose Tuesday with the vandalism of the Pink Triangle on Twin Peaks, and a 19-year-old suspect was arrested at the scene. Charges in that case have not yet been filed.

Previously: Antisemitic Attack Reported in Marina District Early Saturday Morning

Photo via Wikimedia

A 27-year-old man was reportedly sucker-punched to the ground and kicked multiple times by assailants allegedly shouting “F*** Jews” sometime before 2:30 am Saturday morning in the Marina District, and one suspect was arrested for assault.  

We learned over the weekend of an alleged antisemitic attack in the Marina District occurring at about 2:20 am Saturday morning on Fillmore Street near Moulton Street, according to the Chronicle. As a pair of people were waiting for an Uber ride at a curb, one suspect reportedly started shouting "Fuck Jews, free Palestine,” eventually directing his insults at the pair waiting for their Uber, and sucker-punching one of them while yelling slurs.

We don’t know the identity of the 27-year-old male victim who was punched and also kicked around, but the account is from his 28-year-old friend Alana Gans who was also present. The agitator was allegedly yelling things along the lines of "Fuck Jews, free Palestine,” for roughly a minute, when Gans told the man she was Jewish and asked him to move along.

That simply provoked the man, who started directing his F-bombs at Gans specifically. Her male friend got in between the two of them, at which point, two apparent onlookers also allegedly started shouting "Fuck Jews,” and recording the incident on their phones.

Gans tried to pull her friend away, but he was then sucker-punched by the initial aggressor, leaving both Gans and the other victim on the ground. The male victim was repeatedly kicked while on the ground, until an employee of the nearby Balboa Cafe intervened, though not until after the victim was assaulted for about 30 seconds. The victim ultimately suffered a swollen lip and three bumps on his head.

The assailants ran away, allegedly still shouting antisemitic slurs. But Gans and her friend pointed them out to SFPD who located them fairly quickly and detained all three. One suspect was arrested on suspicion of assault, one other was given a citation for battery, but released.

Gans tells the Chronicle she's "still in shock" about the incident, adding that she wants "everyone to know that this is happening in their backyard."

Related: Lyft Driver Loses Job, Charged With Federal Hate Crime for Punching SFO Rider Who He Thought Was Jewish [SFist]

Image: A police car at night alongside a road with emergency lights flashing. (Getty Images)

Ironically, a cafe called Jerusalem Coffee House kicked out a patron wearing a Star of David hat last October. Now Trump's Department of Justice has taken note, and is suing that Oakland cafe.

We noted above the irony of a cafe called Jerusalem Coffee House kicking out a Jewish patron, considering the cafe is named after Jerusalem, a majority-Jewish city. But you can see this incident in the seven-month-old video below, where the owner of the cafe in Oakland’s Temescal District, Fathi Abdulrahim Harara, kicks out patron Jonathan Hirsch for wearing a Star of David ball cap. The two argue at length as partisans in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and KRON4 reported in March that Hirsch sued the coffeehouse over the incident, in a lawsuit brought for him by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.

That lawsuit is still meandering its way through the courts. But now there is a much bigger lawsuit looming over the same incident, as KTVU has the news that Trump’s Department of Justice is suing the coffeehouse, alleging that the establishment “discriminated against Jewish customers through policies and practices that denied them the full and equal enjoyment of the Jerusalem Coffee House’s services, accommodations, and privileges.”

The suit also dredges up that the coffeehouse served drinks on the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israelis with the names “Iced in Tea Fada” (a play on the word “Intifada”) and “Sweet Sinwar” (an alleged reference to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar). The suit additionally alleges that a second Jewish man in a similar hat was told by an employee, “You’re the guy with the hat. You’re the Jew. You’re the Zionist. We don’t want you in our coffee shop. Get out.”  

“It is illegal, intolerable, and reprehensible for any American business open to the public to refuse to serve Jewish customers,” Justice Department Civil Rights Division assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon (yes, her) said in a Monday press release. “Through our vigorous enforcement of Title II of the Civil Rights Act and other laws prohibiting race and religious discrimination, the Justice Department is committed to combatting anti-Semitism and discrimination and protecting the civil rights of all Americans.”

These incidents have already been pretty well-litigated in the local media. Though the SF Standard did some digging around the time of the coffeehouse incident, and found Hirsh has quite a lengthy record of public shouting matches. Some of these are unrelated to his faith or the Israel-Palestine conflict, and Hirsch was even able to pull up a couple more argument videos on his phone when asked about his frequent disputes. Whether Hirsch seeks out conflict or not, it sure finds him with unusual frequency.

