All of the participating Jewish organizations in San Diego’s Pride festival this year have pulled out of the celebration over anti-Israel R&B singer Kehlani’s headline performance, citing “serious safety concerns.”
On Friday, eight local Jewish groups and synagogues, including the Jewish Federation of San Diego and Anti-Defamation League of San Diego, announced that they would be withdrawing from the festival after its organizers said they would not cancel Kehlani’s headline performance despite concern from Jewish groups.
“In light of San Diego Pride’s decision to allow musical artist Kehlani to remain a headliner at this year’s Pride Festival despite Kehlani’s repeated amplification of violent antisemitic rhetoric, all participating Jewish organizations and synagogues — many of which have marched with, volunteered for or supported Pride for years — will be withdrawing from the 2025 event due to serious safety concerns,” the letter read.
Kehlani has been vocally outspoken of Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, and has been criticized for including the message “Long Live the Intifada,” a reference to two Palestinian uprisings, in a music video last June.
The previous month, she condemned other artists for staying silent on the conflict in a video on X, saying, “It’s f— Israel, it’s f— Zionism, and it’s also f— a lot of y’all too.”
In the Jewish group’s announcement, they cited the violent terror attacks in recent weeks in Boulder, Colorado, and Washington, D.C., writing that the attacks underscore the “dangerous consequences of unchecked antisemitism in public spaces.”
“Now more than ever, Pride should be a celebration of inclusion and solidarity, not a platform for divisive voices that incite hatred and violence,” said Heidi Gantwerk, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of San Diego County, in a statement. “As we’ve seen in D.C. and Boulder, when antisemitism is ignored or tolerated, it fuels a culture that leads to violence. We cannot wait for tragedy to strike our own community — again — before we act.”
The decision comes after a group of 33 Jewish organizations and synagogues signed a letter last month urging San Diego Pride to reconsider Kehlani’s headline performance.
“San Diego is known as ‘America’s Finest City.’ The decision to invite Kehlani to perform at Pride is not in line with this spirit,” the letter read. “A celebration of one group should never come at the expense of another. There is no pride in exclusion — and when any marginalized group feels unsafe, we all lose. San Diego has no room for hate.”
In a statement shared with local television station CBS 8, the San Diego Pride board of directors defended the decision to keep Kehlani as the festival’s headliner.
“We respect our local Jewish community’s decision not to participate in San Diego Pride’s programming this year. Each member of our community must make their own decision about attending this year’s events, but we hope everyone will come out as a sign of solidarity for our queer community,” the statement read.
It continued, “San Diego Pride does not endorse or adopt the political positions of any individual performer. Rather, we honor the value of artistic integrity, the importance of free expression, and the role that artists play in shaping culture, challenging systems, and amplifying voices while respecting each other’s differences.”
The announcement from San Diego’s Jewish community is the latest in a string of recent criticism and cancellations Kehlani has faced at planned performances across the nation.
In April, Kehlani was disinvited from performing at Cornell University’s end-of-semester concert following outcry from pro-Israel students. In response to the cancellation, the singer posted an Instagram video in which she said, “I am not antisemitic, nor anti-Jew, I am anti-genocide.”
Last month, another Kehlani performance scheduled as part of New York City’s pride celebrations was cancelled following pressure from New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ administration.
Last Friday, a new Pride music festival in San Francisco, SoSF, announced in a now-unavailable Instagram post that Kehlani had withdrawn from the festival. A spokesperson for SoSF told the San Francisco Standard that the parting was an “amicable decision” and that Kehlani’s pro-Palestinian stances did not influence the decision.
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