— A former volunteer firefighter from Southern California is suing his former department alleging anti-Semitism and harassment. Jared Hartstein, 27, of Irvine, worked for the volunteer fire department in La Habra Heights from June 2015 until he resigned on Dec. 21 that year. Hartstein alleged in interviews with the local media that senior firefighters made…
California Rep. Adam Schiff is in the spotlight, leading the Democratic call for a full investigation into Russian intelligence involvement in the presidential election. The Jewish seven-term lawmaker, described by the Fresno Bee’s editorial Tuesday as a “measured politician not prone to hyper-partisanship” has emerged as Trump’s chief critic on the Hill, demanding Congress use…
A Jewish visual artist from Berkeley was among at least 36 people who perished Friday night in a converted warehouse during a dance party in Oakland, California. Friends of Jonathan Bernbaum, 34, are gathering today to remember him, according to Berkeleyside. Bernbaum graduated from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts in 2008….
Coke and Pepsi are feeling the Bern this week, and not in a good way. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders demanded in a cease and desist letter that the behemoth corporations stop using him in their ads against soda taxes in San Francisco and Oakland. “Advertising from the American Beverage Association that implies that I oppose…
— A federal lawsuit filed in Southern California against a local Chabad calls for the halting of kapparot, an annual pre-Yom Kippur ritual in which a chicken is swung from its legs and then slaughtered. The lawsuit filed Sept. 26 in Santa Ana District Court against the Chabad of Irvine and a rabbi who is not…
California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a measure that requires companies doing business with the state to certify that they do not boycott or discriminate against any sovereign state, including Israel. Brown signed Assembly Bill 2844 on Saturday afternoon. The State Senate approved the bill by a vote of 34 to 1 on August…
— A dining station at the University of California, Berkeley will be certified kosher, the first in the public university system. The dining station by Cal Dining is also designed to appeal to Muslims who eat halal, the local Berkeleyside news website reported. “A lot of people don’t know what ‘kosher’ means or what the…
— The California State Assembly voted 60-0 on Tuesday to send an anti-BDS bill to the governor for approval, a week after the Senate passed it. The bill, which the Senate passed in a 34-1 vote on Aug. 24, differed from its original version introduced in April by Assemblyman Richard Bloom, a Santa Monica Democrat, The Jewish Journal…
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