But it also seems that coffeehouse owner Fathi Abdulrahim Harara was the instigator in the cafe video (though the video is edited , and may not tell the full story). At the same time, Hirsch now finds himself a poster boy for the Trump administration, which will not make one a particularly popular person in the Bay Area. It seems Hirsch and Harara both have a penchant for public fights and grandstanding, and both may now find themselves getting more public scrutiny than they mght like.

Related: Doctor Says UCSF Fired Her Due to Pressure From Wiener, Dillers Over Pro-Palestinian Speech [SFist]

Image: Jim G via Yelp

The Trump Justice Department is attempting to use an accusation of tolerating an "antisemitic hostile work environment" for Jewish faculty and students to claw back hundreds of millions in federal funding promised to UC Berkeley and other schools.

The Justice Department made an example on Friday of Columbia University, which had been the most prominent school making headlines during the height of pro-Palestinian protests last spring, saying that it would be canceling $400 million in federal funding for the school. And now, as the New York Times reports, nine other schools are on a list being circulated at the DoJ of schools that will be "investigated" for similarly allowing an "antisemitic hostile work environment" by tolerating student protests and anti-Israel rhetoric last year.

Republicans in Congress had already, last spring, made examples of a handful of university presidents, and forced the resignation of Harvard University President Claudine Gay. Now, representatives from the DoJ will reportedly be making "visits" to Harvard, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and six other schools make final determinations about whether their funding will be cut.

The Department of Education put out its own release Monday saying that 60 universities were sent letters "warning them of potential enforcement actions" if they don't prove their commitment to protecting Jewish students from harassment.

A press release from the DoJ last Wednesday announced that the University of California at large was under investigation for violations "under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964."

"This Department of Justice will always defend Jewish Americans, protect civil rights, and leverage our resources to eradicate institutional Antisemitism in our nation’s universities," said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a statement.

And the release adds that the DoJ "has the authority to initiate investigations against state and local government employers where it has reason to believe that a 'pattern or practice' of employment discrimination exists."

The 10 schools nationwide are collectively being accused of "continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students," despite these protests largely having ended, and despite the fact that many of the protesters — particularly at Columbia — were Jewish themselves.

Anticipating these actions, UC Berkeley put out a statement in early February saying it "has an unwavering commitment to confronting antisemitism as part of our support for a campus community where all can feel safe, respected, and welcome regardless of their origins, identities, beliefs, or perspectives."

The university put out an additional statement Saturday saying, "We will respond to any complaints or allegations through the process prescribed by the DOJ."

Last April and May, a tent encampment at UC Berkeley grew to 175 tents, with students pushing the UC Regents to commit to divesting from any of its investments linked to Israel, in solidarity with the Palestinian people. The protesters disbanded and removed the final tents in mid-May, ahead of the university's commencement ceremonies.

While the Department of Education's list of 60 universities sent warning letters has the veneer of covering both public and private institutions across the country, the DoJ's reported list of 10 schools under serious investigation is pretty concentrated to high-profile liberal instituations in blue states. Other schools on the list include George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, NYU, Northwestern University, the University of Minnesota, and USC.

The Trump administration escalated its attack on Columbia over the weekend with the ICE arrest of a prominent Palestinian activist, Mahmoud Khalil, attempting to deport him despite his having a green card. As ABC News reports, a federal judge blocked that effort.

Trump made an example of Khalil in a Truth Social post, referring to him as a "Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student," and vowing, "We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country -- never to return again."

Previously: East Bay 'Scholar-Activist' Pleads Guilty to Firebombing UC Berkeley Police Car

Photo: Jeremy Huang

After an outrage last week that the DMV approved a license plate which appeared to make a joke about the October 7 attacks against Israel, the family of the truck’s owner says people are misunderstanding that it was meant as an unrelated Tagalog reference.  

A story broke last week that a California DMV-approved vanity license plate on a Tesla Cybertruck read “LOLOCT7,” an apparent “LOL” reference to the Hamas attack on Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023. The Jewish advocacy group StopAntisemitism said in a statement, “StopAntisemitism is appalled by the sickening display on a Cyber Truck plate in California, celebrating terrorism against the Jewish people.”

The DMV was quick to respond with an apology for approving the vanity plate. "The DMV Is taking swift action to recall these shocking plates, and we will immediately strengthen our internal review process to ensure such an egregious oversight never happens again,” they said in a statement. “The use of hateful language is not only a clear violation of our policies but also a violation of our core values to proudly serve the public and ensure safe and welcoming roadways."

