Queer Jews who feel alienated from the wider community in the aftermath of the Israel-Hamas war have launched a new campaign against antisemitism. The kickoff event was held at Manny's cafe in San Francisco's Mission district January 27.
Queers Against Antisemitism is under the auspices of A Wider Bridge, a national nonprofit that seeks to link the American and Israeli LGBTQ communities. It includes an Instagram page and a website that contains information and a pledge people can take to "not tolerate hate for those who are different, simply because they are different."
The group is also hosting happy hours, such as at the launch event, around the country. Its website noted that events are planned for Pride Month in June.
"A lot of queer Jews feel like they need safe spaces and that's what we're providing with Queers Against Antisemitism," Dan Hadad, a gay Jewish man who founded the initiative with A Wider Bridge, told the Bay Area Reporter. "We're working with local partners to create more programming, more spaces, more education, workshops."
Hadad told the B.A.R. that the initiative was started because A Wider Bridge "heard from many queer Jews — especially younger voices — who feel alienated by both institutions and social circles within the community. In response, we launched Queers Against Antisemitism Happy Hours to create a safe, supportive space where queer Jews can connect, find solidarity, and feel a sense of belonging," he said.
Several speakers at the event, which featured dozens of attendees packing Manny's cafe, said that education is needed in the LGBTQ community to combat antisemitic attitudes that have risen since Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war.
In mid-January, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire and hostage release deal negotiated by the outgoing Biden administration, representatives of now-President Donald Trump, Qatar, and Egypt. It is currently being implemented.
Asked if and how things have changed since the ceasefire, Hadad stated that, "Antisemitism has always existed, and sadly, it always will. While its volume may have decreased at times, the underlying narrative remains unchanged — loud and clear. We continue to witness a steady stream of antisemitic incidents across the country, reminding us that the fight against it is far from over.
"Many we've spoken to still don't feel safe attending queer bars or events in San Francisco, a place that should be a haven for acceptance and solidarity," he added. "Queer Jews never anticipated feeling so alienated from the very queer community they've long been part of."
Background on Israel-Hamas conflict
The current ceasefire came more than a year after the October 7, 2023, surprise attack by Hamas on Israel. Brigades broke out of the Gaza Strip — one of two Palestinian territories the United States government considers the Occupied Territories, and which is blockaded by Israel and Egypt — and killed 1,139 people in Israel in the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. At the same time, Hamas abducted Israeli civilian hostages and kept them in Gaza.
Israel responded to the Hamas attack with an extensive bombing campaign in Gaza and a ground invasion with the stated goal of destroying Hamas. That has led to the deaths of over 46,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.
(The B.A.R. went to Israel as part of a press trip last year to cover how the war affected the LGBTQ community, Palestinians, and Israelis.)
Israel is the world's only Jewish state, and, according to the Anti-Defamation League, reported instances of anti-Jewish harassment, vandalism, and assault skyrocketed from the start of the conflict to September 2024 increased 140%, which the group called a "totally unprecedented number."
Bars became 'spaces of anger' during war
Manny Yekutiel, a gay Jewish man who owns the eponymous cafe where the Queers Against Antisemitism event took place, has faced protests himself at his business for his support for Israel. Last October, "Zionists out of Frisco" was spray-painted on the cafe during an anti-Israel protest, KTVU-TV reported.
At the launch, Yekutiel said his father, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, had immigrated to Israel from Afghanistan, and that he himself was from Los Angeles, where as a youth he figured he was gay "as soon as I saw the live-action 'Hercules,'" he quipped.
"I had a bag packed in my closet with all of the things that I might need if my family were to find out that I was gay," Yekutiel said. "I had my Social Security card, I had a change of clothes, I had some food, I had a couple books."
Yekutiel recalled that when he still lived in the City of Angels, he went to his first gay bar.
"I didn't know any other gay people and so I snuck in to this gay bar, got kicked out immediately, the security guard pulled me up by my shirt — it was Rage in West Hollywood — but I had walked into my first gay bar and, as I learned over the years, a queer bar, a gay bar, is one of those sacred places that no matter who you are, no matter where you've come from, you can go in, you can get a drink and you can begin the adventure," Yekutiel said.
But things changed for him after October 7, 2023 (at which time Yekutiel had been in Tel Aviv, Israel's most populous city, as the B.A.R. contemporaneously reported). He talked about how, after he returned to San Francisco, he'd go out with gay political leaders San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who represents the Castro and District 8 and is now president of the board, and state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), both of whom are Jewish.
"After coming back [from Israel], the hatred just became insurmountable and there was a period of time, about six or nine months ago, where any time [Mandelman], Scott [Wiener], or I went into a gay bar — maybe not any time but certainly a lot of times — people came up to us and screamed at us," he continued. "People came up to me at El Rio and said, 'You don't belong here. You have to leave. You're not welcome here. You're a murderer. You are a genocider.'"
Yekutiel reflected that it was "very sad" that LGBTQ spaces became "places of anger, of hatred."
