California state legislature to decide on six bills 'critically important' To Jews

Six bills important to California's Jewish community face committee review this week as the High Holidays approach, according to David Bocarsly, CEO of Jewish California.

The bills are scheduled for consideration by the California Assembly Appropriations Committee and the California Senate Appropriations Committee, which evaluate fiscal impact. If approved in committee, they would proceed to floor votes in the Assembly or Senate within the coming weeks.

Bocarsly characterized the appropriations process as lacking transparency, noting that "decisions are oftentimes made by only a select few lawmakers behind closed doors based on what bills they want to move forward." He added that committees "can ultimately decide that any bill can't move forward because of 'costs' even if there are other reasons, and we might never know why or why not."

Jewish California sponsored all six bills. AB 2664 would establish 100-foot buffer zones around houses of worship during protests. AB 1836 would expand the California Nonprofit Security Grant Program to cover offsite events. AB 1853 would prohibit hateful content in candidate statements in official voter guides. AB 395 would require public schools and agencies to avoid scheduling major events on major Jewish holidays. AB 1763 would allow religious students to be absent from school on religious holidays without requiring written parental requests and principal approvals. SB 1387 would direct state agencies to recognize Jews as an ethnicity in state law and data collection.

Bocarsly said each bill "addresses a different part of the Jewish community's needs." He expressed concern that rejection would be "a big disappointment," Asserting "there shouldn't be a reason why the state says that they can't afford these bills when they are good policy."

The California Legislative Jewish Caucus is prioritizing five of the six bills and has no position on the sixth. The caucus is also focused on AB 1803, which would require employers with five or more employees to include anti-hate-speech training in workplace sexual harassment training.

Jesse Gabriel, chair of the caucus, said the group remains "optimistic that these bills will move forward" And pledged to "continue to fight to advance our community's priorities, regardless of the outcome in the Appropriations Committee."