Accusing party of antisemitism, Pa. Supreme Court Justice David Wecht leaves Democratic Party that elected him

[Jose Garcia]

Source: WHYY

Justice David Wecht of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania announced that he is leaving the Democratic Party, citing what he described as anti-Jewish actions and rhetoric within the party.

In a message distributed by the state court system, he said that antisemitic “hatred has grown on the left” and that it has “moved from the fringe to the mainstream.”

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

Wecht said he could “no longer abide by this.”



Read more: https://whyy.org/articles/pennsylvania-supreme-court-justice-david-wecht-leaves-democratic-party-antisemitism/

[Maru Kitteh]

1. Supreme court justices should not be partisans. Judges and justices should

not be partisans. This really shouldn’t be too difficult.

[travelingthrulife]

2. Criticism of Israel is forbidden I suppose.

Republicans feel you should convert to Christianity or die in the great conflagration. Have fun!

[Skittles]

15. oh haven't you heard?

if you are anti-Israel you hate Jewish folk

[FakeNoose]

3. Wait till he finds out who's in the other Party!

[Jose Garcia]

9. He never said he was becoming a Republican

[johnnyplankton]

4. i'm pretty sure most of the Nazi-affiliated groups are Trumpers...

[hadEnuf]

5. Sounds like a Republican infiltrator.

Get elected as a Dem, make up BS in order to "flee" to the Republicans.

[Jose Garcia]

7. 28 years as an elected Democrat is pretty long for a con

[hadEnuf]

22. It makes about as much sense as switching

to the Republicans to get relief from antisemitism.

[Jose Garcia]

25. He didn't switch to the Republican Party

[NoRethugFriends]

11. Perhaps a bit more research before making silly accusations

[hadEnuf]

21. You're right, I didn't read the article.

But anyone switching from Dem to Republican in these times is suspicious.

[Bluejeans]

6. As someone who is of Semitic descent...

I am of Semitic descent as my ancestors were Aramaic and Arabic speaking Maronite Catholics from Zouk Mikael in Lebanon. I also served in the US Air Force for 20 years, adhering to John the Baptist's guidance to the Roman soldiers of "Protect the people."

I noticed the article on Justice David Wecht noted he "did not provide specific examples or name party leaders or elected officials" supporting his statement that “Acquiescence to Jew-hatred is now disturbingly common among activists, leaders and even many elected officials in the Democratic Party.”

I have criticized for many years Israel's conduct against the Palestinian and the Lebanese people. I often state the Israeli military practice of leveling homes, villages, towns and cities which in turn causes death and injuries to innocent people who are not terrorists, as Israel has done in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon is not only a war crime. I consider that military practice to be nothing more than the type of action against innocent people as Nazi Germany used at Lidice during WW II.

I dare Justice Wecht to call me "anti-semitic" or full of "Jew Hatred" (his term).

[FakeNoose]

8. I agree that there are very few liberal Dems who actually hate or discriminate against Jews

I've never met any....

It sounds to me like Judge Wecht is equating anti-Israel (anti-war) feelings with hatred of Jewish people as a group. Nothing could be further from the truth. But he doesn't seem to be looking for truth here, he just wants to unload some steam.

[BaronChocula]

12. I ask people to back up statements like "the Democratic Party has moved too far left

I ask for specific examples and they always come up with things that don't apply like:
"Democrats are running on trans issues" (in fact supporting rights and running on an issue are 2 different things)
"Democrats need to focus on kitchen table issues" (in fact it's what Democrats have been doing since 2024 and have been winning)
"My friends saw Palestinian flags at these No Kings rallies" (in fact there were former trump voters there too)

People bend over backwards to find ways to bash Democrats. It's just what comes with being the opposition to the party of dominant American culture (white men motivated by the preservation of white male privilege).

[LeftInTX]

24. There are Democrats who are spilling over into anti-Jewish speech.

One candidate is using "synagogue of Satan" in her speeches and is spilling conspiracy theories. I hope she doesn't win her primary. But suddenly, she's got big money behind her. The money is Republican money.

There is also the infiltration by the Party of Liberation and Socialism. This Democrat has been affiliated with them. Re


Republican money was known to infiliatrate the Party of Socialism and Liberation. Which defeated Kamala.

She’s a Sex Therapist Who Wants to Eradicate Zionism. She Could Cost Democrats a House Seat.

