Rebuilding Los Angeles Together 21 Feb 2025, 5:30 pm

Because you put your values of community and strength in action, together we are helping L.A. recover.

It’s hard to believe that it has been less than two months since the fires that burned across our neighborhoods shook our community to the core. According to CalFire, the combined damage exceeded 63 square miles, greater than the total area of Washington, D.C., and three times the size of Manhattan. Over 16,000 buildings were destroyed and nearly 30 lives were lost.

This crisis hit our Jewish community particularly hard. According to our survey data, 482 families lost their homes, 499 families had homes that were damaged, and 47 families lost their businesses.

One might think that our community would be knocked down from such devastation, but the opposite is true. From the very onset, you met the moment to help neighbors in need. Thanks to your compassion, we issued thousands of gift cards for families to buy necessities they had lost, coordinated the distribution of protective gear, and provided thousands of meals.

Together, we aided Early Childhood Centers, replacing damaged furniture and contaminated playground equipment. We helped support Project:Camp — a two-week-long, trauma-informed day camp where kids could stave off the effects of the stress they had endured — through our partnership with Camp Bob Waldorf and Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters Los Angeles.

We also expanded our partnerships with our Ezra Network, an alliance of agencies that gives vital services to Jews in need. Our Ezra Network partners have increased the number of people they can help, providing additional free legal services, long-term case management, mental health assistance, and financial assistance to the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley communities.

As I wrote in the LA Times: “Fire’s purpose, if it can be said to have one, is to reduce complex matter to the most basic of elements. The fire has done the same for all of us. Whether we live in Pacific Palisades, Altadena, or anywhere in between, the suffering and subsequent outpouring of love produced by these tragic events broke down our differences and taught us that we are all made of the same grist.”

Leaning on that collective strength, we are rebuilding our beloved community. Together.

R’ Noah

The post Rebuilding Los Angeles Together appeared first on Jewish Federation Los Angeles.

2025 AIA Cohort 13 Feb 2025, 10:47 pm

Amie Baron

Beeta Benjy

Dr. Senem Çevik

Michelle Elmer

Nick Gaines

Yonit Kovnator

Arianna Miskin

James O’Connell

Allie Padilla

Arturo Rajlevsky

Amitai Raziel

Samuel Richman

Josh Sautter

Julie Shapiro

Ari Simon

Joanna Sotolov

Jay Mere Stein

Lisa Ullman

The post 2025 AIA Cohort appeared first on Jewish Federation Los Angeles.

Putting the Value of Inclusion in Action 4 Feb 2025, 12:58 am

As the massive scale of the wildfire tragedy evolves, JFEDLA continues to provide vital help to our many neighbors who have suffered unimaginable loss. Concurrently, we remain committed to serving everybody in our community who needs our love and empathy.

February is Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month (JDAIM), which always holds a special place in my heart. JDAIM offers all of us a chance to put the Jewish value of inclusion in action. A story I was recently told by our Caring for Jews in Need team beautifully captures the impact we are proud to make on this treasured part of our community.

Susan is a single mother with a 22-year-old son, Jake, who has Down syndrome. Jake is very personable. After he graduated from high school, Jake really wanted to find a job to help his mom. Susan called JFEDLA to find out if there was any way to help Jake gain skills that would lead to employment. The Federation introduced Jake to an internship program where he learned to greet customers, take orders, and fill them. Jake was so good at his internship that he soon found work at a food shop filling coffee orders. Jake loves his job and looks forward to going there twice a week. Susan is so happy the connection from JFEDLA turned into an experience that has brought Jake confidence, joy, and independence. 

Stories like Jake’s inspire us to keep building a Los Angeles where everybody can thrive. Every February, I’m freshly reminded that Jewish tradition says: “Teach each person according to their own way.” (Proverbs 22:6). This is the essence of inclusion, a foundational Jewish value that encourages us to recognize and honor each person’s unique path through life. Inclusion also means helping those who need more guidance find the path that works best for them.

Times of chaos and crisis like our region is currently enduring amplify the challenges faced by individuals with diverse abilities. Now, more than ever, is the time to actively support one another. Now is the time to take action.