But now the family of that Southern California Cybertruck owner insists the whole thing was a linguistic misunderstanding. Los Angeles’ KABC spoke to a family member of the Cybertruck owner, noting that the family is Filipino. And the truck’s owner says people are misinterpreting a Tagalog reference that license plate is making.

They say that the “LOLO” is the Tagalog word for “grandfather,” that CT references Cybertruck, and that the 7 refers to the grandfather’s seven grandchildren. Putting these together created “LOLOCT7,” which the family insists is not meant to reference October 7, Hamas, Israel, or any of that.

The family member is speaking anonymously, and KABC is just taking his word for it, so we’ll probably never know if this is the true explanation. But the family also says they’re getting new plates, and they sure seem eager to put all this behind them as soon as possible.

"We have great empathy for anyone who has experienced any hatred," the son of the truck owner told KABC. "And we would really appreciate, in turn, for anyone that's seeing this or hearing this to have any empathy toward our family because we had no ill intent for anything."

Related: California DMV Lets Antisemitic Vanity License Plate Slip, and It Was For a Cybertruck [SFist]

Image: @StopAntisemites via Twitter

Enikia Ford Morthel, superintendent of the Berkeley Unified School District, was one of three leaders from liberal public school districts called to testify before a congressional committee today.

In their ongoing crusade to root out antisemitic speech in academia, the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce called in three K-12 school superintendents Wednesday. The goal was to expose rampant antisemitism in liberal bastions of the country amid ongoing protest of the war in Gaza, following similar hearings held last fall and last month featuring presidents of elite universities.

In addition to targeting Berkeley schools, the committee also summoned David Banks, chancellor of New York City schools; and Karla Silvestre, president of the board of education in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Ford Morthel pushed back on Republican reps Wednesday, responding to claims made in a recent legal complaint from Jewish groups saying, "antisemitism is not pervasive in the Berkeley Unified School District."

“Our babies sometimes say harmful things. We are mindful that all kids make mistakes,” Ford Morthel said of students in the district, according to CNN. "We know that our staff are not immune to mistakes either. And we don’t ignore them when they occur."

This was in response to reports, reiterated by Republicans on the committee, about incidents in which protesting students at Berkeley High School were heard shouting "kill the Jews," and "fuck the Jews."

The legal complaint filed by the Anti-Defamation League and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law also included reports of several teachersin the Berkeley school district who were allowed to promote "antisemitic tropes and false information."

"When investigations show that an antisemitic event has occurred, we take action to teach, correct and redirect our students. We do not publicly share our actions because student information is private and legally protected under federal and state law," Ford Morthel said today, per the Chronicle. She added that if a teacher "crossed a line, we take appropriate action," but she did not disclose what those actions were. (We know already that one art teacher was put on leave after showing students an image of "a fist with a Palestinian flag pounding through a Star of David.")

Ford Morthel added, "We recognize the need to teach students to express themselves with respect and compassion."

As the Chronicle reports, Banks, the New York schools chancellor, expressed his protest over the hearing, saying, "This convening — for so many people across America in education — feels like the ultimate gotcha moment. It doesn't sound like people are actually trying to solve for something that I believe we should be doing everything we can to solve for."

Banks had earlier told the New York Times, "I fundamentally believe that if we truly care about solving antisemitism, you don’t do it through cheap political theater."

All in all, the hearing did not seem to produce the kind of scandalous soundbites that Republicans sought from the likes of UPenn President M. Elizabeth Magill and Harvard President Claudine Gay, both of whom resigned their posts in the wake of their hearing.

As the New York Times writes today, the hearing "largely failed to land damaging blows," and Banks in particular "seemed unafraid of wading into a sustained back-and-forth with lawmakers that many witnesses generally seek to avoid when testifying before Congress."

East Bay Representative Barbara Lee gave a statement to the Chronicle today about the hearing, calling it Republican grandstanding. "The Republican majority continues to use their committee business time to get sound bites to post to their social media pages and talk about on Fox News," Lee said. "They have no real interest in solving the issue at hand, which is bigotry in schools. I would welcome this new 'enthusiasm' from our Republicans colleagues to address hate everywhere, but I am not inclined to believe they are acting in good faith.”

