Greenberg: Good Riddance to Controversy and Betrayal

With the defeat of both Aaron Peskin, mayoral candidate and current Board of Supervisors president, along with Dean Preston, District 5 Supervisor and self-labeled Democratic Socialist, San Francisco has rid itself of two powerful, influential and highly-controversial progressive Jewish elected officials. They leave office next month.

I, along with many Jewish residents and voters of the city, applaud their departure.

First, some background: The principal agency which oversees and supports all things of Jewish life is the Jewish Federation, and in their most recent findings, they estimate 350,000 Jews live in the San Francisco Bay area – with 17% of those, or about 61,000, residing in the city of San Francisco. The city has 1,300 Jews per square mile density.

The agency’s report also finds that across the political spectrum, from Liberal/Progressive to moderate to Conservative, local Jewish poll results run from 51% to nearly 80% of those surveyed feel it is important for Israel to exist and for that nation be a Jewish state.

In other words, what an elected official in San Francisco says about Israel, putting their personal negative spin on it, does not reflect actual beliefs, values and viewpoint of the city’s Jews as a whole. It’s well known the more Conservative/Republican Jewish voters lean, the more religiously observant and Zionist they (we) are. Orthodox Jews are and have been quite supportive of Trump, the Republican Party and Israel; this has been the case for a long time.

Yet, even knowing this, the several Jewish elected officials in San Francisco city hall, particularly the Board of Supervisors, dismiss these facts, to insert their own view of and doctrine professing of what Jews want. Five of eleven members of the Board of Supervisors are Jewish, and yet, following the path of self-aggrandizement, they adopt an anti-Zionist viewpoint, dividing the city’s Jewish community, blatantly denying and dismissing our values and concerns, in favor of a highly marginalized and secular Jewish existence.

Shocking, but perhaps not so surprising, was the open hostility and enabling of pro-Hamas protesters that fateful day in San Francisco city hall chambers, January 9th, 2024, where a parade of speaker-by-speaker took turns on the mic, given two minutes to bash Israel, trash Jews and then later gloat in celebration following the vote by the Board of Supervisors passing their resolution condemning Israel and demand the Gaza Cease Fire.

Invitees to that day’s deliberation grew to a sizable seething mob. The hearing was presided over by Board President Peskin who could have cut the mic, halted the meeting, cleared the room and barred further raucous and hateful public commentary – as is his right and indeed his obligation to. Supervisor Preston, as the architect and instigator of that cease fire resolution, by his inviting pro-Hamas commentors to descend on city hall, could have been rebuked by Peskin and by board colleagues, he could have been denied his circus, and could have been censured. But Peskin and fellow Board members didn’t, instead wallowing in the slime of antisemitic shaming, perpetuating the alternate reality of justifying the kidnapping, rape, torture, and dismemberment of innocent youth celebrating life, music and camaraderie at the now-infamous Nova weekend music festival October 7th.

Peskin and Preston’s Jewish DNA is clearly irrelevant. Yet when convenient and necessary for maximum political play, it seemed exceedingly important to them.  In the end, the Gaza resolution did nothing. Both Peskin and Preston ran for election and nobody brought up the toxicity while on the campaign trail.

San Francisco has no say in the international political scene, and the vote only showed how a certain minority of elected individuals pretend they speak for we residents – and exposed just how far they are willing to go against “fellow” Jews and Israel.

San Francisco, and unfortunately, America, has no shortage of public officials – Jewish officials – who shun their connection to Judaism, only to pull their membership card to pander and exploit for their gain. Such tragedy is unfortunately repeated amongst those worst betrayals and exploitations to and of the Jewish people.