Daniel Lurie, the Jewish mayor of San Francisco, and Bilal Mahmood, the first Muslim elected to the city’s Board of Supervisors, organized an event on Wednesday promoting their plan for real estate tax reform meant to generate jobs and create more housing. Protesters at the event chanting “Tax the rich” were heard to switch to “Tax the Jews.”

Both Lurie and Mahmood expressed their disgust on X.

“At an event this afternoon, a group of individuals that were chanting ‘tax the rich’ began to shout ‘tax the Jews,'” he wrote. “This was an event I put on with Supervisor Mahmood, labor leaders, and dozens of workers to announce a plan that creates more jobs for those workers and housing for San Franciscans.”

“Suggesting that Jews are wealthy is a tired trope, and targeting our community at an event focused on creating economic opportunity for San Franciscans is decidedly antisemitic,” he added. “I will never accept hate directed at the Jewish community or any community in our city. Those are not San Francisco values — we’re better than that.”

Mahmood agreed.

“What occurred today was blatant antisemitism,” he posted. “Targeting Jewish community members during a unity event bringing labor, business, and city leaders together to create jobs is unacceptable and contrary to everything San Francisco stands for.”

“We reject hate in all its forms,” he said.

The mayor of San Jose, Matt Mahan, also issued a statement.

“This is not who we are. This is not how we solve problems,” he said. “Debate policy all you want — but when free speech turns into hate speech, California needs to draw a hard line.”

The San Francisco branch of the Democratic Socialists of America, which organized the protest, said that the protester was not part of their group. The DSA, to which Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez belong, is known for its antisemitic rhetoric. The group organized a protest the day after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel celebrating the attack.

The DSA issued a statement about the protester who shouted “Tax the Jews.”

“A non-member joined the crowd and spouted disgusting antisemitic remarks,” the statement read. “DSA members and other protesters asked her to stop, but she refused. We want to be clear that whatever hate she holds isn’t shared by DSA members, and we categorically reject antisemitism.”

Jackie Fielder, who belongs to the DSA and serves on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, said the woman who shouted the offending words is known to people in the area as “mentally unstable.”