I worry about growing older in America, a land I love, but where rampant individualism runs over altruism like a convertible over roadkill on Route 66.
If the uniquely American focus on fattening oneself up as materialistically and emotionally as possible (can devoted followers be counted as taxable dependents?) wasn’t bad enough, the Kryptonite to growth, also known as social media, seems poised to ensure a new generation that will set record lows in basic empathy and human connection. Combine one part solitary social media addict with one part desensitized-to-violence video game fiend, and the result is categorically someone whom I worry will cut off my benefits in 30 years when I am a senior.
But now, the remaining one-third of my visceral concern over growing older in this country has been whittled down to both a county and a religious affiliation/ethnicity: I’m not only worried about aging in my beloved America; I am also viscerally afraid of growing older as a Jew in Los Angeles.
Perhaps it all began with the introduction of an ethnic studies course for high school students in California that Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law in 2021. As an Iranian refugee, I would normally appreciate the subject matter, if it were nuanced. But in the hands of radical leftist activists disguised as educators, ethnic studies invariably paints Jews as privileged white oppressors and unforgivable colonizers. Not exactly the kind of people who deserve free speech, dignity, and basic humanity. Just ask older students on college campuses who have physically assaulted their Jewish peers or prevented them from accessing certain spaces.
By 2030, students in this once-golden state won’t be able to graduate high school without having been enrolled in a course that explicitly dehumanizes Jews.
Let’s see: That leaves me with roughly five years to either underwrite a $1 billion social media campaign that helps California teens see my humanity and learn my true history (anyone willing to loan me $1 billion?), or pack some suitcases, kiss my state of refuge goodbye, and resettle in a state whose next generation will be friendlier to Jews. Having left my life in antisemitic, post-revolutionary Iran behind, I prefer to have only escaped home once, rather than twice.
I asked Dillon Hosier, CEO of the LA-based nonprofit ICAN (Israeli-American Civic Action Network), one simple question: Will the current ethnic studies requirement make Jews in this city less safe?
“Any ethnic studies curriculum will make Jews, and all Americans, less safe,” said Hosier, who is not Jewish. “Ethnic studies is not well understood by the average Californian. Most believe it is an area of study focused on the histories and cultures of diverse communities. It is not.”
Hosier continued, “Ethnic studies is extremist, anti-American, activist, fake scholarship promoting concepts like ‘transformative resistance’ and ‘radical healing.’ The public should not subsidize or promote this kind of education.”
Something tells me the “transformative resistance” activists have in mind is the kind that transforms California into a state with significantly fewer hated “white” Jews.
I can imagine it easily: a nice, 18-year-old Californian graduates high school in 2030 with repeatedly ingrained messages that Jews are privileged power-holders who are inherently incapable of co-existing with people of color (perhaps the KKK can teach our youth that Jews are not, in fact, white). By the time he graduates college in 2034, he is so aligned with anti-Israel campus movements that he will join a separate graduation ceremony that Zionists (Jews) will not be allowed to join, even if their skin is the color of sun-kissed dates or their families date back 2,700 years to the Middle East.
By 2038, he is establishing himself in a career as a devoted educator. He is extremely devoted to silencing Jewish voices because he continues to believe that these voices belong to heartless people who use their power to brutalize others.
By 2038, he is establishing himself in a career as a devoted educator. He is extremely devoted to silencing Jewish voices because he continues to believe that these voices belong to heartless people who use their power to brutalize others.
He will never forget the “truth” he was taught back in high school about the real history of “white Israelis” versus brown, victimized Palestinians. Sometime after attending another passionate anti-Israel rally, he will decide to pause his work as an educator to run for local office.
It’s not hard to imagine. This weekend alone, the local LA teacher’s union, which counts 35,000 public educators as members, is co-sponsoring a major rally against ICE and deportations. There’s nothing inherently wrong in that, except for the fact that at least four other co-sponsoring organizations have “Palestine” in their name, glorify Hamas, and publicly advocate for the end of the Jewish state.
The rally is devoted to the generally venerable idea of “community self-defense.” Ironically, a 2023 Hate Crime Report released by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations revealed that 83% of religion-motivated hate crimes here targeted Jews. Given the co-sponsors, guess who doesn’t exactly feel comfortable joining this weekend’s protest?
For years, the LA teachers’ union has been virulently anti-Israel, promoting boycotts and even kicking Jewish teachers out of union meetings for expressing their concern. I can’t imagine being a dedicated Jewish public educator in LA with such a blatantly antisemitic, propagandistic union to “represent” me.
It’s also vital to note that between 2022 and 2023, crimes against Jews in Los Angeles rose 91%. And that was mostly before Oct. 7 and its horrifyingly hateful aftermath. Yet starting in 2030, you won’t be able to graduate high school in California without completing an ethnic studies course that will actually promote more hate and violence against Jews.
Not surprisingly, all of this highlights the vital necessity for Jewish day schools, and affordable ones, at that.
There is the matter of mandatory education. And then, there’s the matter of a general and generational sentiment among younger Americans, especially those in Southern California, that there can and never will be anything redeeming about Jews and Israelis. Case in point: Coachella 2025.
Much has already been written on how an obscure Irish band played on stage against a giant, brightly lit backdrop that read, “F— Israel, Free Palestine.” The audience erupted into frenzied cheers and adoration. Nineteen months ago, the world witnessed the largest music festival massacre in history. At Coachella 2025, the victims of that massacre were blamed for their own murder.
The subject of an entire generation’s uneducated and bitter sentiments toward Jews and the Jewish state is best saved for a separate column (or many). But if you are a Jew in America, and particularly in Southern California, you are a fool if you minimize this year’s Coachella music festival as anything but a watershed moment.
As Jewish singer-songwriter Peter Himmelman wrote on Facebook, “It was raucous, euphoric — and deeply disturbing. First and foremost, these men are professional performers. They know exactly how to grab an audience’s attention. They’re savvy provocateurs who understand what a naive, young, ill-informed crowd wants: tribal affiliation, seduction, powerful bass lines, and the optics of morality — without the burden of paying the price for holding real moral values.”
Himmelman continued, “They didn’t come to challenge the audience. They came to flatter them. They handed them a chant, a cause, and the Jews — a familiar enemy that crops up in the world’s dark imagination every 70 to 100 years. It had all the elements of a movement, minus the need to think.”
I believe that every Jewish ticket holder at Coachella has a right to demand a refund.
Will jubilant crowds at music festivals across America now cheer uproariously against Israel? Probably. Will California’s mandatory ethnic studies curriculum serve as a model for other states? It’s likely.
What is true, beyond a doubt, is that Hamas and its supporters, which include many locals here, will be thrilled if Jews are motivated to leave a city en masse.
Between future indoctrinated students, activists, voters, elected officials, educators, administrators, colleges, unions, artists, employers, influencers, doctors (see: Australia), and many others, the choice to move elsewhere may have already been made for us.
Will I leave LA? That all depends on whether LA will leave me.
Tabby Refael is an award-winning writer, speaker and weekly columnist for The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. Follow her on X and Instagram @TabbyRefael.
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