December 4, 2023: the Day the Left Died in San Leandro

(Costanoan by Pastel @ Highway 880 Marina West Exit)

I remember the exact day that the Left in San Leandro died.

It was actually a Monday evening downtown at City Hall. There was a city council meeting that night and it was packed. A group of fellow local activists, and even more from outside the community, had organized a protest against the then-recent war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. The protest erupted into civil disobedience that shut down the city council meeting, before ultimately descending into bigotry and violence. I know because I was there.

This post has been a long time coming. Some have repeatedly asked me to share what happened. Just as many would like to pretend nothing happened that night. A few have even threatened me against ever writing about it.

But I'd bet that there are also a lot of people who have absolutely no idea what happened. This isn't about spreading salacious stories for social media clout. It's about holding ourselves accountable as a community. It's about sitting with the uncomfortable truths about who we are and then deciding what kind of a city we want to be.

So... let me tell you what happened...

***

It started earlier that week. I had been contacted by members of local allied organizations that there was a plan to protest the upcoming City Council meeting. The original demands were simple: they wanted the city to issue a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza war. This had already happened and was happening in other cities across the Bay Area. As one of many prominent advocates and organizers in the community -- not to mention a proud Jew -- they wanted to know my thoughts.

At the time, it was difficult to have those conversations. In many ways, it still is. See, like most Jews, I'm a Zionist. That means I believe in the Jewish people's right to self-determination in our ancestral homeland. Yet, like most Jews, I also oppose the current Israeli government and support peaceful, mutual coexistence with a free Palestine. In fact, like most Jews, I opposed the war in Gaza, a war which became ethnic cleansing and then became a genocide. I even wrote as much back in October 2023 and again that November.

I also lost friends on October 7. They lived near Be'er Sheva. They were visiting a nearby kibbutz that day. Their bodies were never even found. My family living outside of Tel Aviv endured constant rocket attacks. One of my cousins turned 18, got conspcripted into Israel's mandatory military service, was sent off to fight, and we lost contact with him. No idea if he's still alive. Some of my friends and community members here at home also lost people, either on the day of the massacre, or sometime after. Others were just living in fear for their loved ones living in Israel. Even/including those who condemned the war, the occupation, and the government.

However, most people are incapable of understanding those nuances and complexity. Most people can't even conceive of the idea that, when you get down to brass tacks, most Jews and most Palestinians actually are Zionists for a free Palestine. They can't recognize people's shared humanity and the ways we're forced to live in a world we didn't create while we're left trying to do the best that we can. Instead, most people just want to feel good in hating whoever they've decided is on the wrong side of whatever is happening in the world that is having a moment. So, instead of having the same tired argument over and over again, I prefer to focus on actually doing something.

***

When I heard about the planned protest, my first question was had the organizers reached out to anyone in the local Jewish community? They had not. I asked if they had shared the proposed ceasefire resolution with anyone on City Council, from city staff, or even just other local leaders? They had not. I asked if they had a plan and a timeframe to get widespread support for the city to adopt the proposed resolution? They did not. It was the epitome of all vibes, no plot.

I asked who was leading this effort? I was told it was primarily the San Leandro Social Justice Academy (SJA). They had reached out to some members of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, token members from Jewish Voice for Peace, and other residents in the area. They had specifically found Arab/Muslim neighbors of one of the City Council members that they wanted to target. I asked if they even had a conversation with that person first about this proposal? They had not.

I offered that I would be happy to help coordinate a joint ceasefire resolution proposal that was mutually agreeable to Jews and Arabs/Muslims in San Leandro, and work to get it passed by the City Council. I was told it was too late for that. SJA wasn't going to wait and wasn't interested in a joint resolution. I told them this would likely backfire then if they just went in angry with no plan, as it had in Berkeley and in other cities around the country. Worse, it would result in outside agitators from bigger groups coming into the city to attack both our local Jewish community and our local Arab/Muslim community. They simply shrugged.

***

I chose to attend the city council meeting as a witness. I had debated speaking during public comment and decided against it. I wanted to watch and learn. I went with a small group of other Jewish friends in San Leandro who felt the same. When we arrived, the protest was finishing up outside and people were begining to file into the City Council chambers inside City Hall.

By the time the meeting was about to start, it was standing room only. People were crammed into seats, along the aisles, in the back, and even spilling out into the hallways. I recognized many of them: kids from SJA I had marched with against racism and fascism, aging activists from Unity in the Community or the more recent SLPDefund movements, fellow organizers from the nearby churches and schools, and neighbors along the Harlan-Estabrook-Castro area, as well as other members of the leftwing political coalition here in San Leandro. There were also many that I didn't recognize: some with signs, some with keffiyehs, some with flags, but most were nameless until I heard them speak later that night.

