UPDATE: San Jose politician seeking state office faces antisemitic vandalism

Local officials and community leaders are moving swiftly to condemn alleged antisemitic defacing of campaign signs for a San Jose politician seeking a seat in the state Legislature.

The campaign team for Councilmember David Cohen, who is running for State Senate District 10, on Tuesday discovered several political signs along Brokaw Road had been altered with Star of David stickers placed inside the “o” of Cohen’s name. The campaign has filed a report with the San Jose Police Department and talked to the Santa Clara County District Attorney.

Campaign Manager Lam Nguyen said the timing of when the defacement happened isn’t clear, but likely occurred in the last day or two.

“I am proud of my history, culture and heritage, and the Star of David symbol represents faith, identity and resilience,” Cohen told San José Spotlight. “But context matters. Defacing my signs is a blatant attempt to target and intimidate, and meant to divide our community at a time of immense challenge. Those responsible acted with clear malicious intent. Antisemitism is on the rise. This is not a harmless act, it is meant to divide, and it must have real consequences.”

Cohen said he felt disbelief and anger over the incident, adding that someone went to a lot of trouble to make Star of David stickers that would exactly fit his signs.

“Unfortunately, there are people who want to utilize my campaign as a way to distract and divide,” he said at a Wednesday news conference.

Rey Mail of the Bay Area Jewish Coalition said the growing number of antisemitic incidents isn’t acceptable.

“We’re going to fight back,” Mali said at the news conference.

In a statement provided to San José Spotlight by Cohen’s campaign, San Jose Police Chief Paul Joseph said no one should be targeted because of their religion, beliefs, background or values.

“When an act appears it could be motivated by hate or bias, we take that seriously and will work closely with the District Attorney’s Office to determine whether any additional criminal charges apply,” Joseph said.

Others are speaking out against the alleged antisemitic defacing of Cohen’s signs, including the Santa Clara County Democratic Party.

“Such acts of hate and intolerance have no places in our community or our democratic process,” a statement from the party reads.

Cohen entered the race earlier this year when state Sen. Aisha Wahab decided to run for the congressional office vacated by former Congressman Eric Swalwell. State Senate District 10 covers parts of northern Santa Clara County and southern Alameda County.

Other contenders in the June 2 primary election for the state seat are Anne Kepner, a trustee of the West Valley-Mission Community College District, Fremont City Councilmember Raymond Liu, Milpitas Mayor Carmen Montano and Union City Councilmember Scott Sakakihara.

Tali Klima, spokesperson for the Bay Area Jewish Coalition, views the defacement as intimidation and said the group is disturbed by the incident.

“The Jewish community is very familiar with historic uses of the Star of David to other us and mark us as targets,” Klima told San José Spotlight. “It is unbelievable that the Bay Area’s Jewish community should experience the same type of fear that our grandparents did in 1930s Germany. We call on local officials to take a firm stance against this hateful bigotry and malicious behavior.”

Contact Mike Langberg at [email protected].

Story updated May 6 at 5:45 p.m. Original story published May 6 at 2:30 p.m.