"All of us have our own individual story, our own reasons for being there," he said, referring to LGBTQ bars and other spaces.
The hostility he reported had initially led Yekutiel to consider not holding the Queers Against Antisemitism event; he said he'd deleted the email requesting his cafe host it.
But at the end of the day he decided, "If I'm not going to feel safe hosting a Queers Against Antisemitism event, then who is? So I talked myself out of it."
Pro-Palestinian groups express alternate points of view
The U.S. provides billions of dollars in military aid to Israel annually. Then-president Joe Biden, and Democrats at the state, local and national levels, faced intense pressure last year from some progressive Democrats and protesters to cut off that aid, or make it conditional on a ceasefire. Mass protests were held on college campuses, and politicians were interrupted at events by demonstrators.
The B.A.R. reached out to the groups Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism! and Jewish Voices for Peace, which have organized protests against Israel, to ask their thoughts on the new A Wider Bridge initiative.
Deeg Gold, a lesbian and trans Jewish person who is part of QUIT!, said in a phone interview that the actions of some anti-Israel protesters do not speak for the whole, and that "you can see why people are upset with Gazans being killed every day."
"This is not a conflict between Jews and Palestinians," Gold said. "This is a conflict between Israeli imperialism, fostered first by the British, then by the United States against the Palestinian people."
Gold emphasized that "queer people have historically been anti-imperialist" and have been "out in droves" supporting the Palestinian people.
Wynd Kaufman, a straight ally with Jewish Voices for Peace and who is also Jewish, also commented.
"There are fringe elements on all sides, and of course, the media concentrate on them, but the vast majority of people there were speaking on the genocide going on and were not antisemitic," Kaufman said, referring to the comments made at the Board of Supervisors meeting last year where the ceasefire resolution was discussed.
Kaufman continued that she felt pro-Israel groups conflate antisemitism with opposition to Israel, and that though "there is antisemitism when that's centered when there's a genocide going on, there's a problem."
South Africa brought a case in late 2023 before International Court of Justice alleging that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. A final ruling has not been handed down.
Tense past local meetings
Mandelman spoke at the January 27 launch event, bringing up the tense local meetings that occurred when resolutions calling for a ceasefire in the conflict came up for votes before elected government bodies, including at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors last January.
"What you saw around that resolution was not just — surely there were some people who were concerned about the plight of the Palestinians — there were a whole bunch of people who just hated Israel, hate the idea of a Jewish state, and were there to express that in the most intimidating, scary way possible," Mandelman said, referring to the resolution that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors ultimately adopted.
Then-mayor London Breed declined to sign the resolution, which passed 8-3. Though it specifically called out antisemitism, she noted that some advocating for the nonbinding measure during public comment engaged in "demonization, heartlessness and abject antisemitism."
As examples, Breed stated that during a board meeting when a family member of October 7 victims was speaking, "people in the crowd made pig noises, devil horns with their hands, and screamed for him to 'kill himself' as he walked out of the chamber. Protesters surrounded a Jewish city employee in the restroom to intimidate him while he was doing nothing more than being present in his workplace."
Mandelman voted against the resolution along with gay District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey and then-District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani, a straight ally who is now in the state Assembly.
"It was a couple of Catholics on the Board of Supervisors ... who were kind of the rocks," Mandelman said, referring to the two who joined him in voting no. "They stood up and he's got his hat now to show for it."
Mandelman was referring to Dorsey's hat featuring the Star of David. Dorsey said he bought the hat after Jonathan Hirsch, an Oakland Jewish man, was reportedly asked to leave the Jerusalem Coffee House in Oakland for wearing the same hat, as KNTV-TV reported. Dorsey was also at the launch event.
"It felt personal to me as a gay man," Dorsey said. "You don't have to be Jewish to be a Zionist. ... I always want to be there to be your ally."
Mandelman said that individuals should be distinguished from the actions of governments, bringing up as an example the U.S. under Trump.
"We now have an American government that is wholly embarrassing to me. It causes me grief and distress as an American," Mandelman said, referring to the second Trump administration, which took power January 20. "I continue to believe in this country. I believe in the idea of America. I think it's worth fighting for. I continue to believe in Israel and believe Israel is an idea worth fighting for. Both places do some pretty bad stuff and do some things that are pretty embarrassing to me personally, and also that I have an obligation from my history, my family, my experience to try to better both places."
Tyler "Tye" Gregory, a gay man who is the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, was at the launch event and told the B.A.R. that LGBTQ people can teach the broader Jewish community a lesson about visibility.
"All of us have an opportunity to teach the Jewish community something about LGBTQ joy," Gregory said. "We have pride, we're out, we're loud, and what I hear from too many Jewish community members today are feelings of 'maybe we should go into the closet,' 'maybe we should be quieter about who we are.' I'm going to challenge everybody in the room that we need to teach them — the straight Jews — what we've learned from being a part of the LGBTQ movement."
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