Jewish Angelenos and our Allies Deserve Better

Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman wants to be mayor of Los Angeles, but after her actions earlier this month, many Jewish Angelenos are left wondering whether her vision for the city truly includes all of us.

On May 15, as part of a regular Los Angeles City Council meeting, the Council marked Jewish American Heritage Month for the tenth consecutive year, recognizing the contributions of the Jewish community to the civic, cultural, and political life of Los Angeles. At a time when antisemitism continues to rise dramatically across the country and here at home, it should have been a simple decision for her to join the numerous elected officials and stand with the Jewish community.

Raman made the choice not to be there.

Instead, she chose to appear on a livestream with Hasan Piker, a podcaster with approximately 11 million followers across his multiple platforms who has repeatedly spread antisemitic rhetoric targeting Israel and the Jewish community. During the livestream, Raman indicated that she believes the false claim that Israel is committing genocide, spoke about wanting to see a future “without apartheid,” and publicly distanced herself from prior engagement with pro‑Israel organizations such as Democrats for Israel Los Angeles, stating that she would not seek further endorsements from them and therefore from large segments of both the pro‑Israel and Jewish communities.

That was the choice she made during the commemoration of Jewish American Heritage Month instead of standing with the Jewish community at City Hall.

We will admit that when Raman, who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America–Los Angeles (DSA‑LA), an organization that has taken extremely anti‑Israel positions, first ran for City Council, we were skeptical. Still, she appeared to want to engage with and support the Jewish community, and over the years, even as there were moments that gave us pause, we wanted to believe those efforts were sincere. Unfortunately, we do not believe that anymore.

What became painfully obvious that Friday is that this does not appear to have been about genuine concern for the Jewish community. It now feels far more likely that her engagement with the Jewish community was politically advantageous at one point but no longer is.

What makes this even more troubling is that she is not distancing herself from the fringe; she is distancing herself from the Jewish community at large. The overwhelming majority of Jewish Angelenos are Democrats, and we overwhelmingly support a two‑state solution: a Palestinian state alongside a Jewish state, Israel, the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people. In fact, support for two states for two peoples has been part of the California Democratic Party platform for decades.

Los Angeles is home to the second‑largest Jewish population in the United States. Jewish Angelenos deserve leaders who are willing to engage respectfully with our community, not distance themselves from it when doing so becomes politically inconvenient.

Voters should ask themselves a simple question: Do we want a mayor, or even a council member, who does not seem interested in supporting or standing with our community?

Debbie Paperman is a lifelong Democrat immersed in pro‑Israel and Jewish community advocacy in Los Angeles.

Laura Goldstein is a lifelong Democrat and child of Holocaust survivors.