San Francisco, CA – An invitation-only commemoration Friday in San Francisco ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day became a symbolic microcosm of the current waves of antisemitism and anti-Zionism when a protester interrupted every speaker at the event.
Gathered for just over an hour at the city’s Holocaust memorial outside of the Legion of Honor, about two dozen community leaders and diplomats wore yellow ribbons in solidarity with the hostages who have been held by Hamas since Oct. 7.
The regional consulates of Israel, Ireland and Germany, the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center organized the event, together with the Anti-Defamation League and Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area.
The guests included at least one Holocaust survivor, Anita Feinstein, and a child of Holocaust survivors, Riva Berelson. Both are AJC regional board members.
The lieutenant governor’s sentiments were punctuated by a sole protester who stood at the periphery of the crowd. He brandished signs, including one he painted red with a Star of David fashioned as a swastika.
The man shouted about Israel and Jews during each of the speeches, yelling things such as other victims of the Holocaust “did not get an ethnocratic state” and that he does “love Jews, like Albert Einstein and Noam Chomsky.”
There were no uniformed police officers and no visible police vehicles at the event, though there were plainclothes security personnel on hand.
Matan Zamir, Israel’s deputy consul general to the Pacific Northwest, remarked about the protester’s presence.
“We could not have asked for a more vivid example of the rise of antisemitism and hate than the protester who showed up holding a sign replacing the swastika with the Star of David,” Zamir said.
While the protester’s disruptions appeared to make several participants uneasy, the diplomats in attendance voiced their support for both Israel and the American Jewish community.
German Consul General Oliver Schramm noted his nation’s unequivocal support for Jews to live peacefully in Germany, Israel and around the world.
In accordance with Jewish tradition, guests placed stones on the memorial as an act of remembrance and respect for those murdered in the Holocaust.
After the ceremony, the protester waved his swastika sign and charged toward Schramm, who was already inside his vehicle. The protester then fled. After he left, many of the guests remained for a moment of silence.
The second half of the day’s commemoration was a virtual talk from a Holocaust survivor identified only as Herb, who hid in Catholic orphanages throughout the war before he was reunited with his parents and immigrated to the United States.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is marked annually on Jan. 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
“We are grateful to the diplomats and officials that joined us to honor the 6 million victims of the Holocaust,” Oleg Ivanov, AJC’s regional assistant director, said at the ceremony. “Antisemitism is a global phenomenon, and it’s vital that our international allies and partners continue to speak out against it as we join to fight the world’s oldest hatred wherever it arises.”