Previously: Berkeley Schools Superintendent Called to Testify Before Congressional Committee Over Antisemitism Claims

Top image: Enikia Ford Morthel, superintendent of the Berkeley Unified School District, listens during a hearing with subcommittee members of the House Education and the Workforce Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on May 08, 2024 in Washington, DC. Members of the Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education subcommittee held the hearing to speak with education workers and a member of the ACLU to discuss cases of antisemitism in K-12 schools. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Much like the presidents of Harvard, UPenn, and Columbia have in recent months, the superintendent of the Berkeley Unified School District is being called to testify before a Republican-led House committee, as Republicans continue to try to vilify "liberal elites" and campus policies around protest and hate speech.

Berkeley schools Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel will testify Wednesday before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, the same committee that has been grilling university presidents about their handling of antisemitism on campus amid protests against the war in Gaza — which often take the shape of protests against Israel itself.

Morthel will be testifying alongside superintendents from school districts in New York City, and in Montgomery County, Maryland. As the New York Times notes, these three districts are being targeted for questioning because they are all diverse, all in liberal areas of the country, and all have "robust American Jewish communities."

"We’re trying to ensure that campuses, whether secondary school or college campus, are safe for students and complying with civil rights laws," says Representative Kevin Kiley, Republican of California, who serves on the committee.

The superintendents are likely to face grilling about the actions of teachers in their districts, and the handling of student protests.

Questioning of Morthel is likely to focus on specific complaints cited in a civil complaint that was filed in February by the Anti-Defamation League and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law — the same group that filed suit against UC Berkeley's law school in November over antisemitism among student groups on campus.

The suit claims there has been "severe and persistent" discrimination against Jewish students in the Berkeley Unified School District, and has included teachers who were allowed to promote "antisemitic tropes and false information."

One cited instance, as the Times reports, was of an art teacher in the district, now on administrative leave, who showed students an image of "a fist with a Palestinian flag pounding through a Star of David." Another teacher cited in the complaint is history teacher Becky Villagran, who claims Jewish identity herself, and who taught a lesson back in October that was led by the question "To what extent should Israel be considered an apartheid state?”

"We had just been studying apartheid for three months," Villagran tells the Times. "The timing was just right." And Villagran defends the lesson saying that it sparked lively debate among her students, who saw both sides of the issue.

House Republicans will again be seeking soundbites and ways to paint these segments of liberal America, and K-12 educators, as biased against conservatives, antisemitic, and "radical leftist" in their agendas.

"Berkeley Unified celebrates our diversity and stands against all forms of hate and othering, including antisemitism and Islamophobia," Morthel said in a statement.

Incidentally, Morthel noted in a video message this month about "What's Happening in BUSD," that May is Jewish American Heritage Month in the district, which will be recognized through multiple events.

But under questioning from members of Congress, Morthel will have to thread a needle of defending free speech and defending the district's actions around instances of bias that have offended Jewish parents in particular. In recent months, we have seen these hearings lead directly or indirectly the forced resignations UPenn President M. Elizabeth Magill, and Harvard President Claudine Gay.

"It’s hard to imagine a less welcome invitation," says Justin Driver, a professor at Yale Law School, speaking to the Times about the latest hearing. Driver specializes in how the constitution gets applied in American schools, and published a book in 2018 titled The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind.

Driver tells the Times that public school teachers have less academic freedom and leeway than tenured college professors, and they are typically bound to state-mandated curricula. "The difference between the First Amendment on college campuses and in high schools is roughly the difference between noon and midnight," Driver says.

So, the potential pitfalls for Morthel and the other superintendents are many, and could potentially have consequences beyond this week.

It seems unlikely that David Banks, chancellor of New York City schools, will be as candid in the hearing room as he was speaking to the Times when he said, "I fundamentally believe that if we truly care about solving antisemitism, you don’t do it through cheap political theater."

Wednesday's hearing, which will be before the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, kicks off at 10:15 am Eastern Time. It's titled "Confronting Pervasive Antisemitism in K-12 Schools."

Related: Jewish Group Sues UC Berkeley Law School Over Student Groups' Anti-Zionism Stance

Photo: BUSD/YouTube

Republicans in Congress are expanding their probe of alleged antisemitism in the ranks of higher education to now include UC Berkeley, after a late February lecture was disrupted by protesters.

It’s difficult to take the recent Congressional Republican crusade against antisemitism on college campuses seriously, considering we didn’t hear a peep from these same Republicans over the 2017 “Jews will not replace us” rally in Charlottesville at the University of Virginia campus. (The one where then-President Trump said the demonstrators were “very fine people.”)

