Refusing to stay silent on Jew-hatred

With so many leaders of government normalizing antisemitism — whether through libelous claims of Jewish colonialism and genocide, accusations of dual loyalty, or even swastika tattoos — it is heartening when one of our elected officials takes a firm and unequivocal stance against Jew-hatred.

That’s what Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht did last week when he announced he was leaving the Democratic Party and registering as an independent, citing rising antisemitism within the party as the reason.
While we are not condoning or condemning any particular political affiliation, we applaud Wecht’s moral clarity in calling out antisemitic behavior in his own party. And we hope other elected officials, as well as politicians, take note and do the same — not necessarily leaving their political home, but unabashedly calling out any hatred they see within it.

Wecht, who is Jewish, has been a Democratic Party stalwart for decades. In fact, he served as Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party vice chair before he took the bench on the Superior Court and the Allegheny Court of Common Pleas. His prominent father, the late Cyril Wecht, once served as the Allegheny County Democratic Party chair.

It is therefore clear that his decision to leave the party came only after serious reflection.

For Wecht, it is not only the overtly antisemitic acts of some Democrats which must be condemned, but the silence and acquiescence of others in response to anti-Jewish rhetoric and behaviors, some violent.

“Nazi tattoos, jihadist chants, intimidation and attacks at synagogues, and other hateful anti-Jewish invective and actions are minimized, ignored, and even coddled,” Wecht wrote in the statement he released announcing his departure from the party. “Acquiescence to Jew-hatred is now disturbingly common among activists, leaders and even many elected officials in the Democratic Party.

“I can no longer abide this,” Wecht continued. “So, I won’t.”

In his statement, Wecht also acknowledged the Jew-hatred that “festered on the fringe” of the right, referencing the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting as a tragic example. But, unlike so many other elected leaders, Wecht has the moral courage to unequivocally call out Jew-hatred in his own party as well.

Sadly, Wecht is part of just a small group of elected officials willing to do that. Included in that group are Democrats state Rep. Dan Frankel and Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman.

In April, Frankel issued a statement along with state Sen. Judy Schwank, as cochairs of the PA Legislative Jewish Caucus, calling out U.S. Rep. Summer Lee for campaigning alongside Hasan Piker, “a commentator who has repeatedly trafficked in antisemitic statements.”

“At a time when Jewish communities are facing rising threats and harassment, public officials have an obligation to be unequivocal about the voices they elevate and the company they keep,” Frankel and Schank wrote.

Fetterman, an outspoken supporter of Israel and critic of antisemitism wherever it is found, responded last week to The New York Times opinion piece, which spouted the literally unbelievable claim that Jewish Israelis train dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners — which was widely speculated to have been published in order to divert attention to hard evidence of Hamas using unspeakable forms of sexual violence as tools of war. Fetterman tweeted: “Confirmed: rapists, cowards and vile deviants. Volumes of incontrovertible evidence of the depravity of Hamas. NYT preemptively dropped a grotesque op-ed with sources linked to Hamas for a beachhead of ‘bothsiderism’ Hamas defenders.”

Frankel, Fetterman, and now Wecht, have taken abuse online in response to their support of, not only Jewish people, but the truth. It takes courage and a strong sense of morality to not back down, and these leaders have not.

We call on all elected officials, Republican and Democrat, to do the same.

“It is the duty of all good people to fight this virus, and to do so before it is too late,” Wecht wrote last week in his announcement.

The time is now. PJC