OpEd: Pride Organizers, UCSD Administration Indifferent to Jewish Community Fears

By Sara E. Brown
Times of San Diego

SAN DIEGO — Jewish communities are still reeling from the brutal murder of two young diplomats outside of an American Jewish Committee event in Washington, D.C. In Boulder, Colorado twelve more people were injured in a firebombing attack at a rally calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

This is the reality Jews are living with right now. Violence. Fear. Grief. And yet — our pain is met with silence. Our fear is brushed aside.

In San Diego, that indifference has become all too clear. The organizers of San Diego Pride Festival, the administrators at UCSD, and the local media have all recently shown that they fail to take seriously calls for the eradication of the Jewish people, hiding behind false claims that these threats are merely free speech or a reaction to events in the Middle East.

It is outrageous that San Diego Pride has chosen Kehlani as a 2025 headliner. Kehlani — who uses they/them pronouns — has a history of controversial provocations, incendiary rhetoric, and hate speech in their performances, music videos, and on their social media — even concluding one livestream with “It’s f**k Israel, its f**k Zionism, and it’s also f**k a lot of y’all too.” Kehlani’s words are not just provocative — they are dangerous.

The announcement of Kehlani’s inclusion in the festival stunned the Jewish community, LGBTQ+ Jews, and allies–including Mayor Todd Gloria and community leader Nicole Murray Ramirez. How could the festival, a space for the celebration of inclusion and solidarity, choose to instead use its platform to promote hate speech? If the “organization’s vision is a world free of prejudice and bias” then they must cancel Kehlani’s performance.

The issue with Kehlani is not that they are pro-Palestinian, it is that they explicitly incite violence and have called for the eradication of Jews.

This isn’t about their political statements about Israel or standing in solidarity with Gaza. This is about Kehlani calling for Zionism to be extinguished and for “resistance in all of its forms.” Here in San Diego, where 91% of Jews believe Israel should exist and are therefore Zionist, Kehlani is calling for the eradication of the vast majority of our Jewish population. And the San Diego Pride Festival plans to pay her to do so.

Words matter. So, let’s unpack Kehlani’s.

Zionism is the belief in Jewish self-determination in our ancestral homeland. That’s it. Twisting that belief into something evil — calling Zionists “the scum of the earth” — isn’t critique. It’s dehumanization.

It’s one thing to be critical of Israel and to stand in solidarity with Palestinians. But when you simultaneously advocate for the only Jewish state to be wiped off the map, you’ve crossed a line.

Would any other performer who called for the eradication of a minority group be welcomed at a Pride event — or any event?

Hate speech like “resistance by any means necessary” or “there is only one solution, Intifada Revolution” are not just protest chants. In fact, many of the so-called social justice warriors who deploy them, do so to wage war against Jews.

San Diego’s Jewish community recently suffered through yet another disturbing antisemitic outburst at UCSD. Dozens of masked students, faculty, and others surrounded an event with visiting professor and former Israeli diplomat Ido Aharoni. Footage shows protesters violently pounding on the doors and walls, restricting access to the venue, and chanting vitriolic, antisemitic phrases. UCSD police watched passively as the masked protesters — in clear violation of university policies — refused to move along. Apart from issuing a mass communication to the campus community, the university has thus far done nothing to correct its inaction.

San Diego media coverage has been similarly lacking, ignoring when Khelani proclaims – without any pushback — “there is only one solution, Intifada revolution” and “[Zionists are] the scum of the earth, you’re all the scum of the earth.” Instead, they parrot the false claims of the Pride Festival organizers who claim this is free speech, not an incitement to violence.

In this environment — where people like Kehlani call for our annihilation without consequence, when masked mobs of individuals intimidate students at a public event at UCSD while the police stand by and watch, when media coverage glosses over dangerous rhetoric and its consequences — stop telling the Jewish community to be less defensive and less alarmed.

Hear us when we say hate-based speech leads to hate-based violence. We’ve seen it — in Pittsburgh, in Poway, in Monsey, and now in Washington, D.C. Stop pretending this is about the war in Gaza or the First Amendment. This is about Jew-hatred.

San Diego must take a stand. We call on San Diego Pride to cancel Kehlani’s performance. We call on UCSD to protect its Jewish students and enforce its own policies. We call on local media to report honestly and responsibly on rising antisemitism in our city. And if you continue to stay silent or parrot false narratives, you are complicit in the violence that will harm us all.

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Sara E. Brown, PhD, is regional director of the American Jewish Committee San Diego. This article initially appeared in Times of San Diego, with which San Diego Jewish World has a sharing arrangement.