But the congressional probes have recently targeted MIT and Harvard for supposedly enabling campus antisemitism, likely in an attempt to drive further wedges into the Israel-Gaza conflict discourse at a time when the activist set is keen to label anyone with an opinion as being either “pro-genocide” or “antisemitic.” Now CNN reports that UC Berkeley is being probed as well, with Congressional Republicans demanding documentation of the university’s responses to alleged antisemitic incidents.

The main incident in question here is a February 26 incident where pro-Palestine protesters shut down a planned lecture by Israeli lawyer Ran Bar-Yoshafat. NBC Bay Area has some video from the incident above, where a window at Zellerbach Playhouse is broken. The Chronicle also had an unsubstantiated report that protesters harassed “a sophomore who tried to attend the event, called him a ‘dirty Jew’ and spat on him.” Though by Berkeley protest standards, we’ve seen far more violent things do down.

It will of course get very little coverage that Bar-Yoshafat did give his rescheduled speech Monday night, and it went off without incident.

But Congressional Republicans, savoring a high-profile takedown of the liberal university, are licking their chops. “We have grave concerns regarding the inadequacy of UC Berkeley’s response to antisemitism on its campus,” Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) says in a letter to the school. “Several recent incidents have been particularly troubling.” Foxx mentions the above-referenced Bar-Yoshafat lecture, and a pattern of pro-Palestine demonstrators blocking Sather Gate.

For their part, UC Berkeley said in a statement to CNN that, “UC Berkeley has long been committed to confronting antisemitism, and to supporting the needs and interests of its Jewish students, faculty, and staff.”

The letter from the House Education and Workforce Committee gives the school until April 2 to produce, in the words of CNN, “reports on antisemitic incidents since early 2021; disciplinary action; minutes from meetings of UC leaders; and information on foreign donations.”

Related: Jewish Group Sues UC Berkeley Law School Over Student Groups' Anti-Zionism Stance [SFist]

Image: BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA - JULY 22: The U.C. Berkeley campus sits empty on July 22, 2020 in Berkeley, California. U.C. Berkeley announced plans on Tuesday to move to online education for the start of the school's fall semester due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

A 39-year-old Daly City man is no longer a Lyft driver after he allegedly punched a rider who he perceived to be Jewish at SF International Airport, and now he’s facing a possible 10-year prison sentence on federal hate crime charges.

According to just-unsealed federal indictment, 39-year-old rideshare driver Csaba John Csukas of Daly City was picking up a passenger at SFO on October 26.  But KTVU reports that on arrival at the airport pickup location, the indictment says Csukas asked the passenger if he was Jewish, said he would not drive the passenger if he was, and then allegedly punched the passenger in his face.

Csukas appeared in federal court on Wednesday, facing hate crime charges.

But as they often do, the Jewish News of Northern California tracked down a lot more detail on the case, finding that Csukas was driving for Lyft at the time, and got a photo of Csukas at the time of the incident. Lyft quickly insisted to that outlet that Csukas was immediately expelled from the platform.

“Lyft unequivocally condemns anti-semitism and all other forms of discrimination on the basis of religion or country of origin,” a Lyft spokesperson told the Jewish News on Northern California. “We have been in touch with the rider to extend our support and assistance, have permanently removed the driver’s account from the platform, and stand ready to assist law enforcement with any investigation.”

The rider, who declined to be identified, was hospitalized and treated for minor injuries.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing the charges that “No one in this country should live in fear because of how they worship or where they come from. The Justice Department will aggressively prosecute those who perpetrate hate-fueled violence motivated by antisemitism or by bias of any kind.”

Csukas faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

Related: Lake Merritt’s Menorah Vandalized, Thrown Into Lake In Act Being Investigated as Hate Crime [SFist]

Image: Duke Cullinan via Unsplash

Walnut Creek is one of many cities that ended remote public comment because of racist Zoombombs, so one of the racist Zoombombers showed up in person at Tuesday’s meeting in hopes of blaming it all on Jewish people.

When city council and government meetings went all-remote across the country during the pandemic, the switch to virtual meetings had some unintended consequences. One of these unintended consequences was the proliferation of racist Zoombombs during public comment, which caused San Francisco and other cities to end remote public comment.

Walnut Creek was one of those cities, and KTVU reports that one of that city’s most notorious Zoombombers showed up in person at Tuesday night’s meeting to deliver an antisemitic rant during public comment. He did so in a “White Power” shirt that also displayed a swastika.  

