Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

California Councilwoman Libby Schaaf Targeted With Swastikas in Oakland

Fliers were hung in the Oakland neighborhood of a Jewish city councilwoman with a swastika drawn on her forehead.

The fliers were hung throughout the Montclair district represented by Councilwoman Libby Schaaf. The fliers read “Stop Schaaf. Stop the DAC, “a reference to a city plan to build a combined surveillance center for police and fire fighters.

Schaaf, who reportedly plans to run for mayor in November, told the Bay Area News Group that she was surprised to be targeted over the issue, which she has been critical of, despite continuing to vote to go ahead with the project, as have a majority of council members.

“As a person of Jewish heritage I found this particularly hurtful. As an Oaklander I found it shameful,” said Schaaf, according to reports.

Police are investigating the incident, which was first reported on Sunday. It is not known if it is being investigated as a hate crime.

By midday on Sunday, most of the posters were torn down, or had the swastikas covered with black marker.

Last year, similar posters with swastikas targeted a Latino councilwoman.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.