In a Facebook video from last fall, Maureen Galindo, a sex therapist and housing activist running for Congress as a Democrat in Texas, warned about the Jews working with Christian Zionists trying to bring about the Rapture. Speaking of the movie version of the Christian End Times thriller “Left Behind,” she said, “All of the Jews who own Hollywood, they use books and movies to create realities.” She urged her viewers to turn toward the authentic, radical Jesus, “who was fighting this church of Satan 2,000 years ago that still exists.”

Online, Galindo combines progressive populism, vaguely New Age therapeutic jargon and a conspiratorial mind-set; she seems like the left-wing version of the wellness influencers who turned to QAnon during the pandemic. In March she shocked local politicos by finishing first in a four-way primary in a new congressional district in southeastern San Antonio, seemingly buoyed by the anti-establishment fury motivating Democrats nationwide. This month she’ll face Johnny Garcia, a moderate sheriff’s deputy backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in a runoff. I was shown an internal poll conducted in April by a group supporting Garcia that had her ahead.

In the final weeks of the campaign, Galindo is getting some unexpected help. A shadowy new PAC called Lead Left spent $43,000 on mailers promising that Galindo would dismantle Immigration and Customs Enforcement, create “public health care options for all” and have President Trump arrested and impeached.

As Punchbowl reported, Lead Left was registered only on April 24, and its address is listed as a Staples in Tallahassee, Fla. While Democrats don’t know who’s running it, Punchbowl found WinRed, a Republican fund-raising platform, in the metadata on the group’s website. When Punchbowl’s Ally Mutnick asked a spokesman for the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC, if the group was behind Lead Left, he didn’t deny it. Instead, he gloated, “We hate to see these Democrat primaries devolve into the wokelympics, but the office popcorn machine has been going nonstop.” https://archive.ph/GogP6

She could win...

Here's a report from the DCC

DCCC Statement on D.C. Republican Dark Money Interests Meddling in TX-35 Runoff, Uplifting Antisemitism

In response to reporting that a D.C. Republican-aligned dark money super PAC is spending tens of thousands of dollars to uplift notorious antisemitic online poster Maureen Galindo in Texas’ 35th Congressional District, DCCC Spokesperson Madison Andrus issued the following statement:
“Republicans are so terrified of their cynical attempt to subvert the will of Texas’ voters backfiring that they’ve resorted to uplifting an openly antisemitic candidate to boost their dwindling chances. They know that their own extremists have no shot at beating Johnny Garcia and his broad coalition of working-class Texans.

“This Republican dark-money investment coming just days after new reporting revealed the extent of Galindo’s dangerous antisemitic rhetoric is nothing short of disgusting. Texas’ voters will reject this latest attempt by Washington Republicans to meddle in their elections and send Johnny Garcia to Congress this November.”

BACKGROUND:

Lead Left PAC filed with the FEC just two weeks ago. Its address, according to the FEC, is a Staples in Tallahassee, Florida.
Punchbowl News reports that the metadata for the PAC’s website has a WinRed link (the site Republicans use to fundraise), and that House Republicans’ super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) declined to deny their involvement in the group.
https://dccc.org/dccc-statement-on-d-c-republican-dark-money-interests-meddling-in-tx-35-runoff-uplifting-antisemitism/

We've got some real kooks in Texas. On the other side of town, I'm dealing with a convicted dirty cop who has an AI generated face on all her signs. She got her conviction overturned and now she's running. She's using bully and intimidation tactics. People don't remember her because the face on her sign is fake! Even NPR is using her AI generated face.

[mathematic]

27. He didn't name Platner, but is there some other democrat that had a Nazi tattoo for decades?

Antisemitism has always been an alternate term for jew hatred. It's not a generic term for hate against people descended from semitic language speaking people.

[Multichromatic]

10. Uuuummmmmm... did anyone tell the judge he is confusing Democrats and Republicans?!!??

Boy is he gonna be surprised to find out the Neo-Nazis are Republicans.

[Shermanator1]

16. He has the parties correct,

but his emotions have made him grossly overstate what's actually happening. The Democratic Party, especially its base, is no longer willing to reflexively coddle Israel or give unconditional deference to its defenders. The left has never been supportive of ethnic cleansing or collective punishment, so as the humanitarian toll in Gaza soared, public opinion shifted.

