News

The California Legislative Jewish Caucus has announced new legislation that seeks to address key Jewish community issues and priorities.

Selected by Caucus members , who ensure the Jewish community has a voice in California’s policy-making processes, the bills proposed includes four “Jewish Caucus Priority” bills and nine “Tikkun Olam” bills, which emphasize core Jewish values like tzedek (justice) and ve’ahavta lere’acha kamocha (loving the stranger as yourself).

The legislation package focuses on major Jewish community priorities like preventing and responding to hate crimes, implementing measures to mitigate online hate and harassment, and strengthening Holocaust education.

In recent days, several articles have appeared about the proposed Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum in California. Some include inaccuracies and misrepresentations of the plan’s current state and ignore the vital advocacy work that the Jewish Public Affairs Committee (JPAC), the largest single-state alliance of Jewish organizations in the United States, and others accomplished during the past 18 months.

Recent misleading articles included excerpts from a first draft of the model curriculum that are no longer present in its current state, false and out-of-context references in the lesson plans on Jewish Americans and failure to properly present a full and accurate timeline, scope of advocacy work, and achievements by our diverse coalition of Jewish organizations across the state. Other news articles incorrectly referred to one of the lesson plans on Jewish Americans as echoing Nazi propaganda and characterizing Jews as imposters in plain sight.

California Jewish groups appear less concerned than a recent headline would suggest

In a show of unity, 11 California lawmakers representing the Jewish and Latino legislative caucuses toured Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego on Aug. 9 after increasing scrutiny about conditions at the facility.

The legislators conducted interviews and met with detainees at the center, which is overseen by private prison company CoreCivic and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Visiting the Otay Mesa detention facility was powerful and profoundly sad,” said Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-Palo Alto), a member of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus. “We all have a responsibility to highlight what is going on at the border. But I do think Jews have a unique history and experience that allows us to empathize with today’s migrants that much more.”