A popular Mission cafe and event space with a well-known Jewish owner was vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti Sunday during a pro-Palestinian rally. Police said Tuesday afternoon the incident was being investigated as a hate crime.
Manny’s Cafe, owned by Manny Yekutiel and known for hosting political discussions and community gatherings, was defaced with messages spray-painted in black that said “Arms embargo now,” “Death 2 the enemy,” and “Zionists out of Frisco.”
On a window and a wall facing 16th Street, vandals spray-painted “Manny is a Zio murderer” and “Dems fund murder.”
Video shared on X shows a person whose face and head are covered with a kaffiyeh spray-painting the cafe’s facade.
Impunity 101 pic.twitter.com/I62tExZtAO
— Domestic Terrorist 🐺 (@domestic415) October 6, 2024
The protest was held a day before the Oct. 7 anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel. More than a thousand people carried signs, chanted slogans calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, and demanded a U.S. arms embargo against Israel.
“I’m deeply troubled and saddened to have our community attacked like this,” Yekutiel told The Standard. “Vandalizing a Jewish-owned business on the eve of the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust is disgusting and has no place in the city of Saint Francis.”
In a video posted Sunday evening to X, Trevor Chandler, a supervisor candidate running for District 9, which includes the Mission, also decried the vandalism.
“I’m outside Manny’s right now, where today masked cowards wrote antisemitic hateful graffiti on Manny’s,” Chandler said. “Targeted Manny’s, why? Because Manny is Jewish, pure and simple. It’s antisemitism that has absolutely no place in San Francisco. These cowards, who couldn’t show their face while attempting to be morally superior, vandalized it and ran.”
“This kind of vandalism to our local businesses is unacceptable, and we are investigating the incident,” a spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department said in an email. “We are in communication with the business owner and gathering additional details and evidence to assist in the investigation. No arrest has been made at this time. Anyone with information is asked to contact the SFPD at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the message with SFPD.”
The cafe has drawn protests since its 2018 opening, with some activists accusing it of promoting gentrification and Zionism. Last month, it hosted a pair of presidential debate watch parties.
Yekutiel, who was in Israel visiting family during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, stepped down from his position on the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency board of directors and briefly weighed a mayoral run in December 2023.
A resident of San Francisco since 2012, Yekutiel, who is openly gay, was raised in a modern Orthodox Jewish family in Los Angeles.