California, described by one observer in the late 19th century as “the Jews’ earthly paradise” for the financial and social promise it held, appears to have change into newly hostile to Jewish folks in recent times. Greater than another place on Earth, Jews have formed a lot of California’s progress, from Levi Strauss and the founders of the leisure trade 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 Regulation 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 Regulation and Jewish Individuals for Equity have filed a lawsuit towards Berkeley, alleging “longstanding, unchecked” antisemitism.
This isn’t only a native problem. California’s inhabitants of 1.2 million Jews is roughly three times the scale 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 just 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 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 fashionable progressivism, all of a sudden determined to be impartial somewhat than making an announcement on the Israel-Hamas struggle. Some main figures, like Maha Dakhil, co-head of movement footage at CAA, accused Israel of “genocide,” and others now refuse to work with Israeli movie corporations. Two thousand actors signed an announcement outlining Israel’s “struggle crimes” with no point out of Hamas’ atrocities.
The political fallout has been appreciable, and will change into extra so. Most California Jews are Democrats, in keeping with the Pat Brown Institute; 20-30% tilt to the GOP. However the anti-Israel caucus, each right here and nationally, is nearly solely made up of Democratic progressives. In a present of energy, these activists even succeeded in disrupting California’s 2023 state Democratic Party convention. 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 Get together too cozy with Jerusalem and its supporters, however typically the Republicans, together with MAGA young people, 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 referred to as for a direct ceasefire with out mentioning Hamas’ atrocities. Demonstrators there even recommended that Israel murdered its personal folks as a pretext to assault Gaza.
And California’s youth are being groomed to hate Israel with hostile curriculums, organising a complete new era of antisemitism sooner or later and within the meantime placing Jewish lecturers 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 neighborhood instantly. It has pressured not less than one L.A. synagogue to relocate its companies; others have been vandalized. The Brentwood house owned by the president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee was attacked in 2023 with smoke bombs and purple paint. Extra just lately, two years after the bloody Hamas assault on Israel, supporters of Palestinians disrupted a commemoration at Pomona College, warning that “Zionism is a loss of life cult that should be handled accordingly.”
These assaults make Jews extra involved about their safety and maybe extra more likely to turn inward in 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 drive in lots of congregations, notably Reform synagogues, in troubled instances it may be eclipsed by considerations about security.
This new setting favors the Orthodox, pioneers of a form of “self-segregation,” notes author Joseph Epstein within the Wall Road Journal. And due to their greater start charges and the below-replacement birth rates 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 at present, provided that voters within the conventional heart of Jewish life, New York, have been supporting a mayoral candidate who was not less than at one time sympathetic to “globalizing the intifada.” Many suspect that the as soon as well-connected Jewish neighborhood in New York will possible face indifference, if not open hostility, from Metropolis Corridor if Zohran Mamdani is elected.
Happily, 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 will proceed to contribute mightily to the way forward for our frequent house.
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.
