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Rep. Karen Bass Message to the Jewish Community of Los Angeles

On Tuesday, a long, prolific and expensive race to be the next mayor of Los Angeles will be decided between U.S. Representative Karen Bass and real estate developer Rick Caruso.
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November 3, 2022
PHOTO: U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, U.S. Rep. and mayoral candidate Karen Bass, Councilmember Bob Blumenfeld and State Senator Henry Stern at Art’s Deli in Studio City. Bass ordered the brisket. (Credit: Brian Fishbach)

On Tuesday, a long, prolific and expensive race to be the next mayor of Los Angeles will be decided between U.S. Representative Karen Bass and real estate developer Rick Caruso.

Rep. Bass took the time to speak with the Journal this week about concerns from Los Angeles’ Jewish community. She began with the top of the list: antisemitism.

“The rise in antisemitism, the constant threat, it seems like it’s every weekend almost with flyers being dropped in neighborhoods,” Bass told the Journal.

Last week, which began with calls for businesses to drop their partnerships with Kanye West and the antisemetic banners draped over the 405 Freeway, Bass released a stern rebuke.

“Whether it’s found on banners unfurled over the 405, spewed from those with millions of fans, or expressed in any other form, the steep rise in anti-Semitism in our city is unacceptable, and as mayor, I will act to stamp it out and especially to combat violence inspired by hate,” Bass said in an October 27th press release. “I will bolster hate crime enforcement and will partner with the Jewish community to share their story and the diversity of their culture because education and inclusion are the antidote to hate and ignorance. I’m proud to have stood with Jewish Angelenos throughout my life and I’m honored to have the support of these community leaders.”

In her conversation with the Journal, Bass spoke about taking more than just a stand, but taking action against crime and antisemitism.

“One of the things that I want to look into is cameras—people’s Rings and other video cameras because it just seems like we should be able to track these folks down. And if the cameras that are there are not adequate, then maybe there needs to be some neighborhood cameras. I know that’s one thing that I would like to do when these kinds of things happen.”

The Bass campaign said that she “called for elevated hate crime enforcement and prevention by the LAPD” as well as “additional state and federal funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to ensure that local synagogues and community organizations are equipped to prevent hate-motivated violence.”

Bass knows the area well, having been raised in Venice and the Fairfax neighborhoods. She went to Hancock Park Elementary School, Louis Pasteur Middle School at 18th and Fairfax (now the site of Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies) and graduated from Hamilton High School. She came of age during the Civil Rights Movement, a time where Bass recalls the alliances between African-American and Jewish civil rights advocates. But one particular moment during this time that she never forgot was the first time she saw the number tattoos on the arms of one of her friends’ parents who were Holocaust survivors.

“I never ever forgot it, it’s burned in your memory, it was very shocking,” Bass told the Journal. These memories stuck with her throughout her quest to fight injustice and improve the lives of those in her community: in Los Angeles as a physician assistant and social worker, in Sacramento as a State Legislator and in Washington, D.C. as a Member of Congress.

From 2004-2010, Bass represented Assembly District 47, which then ranged from Westwood to Hancock Park to Ladera Heights, including the entirety of the Pico-Robertson neighborhood.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, Bass represented California’s 33rd district, and from 2012 through today, the 37th district. She never received any less than 80% of the vote in the General Election when running for office to represent her home neighborhood.

As Speaker of the California State Legislature and as a U.S. Representative, Bass visited Israel three times. Each visit was different, but like all elected leaders making official visits to Israel, Bass’s trips to Israel included visits to Yad Vashem. Bass’s campaign also spoke about her “efforts both to advance the U.S.-Israel relationship and to fight the scourge of anti-Semitism.”

“In 2016, [Bass] led a bipartisan effort, signed onto by 394 members of the House of Representatives, calling on President Obama to veto one-sided initiatives in the United Nations that would be detrimental to achieving a two-state solution,” the statement read. “Earlier this year, she co-sponsored a House resolution condemning the heinous terrorist attack on Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas.”

During our conversation, she used the words “take action” a number of times. Her eagerness to do so shows, as she elaborated about the relationships she formed in Israel and her awe of its booming tech industry.

“One of the things that I talk about is Israel’s ability to preserve water, cycling and desalination,” Bass said. “It’s extremely important in California.”

If elected Mayor of Los Angeles, Southern California’s drinking water supply will certainly be a major focus over the next four years. Just last month, the Doheny Ocean Desalination Project in Orange County was approved by the California Coastal Commission. However, there are no desalination plants on mainland Los Angeles County (there is one on Catalina Island). There is little doubt that civic leaders in Los Angeles will be looking to Israel as a model for the future of California’s drinking water sustainability.

The kinship between Los Angeles and Israel is strong—being mayor of Los Angeles also means leading the flagship city in the world’s fifth largest Jewish population center (622,480). The only metropolitan areas with a larger Jewish population than the Los Angeles area are Haifa (710,600), Jerusalem (992,800), New York (2,109,300) and Tel Aviv (3,891,800).

And as mayor of the second largest city in the United States, there will be a massive spotlight on the winner of Tuesday’s election. Bass has already received a major spotlight, earning the endorsements of both President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama. Her campaign also touts a list of more than 115 Jewish Community Leaders who have endorsed Bass for mayor.

Among them are Representative Brad Sherman, State Senator Henry Stern and City Councilmember Bob Blumenfeld. Bass joined those three Valley leaders on 818 day (August 18th) to speak with them and constituents at Art’s Delicatessen in Studio City for discussions on outreach with the business community and public safety.

And then there is the topic of homelessness. Bass knows that is the top issue on the ballot for mayor. Both Bass and Caruso have complex plans to address the crisis, but have spent all of 2022 pitching a simplified version to voters. In an October 26th discussion at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles (and sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League), Bass spoke of using faith leaders as a way of addressing homelessness.

“I’ve been talking to faith leaders saying ‘if I win, I’m coming back to you because we need to have an
interfaith alliance that talks about the humanity and that opens people up. Because right now, people want to see the tents go away, but ‘build housing on my block? No no no build it someplace else!’ What that would amount to if that were to happen is that all of the affordable housing and housing for homelessness would be in lower-income areas that, frankly, are overcrowded with people living two and three families in a unit now. And inner city low-income communities cannot absorb 40,000 people and we can’t hide them, so you know we have to look at it, and so I see bringing the city together as a way to do that. But on the epic side, homelessness is issue number one, it really is, because how are we going to build these alliances if people basically think that everybody in office is corrupt?”

Ultimately, Los Angeles voters will have the final say on Tuesday, November 8th on choosing the next mayor to address antisemitism, crime, corruption and homelessness. She summarized her message to Los Angeles’ Jewish community in her remarks at the ADL event last week:

“I have devoted my life to fighting for social and economic justice, and part of that fight means always fighting against anti-Semitism and recognizing what is happening right now in our country,” Bass said. “We’ve been experiencing this for a few years now and I believe that the only way that we deal with it is by coming together and being very very aggressive I have always been fortunate to have wide support in the Jewish community and have over a hundred Jewish leaders and organizations that have supported me, that have worked with me for many many years. And so the Jewish community will always have access to me and my administration if I have the honor of earning your vote.”

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