The speech is disturbing, though we are embedding it below, as it has been retweeted by Walnut Creek councilmember Kevin Wilk, who was the target of the rant. “Freedom of Speech allows stupidity and hate,” Wilk says in the tweet, “ Note the ‘courageous’ man hides his face.”

Wilk has a point there, as the commenter who identifies himself as “Scotty” points directly at Wilk saying, “I’m here today because people like you think we’re scared to show up and show our face.” Yet this fellow’s face is obscured by sunglasses he is wearing indoors for a 6pm meeting.

“You people disgust me,” he continues, using the k-word to describe the Anti-Defamation League. “It’s only a matter of time until another inevitable Jew expulsion,” he adds, threatening another holocaust, before signing off with a Nazi salute and the words “Heil Hitler, white fucking power.”

Wilk, who had previously been Walnut Creek’s first Jewish mayor and is now a city councilmember, was the first to respond.

"We live in a free country, and there is free speech, and that means we have to listen to awful and heinous comments like we listened to," Wilk said at Tuesday night’s meeting. "And I would like to apologize on behalf of the city council and anybody who had to hear that horrible, horrible speech."

In comments to KTVU after the meeting, Wilk said that the man’s real name is not Scotty, and the individual lives in Modesto. Wilk also added that the FBI is "aware of him."

Related: Racists Have Been ‘Zoombombing’ Public Meetings Across US, and SF's Board of Supervisors May End Remote Commenting Entirely [SFist]

Image: City of Walnut Creek via Youtube

Two Northern California journalists got to the bottom of who was disrupting various city hall meetings with anti-semitic messages in Berkeley and Marin County. The neo-Nazis then started impersonating those journalists in the same meetings, and others across the country.

Some changes that the COVID-19 pandemic brought to our daily lives became permanent, like parklets. And it seemed for a while that government meetings across the country would keep the COVID-era Zoom calls and remote public comment by telephone in place. Many of them did, until racist Zoom-bombs of city hall and county meetings led to the end of public comment by call-in, here in San Francisco and beyond. According to a new article in today's Chronicle, a spokesperson for the California State Association of Counties said that “all counties have experienced some level of disruption in public meetings.”

That Chronicle article profiles two northern California journalists who started uncovering who was behind this Zoom-bombing. But once they did uncover the perpetrators, the far-right, antisemitic Zoom-bombers started impersonating those journalists at public meetings not only in the Bay Area, but all over the country. (And it should be noted that both of the journalists are Jewish).

The Chronicle spoke with Phil Barber of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat and Gabe Stutman of the Jewish News of Northern California. Barber wrote a lengthy exposé this past September on the callers who’ve been disrupting various northern California government meetings with racist outbursts with remote call-ins.

He traced it to a character whom the Chronicle describes as a “failed rapper,” Jon E. Minadeo II. Minadeo had co-founded an antisemitic streaming channel called Goyim TV (Goyim is a Hebrew term for non-Jewish people), and that channel promotes anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.

Just days after Barber’s article was published, someone who was not Phil Barber of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat called in to a Novato City Council meeting claiming to be “Phil Barber of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.” That caller then claimed a local Jewish center would be screening a documentary blaming 9/11 on the Jews.

That meeting got even weirder from there, as the next nearly dozen callers were all alt-right Zoom-bombers. “The next 11 callers are more explicit,” as the Chronicle explains. “Two impersonate rabbis and claim to engage in pedophilia. One pretends to be a transit advocate recommending Jewish people be put on trains. Another makes up a nonprofit that turns Jewish people into soap. Some callers think they’re being funny; others sound angry as they accuse the council of oppressing white people.”

The Jewish News of Northern California’s Gabe Stutman has also done extensive reporting on Minadeo’s exploits. And someone claiming to be Stutman called in to an October 4 Berkeley City Council meeting and spewed antisemitic, racist slurs. Even more bizarrely, people claiming to be Stutman even called in to rant racist invective at an October 23 city council meeting in Seldovia, Alaska.

“At that point I knew this was definitely a widespread phenomenon,” Stutman told the Chronicle. “I have no idea how frequently this is happening. But my guess is if it’s happening in Seldovia, Alaska … it’s probably happening in a bunch of different places.”

Many of these cities, like San Francisco, have just flat-out banned calling in to government meetings by phone. That may solve the Zoom-bomb problem, but not the larger problem of antisemitic trolling. And as Barber told the Chronicle, he “almost certainly will be writing about it again.”

Related: Racists Have Been ‘Zoombombing’ Public Meetings Across US, and SF's Board of Supervisors May End Remote Commenting Entirely [SFist]

Image: Novato City Council