Senator Scott Wiener said anti-Israel demonstrations at the Jewish Community Relations Council 75th anniversary Gala in San Francisco on Sunday crossed a line.

Wiener said that the event was a Jewish community event that featured many Jewish groups, community leaders, and houses of worship.

“This targeting of a major Jewish community event comes on the heels of the targeting of a march against antisemitism that took place in SF a week ago. We’re seeing an escalation where instead of simply protesting the war, protesters are also targeting Jews & their community organizations,” Wiener said on Monday on social media. “People have every right to protest the war. I respect those protests. Protesting & targeting Jewish community gatherings, however, is a very, very different thing. It crosses a line.”

Wiener said that the JCRC was founded in response to the antisemitism that led to the Holocaust, and since then it has worked to support the community and oppose antisemitism in the Bay Area and around the world.

Anti-Zionist activists protested

Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area rejected Wiener’s statements as dishonest, as the protest was led by Jews to criticize JCRC’s “racism” and Zionism.

“We gathered to protest SFJFRC because time & time it chooses the side of Israel in this ongoing genocide, maligned Palestinian activists, called an Arab organizing group ‘pro-terrorist,’ likely referencing  JCRC Bay Area CEO Tye Gregory calling San Francisco-based Arab Resource and Organizing Center “pro-terrorism” in November for allegedly legitimizing Hamas actions post-October 7. “Because Scott is allied with them, he twists criticism into antisemitism — it’s easier than reckoning with why he or JCRC hasn’t called for a ceasefire as 30,000 have been killed.”

The Gala proceeded with speakers such as Battae Founder Ashager Araro and Wiener himself. He praised JCRC as a pillar of the community. Outside, JVP said it protested the organization’s “legacy of racism” with signs that said that “most US Jews support a ceasefire,” and “never again for anyone.”