California has an antisemitism problem. In 2025, the California Department of Justice recorded 289 anti-Jewish hate-crime events. Although that represented a modest decline from the previous year, Jews remained the targets of nearly 74% of all religion-based hate crimes in our state. ADL documented 91 antisemitic incidents in San Diego last year, and nearly one in four targeted a Jewish institution.
Hate crimes are the most visible form of antisemitism, but as Jewish leaders in San Diego, we also see warning signs among organizations and would-be politicians who treat Jewish participation in public life as inherently suspect.
The San Diego chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America requires those seeking its endorsement to refrain from any affiliation with what it calls “Zionist lobby groups,” a prohibition that encompasses liberal organizations that criticize Israeli policy and support Palestinian statehood. When the label attaches regardless of what a group advocates, “Zionist” has stopped describing a political position and become shorthand for “Jew.”
Candidates are expected to avoid their events, reject their support, and pledge opposition to even defensive military or economic assistance to Israel. That is not only wrong and divisive, it is also inherently antisemitic.
In a community where 91% of respondents to the most recent San Diego Jewish Community Study agreed that Israel should exist as a refuge for the Jewish people, that makes engagement with almost the entire Jewish community a disqualifying offense.
San Diego is also home to Track AIPAC, which, despite its name, does not just track contributions from the pro-Israel PAC. It also counts donations from individuals who have supported any of the dozens of organizations it classifies as part of the “Israel lobby,” including groups that sharply disagree with AIPAC and the Israeli government. Their common denominator is support for Israel’s continued existence.
The tactic has alarmed even prominent progressives who openly oppose AIPAC. Gun-safety advocate Shannon Watts, who opposes Democrats accepting AIPAC money, has called Track AIPAC antisemitic and accused it of spreading disinformation. Progressive commentator Will Stancil, who has bluntly declared that “AIPAC is bad,” called it “insanely antisemitic.”
Candidates across the country, including a defeated candidate from our own region, have been taking a page out of the Track AIPAC playbook by characterizing the organization’s campaign involvement with words like “sabotage,” signaling that the participation of pro-Israel Americans in an election is an illegitimate intrusion into democracy.
This issue doesn’t belong to one party. In February, the California Republican Party warned all 58 county central committees that followers of avowed antisemite and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes were entering Republican primaries to capture positions inside the party — a strategy the memo pointedly compared to the Democratic Socialists of America.
Americans routinely organize politically around the issues that matter to them. Labor unions support candidates who advance workers’ priorities. Environmental groups invest in elections based on climate policy. Armenian, Cuban, Indian, Muslim and Christian Americans advocate on questions touching the countries and causes to which they feel connected.
Jewish Americans possess the same right. Their donations do not represent “foreign interests,” as Track AIPAC claims, merely because the donors support a strong relationship between the United States and Israel. Their votes do not become “sabotage” because other people dislike the policies they favor.
Political rhetoric does not cause every antisemitic incident, and advocacy groups are not responsible for every hateful act by their supporters. But words set the boundaries of acceptable public life. Repeatedly describing Jewish political participation as foreign, corrupt, or subversive is a clear attempt to make trendy old tropes and normalize prejudice and hatred.
San Diego’s civic and political leaders must lower the temperature. Argue passionately over Israel’s government, the conflict in Gaza, and American foreign policy, but don’t single out supporting Israel as uniquely illegitimate or treat Jewish Americans as interlopers in our own democracy.
Jewish San Diegans are not foreign agents or obstacles to democracy. We are Americans exercising our democratic rights, and we will not apologize for doing so.
Rabbi Jason Nevarez of Congregation Beth Israel is president or the San Diego Board of Rabbis and Cantors. Heidi Gantwerk is president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of San Diego. Sara E. Brown is regional director of the American Jewish Committee San Diego.
This commentary was also reflects the views of some members of The Finest Community Coalition, including leadership of the Lawrence Family JCC Jacobs Family Campus, Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego, Leichtag Foundation, ADL San Diego, and The Antisemitism Task Force of StandWithUs San Diego.