How? By visiting our Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month website you can:

• Advocate for inclusion and spread awareness
• Read inspiring stories from community members, volunteers, and professionals
• Participate in inclusive programming
• Learn ways to include and support people with disabilities
• Access resources through the Los Angeles Jewish Abilities Center (LAJAC)

Together, we are putting the value of inclusion in action. Your support makes this vital work possible — not just in February but every day.

R’ Noah

The post Putting the Value of Inclusion in Action appeared first on Jewish Federation Los Angeles.

Love Letters from Angelenos after the fires 30 Jan 2025, 9:49 pm

The first thing I noticed as I entered the Palisades fire burn zone was the smell. Burned wood, soot and chemicals permeated the air. The after-fire scent was punctuated, however, with wafts of salt and marine air that anyone familiar with our California coastline would describe simply as “the beach.” It was like the two worlds of our reality colliding in an olfactory dance of life and death, paradise and paradise lost. [Read More]

The post Love Letters from Angelenos after the fires appeared first on Jewish Federation Los Angeles.

Jewish values will guide us through this crisis, as they always have 13 Jan 2025, 8:31 pm

Less than a week ago, I was looking out of a 12th-story window of a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport, watching with horror as flames and smoke began to consume the hillsides of the Pacific Palisades. Our staff was hosting a regional professional development conference, with seminars on professional skill-building including, of all things, crisis communications. Once the fires started, we quickly pulled together the relevant staff and began the work that federations across the country are built for — coordinating Jewish community response, providing critical services and raising funds to help those in need. [Read More]

The post Jewish values will guide us through this crisis, as they always have appeared first on Jewish Federation Los Angeles.

Our Coordinated Response to this Historic Crisis 10 Jan 2025, 8:52 pm

Our entire Los Angeles community continues to reel from the devastation of the past few days. With miles of land burned, thousands of buildings gone, and casualties rising, our wonderful city faces a historic catastrophe. As the crisis intensifies, our Federation’s central purpose is to put our values of strength and community in action to ensure that anyone and everyone who needs help is taken care of and protected.

And we have.

We deployed our new Emergency Text Alert System to connect us directly with impacted community members.

We also shared our Community Call Line — (855) JFED-HLP — directing those in need to the resources we are providing.

We expanded our communication to coordinate with local rabbis, faith leaders, elected officials, and partner organizations who are coming together to help.

Early Wednesday morning, we shared a Wildfire Crisis Resource Guide, which compiles contact info for support services. From tree removal to animal shelter locations to quiet places for displaced members of our community to work, the Resource Guide provides up-to-date info aimed at helping those affected by this unimaginable tragedy.

On Thursday afternoon, we hosted a webinar with local elected officials and Jewish community leaders on the current situation, our coordinated response to the fires, and resources available. Nearly 1,000 community members joined us for this critical briefing. Councilwoman Traci Park provided a live update on the government’s response. Our Caring for Jews in Need team (the nerve center of JFEDLA’s support system), our Ezra Network (mental health support), the Jewish Free Loan Association (financial assistance), Bet Tzedek (legal services), and Jewish Family Service LA (emergency needs, etc.) came together to provide vital info to support individuals and institutions impacted by the crisis.

We have begun to allocate funds for emergency needs, including food and cash assistance and support to firefighters and first responders. We are at the beginning of this long journey, but together we will recover.

As we go into Shabbat, we are strengthened by the words of the Prophet Elijah, who left his home as he feared for his life. Taking refuge in a cave, God showed him a mighty desert wind, a powerful earthquake, and a monstrous fire. However, God was not in fire, nor in the wind, but in the “still small voice” that comes after. (1 Kings 19:12).

Our life-sustaining support and guidance is the “still small voice” that comes after this heartbreaking tragedy. To those who opened their homes, to those who brought food and support to firefighters, to those who have donated to enable our community to recover, we thank you.

We continue to receive many inquiries from concerned members of our community asking how they can help. If you wish to donate, we’ve created a Wildfire Crisis Relief Fund located at the bottom of this page. One hundred percent of all donations will go directly to those who need it most.

Wishing you a calm, safe Shabbat. May we all go from strength to strength together.

Shabbat Shalom,

Orna Wolens
Chair of the Board

Rabbi Noah Farkas
President & CEO

The post Our Coordinated Response to this Historic Crisis appeared first on Jewish Federation Los Angeles.

