Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David N. Wecht on Monday renounced his registration as a Democrat and said that moving forward, he will be an independent.

The decision, he said in a news release, is based on his feelings that antisemitism in the Democratic Party is growing.

“Nazi tattoos, jihadist chants, intimidation and attacks at synagogues, and other hateful anti-Jewish invective and actions are minimized, ignored and even coddled. Acquiescence to Jew-hatred is now disturbingly common among activists, leaders and even many elected officials in the Democratic Party,” Wecht said. “I can no longer abide this. So, I won’t. I am no longer registered within any political party.”

Wecht, who lives in Indiana Township, did not return a message seeking comment. The court will be in session next week in Harrisburg.

The comment about Nazi tattoos appears to have been in reference to Maine Democrat Graham Platner, who is running for U.S. Senate.

Platner has said he had a skull-and-crossbones tattoo on his chest in 2007, when he was in the Marine Corps, which he did not realize at the time was associated with Nazi police forces. Platner has said he since has had the tattoo covered.

In the news release issued Monday, Wecht spoke about his own personal history, including having been married in 1998 at the Tree of Life synagogue — the same place that 20 years later became the site of the worst antisemitic attack in U.S. history.

“That terror came from the right. Jew-hatred has always festered on the fringe of that sector,” said Wecht, who grew up in Squirrel Hill. “In the years that have followed, that same hatred has grown on the left. 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 noted that prior to his career on the bench, he served for three years as vice chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

“We all should awaken now to what is happening. I am confined to a judicial role, and in that role, I maintain independence at all times and in all respects. My voting registration now reflects my independence as well.”

The change in party may not have any practical effect.

Wecht ran his 10-year retention election in November, easily winning the simple yes/no vote, along with two other Democratic justices.

The majority on the court, prior to Wecht’s changed registration, was 5-2 in favor of the Democrats.

“As a jurist, I always have, and always will, vindicate the legal rights that haters and extremists of all stripes enjoy in our country and in our commonwealth,” Wecht said.

Alison Dagnes, a political science professor at Shippensburg University, said on Monday that the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, and the subsequent response, splintered Democratic voters. That, she continued, has only been exacerbated by the ongoing war in Iran.

“We are at a place in this country where antisemitism and anti-Jewish sentiment is coming from all sides,” she said.

Dagnes said she is not sure why Wecht would choose to issue his statement and change his party affiliation now.

But, in the conclusion of the statement, Wecht quoted Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “This above all: to thine own self be true.”

“It is my hope that Pennsylvanians, and Americans, of all viewpoints and backgrounds, will oppose and resist the scourge of Jew-hatred before it undermines what our ancestors have built here.”