Pennsylvania judge leaves Democrats over party’s ‘coddling’ of antisemitism

JTA — An elected Supreme Court justice in Pennsylvania announced Monday night that he has left the Democratic Party and registered as an independent, citing concerns about antisemitism.

In a statement, David Wecht, who is Jewish and served as Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party chair from 1998 to 2001, said he believed antisemitism has moved from the fringe of the Democratic Party 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 wrote that he had long understood that antisemitism “always festered on the fringe” of the right, a fact that hit home in 2018 when a far-right shooter killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh where he and his wife were married in 1998.

“In the years that have followed, that same hatred has grown on the left,” he said in his statement. “It is the duty of all good people to fight this virus, and to do so before it is too late.”

Wecht previously made national headlines for his 2020 ruling against an effort to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania.

Through a spokesperson, Wecht declined to be interviewed about his exit from the Democratic Party.

Wecht’s comments come as Democrats wrestle with a range of internal tensions over antisemitism. The party’s candidate in a crucial Maine Senate race is Graham Platner, an oyster farmer who recently covered up a Nazi Totenkopf skull-and-crossbones tattoo, raising alarm among some members of the Jewish community.

There are also widespread concerns over the increasing coziness between some progressive politicians and Hasan Piker, the leftist streamer who has said he favors Hamas over Israel.

Wecht is the son of renowned forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht, who was involved in investigating the assassination of president John F. Kennedy. Wecht’s mother, translator Sigrid Ronsdal, spent the first six years of her life living under Nazi occupation in Norway.

“I know David and his legendary father, Cyril,” Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senator John Fetterman, who has clashed with his party over Israel, tweeted following Wecht’s announcement. “As I’ve affirmed, I’m not changing my party — but I fully understand David’s personal choice. The Democratic Party must confront its own rising antisemitism problem.”

Acts of physical violence against Jewish Americans reached record levels in 2025, even as the total number of antisemitic incidents declined, according to an annual report published last week by the Anti-Defamation League.

One high-profile attack included the 2025 firebombing of the residence of  the state’s Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro during Passover.

Shapiro, who is Jewish, is considered one of the party’s rising stars and was considered for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’s election ticket in 2024. Shapiro later wrote that he was asked by her vetting team if he would apologize for comments criticizing antisemitism at anti-Israel protests on university campuses that had erupted during the war in Gaza.

The number of antisemitic incidents across the US had risen annually from 2021 to 2024 and soared in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, according to the ADL report.

The 2025 total, while down from a year before, is still the third-highest since the ADL began tracking data in 1979, and translates to an average of 17 antisemitic incidents a day across the country.