Wildfire Crisis Briefing 10 Jan 2025, 12:32 am

JFEDLA continues to put the value of community in action by providing resources to those in need during our webinar with local elected officials and Jewish community leaders on the current situation, our coordinated response to the fires, and resources available.

The post Wildfire Crisis Briefing appeared first on Jewish Federation Los Angeles.

WATCH: Your Tremendous Impact in 2024  30 Dec 2024, 8:48 pm

As the year draws to a close, I want to thank our entire Los Angeles Jewish community for your compassion, your empathy, and your love. While times continue to be difficult for Jews everywhere, the resilience of our people fills me with pride and inspiration.  

I’m sharing a video that recaps some of the most impactful moments we experienced together in the past year. These are your values in action. If you’re watching and feel strongly connected to a value or a moment, I ask you to please make a gift to JFEDLA so we can continue putting the Jewish values you cherish in action long into the future. 

The post WATCH: Your Tremendous Impact in 2024  appeared first on Jewish Federation Los Angeles.

Appellate court ruling can make Jewish education more accessible 5 Dec 2024, 12:55 am

Short of a lottery win, there wasn’t a way for us to keep him in a Jewish day school while servicing his behavioral and emotional needs. 

Our oldest son had just turned 3 when we started getting calls from his Jewish day school about his behavior. He was struggling with transitions between activities, was frequently “eloping” from the classroom when he was overwhelmed and was expressing discontent with his fists rather than his voice. He quickly exhausted the school’s resources for students with learning differences, with one behavioral staffer telling my wife and me point-blank: “He’s used up all the tools in my arsenal, and I don’t know how to help him.”

Soon, he wasn’t allowed at school without a shadow and a game plan from a behavioral psychologist, both of which we had to pay for out-of-pocket. These requirements were not particularly affordable, especially considering that these costs were in addition to tuition dues. On top of the added expense, neither intervention made much of an impact. Eventually, we were asked not to return after winter break.

After being deemed eligible for services for “behaviors associated with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder,” the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Individual Education Plan process opened up several doors for us, including enrollment in a therapeutic private school for the remainder of the school year, and now, a slot in an integrative, hybrid transitional kindergarten class at a nearby LAUSD school.

Raising an observant child who attends public school is not without Jewish learning opportunities—my 4-year-old knows that he can’t eat the hot dogs in his LAUSD cafeteria because of character-building exercises and Jewish learning experiences that cannot be replicated at Jewish day school.

But at the end of the day, being in a Jewish school that matches our values wasn’t financially compatible with getting our son the support and resources he needs to learn in a classroom setting. Short of a lottery win, there wasn’t a way for us to keep him in a Jewish day school while servicing his behavioral and emotional needs.

It was only last month that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that California state funds can be used to offer special-education services in religious private schools. The 3-0 decision in Loffman v. California Department of Education enables Jewish schools to begin acquiring licensure to offer special-education services using state funding.

Originally brought to court by three families in similar situations to mine, along with a pair of local Jewish schools, the case focused on challenging a “nonsectarian” requirement for private schools that disqualifies Jewish or other faith-identified private schools from offering such services on the state’s dime. While Loffman should be celebrated for recognizing a discriminatory violation of the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause, the ruling also opens the door for Jewish day schools to manage rising operating costs—and hopefully mitigate tuition increases in the process.

Loffman was championed by the Teach Coalition—an advocacy group focused on making Jewish day-school education more affordable by identifying new funding opportunities. The organization is a project of the Orthodox Union and operates in California with support from the Jewish Federation Los Angeles.

The need for affordability can’t be understated. The Federation’s 2021 Study of Jewish LA found that one in five Jewish Angeleno families saw finances as a barrier to entry for Jewish institutions like day schools. The same study found that more than half of families with children who did not attend Jewish day schools but had considered them cited cost as the chief deterrent. (Notably, 7% cited the inability of Jewish day schools to address students’ special needs.)

In other states, Teach Coalition has succeeded in advancing more comprehensive models for state funding for Jewish day schools, including state-sponsored STEM instruction, nutrition and classroom technology. Loffman is particularly significant in California, where the political environment makes other forms of state funding for Jewish schools more challenging to obtain. It’s hard to imagine legislators (or voters, for that matter) in the Golden State approving a comprehensive school voucher program.

