Jewish California (formerly JPAC) @Jewish_Cal

A great win today. Thank you AG @RobBonta for taking on this malicious attempt to undo the rights of Jewish students that we at @SFJCRC and @Jewish_Cal fought for.

JCRC Bay Area @SFJCRC

2 weeks ago

GREAT NEWS: A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging AB 715, California's landmark law to combat antisemitism in K-12 schools. This ruling, and the fact that the case has been dismissed with prejudice, affirms that AB 715 is a strong, legitimate approach to protecting

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GREAT NEWS: A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging AB 715, California's landmark law to combat antisemitism in K-12 schools. This ruling, and the fact that the case has been dismissed with prejudice, affirms that AB 715 is a strong, legitimate approach to protecting Jewish students — and all students — against harassment and discrimination. The court has decisively rejected claims that AB 715 violates first amendment rights or that it is in any way exclusionary. We are grateful to Attorney General @AGRobBonta and his office for their strong defense of the bill and commitment to protecting California students from antisemitism and discrimination. This clears the way for the law to move forward as intended.

🚨 ACTION ALERT: Six @Jewish_Cal priority bills are at a critical stage in Sacramento, and we need your voice to help move them forward next week. ACTION 1: Urge the Senate Appropriations Committee to advance five priority bills protecting safe worship, strengthening nonprofit security, supporting religious observance, ensuring equal access to public events, and combating hate. 👉 Take action: secure.everyaction.com/9cf0xQ8gwUCTaj… ACTION 2: Urge the Assembly Appropriations Committee to advance SB 1387, which recognizes Jewish identity as an ethnicity in California law and demographic data. 👉 Take action: secure.everyaction.com/SBBajk72-UOqIW… Each action takes less than 30 seconds. Make your voice heard and share with your community!

.@Jewish_Cal CEO @DavidBocarsly writes in a new @jewishsf op-ed: "At its base, SB 1387 is about being seen. The secular Jew, the Israeli American, the Jew of color, the atheist who finds meaning in the pursuit of justice. All of us deserve to look into the state's own mirror and recognize ourselves in it." JCRC proudly supports SB 1387, which would help ensure California's data reflects the diversity of the Jewish community and leads to better public policy. Jewish Californians deserve to be counted. Read the full op-ed: jweekly.com/2026/07/16/goo…

SB 1387 (Stern) codifies that Jewish identity is an ethnicity – in addition to a religion – and ensures it is captured when the state collects ethnicity data. Check out this J Weekly op-ed on the bill written by our CEO, @davidbocarsly. jweekly.com/2026/07/16/goo…

🎉 BREAKING: California's final budget includes 6 Jewish California wins! 🎉 Rooted in Jewish values, these victories protect our community – and all Californians. 1️⃣ Nonprofit Security Grants — $80M, ONGOING 🔒 (Sponsor) For the first time ever, security funding for synagogues, schools, & community centers isn't a one-year fight — it's permanent. A true generational win. 2️⃣ Holocaust Survivor Assistance — $36M over 3 years 🚙(Sponsor) Our last generation of survivors deserve to age with dignity, at home, and cared for. This funding makes that possible. 3️⃣ Holocaust & Genocide Education Curriculum — $10M 📚(Sponsor) Education is our strongest weapon against hate. This funding helps bring genocide education to classrooms across California. 4️⃣ Immigrant Legal Aid — $175M 🗽(Support) Supports deportation defense services for immigrants. 5️⃣ Victims of Crime Act — $50M 🤝(Support) Critical support for domestic violence survivors and other crime survivors. 6️⃣Museum of Tolerance — $12M 🏛️ (Help Sponsor) A museum upgrade and increased mobile capacity to reach even more communities statewide. Six wins. One stronger California. 💙 This didn't happen by accident — it happened because our coalition showed up, year after year, in Sacramento. Thank you to everyone who made these wins possible. #JewishCalifornia #CABudget

Thanks to the hard work of @Jewish_Cal and all its partners, $80 million has been secured for the state's synagogues and Jewish nonprofits. jweekly.com/2026/07/06/des…

HUGE NEWS! 🎉 California's synagogues and nonprofits will now have $80M in permanent security funding annually. Thank you @CAgovernor and the legislators who fought to include this provision in the state budget.

Jewish California (formerly JPAC) @Jewish_Cal

a month ago

🎉 GENERATIONAL WIN. For years we fought for security funding one budget at a time. Today, that changes forever. 🔐 California has made nonprofit security grants permanent — $80M every single year, guaranteed. A 160x increase in a decade. This is what advocacy makes possible.

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🎉 GENERATIONAL WIN. For years we fought for security funding one budget at a time. Today, that changes forever. 🔐 California has made nonprofit security grants permanent — $80M every single year, guaranteed. A 160x increase in a decade. This is what advocacy makes possible. #jewishcalifornia

Introducing SB 549, which just passed the Assembly Education Committee. This bill closes a gap in law that keeps our youngest students from being able to attend cultural after-school programs. SB 549 lowers the minimum age for enrollment for certain cultural after-school programs (heritage schools) to include transitional kindergarten students. Now that California has universal transitional kindergarten, four-year-olds across the state are now schoolchildren who attend a full day of class. Yet the heritage school minimum age remains 4 years and 9 months, a holdover that no longer matches reality. The mismatch forces programs like Beth Shir Shalom's heritage school in Santa Monica to turn away transitional kindergarten students. It also means we now have students in public school that do not have access to the same after-school coverage as other public school students. This bill closes that gap, ensuring parents can work knowing their children are cared for.

GREAT NEWS! 🎉 SB 1287, California's landmark campus safety and civil rights law that updated codes of conduct and strengthened protections for students, is no longer at risk of being repealed. After Asm. Sade Elhawary introduced AB 2551 with language to repeal SB 1287, our partner @jewish_cal mobilized a statewide advocacy effort. More than 8,000 community members and 57 organizations spoke out, and the repeal language was removed from the bill. Thank you to Chair @senatorsrp and Senate Leader @MoniqueLimonCA for listening to our community and helping protect this important law!

Yesterday, AB 1853 passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. This bill makes sure that hate speech is not spread through California’s official voter guides. Next stop, Senate Appropriations.

Yesterday, AB 395 passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. No Californian should have to choose between faith and civic participation. Next stop, Senate Appropriations.

Senator Scott Wiener has been a champion for the LGBTQ+ community throughout his career. On Friday, he was physically surrounded, screamed at with antisemitic slurs, and chased from the Trans March in his own district – the latest episode in a years-long pattern of harassment that has included activists following him onto planes and shouting slurs about his "tainted bloodline." There is no place for this type of harassment in our public discourse – for Senator Wiener or any elected official. The content, tenor, and persistence of this targeting make clear that the political grievance is the pretext – his Jewishness is the target. We must all call out this antisemitism for what it is.

Jewish Insider covered yet another brazen attempt by the California Faculty Association (CFA) to attack Jewish students in CA. jewishinsider.com/2026/06/califo…

Yesterday, AB 1836 – the bill to expand nonprofit security grants to off-site events – passed the Senate Emergency Management Committee 9-0. Sign up for our newsletter at jewishcal.org to learn how to take action.

Yesterday, SB 1387 – the bill to recognize Jewish identity as an ethnicity – passed the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee 15-0. Sign up for our newsletter at jewishcal.org to learn how to take action.

Yesterday, AB 2664 — the Safe Worship Zone Act — passed the Senate Public Safety Committee 5-0 (with 1 abstention). Check out Jewish California Director of Policy Miller Saltzman’s testimony. Then sign up for our newsletter at jewishcal.org to learn how to take action.