Addressing hate is a “chief component” of Los Angeles’ public safety agenda, Mayor Karen Bass said at a town hall hosted by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles on Monday evening, following the arrest of a man charged with hate crimes in two separate shootings outside of local synagogues in recent weeks, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Esther D. Kustanowitz reports. “Antisemitism crawls out of the shadows,” Bass said. “Make no mistake, Angelenos from every community stand united to stamp it out and to ensure that justice is served. Antisemitism has no place in Los Angeles.”

Working together: Bass was asked how the Jewish community could gauge her administration’s effectiveness on the matter, and she invited people to “come with me and plan together.” She agreed that hate crimes are underreported and suggested a PR campaign about how to report hate crimes: “Develop the plan with me and you can hold me accountable.” Bass also noted that “people get their information from so many places that it can be confusing,” suggesting an aggressive campaign for both education and for awareness. Bass, who was sworn in as mayor in December 2022, announced that her deputy mayor for public safety will start work soon and the deputy mayor for community safety has already started; they’ll be touring the diverse neighborhoods and meeting with locals to determine what helps each community feel safe.

Growing need: David Bocarsly, the executive director of Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California (JPAC), told eJP he came to hear from elected officials and law enforcement about how they were engaged in this work. “We have to address the lifespan of hate. Root it out where it’s taught, stop it from being spread, physically protect ourselves from people who have held hate in their heart and want to do harm and how to respond,” he said. JPAC’s legislative agenda includes security grants, he said, and successfully secured $50 million a year for the last two years. This year the group is asking for $80 million, Bocarsly said. “There’s a drastic need for this right now. Not only in the last week have we shown that need, but last year’s grants were given out to 30 percent of the applicants, so it’s very clear how much demand there is for security infrastructure.”

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When Regina Lopata Logan, a 74-year-old professor at Northwestern University, moved from the Chicago suburbs to the city, she no longer lived close to many of her friends. “I love where I live; however, it’s really hard to make friends as an older adult, because people have their friendship groups,” Lopata Logan told Lauren Hakimi for eJewishPhilanthropy. “If you don’t belong to a temple or synagogue or church or a mosque, and you don’t have little kids, and you don’t have a dog, it’s really hard to meet people in your neighborhood, so it’s really hard to make friends.”

New needs: Lopata Logan isn’t alone in seeking greater community. Her daughter works as a director of impact and learning at OneTable, an organization that has served as a platform for 80,000 Shabbat dinners since its founding in 2014. For years, the organization has served people ages 21-39 by offering them a platform to connect, funding to host dinners and resources such as recipes, invitations and Jewish religious resources. Now, the organization is expanding: In response to the loneliness many empty nesters feel when their children no longer live with them, OneTable plans to offer a platform for older adults, too. “We’ve received a lot of requests over the years — ‘When do I get OneTable for me, OneTable for me, OneTable for me?’” Aliza Kline, the CEO of OneTable, said. “And those ‘me’s are a lot of different types — parents, grandparents, teenagers, families with young children. The population that was most recurring was empty nesters, older adults — the parents of our users.”

Building out: OneTable is still looking for funders to support Shabbat dinners for older adults. According to a letter addressed to funders, the cost of launching the new initiative is $500,000. Details of the program for older adults are still being discussed, including exactly which older adults will be eligible. “We’re describing it as adults without kids at home. Probably, it’s 55-plus, but it’s really not all the way through 80-plus,” Kline said. “I’m using empty-nester language intentionally because we know there’s an explicit shared experience of being used to having Shabbat dinner with kids, and then they’re gone. It’s actually somewhat parallel to being a 25-year-old and moving to a new city without your family nearby.” Kline says that in the next six months, she hopes to test the program in at least three cities so that by summer, the program can launch in earnest.

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If you were a pro wrestling fan during the mid-aughts, odds are you owned a copy of “Grand Masters of Wrestling,” the popular four-part DVD series produced by Digiview Entertainment that overflowed from Walmart dollar bins. With covers collaged with wrestling legends in their prime, the series sold over 600,000 units, becoming, according to some figures, one of the best-selling wrestling DVDs of all time. Fans rushed home, expecting epic matches, but what they witnessed was a warped version of pro wrestling that seemed like it belonged in the Borscht Belt, Jay Deitcher reports for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Shekel Slam: Footage for “Grandmasters of Wrestling” was taped over the course of two fundraisers: Maccabiah Mania, held on April 4, 1993, and Maccabiah Mania II: Shekel Slam, held on March 1, 1997. The New Jersey events were organized by Jeff Bukantz, a former fencer and the current president of Maccabi USA, to raise money to shuttle the American fencing team to the ‘93 and ‘97 Maccabiah Games in Israel. The footage was never expected to be sold.

