Fetterman Calls Out Democratic Party's Antisemitism Problem After Justice Wecht Quits

Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania called out his party for its antisemitism problem after a state Supreme Court justice announced he was leaving the Democrats over the issue.

Justice David Wecht, who joined the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2016 and won retention in a 2025 election, issued a statement Monday obtained by Fox News Digital. He said he would no longer affiliate with the Democratic Party because activists, leaders and even many elected officials had acquiesced to a rise in antisemitism on the left.

Fetterman posted on social media that he understood Wecht's choice, even though he affirmed in a May op-ed that he had no plans to change parties himself. "The Democratic Party must confront its own rising antisemitism problem," Fetterman wrote.

The announcement followed clashes this past week between two mobs and police outside synagogues in New York City. On Monday night, agitators swarmed near the Young Israel Senior Services of Midwood in Brooklyn, which was hosting an event promoting real estate in Israel. Police arrested three people, according to local media reports.

Hezbollah flags appeared at the scene along with chants of "Zionism will fall" and a banner showing the red inverted triangle that Hamas uses to mark Israeli targets, according to the Combat Antisemitism Movement and social media videos.

Fetterman commented on a similar clash earlier in May outside another New York City synagogue that also featured an Israeli real estate event. "Mob of Pro-Hezbollah / Hamas s(---)heads raging against law enforcement and terrorizing the NYC Jewish community near a synagogue and day care," he wrote on X. "Where’s my party’s condemnation?"

A counterprotester at the recent Brooklyn clash told Spectrum News New York, "There’s a synagogue here. This is clearly a Jewish neighborhood, and they deserve the right to worship in peace."

In his statement, Wecht noted that antisemitism had long festered on the right's fringes but had now grown on the left. He blamed party leaders for failing to stop it and pointed to pro-Palestinian protests, attacks at synagogues and a Maine Democratic Senate candidate's tattoo resembling Nazi insignia.

"From 1998 to 2001, years that preceded my judicial career, I served as Vice-Chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party," Wecht wrote. "In the quarter century that has passed since then, the Democratic Party has changed. Nazi tattoos, jihadist chants, intimidation and attacks at synagogues, and other hateful anti-Jewish invective and actions are minimized, ignored, and even coddled. Acquiescence to Jew-hatred is now disturbingly common among activists, leaders and even many elected officials in the Democratic Party."

Fetterman responded to Wecht's announcement on X with a screenshot of a headline about it. "I know David and his legendary father, Cyril," he wrote. "As I’ve affirmed, I’m not changing my party—but I fully understand David’s personal choice."

In a May 7 op-ed in The Washington Post, Fetterman said it had become increasingly lonely for him in the Democratic Party due to its disdain for once-common views and catering to fringe elements of the base. He told Fox News' "Life, Liberty & Levin" in April that the main fracture concerned Israel, where he backed the U.S.-Israeli Operation Epic Fury against Iran.

Still, Fetterman wrote that he had no plans to leave the party and would be a terrible Republican who votes overwhelmingly with Democrats.