New York Jewish Week — Dillon Perez was both heckled and embraced for being Jewish as he waved a large rainbow flag with a Star of David at New York City’s Pride March on Sunday.

Marching earlier in the day with “Jew York Pride,” Perez was greeted with cheers and cries of “Jewish pride” from spectators. But hours later, after joining a second Jewish contingent hosted by the liberal pro-Israel group “Zioness,” Perez endured booing and spectators shouting, “Free Palestine; f–ck Israel.”

“There’s a sensitivity over this word, a Zionist,” Perez, 30, said. “The way that it sparked something in the crowd was definitely different between the two, you know, that’s just a fact.”

While both groups waved Pride flags featuring the Star of David and aimed to celebrate the intersection of their identities Sunday, the split-screen experience reflected the complicated reality many LGBTQ Jews say they face at Pride events post-October 7, and in the LGBTQ community at large.

Sheri Krell, 39, marched with the Zioness contingent, which carried a large banner featuring the name and slogan, “Unabashedly progressive, unapologetically Zionist.” She said that despite the heckles the group faced, the experience underscored the importance of showing up with outwardly Jewish symbols at Pride.

“Yes, there was verbal harassment, but on the other hand, I think it was important to still be there and still take up space and to still represent queer Jews in the Pride parade,” Krell said. “Because as much hate as we received, we also received a lot of positivity.”

Alex Kaufman, 33, a partner of Zioness who organized its contingent, said that things had come to a “boiling point” in queer communities, with spaces becoming “largely inhospitable to Jews, often who are Zionist or who maintain some semblance of ties to Israel.”

“The reason why we came together today was to offer Jewish queer people a safe space to celebrate Pride, where they could bring their full identities in safely and be who they are without any reservation,” Kaufman said.

But while the Zioness group was met with hostility, the Jew York Pride group experienced a much different reaction.

A marcher in the Jew York Pride contingent, Rivka Schafer, had also braced herself for the antisemitic heckling she had endured in past........

© The Times of Israel