Loffman, should it hold, clears a path for institutions to include in their budgets state funds for special education services, offering relief and minimizing or eliminating cost increases to families. In addition to the prospect of funding for special-education services, California has also generously funded nonprofit security programs, including for day schools. It’s critical that our Jewish day schools, as they begin to offer new special-needs services, commit to keeping tuition levels stable alongside the expanded offerings to ensure affordability and accessibility for families.

When the stars align, we’d like to have our son return to Jewish day school to continue his education. The appellate court ruling makes that return more likely and, hopefully, more affordable.

– Zev Hurwitz is the director of synagogue and rabbinic outreach for the Jewish Federation Los Angeles.

The post Appellate court ruling can make Jewish education more accessible appeared first on Jewish Federation Los Angeles.

The Jewish community must take action to ensure its own security – opinion 2 Dec 2024, 7:15 pm

While law enforcement and political echelons generally support and work well with us, the Jewish community must take action to ensure our own security.

Local and global events after the horrific October 7 terrorist attack have underscored a sobering reality for Jews everywhere: The threats we face are real and unrelenting. While law enforcement and political echelons generally support and work well with us, the fact is, the Jewish community must take action to ensure our own security.

The proof is in the numbers. Although Jews make up only about 2% of the US population, we comprised 68% of all reported religious-based hate crimes in 2023.

Locally, the most densely-populated Jewish neighborhood in Los Angeles – Pico-Robertson – is a continued flashpoint for violence, as Jews have been shot leaving prayer services and impeded when trying to enter synagogues.

According to the latest survey of Jewish Federations, LA Jews are twice as likely to be concerned for their public safety as the general public; that number doubles again for Jews who wear visible Jewish symbols (kippah, Star of David, etc.). Furthermore, nearly all (98%) of Jews feel safer when there is a security presence at Jewish institutions. 

As the president and CEO of Jewish Federation Los Angeles, the Jewish organization that propels Jewish life in the city with the second-largest population of Jews outside Israel, I recognize the scope of this issue. Our federation has a strategy to create a security infrastructure that best protects our community.

The backbone of that infrastructure is the Community Security Initiative (CSI), which serves a unique role in the protection of every Jewish school, synagogue, summer camp, and organization in Los Angeles and functions as a single point of contact for critical incident coordination, information sharing, safety and security training, and resources for Jewish institutions across LA.

Our strategy – designed in coordination with law enforcement – is built on four pillars: training, physical risk assessments, information sharing and analysis, and advocacy. We believe this common-sense security strategy to keep Jewish Los Angeles safe can be replicated in communities across the country.

Training

CSI provides Jewish institutions the latest safety and security training to make their people and sites harder targets. All training is free and covers subjects such as advanced situational awareness, behavioral analysis, suspicious activity reporting, surveillance detection, active shooter mitigation, improvised explosive device detection, emergency planning, and disaster preparedness.

Physical risk assessments

CSI assesses an institution’s physical security footprint and identifies key vulnerabilities through an on-site security assessment. CSI then prepares a site vulnerability report containing observations and many – mostly zero-cost – options for bolstering the institution’s security.

Information sharing and analysis

The CSI Analysis Center shares information with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, as well as local security organizations, to identify potential threats to our community. CSI intelligence analysts provide 24/7 threat monitoring and analysis that is routinely disseminated to Jewish institutions.

Advocacy

Our close ties with elected leaders allow us to effectively support legislation to protect our community. One of the best examples of this was the legislation created in the LA City Council to establish bubble zones around places of worship in the wake of the Pico-Robertson violence.

Protecting our community is foundational to enabling Jews to feel safe enough to express their First Amendment rights like all others in America. Through our four pillars, we are implementing expert-vetted strategies that work. We hope this model serves as an example and inspiration that other communities will use to maintain security so that Judaism can joyfully flourish.

The writer, a rabbi, is president and CEO of Jewish Federation Los Angeles.

The post The Jewish community must take action to ensure its own security – opinion appeared first on Jewish Federation Los Angeles.