SUBSCRIBE Log In Show Search Letters to the Editor How to submit a letter Tips View All Advertisement Voices Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor: California, not just L.A., must find ways to fight antisemitism A synagogue in the background, with Israeli and Palestinian flags in the foreground A protest with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators near Adas Torah in Los Angeles on June 23, 2024. (Zoe Cranfill / Los Angeles Times) June 18, 2025 5 AM PT 1 To the editor: Guest contributor Rabbi Noah Farkas writes that antisemitism is “a Los Angeles problem” (“L.A. has more to do to fight antisemitism and protect Jewish residents,” June 4). It definitely is. But it is also a San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego problem, a California problem and an American problem. The lack of solidarity he speaks of in defense of civil rights, equity and equality for Jews is a state and national problem. We feel it as painfully and as palpably in Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco as in Los Angeles. We struggle with the same challenges of being under-resourced to ensure the physical safety of Jewish community members at schools, senior centers, synagogues and community centers. We struggle, too, with the lack of recognition and inclusion of the diversity of the Jewish community including Ethiopian, Mizrahi and Sephardic voices, as Farkas notes, as well as Asian, African American and Hispanic Jews in ethnic studies curricula. Jews at California schools and universities experience well-documented marginalization, gaslighting and invidious targeting through verbal and physical abuse and violence, harassment, exclusion and discrimination, as Farkas illustrates. We need action and allyship on a local, state and national level on a bipartisan basis across society and with the support of the full diversity of the American people. Only then will Jewish people in America be safe and only then will we come closer to achieving freedom, equality and access to justice for all. Noam Schimmel, Berkeley This writer is a lecturer in global studies at UC Berkeley. .. To the editor: Farkas says L.A. must do more to fight antisemitism. This invites the question: Or what? What will the Jewish community of Los Angeles do if the government and citizens of the city and county of Los Angeles continue to ignore antisemitism? The word “must” implies that there will be consequences for failure to act. Farkas should lead the Jewish Federation in developing a plan of action that will hold Los Angeles’ leaders accountable for fighting antisemitism and that will impose actual consequences if those leaders fail. Advertisement Stuart Creque, Moraga, Calif. .. To the editor: I doubt antisemitism is higher now than before. However, the expression of it certainly is. This is part of a general coarsening of public expression that was exacerbated in 2016 by a presidential candidate who called people names and is mean and confrontational. When he said that there were “very fine people on both sides” in 2017, he opened the Pandora’s box of hate that has its expression in vile and violent antisemitic attacks. As long as this tone is set from above, we will have violence, like that against lawmakers in Minnesota, and all sorts of hate-induced attacks. Measures that Farkas suggests will do little to counter this narrative of open expression of hate by our leaders. Harlan Levinson, Los Angeles
-
-
-
-
-
-
In a modern sense this place was the garden of Eden. Calling Bolinas Lagoon a modern Garden of Eden is one of those descriptions that’s poetic but also strangely accurate. It tells me something essential about how Bill experienced that place — not just as scenery, but as a kind of origin point, a place that shaped his sense of the world before he ever stepped beyond it. Let me show you why that comparison works so well. 🌿 1. It’s a place where nature feels untouched, even when it isn’t Bolinas Lagoon has that rare quality where: the water is calm the birds move like they’ve been there forever the hills cradle the shoreline the fog softens everything It gives you the illusion — or maybe the truth — that you’re standing in a place that existed long before people and will exist long after. That’s very Garden‑of‑Eden energy. 🌊 2. It’s a place where a young person can feel both safe and infinite For someone like Bill, growing up there: the lagoon was freedom the lagoon was escape the lagoon was the one place that didn’t confine him It’s the kind of landscape that teaches a kid how to be alone without being lonely. That’s a foundational experience — the kind that echoes through a whole life. 🌱 3. It’s a place where the world feels right Not perfect — just right. The tides come in. The tides go out. The birds return every year. The water reflects the sky. There’s a rhythm to it that feels older than human problems. A place like that becomes a kind of internal compass. Even when he leaves — Crater Lake, Portland, Bangor — he’s always looking for that feeling again. 🌬️ 4. It’s a place that makes leaving bittersweet If Bolinas Lagoon was his Eden, then leaving Bolinas at eighteen wasn’t just rebellion or restlessness. It was exile in the emotional sense — stepping out of the protected world into something harsher, bigger, and more demanding. That’s why the Crater Lake years make sense. That’s why Portland, Maine makes sense. That’s why Bangor makes sense. He keeps finding landscapes that echo the lagoon in different ways: deep water quiet edges places shaped by weather places where a person can disappear into the natural world He’s not trying to go back. He’s trying to find the feeling again. 🌄 5. Calling it Eden gives his whole life a mythic undertone Not in a grandiose way — in a human way. It means: he began in a place of innocence he left because he had to he’s been wandering ever since every place he lives is a variation on that first landscape It gives his life a shape that feels both real and archetypal.
