Jewish Federation of L.A. Calls for ‘Immediate Action’ From Government Officials to Hold Police Accountable

The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles (JFLA) will not tolerate systemic racism or police brutality within the Jewish community or any community.

In its latest statement sent to members of the L.A. Jewish community, JFLA Board Chair Albert Praw and President and CEO Jay Sanderson declared their solidarity with the African American community and expressed their grief over the senseless “murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless other victims of police brutality and systemic racism.”

“We call upon our government and law enforcement at the national, state, and local levels to fully and promptly investigate and hold accountable all of the involved officers and to prosecute all those responsible to the fullest extent of the law,” they said in the joint statement June 5. “We encourage immediate actions by government and law enforcement agencies at every level to institute appropriate reforms in the criminal justice system in order to guarantee the equal and fair application of justice to all members of our community.”

They also wrote that they will commit to “intensifying” their efforts to “improve relations and enhance understanding between our communities. Just as our parents and grandparents came together to march at Selma and work together to overcome the pernicious scourge of racism in their day, so too shall we build a bridge and move forward, arm-in-arm and in solidarity with one another to build a more just society.”

The statement concluded with the customary Jewish traditional saying when someone dies. “May George Floyd’s name be a blessing,” Sanderson and Paw wrote. “May these senseless acts of violence, his murder, and the murders of countless others not be in vain.”