The mayor, perhaps sensing that this was a very unhappy crowd, tried to cow them with a lecture and warnings after opening the meeting and moving to public comment. He tried to set new conditions and limits for anyone who wanted to speak. Unsurprisingly, none of that helped. In fact, it made the crowd even angrier and more unruly. But the meeting went ahead.

The first public commenters were hesitant, as if nervous of speaking in front of so many people. But after each person finished they received applause, shouts of approval, chants, and cheers. It started with seemingly benign calls for a "free Palestine," but quickly changed into:

• Comparing Jews to Nazis
• Alleging that Jews steal Palestinians organs
• That Jews are vermin
• That Jews control the US government
• That there's no such thing as Israel
• That Hamas are freedom fighters
• That Hamas has the right to oppose the occupation
• That the massacre on October 7 was fake
• That the Israeli military was the one who killed everyone
• Holocaust denialism
• Blaming Jews for capitalism
• Blaming Jews for disease
• Blaming Jews for war
• Blaming Jews for the world

It was some of the most toxic, foul, and vicious antisemitism I've heard in my entire life -- and I've seen more than my share, from neo-Nazis to Klansmen to Christian fundamentalists to radical extremists across the political spectrum since I was a child.

Each time the mayor tried to impose order, the crowd only became more incensed. Eventually, the speakers themselves were shouting, chanting, and yelling from the podium. Not just the SJA kids, but adults too, elders with gray hair, and 20-somethings that were clearly affiliated with an outside organization based in Oakland or San Francisco. Others were calling out from the gallery at even the mention that this behavior was making it difficult for anyone who disagreed to feel safe speaking. "Oh, but we love the Jews," said one woman behind me with all the sincerity of a cat to a mouse. Others cursed and blurted out slurs, like "f*** z*os!"

Some of the speakers directed their comments to one of the City Council members, a progressive that many of them had worked so hard to help elect just the year before. They tried to shame her, mocked her tears, and even made inappropriate remarks about her newborn child. I watched as she silently cried on the dais, eyes looking for friends in the crowd and finding almost none. Yet, she did her job and listened to the hate pouring out against her from the same people who begged her to run in the first place. None of the other City Council members came to her defense.

I remember a particularly fraught moment when my abandoned speaker request card somehow made it up to the city clerk, an acquaintance of mine from my advocacy and organizing work. They look at me from across the room, showing me the crumpled card, eyes asking me if I still wanted to give a public comment. As imperceptibly as I could, I shook my head no. My own eyes widened in fear that even calling out my name would make me a target.

Eventually, the SJA kids, raging at the mayor's increasingly impotent attempts to control the meeting began chanting, "free, free Palestine / end, end, the occupation." The whole room began to take it up. The mayor fecklessly put the meeting on hold, walking out of the room. The chant kept on for a while and it was then that I noticed more than a few people looking at me and my friends. They were pointing at us and talking to each other.

We weren't chanting. We weren't standing. We weren't even talking. We were just watching. None of us was dressed to be visibily Jewish, but when some of the San Leandro locals started to get asked questions about our group in the room, I had a bad feeling.

One of my fellow activists came by right after he'd been talking to a bunch of guys. He said they were asking him about me. Who was I? What was my name? Where did I live? Was I a Jew? I asked him what he told them and he admitted he shared everything about me with these total strangers! But, "don't worry, it's fine," he assured me. "I told them you're cool." The antisemitism would've shocked me on any other night, but the sheer naivete was horrifying.

***

Eventually, the mayor came back in and tried to restart the meeting. It was futile. The crowd ignored him. He even threatened to have people arrested and I watched the only SLPD officer in the room shrink in fear at the thought. The crowd began turning into a mob, pushing and shoving against each other as they all yelled incoherently at the City Council members and city staff in the room. The mayor suddenly declared the meeting over. There was a small pause of confusion before a renewed rush of rage took over. The now-mob looked like they were about to start tearing the place up. Worse, that same group of guys were now blocking the exit and looking right at me.

My friends and I decided it was time to leave. As we walked towards the exit of the chambers, I was accosted.

"Do you work for Israel?"
"We know your name!"

"We know where you live."

"We know where you work."

"We'll find your family."

"Do you like dead Palestinians?"

"Do you like to kill babies?"

"K*ke."
"Z*o."

"Colonizer."

"Murderer."

"Racist."

"We'll kill you!"

They cursed at me. They spit on me and tore at my clothes. As I continued to silently move towards the exit, they began shoving me and punching me in the side. One of them tried to grab my neck. Another tried to haul me to the floor.

In near panic, I fought back, but it was so packed I couldn't see their faces anymore. Luckily, many in the mob had begun to spill out into the hallways. The inertia carried me out the doors. I looked for anyone I knew to help me. I found a friend who had shown up late. Their wife was on the City Council -- the very same member who'd been targeted by the mob earlier that night. He was with their baby in a stroller and I immediately went over to him to say hi. I hoped his presence and that of his child would cause the guys attacking me to come to their senses.

