On June 27, 2026, The New York Times’ Katie Benner and Kellen Browning published an article titled “Pro-Transgender Candidate Is Chased From a Trans Rights Event Over Gaza.” The article reports on protests against Scott Wiener, a Democratic state senator from California, who is running to replace Nancy Pelosi in Congress. The authors focus on criticism waged against Wiener for his position on the Israel-Hamas war.
Yet the authors barely mention a critical fact: Wiener is Jewish. All the authors include is a vague statement noting that Wiener’s family escaped pogroms in Eastern Europe. The family’s Jewishness is not explicitly mentioned. Mr. Wiener’s Jewishness is never explicitly discussed or tied to the events on which Benner and Browning report.
In doing so, the authors downplay and even erase the context by which readers could reach the plausible conclusion that the attacks on him were related to his identity – not his views.
Initially, Wiener refrained from following other progressive Democrats who called the war a genocide, but he capitulated after getting heckled at a debate. Benner and Browning mention that since deciding to run for office, Wiener has “moved further to the left,” explaining that he is very critical of Israel’s government and opposed U.S. military aid to Israel. But they also note that he “always supported” the state’s right to exist.
The authors mention several incidents of harassment involving Wiener. In the most recent incident, Wiener had to leave San Francisco’s annual Trans March after being castigated by a man called Dimitry Yakoushkin who claimed Wiener was “terrible on Gaza” while “a half-dozen or so other people follow along, yelling a steady stream of invective at Mr. Wiener.” Two days prior, Wiener was harassed in a bar by a man named Jesus Coba who filmed the incident and tried to get Wiener to say “free Palestine” on camera.
It is true that other Democrats who are not Jewish also faced harassment over their positions on Israel. Examples include progressive rising star Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (at least two separate occasions) and former NYC mayor Eric Adams. But the incidents involving them can be explained as resulting from factors such as purported changes in the electorate or shifting public opinion on Israel.
Unlike Ocasio Cortez and Adams, the attacks on Wiener represent a different problem of a different order altogether: they are a part of a growing trend of Jewish Democratic lawmakers facing hostility and attacks during a time of historically high levels of antisemitism in the U.S. and globally. Failing to consider the background for the attacks on Wiener, as in Benner and Browning’s report, masks the significance of antisemitism for understanding the events. The treatment Wiener endured has a reason which readers should be explicitly given.
Wiener is part of a group of Jewish U.S. politicians such as Josh Shapiro and Dan Goldman who faced either direct threats to their lives or public boycotts. Goldman was recently banned from a New York City cafe. Shapiro had a Molotov cocktail thrown at his house during Passover 2025, while he and his family were inside.
There are many other examples The Times previously reported on: an Apr. 29, 2026, article by Jennifer Medina highlighted the struggles of several Jewish officials and candidates – “a majority of whom are Democrats” – in all levels of government. Medina noted that not only pro-Israel Jewish officials are facing attacks: even those who are critical of Israel are asked to answer for the country’s actions. And some are blamed for receiving money from the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) even if they have no ties to the group. For some Jewish officials, Medina writes, “the line between anti-Israel protest and antisemitism feels increasingly blurred.”
In fact, Medina’s article included a previous antisemitic incident involving Wiener that is not mentioned by Benner and Browning. Medina reported that as Wiener was walking by his home, he spotted a flier with “a black and white image of his face with the words, ‘I put foreign state interests above your own!’ coming out of his open mouth.”
Benner and Browning do discuss previous incidents in which Wiener has been harassed by protestors over Israel, including a 2024 incident involving Coba. They do not mention antisemitism. But following the recent incidents, Wiener wrote a statement on X in which he mentioned a different run-in with Coba in 2023. During that incident, Coba followed Wiener off a plane, shouting about the Senator’s “tainted bloodline” – using language that echoes ideas related to racial antisemitism.
Even worse, the authors mention antisemitic tropes directed at Wiener without recognizing their hatefulness: they note that as Wiener was chased away from the Trans March, he was accused of having Zionist/Israeli “handlers.” This is a clearly antisemitic imagery referencing the tropes of Jewish “dual loyalty” and the so-called “Zionist Occupied Government” that allege Israeli control over U.S. politics.
Unlike the Times, other outlets explicitly discussed the antisemitic nature of the attacks on Wiener, as in the Senator’s interview with CNN and an opinion piece in the New York Post. Assigned Media – a trans-focused outlet – also called out the attack as antisemitic.
Benner and Browning frame the attacks on Wiener as part of growing discontent with Israel within the Democratic Party. They mention the latest primary results in New York where decidedly anti-Israel candidates won races against more pro-Israel ones. But then the Times’ own reporting from April, parts of Benner and Browning’s report, and CNN’s coverage shows this is not really the issue. Jewish lawmakers are targeted not necessarily or only because of their position on Israel, but for their Jewishness. The Times must place these times in the right context if it wishes to accurately report the news.