Antisemitism exists and there's very few people on the left who wouldn't condemn it unequivocally. But too many people are now trying to blur the line between opposition to Israel and its Israeli policies with antisemitism in order to shut down criticism.

[BlueTsunami2018]

13. You'd think a judge could understand nuance.

Being against the genocidal Netanyahu regime’s actions is NOT antisemitism. It’s not “Jew hatred.”
Thousands of people inside Israel protest this shit every day. Jews all around the world do as well.

There isn’t a fair minded person who thinks attacking individual Jews or synagogues is ok. The beef is with Bibi, his monstrous regime and the expansion, which is killing and displacing people wholesale.

The whole thing of making any criticism of Israel an attack on all Jewish people has worked for decades but it isn’t working anymore. Repeating it isn’t going to make it true and trying to bring that privilege back isn’t going to happen.

That’s the reason Bibi was bitching on 60 minutes about social media and bot farms and free speech. People can see what’s really going on now. It can’t be hidden behind news blackouts, propaganda and flat out lies. That’s what really scares these fascists. They’ve lost control of the narrative.

Nazis are right wing, white nationalists are right wing, the KKK is right wing. That’s where the Jew haters are, right where they’ve always been.

This guy is a dope.

[Buddyzbuddy]

14. He's free to leave the party for whatever reason he chooses but

Last edited Tue May 12, 2026, 12:08 AM - Edit history (1)

his statement implies a lie as the reason.

“Nazi tattoos, jihadist chants, intimidation and attacks at synagogues, and other hateful anti-Jewish invective and actions are minimized, ignored, and even coddled,” he wrote.

He's welcome to his opinion just as we are welcome to infer by his statement singling out Democrats for these racist attacks, he might favor the Republican party. That assumption by DU members is not unreasonable. The defense of such a statement would make one suspicious of motive.

The Democratic party has been a friend and ally of the Israeli people and the Gov't. As for the Jewish people in America, it's true, they have been targets of discrimination and abuse predominately by Southern white America who now make up a large part of the MAGA population and white racist Republicans.
To ignore that fact and state otherwise is at the very least disingenuous and at worst is cover to hide the true intent.

The elephant in the room is Netanyahu. He is the single most reason for the change in relationship and tone from Democrats to Israel. He is an evil person that is responsible for a genocide.

It is not for us to decide what reaction is reasonable for the atrocities committed by Hamas on the Jewish people of Israel. But as a thinking, rational person and what I believe to have reasonable compassion, I and many others think Netanyahu has gone too far and as such, he deserves punishment not support. That feeling and thought does not extend to the Jewish population. It would behoove AIPAC to step back and not act as an arm of Netanyahu's strategy. It would also behoove Democrats who choose to accept support from AIPAC because Democrats are quite aware and becoming more so aware of AIPAC and sub-pacs of AIPAC and their agenda to reconsider accepting their support.

[Aussie105]

17. "hatred has grown on the left"

Unfortunately any criticism of Israeli actions in the Middle East has the 'anti-Semitism' label applied very quickly, and for some reason that is enough to reject any criticism out of hand as being 'Not Allowed'.

It shuts down any intelligent conversation.
Which is the intended purpose, of course.

The implied inference that Israel is the biblical country of God's chosen people and can do no wrong, doesn't sit well with me.
Or a lot of people who live in Israel.

[Icanthinkformyself]

18. Yeah, right.

Like Republicans are so into Jews and Israel. Most Evangelicals and other right wing nut job religious sects members are Republican and believe the Book of Revelations and all that Armageddon shyt. They salivate at being raptured and all that end times crap. It was supposed to start one generation after the Jews return to Judea and creation of the State of Israel. I guess god is sleeping in this millennia. He missed the boat. The plane took off without him. The judge is a sucker and loser.

[cayugafalls]

20. From my viewpoint, the people on the left who are critical of Israel,

at least from what I have seen and read, are not critical of the Jewish faith or people, they are critical of WARMONGERS and the politics that support them.

Just my perspective.

cayugafalls

[mountain grammy]

23. Shame on him. He's a liar

Just like Fetterman.

Check their bank accounts.

[RandySF]

26. This might be the beginning.

I saw it coming.

[Martin68]

28. I believe he will find far more anti-semitism on the right. I suspect he is calling protests against the Israeli

government and military policies ant-semitic.