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AJC met with Congresswoman Grace Napolitano in her El Monte, California, district office on July 30, 2019. We discussed immigration policy, hate crimes, eastern Mediterranean security issues, enhancing Israel’s security and promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace. We also explored California-Israel cooperation on critical water management and agricultural issues with the Congresswoman, who is a senior member of the House Natural Resources Committee and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. AJC LA Board Member Shelley Rivlin, Diane Rankin, and AJC LA Assistant Director Siamak Kordestani represented AJC in the meeting.

The draft curriculum being considered by the California Department of Education ignores Jews as a minority group.

The need to step up efforts to strengthen relations between American and Israeli Jews, to deepen mutual understanding when so much is in flux, is becoming more urgent. The AJC poll, released in June, found that the number agreeing that “caring about Israel is a very important part of my being a Jew,” dropped in one year from 70% in 2018 to 62% in 2019.

“California high school students deserve an opportunity to learn the role of ethnicity, race and religion in the life of all its citizens, including those previously ignored. But the proposed Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, in its current form, does not come close to achieving this admirable goal.

AJC LA Board Members Honey Amado, Shelley Rivlin, and Bob Horning and Assistant Director Siamak Kordestani met with Senator Ben Allen, Chair of the Jewish Caucus, on August 6, 2019. Senator Allen is a member of the body that oversees statewide curriculum, the Instructional Quality Commission. We raised a range of concerns on the proposed controversial ethnic studies curriculum that promotes BDS, omits Jews as a minority groups, and neglects antisemitism.