Make Los Angeles Great Again: A Jewish Perspective

This current election cycle has staunchly reinforced the reality that the world is in deep need of repair. No matter who one voted for, exit polls from across party lines clearly indicate a need for a seismic shift in both domestic and global policy. There are macro issues, such as unaffordable healthcare, a nation-wide housing shortage, unaffordable childcare, and of course the rampant rise in antisemitism across college campuses and the lack of consequence in a post-Oct. 7 world. Yet, there are systemic policy failures that Los Angeles experiences on a much more acute scale than the rest of the country that, left untreated, have already begun to unweave the great tapestry that is our city of angels. When Jews talk of the great moral imperative to engage in acts of tikkun olam, or repairing the world, they often forget the subsequent commandment of tikkun atzmi or repairing the self, which arguably must come first. Why are these two commandments given one after the other? Perhaps it is because one does not repair the world without first looking inward to be the change one wishes to see in the world.

There is so much majesty in this great city, from the Dodgers’ recent World Series victory to the priceless smile of a child’s first Disneyland visit. However, behind the historic reputation of grandeur and achievement lies a city that is experiencing a deep decay that risks uprooting the LA Jewish community and greater society as a whole. Change is never easy and often comes with the risk of upending the lives of those who have greatly benefitted from the systems that have enriched the few at the expense of the many. Yet, as our nation is at a precipice facing a paradigmatic shift away from the past four years of the Biden Administration’s policies, we too must look inward to see how we can take tangible steps to improve the lives of Angelinos of all demographics.

Consider this my “Project 6”: six policy recommendations to improve the trajectory of our city and restore faith in our elected officials whose decisions hold the power to improve or detract from our quality of life. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but rather a initial set of recommendations that should appeal to all Angelinos regardless of political affiliation and with particular focus on the LA Jewish community.

1. We must rezone our city. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, two thirds of Los Angeles residents are renters, and we are mandated at the state level to build at least 457,000 new homes by 2029. Yet a recent recommendation from the planning department purports to exempt three quarters of the city from further growth, which will be sufficient only for the construction of 250,000 homes, falling woefully short of our mandate. Moreover, voting to preserve 72% of residential land for communities dominated by single-family homes with an average price of one million dollars, will severely hinder the amount of housing that is built and thus reinforce the decades-long inequalities in LA’s housing market and worsen an already unaffordable housing market. In short, unless there is a recognition of this urgency by those who were fortunate enough to buy homes during much more affordable market cycles, future generations will never be able to achieve homeownership on job income alone and this affects particularly the “missing middle” class of teachers, police officers, nurses and other public servants who make too much to qualify for government assistance yet too little to have any chance of homeownership in the communities they serve. The daunting prospect of knowing that one’s children and grandchildren will be locked out of homeownership in Los Angeles unless we embark on a Marshall Plan type of housing construction investment should outweigh the prioritization of massive rate of appreciation single-family housing for very affluent and mainly white households.

In addition, as older generations elect to age at home rather than downsize, the need for a robust workforce of healthcare individuals with expertise in long-term care expands. Given that housing continues to shut out most in the healthcare field, this poses a significant problem for the future care of our elder family members. This should be of great concern to homeowners who continue to oppose development in single-family zones.

2. The University of California system must return to a completely tuition-free model for California residents. According to current California census data, the median household income in Los Angeles is $82,516. However, UCLA’s in-state tuition in 2024 rose to $15,154 and close to 43K when one factors in books, food and living expenses. California not only has a severe housing shortage, but also a severe shortage of doctors and teachers. With the cost of living in California far exceeding the national average and even more so in Los Angeles, we must look for ways to retain professional talent in the face of a much higher cost of living compared to other states. Returning to a tuition-free model for the UC system would go a long way in cultivating and retaining a professional class that is leaving LA by the thousands every year in search of greater affordability.

The UC system functioned on a tuition-free model until the 1970s when funding was redirected by former governors Reagan and Brown. Our taxes are the highest in the nation. We need to see some return on this critical investment in our institutions of higher education. In addition, equally as important with regard to higher education reform is the moral imperative to return the constitutional right of bankruptcy back to student loan debt. Student loan debt is the only type of consumer debt to be uniquely stripped of this protection and we must hold our elected officials accountable to return this right that should have never been removed to begin with.

