{"id":121814,"date":"2025-06-11T17:00:42","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T15:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=121814"},"modified":"2025-06-11T07:49:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T05:49:05","slug":"11-00-110","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=121814","title":{"rendered":"All Jewish Groups, Synagogues Withdraw From San Diego Pride Festival Due to Kehlani Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>All Jewish Groups, Synagogues Withdraw From San Diego Pride Festival Due to Kehlani Performance<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Shiryn Ghermezian<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Kehlani walking on the red carpet during the 67th Grammy Awards held at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA on Feb. 2, 2025. Photo: Elyse Jankowski\/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

All of the Jewish organizations and synagogues that were set to participate in this year\u2019s Pride Festival in San Diego announced on Friday their decision to withdraw from the event due to \u201cserious safety concerns\u201d surrounding the headlining performance by anti-Israel R&B singer Kehlani.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eight San Diego-based Jewish groups and synagogues, including the Jewish Federation of San Diego and Anti-Defamation League of San Diego, said they made the decision after organizers of the festival refused to cancel Kehlani\u2019s performance and ignored concerns about what they described as the singer\u2019s antisemitic behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn light of San Diego Pride\u2019s decision to allow musical artist Kehlani to remain a headliner at this year\u2019s Pride Festival despite Kehlani\u2019s repeated amplification of violent antisemitic rhetoric, all participating Jewish organizations and synagogues \u2014 many of which have marched with, volunteered for, or supported Pride for years \u2014 will be withdrawing from the 2025 event due to serious safety concerns,\u201d the Jewish groups and synagogues announced in a joint\u00a0statement.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

San Diego Pride is set to take place July 19-20 at Marston Point in Balboa Park. Last month, nearly three dozen Jewish organizations released\u00a0a statement<\/a>\u00a0urging festival organizers to reconsider having Kehlani perform at the event. The Jewish groups that released a statement on Friday said last month\u2019s appeal \u201chas thus far gone unanswered, and as a result, there will be no organized Jewish presence at San Diego Pride this year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kehlani has been highly critical of Israel\u2019s military actions in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war. She has accused Israel of genocide and shared a number of anti-Israel and anti-Zionist posts on social media. In one Instagram post, she wrote: \u201cDismantle Israel. Eradicate Zionism.\u201d She also posted an image that called for Israel to be removed off the map and replaced with \u201cPalestine.\u201d Last year, she shared the message \u201cLong Live the Intifada,\u201d a phrase that invokes violence against Israel and the Jewish community, in the opening of a\u00a0music video<\/a>\u00a0for \u201cNext 2 U.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kehlani has also criticized other artists for staying silent about Israel\u2019s military actions in the war. In a\u00a0video on X<\/a>, she said, \u201cIt\u2019s f\u2014k Israel, it\u2019s f\u2014k Zionism, and it\u2019s also f\u2014k a lot of y\u2019all too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The eight Jewish groups and synagogues that released the joint statement on Friday said Kehlani\u2019s antisemitic and anti-Israel messages are not only \u201cdehumanizing,\u201d but \u201chistory has shown that when they are normalized and platformed, they can lead to real-world violence against Jews.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

They referenced the two recent terrorist attacks in\u00a0Boulder, Colorado<\/a>, and\u00a0Washington, DC,<\/a>\u00a0and noted that the assailants behind both incidents shared \u201chateful rhetoric\u201d similar to what Kehlani has been promoting. They added that the two attacks \u201chave intensified fears among Jewish San Diegans, underscoring the dangerous consequences of unchecked antisemitism in public spaces.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a queer, a Jew, a Zionist and as someone who is horrified at the suffering in Gaza, I will not be participating in Pride this year \u2014 and neither should any organization that claims to be inclusive and strives to be a safe place for all,\u201d said Laura Stratton, a member of Temple Emanu-El of San Diego and the LGBTQ+ community who has been attending and volunteering for Pride festivals in San Diego and other cities for more than 35 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

The festival\u2019s volunteer director of medical operations and assistant director of medical operations, Dr. Jennifer Anger and Eliyahu Cohen-Mizrahi, respectively, have also withdrawn their involvement in the festival due to Kehlani\u2019s scheduled performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy role at Pride has always been to ensure the health and safety of everyone attending, but as a Jewish San Diegan, I can no longer ignore the very real risks that come with normalizing hate speech like the kind Kehlani has promoted,\u201d said Anger, who has volunteered as a medical director for the festival for the last two years.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking to step away from an event I\u2019ve supported for years, but when the Jewish community\u2019s safety is treated as negotiable, we\u2019re left with no choice. Pride should be a place of healing and inclusion \u2014 not one that turns its back on a community in pain.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kehlani was set to perform at a concert in New York City later this month, but\u00a0it was canceled\u00a0<\/a>in May after organizers faced pressure from New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other pro-Israel supporters because of the singer\u2019s actions targeting the Jewish community. The cancellation was announced shortly after Cornell University\u2019s decision\u00a0to also cancel<\/a>\u00a0a performance by Kehlani.<\/span><\/p>\n

In their joint statement on Friday, the San Diego-based Jewish groups and synagogues said San Diego Pride organizers \u201cstill has the chance to course correct and restore Pride as a space where all communities feel genuinely included and safe\u201d by disinviting Kehlani from the event.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJewish groups continue to urge San Diego Pride organizers to reflect on the message being sent by continuing to feature Kehlani \u2014 and whether safety and equal rights can truly be hallmarks of this event under the present circumstances,\u201d they said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The statement came out as a new report by the nonprofit A Wider Bridge detailed how anti-Israel activists in the LGBTQ+ community are\u00a0subjecting Zionist Jews to extreme levels of discrimination<\/a>, including expulsions from major progressive groups and even physical assault.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNow more than ever, Pride should be a celebration of inclusion and solidarity, not a platform for divisive voices that incite hatred and violence,\u201d said Heidi Gantwerk, president and CEO of Jewish Federation of San Diego County. \u201cAs we\u2019ve seen in DC and Boulder, when antisemitism is ignored or tolerated, it fuels a culture that leads to violence. We cannot wait for tragedy to strike our own community \u2014 again \u2014 before we act.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On the red carpet at the American Music Awards in late May, Kehlani talked to\u00a0Variety<\/em>\u00a0about why she feels the need to be outspoken about Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and concluded her remarks by saying, \u201cFree Palestine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be a hard thing \u2026 It should be second nature if people are being blown up and being murdered at mass rates. It should be as easy as breathing to just say, \u2018Hey, I don\u2019t really think this should be happening. Maybe we should stop.\u2019 And we\u2019re funding it,\u201d she\u00a0said<\/a>. \u201cAll I can say is, Free Palestine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kehlani claimed that she is not antisemitic in an\u00a0Instagram video<\/a>\u00a0uploaded in late April. \u201cI am not antisemitic, nor anti-Jew. I am anti-genocide. I am anti-the actions of the Israeli government,\u201d she stated in the video. \u201cI am anti-the extermination of an entire people, I am anti-the bombing of innocent children, men [and] women. That\u2019s what I\u2019m anti.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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All Jewish Groups, Synagogues Withdraw From San Diego Pride Festival Due to Kehlani Performance Shiryn Ghermezian Kehlani walking on the red carpet during the 67th Grammy Awards held at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA on Feb. 2, 2025. Photo: Elyse Jankowski\/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect All of the Jewish organizations and synagogues that were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121814"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121814"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121834,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121814\/revisions\/121834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}