Lasting legacy: Today, there are new Jewish philanthropy superstars. In Toronto, Jian Magen, the president of the Magen Group, a production and entertainment company, and part of the collective that runs the popular Superstars of David Instagram page, has wrestled over 100 matches under the ring name Celine Jian. He and his brother run frequent wrestling cards for Jewish charities. They’ve raised over $200,000 for the Rena Foundation, supporting individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities, and $100,000 at their Slammin for Shobbos, providing over 1,000 Shabbat meals for the needy. His most recent event played off of current politics, with one performer wrestling under the name Kyrie West, and it featured numerous Jewish performers, including All Elite Wrestling superstar Colt Cabana. “We love giving back,” Magen said. “It’s something our parents embedded in us from a young age. There is nothing better than being able to put on a wrestling show, which is one of our favorite things to do, and donate money to a worthy cause. When you combine passions it’s like you really aren’t working.”

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“The changes underway in the North American Jewish community are seismic and irreversible. Fewer and fewer Jews are affiliating and engaging with traditional institutions, even as the reported desire for spirituality and engagement remains sky high,” writes Jeffrey Herbst, president of American Jewish University, in an opinion piece for eJewsihPhilanthropy.

Stuck in the past: “Some innovators – from foundations to synagogues to individual spiritual leaders – have tried to create new paradigms for Jewish life with varying success. Yet, by and large, at most Jewish institutions, models for Jewish learning, community, service and engagement and, critically, the financial models that underpin them, remain as they have for decades or longer.”

Viable path: “American Jewish University, which I lead, reviewed this environment and decided that our future was predicated on making radical changes to embrace a changing Jewish population. We decided to dramatically alter how we operate by selling our Bel Air campus and using the additional resources to reach the increasing number of Jews who do not feel connected to any particular building. We are under no illusions that this shift will be easy, but this is the only viable path for us in a world where the most notable trend is the ever-increasing number of Jews avoiding Jewish institutions.”

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“I recently attended a ceremony for 20 Jewish communal professionals graduating from a prestigious leadership development program… Every graduate spoke poignantly, with gratitude, about their experience. Yet the women’s speeches had one glaring difference. Every woman, in some way, thanked the program for validating their voice, reaffirming their professional choices and making them feel like they belonged. Every single one,” writes Sami Sinclair, principal of Sinclair Strategies, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Misperceptions: “What’s happening in our Jewish communal world that bright, successful women feel this self-doubt in the first place? Several other recent personal experiences and a New York Times opinion piece by Jessica Grose called, ‘The Hour Between Babe and Hag,’ reinforced this question. I was not alone. Grose writes about the small window for women to find professional acceptance between the time they are perceived as too young until the time they are perceived as too old. These misperceptions are amplified for marginalized communities who have additional obstacles they must overcome to be seen as deserving of their seats at the table.” 

A Jewish communal world issue: “Lauren Pasquarella Daley, who leads Catalyst’s Women and the Future of Work initiative, told Grose that Catalyst’s research shows, regardless of age or background, ‘Women are often viewed as either competent or likable but rarely both… women have to spend more time overcoming these biased impressions and often have to [repeatedly] prove their competence as leaders. Yes, it’s a larger societal issue. But why is this phenomenon so prevalent in the Jewish communal world?’” 

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“Last month, 175 Jewish educators from across North America convened in Houston for the Annual Gathering of the Association of Reform Jewish Educators. During tefilah, we listened to the d’var Torah given by our outgoing president, Marisa Kaiser, discussing the oft-used hashtag #whatjewisheducatorsdo,” writes Micol Zimmerman Burkeman, director of the teaching impact fellowship at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. 

Hashtag: “This hashtag is one that’s seen often within the social media circle of Jewish educators. Typically it highlights the less glamorous aspects of the job: untangling a child’s hair from a purse strap, removing a water bead from a nostril, having an account with the local pizza shop where everybody knows your name (and your order), or working through the night to make sure signs are made and placed, treats are baked or packaged, or last-minute supply requests are fulfilled.”

What we do: “Yet this hashtag captures so much more. It captures the educator that stops what they’re doing on a busy school day to tend to a child in distress, whether to get them food, a quiet space or a couch to nap on. It captures the months that go into planning every logistical, curricular and staffing detail for a single weekend retreat that will shape friendships, Jewish identity and a sense of belonging for years to come. It captures the hundreds of educators that shifted their entire schools online in a matter of weeks and ensured that their students and families had a community during an unprecedented time of isolation. It captures the holy and empathic work of being by a family’s side during their most joyful and most difficult moments.” 

Read the full piece here.