3. Connected to the need to return to a tuition-free model of higher education finance in California is the need to create community-service opportunities for students to work off existing debt. As if the “impossibly unaffordable” label of our housing market wasn’t enough, recent research by The Kaplan Group indicates that California also has the dubious distinction of holding more student loan debt per borrower than all other states. According to educationdata.org, California student loan borrowers owe $148.6 billion in student loan debt with an average of $38,168 per borrower. California is currently ranked 37th in the nation in student performance, reading and math levels. Imagine a national service-based mode where college graduates across disciplines would volunteer their time to tutor children in underprivileged schools in exchange for reductions in their student loan debt balances commensurate with the hours given in service. We currently have two urgent crises in education: 10% of the California population is burdened by insurmountable student loan debt and a young student population that could greatly benefit from after-school tutoring opportunities and mentorship from people who are experts in their respective fields. This is an opportunity for innovation in the education space that will have ripple effects across all segments of the economy.

4. Financial corruption at the local and state level must be rooted out and prosecuted at the highest level.According to the Los Angeles Homeless Housing Authority, homelessness in Los Angeles increased 10% from 2023-2024 despite the massive 1.3 billion budget allocated to homeless services. How is it possible that no matter how much money we throw toward myriad programs and institutions designed to support the unhoused population the problem only gets worse year after year? One answer is that corruption is baked into the homeless funding complex and how this is connected to land use and the scam of “spot zoning,” which has enriched so many developers by virtue of sheer bribery of city council members. The lack of accountability and financial transparency of our elected officials has resulted in a labyrinth of corruption that continues to entrench power and influence in the hands of the privileged few to the great detriment of the lives of the many. We must hold our elected officials accountable to act in accordance with honesty, integrity and fiscal responsibility to the people they represent over opportunities to enrich themselves with our tax dollars.

5. Antisemitism on our college campuses must be handled with the same zero-tolerance policy as hate speech toward other groups. Since Oct. 7, college campuses across the world and with particular focus on our Los Angeles-based institutions of higher learning have become hostile terrain where Jewish students and faculty have been persecuted, harassed, physically blocked from access and in some cases physically assaulted because they are Jews. Moreover, this level of virulent antisemitism not seen since the Holocaust has been given permission to metastasize by the highest levels of university authority by virtue of weak responses, protracted negotiations with student groups who spew anti-Israel propaganda under the cloak of “anti-Zionism,” and a lack of meaningful consequences for students who continue to make the college campus a battleground of antisemitic rhetoric. Our university presidents across the city have not responded to this vast rise in antisemitism in ways that one would have seen had another minority group been targeted with equal vitriol. The Holocaust started on university campuses where Jewish professors and Jewish students were systematically targeted and harassed before ultimately being expelled. We need to look no further than the Wannsee Conference, which took place on Jan. 20, 1942 in a quiet suburb of Berlin where the greatest German scholars of all disciplines gathered together to create a plan to annihilate the Jews. We must demand that our university leaders stand firm in the face of antisemitism and adopt a zero-tolerance, zero-negotiation approach when it comes to the harassment of Jews on campus, calls to end academic exchange programs with Israel, and calls to boycott, divest and sanction Israeli companies and institutions.

6. Jewish schools must become affordable to families across wider income brackets. Connected to lack of housing affordability in Los Angeles is the steep price of sending a child to a Jewish day school. Further, with tuition often conservatively reaching above 50K per child per year, the Los Angeles Jewish community has effectively redlined Jewish education to those who are comfortably making multiple six-figure incomes to the exclusion of those whose incomes are closer in line to the aforementioned median household income. While acknowledging that there are scholarship opportunities available at most if not all Jewish day schools, the family contribution is still very high relative to the fixed costs of housing and food, which weigh heavier on public servants such as teachers, social workers and nurses. Our Catholic brothers and sisters understand the value in heavily subsidizing Catholic day school education. We can learn much from them in this regard. The increasing number of Jews who identify as “non-affiliated” and share little to no connection to Israel is in some cases a direct consequence of the financial barriers to a quality Jewish education.

There is much about the universe that we can’t control. However, we can and must choose elected officials who stand with the people of Los Angeles in recognizing the need for systemic change and who possess the political will to take on the interests of those who have greatly profited from the decades of stagnant growth and manufactured scarcity. Progress is a choice at every level. Inclusivity must mean more than wearing a pin or marching for social justice when it is convenient. For our great city to survive, we must ensure that we are laying the foundations necessary for sustainable living for our children and our grandparents in ways that put people over profit at the center. Let’s start by healing ourselves and then the world will follow. In the words of 2024 Dodgers MVP of the year Shohei Otani, “I feel like I can’t be doing the same thing as last year, to have the same stats as last year, I need to get better and keep on improving, so that’s the plan.”

Lisa Ansell is the Associate Director of the USC Casden Institute and Lecturer of Hebrew Language at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Los Angeles