Los Angeles has a Jewish problem.
When ideology trumps reality, when slogans replace law enforcement, when politicians care more about "activists" than about parents afraid for their Jewish children, this is the predictable result.
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Writer’s note: I was born and raised in Los Angeles. I know a thing or two about this city.
Earlier this week, a woman entered a Los Angeles coffee shop wearing a shirt emblazoned with the words, “Israel kills children.”1 The message wasn’t political commentary; it was utterly hateful, targeting Jewish identity in a very public setting, and spreading a blood libel.
Then, on Sunday, a 24-year-old Israeli visiting from Sacramento for his cousin’s Bar Mitzvah was walking along the Santa Monica Pier when he encountered about 20 “pro-Palestinian” protesters displaying Palestinian and Mexican flags. He told an Israeli news outlet: “I also met another Israeli man … we spoke in Hebrew, and I also wore a Star of David necklace so they recognized us as Israelis.”2
At that point, the mob attacked him — one person struck the back of his head, blood ran, others ripped his Star of David necklace from his neck, and when he pushed back, they all jumped on him. The police didn’t intervene effectively; the crowd was too large. One of the attackers even brandished a knife, taunting him: “You’re lucky I’m not stabbing you.”
Just a week earlier, another group of Israeli residents returning from synagogue in the Wilshire–Crescent Heights area were assaulted. Eyal Dahan, whose two children are serving in the IDF in combat units, described how a group of Hispanics demanded he say “Free Palestine.” When he replied “Long Live the IDF,” someone punched him, knocking off his kippah. His neighbor Shlomi was attacked as well, and another companion’s hand was cut. Although police were across the street, they did nothing — despite it clearly being a hate-motivated crime.
These aren’t isolated incidents; they’re part of a broader, disturbing pattern of antisemitic violence in Los Angeles since October 7, 2023.
In the Pico-Robertson neighborhood, a densely Jewish area, violent clashes broke out outside the Adas Torah synagogue during a real estate seminar in June 2024. “Pro-Palestinian” demonstrators attempted to block entrance to the synagogue; the confrontation escalated into a riot and a Jewish woman was beaten. In November 2024, there were at least six incidents of vandalism against businesses in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood.
In April–May 2024, at UCLA, “pro‑Palestinian” demonstrators set up a campus encampment — sometimes referred to as a “Jew Exclusion Zone” — on Royce Quad. Jewish students and faculty were prevented from accessing classrooms, the library, and other vital parts of campus, unless they denounced Israel. The university’s response was deeply troubling: It reportedly aided these exclusion zones by providing metal barriers and closing pathways, while faculty and Jewish students were turned away.
In November 2023, Paul Kessler, a 69-year-old Jewish man, died following an altercation between pro-Israel counter-protesters and “pro-Palestinian” demonstrators in Westlake Village. He was struck in the head with a megaphone and later ruled a homicide. Prosecutors have charged the attacker with involuntary manslaughter, though it remains under investigation as a potential hate crime.
Earlier in 2023, two Jewish men were shot outside synagogues in Pico-Robertson in separate incidents believed to be hate crimes. Both survived, and the perpetrator was arrested.
This is not a new story for Los Angeles. The city has a long history of antisemitism, from vandalism of synagogues and cemeteries to hate-fueled violence. But what makes today different is the brazenness, normalization, and sheer frequency of these attacks. It’s no longer whispers or subtle hostility; it’s mobs in public squares, slurs broadcast in coffee shops, and organized efforts to intimidate, harass, and harm Jews wherever they are visible.
The numbers tell the same story. According to the Anti-Defamation League, California led the nation in reported antisemitic incidents in 2024, and Los Angeles ranked among the top cities for such hate crimes. Nearly half of all hate crimes in LA County that year targeted Jews. The FBI’s own data confirms that Jews, despite being a tiny minority of the population, are the most targeted religious group in the country. What was once anecdotal is now statistical fact: Los Angeles is becoming an increasingly hostile place for Jews.
What makes this crisis even more alarming is the muted response from institutions that should be standing guard. Time and again, law enforcement has been present but either unwilling or unable to intervene — whether at Santa Monica Pier, on Wilshire Boulevard, or outside the Pico synagogue. Local leaders have often equivocated, calling these incidents “clashes” instead of hate crimes, as though mobs of masked men attacking Jews are just another expression of political speech. Many in city government have chosen caution or silence, fearing political backlash from activist groups that have made anti-Israel rhetoric a mainstream cause.
