Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice quits Democratic Party over rampant ‘Jew-hatred’

While Wecht is leaving the Democrats, he is not joining the Republicans. It was a distinction he made very clear in his statement. 

“I am no longer registered within any political party,” he said.  

In the statement announcing the change, Wecht explained how he married his wife in 1998 at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Congregation. He later served on the synagogue’s board of trustees. In 2018, the Tree of Life Congregation was the site of a domestic terrorist attack against Jews, and a gunman killed 11 people. 

“Twenty years later, in the very same sanctuary where our wedding occurred, the worst massacre of Jews in American history was perpetrated,” Wecht said in his letter. “That terror came from the right. Jew-hatred has always festered on the fringe of that sector.” 

“In the years that followed, that same hatred has grown on the Left,” he said. “Increasingly, it has moved from the fringe to the mainstream. It is the duty of all good people to fight this virus, and to do so before it is too late.”

Wecht also warned of the dangers of antisemitism, claiming that it has brought down civilizations and societies where “Jew-hatred” was permitted.

“In Pennsylvania, and in the United States of America, we enjoy robust rights and liberties, bequeathed to us by our great Founders,” Wecht said. “These freedoms have helped to make this the greatest civilization that the world has ever seen. There have been other great civilizations in the past, and almost all of them have deteriorated and declined when Jew-hatred grew and metastasized.”

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) expressed his support for Wecht and urged Democrats to acknowledge and “confront its own rising antisemitism problem.”

“I know David and his legendary father, Cyril,” Fetterman said in a post on X. 

“As I’ve affirmed, I’m not changing my party—but I fully understand David’s personal choice,” he added. “The Democratic Party must confront its own rising antisemitism problem.”