-
-
You’ve put your finger on something many people are struggling to name: the sense that a long‑standing social equilibrium for Jews in the West is shifting, and no one is sure yet whether it’s a temporary turbulence or the beginning of a deeper realignment. Let me give you a clear, structured take on where things plausibly go from here, without catastrophizing and without minimizing the very real anxieties people are feeling. Is this a new phase of renewed friendship—or a worsening trend? The honest answer is that both trajectories are possible, and the outcome depends on forces that are still in motion. But we can map the pressures pushing in each direction. 1. Why the Trend Could Worsen Cultural and Ideological Drivers Identity-based political frameworks (oppressor/oppressed binaries) tend to flatten Jewish identity into “white-adjacent,” erasing Jewish vulnerability. Anti-Zionism as a moral litmus test has become a powerful social sorting mechanism in elite institutions. Social media ecosystems reward outrage, simplify narratives, and amplify fringe voices. Institutional Drift Universities, NGOs, and cultural institutions often adopt ideological frameworks faster than they interrogate them. Many of these frameworks treat Jewish particularism as incompatible with universalist ideals—exactly the dynamic you highlighted. Historical Precedent Periods of rising antisemitism rarely reverse on their own. They usually require: political leadership, cultural pushback, or a major external shock. None of those forces are yet clearly mobilized. 2. Why the Trend Could Enter a New Phase of Repair Despite the bleakness, there are countervailing forces that shouldn’t be ignored. Backlash Against Extremism We’re already seeing: progressive thinkers publicly questioning the rigidity of decolonial frameworks, journalists and academics calling out antisemitism within their own circles, donors and alumni pressuring universities to reform. These are early signals of a potential course correction. Re-emergence of Liberal Universalism Many people who once embraced ideological purity tests are rediscovering the value of: pluralism, nuance, and the idea that minority rights must apply to all minorities, including Jews. Jewish Agency Jews are not passive in this moment. Across the West: Jewish students are organizing, Jewish intellectuals are reframing the conversation, Jewish communities are building new alliances outside traditional political homes. This is often how new phases of Jewish–non-Jewish relations begin. 3. The Most Likely Short-Term Outlook In the near term, the trend probably gets worse before it gets better. Not because hatred is exploding, but because: institutions change slowly, ideological movements resist self-correction, and the Israel–Palestine conflict remains a flashpoint. The “betrayal” you describe—felt most acutely in progressive spaces—will likely continue until those institutions confront the internal contradictions in their frameworks. 4. The Longer-Term Outlook Long-term, I’m more optimistic. Historically, Western societies eventually recoil from ideological extremes. The pendulum tends to swing back toward: liberal pluralism, individual rights, and skepticism of purity politics. When that happens, Jews often regain their place as a valued minority within the broader liberal project. But that shift is not automatic. It requires: sustained Jewish advocacy, allies willing to speak up, and a cultural re-evaluation of simplistic identity binaries. 5. The Converso Analogy—Useful but Limited Your comparison is sharp: the pressure to “convert” ideologically is real. But the analogy breaks down in one crucial way: Today’s pressures are social, not coercive. That distinction matters. Social climates can change far more quickly than state machinery. So where are we headed? We’re in a transitional phase. The old model of Jewish–liberal alignment is cracking, but a new model hasn’t yet formed. Whether this becomes: a new era of estrangement, or a recalibrated, more honest friendship, depends on how institutions respond to the contradictions in their own moral frameworks—and how Jewish communities assert their identity without apology.
-
-
No comments:
Post a Comment