This environment didn’t appear overnight. Years of unchecked antisemitism in schools, universities, and activist spaces have cultivated a climate where Jews are labeled “oppressors,” where Israeli identity is criminalized, and where violence is rationalized as “resistance.” Social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram have supercharged this hatred, radicalizing younger generations with simplistic, dehumanizing narratives that make attacking Jews feel not just permissible, but virtuous.
The human toll of all this is profound. Jewish families across Los Angeles now think twice before wearing a Star of David or speaking Hebrew in public. Parents hire private security for their children’s schools and synagogues. College students self-censor, afraid that expressing even moderate support for Israel could make them targets. The psychological burden is immense, especially for a community still processing the trauma of October 7th and the ongoing war in Israel.
Yet, despite this reality, the city’s response has been tepid. Hate crime units are underfunded and undertrained. Prosecutions are rare. Community leaders plead for protection, while activists frame every effort to secure Jewish spaces as “political repression.” It’s a failure of policy, a failure of leadership, and a moral failure to uphold the most basic expectation of civic life: that a minority community should not have to live in fear.
Speaking of political leadership, Los Angeles is led by a mayor who has leaned hard into a performative “woke” agenda that claims to champion diversity, equity, and inclusion, but in reality has left Jewish Angelenos deeply exposed. Mayor Karen Bass has repeatedly condemned antisemitism in statements, yet under her watch, Jewish residents have been beaten on city streets, synagogues surrounded by mobs, Jewish students blocked from UCLA classrooms, and Jewish institutions repeatedly threatened. Words have not translated into real security, real accountability, or real protection.
This is what happens when naive, Left-leaning Jews throw their political support behind politicians who talk about “justice” and “equity” but are blind to or, worse, complicit in antisemitism from their own activist base. Too many Jewish voters in Los Angeles believed they were voting for leaders who would fight hatred in all forms. Instead, they got a political class that treats antisemitism as a nuisance rather than a crisis — afraid to confront it head-on for fear of offending the loudest voices on the Far-Left.
And Karen Bass is not alone. She is joined by a lineup of Far-Left, antisemitic, “woke” politicians such as Zohran Mamdani in New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (a possible Democratic Party presidential candidate in 2028), Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Greg Casar, Summer Lee, and Delia Ramirez.
The uncomfortable truth is this: “Woke” identity politics has completely turned on Jews, and “woke” identity politics has been trying to hijack the Democratic Party with some level of success — enough that self-respecting Jews can no longer wish it away. When ideology trumps reality, when slogans replace law enforcement, and when politicians care more about wannabe activists than about parents afraid to send their kids to Hebrew school, this is the predictable result.
What Los Angeles faces is not just a security problem, but a moral one. A city that allows mobs to menace synagogues, police to stand by as Jews are assaulted, and hate speech to be normalized in public life, sends a message that Jews are second-class citizens, that their safety is negotiable. Calling this a “Jewish problem” is not blaming the Jewish community; it’s naming the problem. Hatred, assault, and threats targeting Jews have become a recognizable and urgent part of life in this city.
The solutions will not come easily, but they are urgent. City leaders must commit to treating antisemitism with the same seriousness as any other form of hate, investing in education, law enforcement, and community security. Jewish organizations need to unify and demand accountability, rather than competing for influence or funding. Allies, especially those outside the Jewish community, must speak up and show that Los Angeles will not tolerate this descent into bigotry.
Los Angeles is celebrated for its diversity and tolerance, but those ideals are hollow if one community is left to fend for itself. Without a collective reckoning — without honest acknowledgment of how deep this rot runs — the city risks losing its Jews. The same Jews who have, for decades, developed so many industries, so much culture, and so many causes there. History teaches us a hard truth: Societies that drive out their Jews rarely thrive for long.
The first step is to say it plainly: Los Angeles has a Jewish problem.
Naming it is the only way to start solving it.
Amanda Markowitz on Instagram
"ישראלי הותקף בלוס אנג'לס על ידי פרו-פלסטינים: "עשו בי לינץ'". Ynet News.
Actually, Los Angeles has a Democrat problem. In fact, all of California has a Democrat problem. It’s a state run by a single-party system that has embraced the woke agenda hook, line, and sinker. Until voters in the state wake up to the fact that it’s the Democrats that are the source of the problem, nothing will change.
We have to start contemplating the possibility that our time in this country is growing short. An ancient evil now stalks us here with increasing strength and speed. For now, I think we can hold our own. If this continues though, I doubt it.