My friend and I chatted briefly, trying to make light conversation, before we were interrupted. Those same guys started trying to fight me again -- and then to fight my friend, even with his baby there! I realized I just needed to get away as quickly as possible because even my presence was going to keep inciting these thugs. I apologized to my friend and said I should leave. One of the guys tried to follow me and my friend actually moved to block his path, now yelling back at him.

I eventually lost sight of everyone as I exited the building's side doorway. My group of friends met me on the far side of the city parking lot at their car. We all piled in and drove away to find a place to decompress from what just happened. I had some small cuts and bruises under my clothes, but was otherwise uninjured. I had caught the worst of it, apparently, as my group of friends had taken a different route out when the mob exploded.

***

All in all, around 50 people out of 100 spoke that night before things got ugly and the meeting was ended. I listened to all of them. I quietly recorded many of them too, though the city always records these public meeting and you can listen to it on their website. I have purposefully avoided using names or providing detailed descriptions of anyone. I'm not looking to press charges or hold a trial in the court of public opinion. If I had been, I would've done it almost 2 years ago. But for those who spoke and/or appeared at the meeting that night, they were told it was a public forum. It was recorded. Many of them openly gave their names in their public comments. There was no expectation of privacy and ignorance is no excuse.

The day after, I reached out to the Left in town at large. I called, texted, emailed, and DM'd people. Do you know what happened? I kept myself mostly out of the story -- at first. But people started asking me how I knew and I eventually shared bits and pieces of what happened to me. Some people were sympathetic. Some tried to rationalize. Most were just apathetic. I learned very quickly who my real friends and allies were. I learned very quickly who actually believed in social justice and solidarity and who didn't. Worse, I learned that the mob was the final straw for our first progressive City Council member, who decided to resign rather than endure any more abuse. (To be fair: they'd already endured quite a lot before then from others too.)

In the fallout, fractures and ruptures began to harden into chasms between a Leftist coalition that had previously accomplished so much: police reform, participatory budgeting, progressive slates of local elected officials, expanded access to healthcare, affordable housing, help for the homeless, environmental and climate resiliency. I saw the same organizers fighting to build a better San Leandro for years, now walk away from each other in disgust and mistrust. I saw the SJA kids go from hopeful changemakers to embittered extremists. I don't know who taught them the way to hate like that after years of doing good, but it wasn't someone who actually understood, let alone cared for, social justice.

***

I despaired for a while. Even though I kept fighting the good fight on every single issue here in San Leandro, the fight had gone out inside of me. I've experienced antisemitism before all my life, from slurs and stereotypes to discrimination by teachers and elected officials to being beaten within an inch of my life by bigots.

But this was different. These were supposed to be my friends and allies. These were the people who'd shared their struggles with me and my struggles with them. They'd met my family, my children, my wife. They knew me. Now? It was like they never knew me at all.

Worse, the elected officials and city staff present, for the most part, did nothing to prevent what happened or protect the people in attendance. I wasn't the only person attacked that night. Yet our city council did nothing. our police chief did nothing, our city manager did nothing. Our mayor did worse than nothing; their incompetence and belligerence fanned the flames that night.

So what's the point? There's no solidarity. There's no justice. The Left's hypocritical morality is a mile wide but an inch deep, so shallow that I confused my reflection with their values. Instead, I should've seen how close they were to the bottom..

San Leandro is my home, and I was like a stranger in a strange land.

***

Now, almost 2 years later and I've made my peace with what happened. I've resigned many of the positions and memberships I held in the coalition here, from the Big Tent, SLPDefund, Justice for Steven Taylor, Unity in the Community, SLATE, SWAI, the Progressive Posse SL, SLPBS, Oversight4SL, SLBL, and others. I've cut ties with some of the most toxic and bigoted individuals. I've dropped contact with many of the apathetic others. Of the few in the movement that I do still keep in contact with, there's a wariness now. I've lost the privilege of trusting other people the way that I used to, of believing in people the way that I used to.

Yet, here I stand. Still. Almost 2 years later for the arrival of American fascism. A pariah, not a messiah. For a cause killed by the very people still hiding behind its corpse. For a better world abandoned by the very people who claimed it as their own. For values so antiquated even typing them feels cringe: with liberty and justice for all.

***

San Leandro, like the rest of America, needs more than just Truth and Reconciliation. We need a new Reconstruction. We need to accept and apologize for the harms of the past as well as the failures of the present in order to finally come together to build a better future for city.

I hope we can before it's too late. I used to believe it was never too late, but I've since seen what horrors can happen. Whether they heal into scars or fester as wounds, will depend on the choices we make in the time we have left.

I urge everyone to make the most of the choices they have left.

Take note and take care.

***

CASL, AEJIS.