California, described by one observer within the late nineteenth century as “the Jews’ earthly paradise” for the financial and social promise it held, appears to have develop into newly hostile to Jewish individuals lately. Greater than every other place on Earth, Jews have formed a lot of California’s progress, from Levi Strauss and the founders of the leisure business to quite a few different leaders in tradition, science, actual property and finance.
The present assault expresses itself in politics, in colleges from elementaries to universities, on the streets, in literary circles and in anti-Zionist graffiti.
Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the UC Berkeley Legislation Faculty (and my fellow contributing author within the L.A. Instances opinion part), expressed two years in the past that “nothing has ready me for the antisemitism I see on school campuses now.” The Louis D. Brandeis Middle for Human Rights Beneath Legislation and Jewish Individuals for Equity have filed a lawsuit towards Berkeley, alleging “longstanding, unchecked” antisemitism.
This isn’t only a native concern. California’s inhabitants of 1.2 million Jews is roughly thrice the dimensions of every of the three largest Jewish diaspora communities outdoors the U.S. — in France, England and Canada. Los Angeles itself is the world’s third-largest Jewish metropolis. Demographer Ira Sheskin famous lately that not like New York Metropolis, which has misplaced roughly half its Jewish inhabitants since 1950, California’s Jewish populace has continued to develop, albeit extra slowly lately.
Regardless of their relative demographic vitality, many California Jews really feel more and more remoted. Even in Hollywood, the Writers Guild, lengthy a bastion of trendy progressivism, all of a sudden determined to be impartial relatively than making a press release on the Israel-Hamas warfare. Some main figures, like Maha Dakhil, co-head of movement photos at CAA, accused Israel of “genocide,” and others now refuse to work with Israeli movie corporations. Two thousand actors signed a press release outlining Israel’s “warfare crimes” with no point out of Hamas’ atrocities.
The political fallout has been appreciable, and will develop into extra so. Most California Jews are Democrats, based on the Pat Brown Institute; 20-30% tilt to the GOP. However the anti-Israel caucus, each right here and nationally, is sort of solely made up of Democratic progressives. In a present of energy, these activists even succeeded in disrupting California’s 2023 state Democratic Celebration conference. Many are justifiably uncomfortable with the GOP, citing the affect of antisemitism from the likes of Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, and a few critics of Israel have discovered the Democratic Celebration too cozy with Jerusalem and its supporters, however typically the Republicans, together with MAGA younger individuals, are clearly extra philosemitic than the Democrats.
At a neighborhood stage, politics in lots of cities have despatched a message to the Jews of California. Anti-Israel resolutions have handed in Oakland, Stanton, Burbank and Richmond, the place the progressive-controlled Metropolis Council accused Israel of “ethnic cleaning” and “apartheid.” Oakland known as for a right away ceasefire with out mentioning Hamas’ atrocities. Demonstrators there even advised that Israel murdered its personal individuals as a pretext to assault Gaza.
And California’s youth are being groomed to hate Israel with hostile curriculums, organising an entire new technology of antisemitism sooner or later and within the meantime placing Jewish academics in danger. San Francisco has skilled anti-Israel walkouts in 10 excessive colleges, organized by an advocacy group with entry to pupil addresses.
On the identical time, the drive to “globalize the intifada” impacts California’s Jewish group instantly. It has pressured a minimum of one L.A. synagogue to relocate its providers; others have been vandalized. The Brentwood dwelling owned by the president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee was attacked in 2023 with smoke bombs and pink paint. Extra lately, two years after the bloody Hamas assault on Israel, supporters of Palestinians disrupted a commemoration at Pomona School, warning that “Zionism is a loss of life cult that have to be handled accordingly.”
These assaults make Jews extra involved about their security and maybe extra prone to flip inward of their communities. Far much less alluring beneath these circumstances is the Jewish notion of tikkun olam, or repairing the world. Though it’s the driving drive in lots of congregations, notably Reform synagogues, in troubled occasions it may be eclipsed by issues about security.
This new setting favors the Orthodox, pioneers of a sort of “self-segregation,” notes author Joseph Epstein within the Wall Avenue Journal. And due to their greater delivery charges and the below-replacement delivery charges amongst non-Orthodox American Jews, the Orthodox may triple their share of the U.S. Jewish inhabitants by 2060. This development performs out in California’s Jewish communities akin to L.A.’s Pico-Robertson — epicenter of California orthodoxy.
The resurgence of California Jewry issues extra in the present day, provided that voters within the conventional middle of Jewish life, New York, have been supporting a mayoral candidate who was a minimum of at one time sympathetic to “globalizing the intifada.” Many suspect that the as soon as well-connected Jewish group in New York will doubtless face indifference, if not open hostility, from Metropolis Corridor if Zohran Mamdani is elected.
Luckily, the solar has not but set on California’s Jews. The Golden State can nonetheless stay our “paradise” — true to its previous. However it will work solely by studying tips on how to defend ourselves and make the case to our gentile neighbors in order that we are able to proceed to contribute mightily to the way forward for our widespread dwelling.
Joel Kotkin is a contributing author to Opinion, the presidential fellow for city futures at Chapman College and senior analysis fellow on the Civitas Institute on the College of Texas, Austin.
