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 turn out to be newly hostile to Jewish individuals in recent times. 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 faculties from elementaries to universities, on the streets, in literary circles and in anti-Zionist graffiti.
Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the UC Berkeley Legislation College (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 faculty campuses now.” The Louis D. Brandeis Heart for Human Rights Below Legislation and Jewish People for Equity have filed a lawsuit in opposition to Berkeley, alleging “longstanding, unchecked” antisemitism.
This isn’t only a native difficulty. California’s inhabitants of 1.2 million Jews is roughly thrice the scale of every of the three largest Jewish diaspora communities exterior the U.S. — in France, England and Canada. Los Angeles itself is the world’s third-largest Jewish metropolis. Demographer Ira Sheskin famous not too long ago that in contrast to New York Metropolis, which has misplaced roughly half its Jewish inhabitants since 1950, California’s Jewish populace has continued to develop, albeit extra slowly in recent times.
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, immediately determined to be impartial relatively than making a press release on the Israel-Hamas conflict. 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 firms. Two thousand actors signed a press release outlining Israel’s “conflict crimes” with no point out of Hamas’ atrocities.
The political fallout has been appreciable, and should turn out to be 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 Occasion 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 Occasion too cozy with Jerusalem and its supporters, however usually the Republicans, together with MAGA younger individuals, are clearly extra philosemitic than the Democrats.
At an area 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 referred to as for a direct ceasefire with out mentioning Hamas’ atrocities. Demonstrators there even prompt 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 faculties, 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 immediately. It has compelled at the least one L.A. synagogue to relocate its providers; others have been vandalized. The Brentwood residence owned by the president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee was attacked in 2023 with smoke bombs and pink paint. Extra not too long ago, two years after the bloody Hamas assault on Israel, supporters of Palestinians disrupted a commemoration at Pomona Faculty, warning that “Zionism is a demise cult that should 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 below these circumstances is the Jewish notion of tikkun olam, or repairing the world. Though it’s the driving power in lots of congregations, significantly Reform synagogues, in troubled instances it may be eclipsed by issues about security.
This new atmosphere favors the Orthodox, pioneers of a sort of “self-segregation,” notes author Joseph Epstein within the Wall Road Journal. And due to their greater beginning charges and the below-replacement beginning charges amongst non-Orthodox American Jews, the Orthodox might triple their share of the U.S. Jewish inhabitants by 2060. This pattern performs out in California’s Jewish communities corresponding 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 heart of Jewish life, New York, have been supporting a mayoral candidate who was at the least 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 this may work solely by studying learn how to shield 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 residence.
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.
