SDJW Staff Report
SAN DIEGO — On February 13, 2023, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan hosted a mandatory workshop on the Holocaust titled “What You Do Matters: Lessons from the Holocaust,” training for 500 District Attorney office staff members (including approximately 300 prosecutors and 120 law enforcement investigators) using resources and materials from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Stephan’s workshop came shortly before Sara E. Brown, PhD, Regional Director of American Jewish Committee San Diego, was named Regional Director of American Jewish Committee San Diego. Brown herself has a background in Holocaust, human rights, and genocide education.
The following interview took place between Brown and Stephan.
Sara E. Brown: Can you tell us a little bit about the “What You Do Matters: Lessons from the Holocaust” initiative?
District Attorney Summer Stephan: This was a very important initiative for me, our office goes through mandatory trainings twice a year… It is an opportunity to grow the competence, the understanding, the compassion of our team. We of course provide training on the basics – evidence, code, and other legal things – but this training, I felt it was needed – to get this training from the USHMM and from experts was very special. The reason is that there is the job we do, but then there is a ripple effect from the job that we do that we don’t always focus on. What this training did is let us pause and think about how the role of prosecutors and law enforcement can actually destroy the fabric of communities if done incorrectly or if used by political forces in a certain way.
As I was studying more about the Holocaust, I realized that prosecutors and law enforcement were used by this evil government in order to normalize the abuse and the indignities brought on Jews. And I thought what if, inadvertently, someone tries to use our office, our law enforcement, or prosecutorial powers for an agenda. We need to have this learning because we know history repeats itself. And I think the learning was more impactful than I even thought it would be for our team.
Brown: Of all the choices out there, what prompted your decision for this training?
Stephan: I think antisemitism has always been … a priority for us in San Diego because just statistically it’s usually in the #2 category of hate crimes in our region. Anti-black hate is usually #1, antisemitism is #2. But the issue became personal when we had the Poway synagogue shooting and we lost Lori Kaye. It just took on a different meaning – it became a mission for us. How could this happen in our community? How can we be a part of the solution? How can I bring the understanding that while the Holocaust is so much in the past, it’s still very real today. The hateful lessons from the people that perpetrated the Holocaust, those thoughts and ideas are the genesis for the anti-Jewish hate, the antisemitic hate in our current time.
So, I wanted to bring these lessons from the past to educate us about the present. And selecting this was because I wanted law enforcement to speak to law enforcement and a prosecutor to speak to prosecutors… Everybody sat up and paid attention because this wasn’t just a random history lesson. This is about our current job and how we make sure that no one ever usurps our job to hurt people.
Brown: Thank you. Numerous studies drill down on the importance of Holocaust education, not only for our nation’s youth, but also for all of society. And AJC’s 2022 State of Antisemitism survey found that those who know about the Holocaust are more likely to recognize antisemitism. Have you found your staff mirror this important trend?
Stephan: I would hope that my staff was already prioritizing antisemitism and understood that, but I do think that training matters and real stories [matter]. This training brought images and sometimes images are more impactful than words. For example, images of a police officer walking with a Nazi military soldier, thus normalizing the use of prosecutors and police for the bidding of this horrific Holocaust…. I truly believe it brought our whole team to yet a higher level. Education is important.
Brown: As you well know, recently our community was subjected to hateful flyers in several neighborhoods around San Diego. Nobody should be subjected to these cowardly messages that seek to sow distrust and division and hatred. Hate has no place in San Diego and we were grateful to see local authorities take these incidents seriously. Can you speak to some of the efforts in your office?
Stephan: We take hate incidents very very seriously because we know based on evidence that it sometimes doesn’t stop there, it’s just the beginning, and it continues into action. We know that what happens is that people who get attention for their hateful speech then want to up their game from hateful speech to taking action…. We know that for a fact and this is why we take it so seriously.
In the DA’s office, my office, we have a specialized unit addressing hate incidents and hate crimes, which includes a specialized prosecutor, a specialized investigator and victim advocate with. We train all our DAs and prosecutors but that unit is trained at even a higher level.
In addition, we set up a way for someone who doesn’t want to call 911, because they think it’s not a 911 call, or they are not even sure it’s a hate crime. They can call our “hate line” or they can use either email or a web form or they can call (if they prefer old fashioned calls) and someone will respond to them, and take them through what they heard, what they saw, like these leaflets, and direct their attention in the right place. Sometimes people contact us thinking it’s just a hate incident but in fact, it’s crossed over to a crime. Because we don’t want to leave anyone with the impression that words alone are not criminal. If words impart an immediate threat, they do become a crime, the crime of making criminal threats. We can’t expect lay people to know all this nuance – this is why we encourage people to report and we take their reports very seriously.
Since I took this office, we’ve tripled our hate crimes prosecutions, because we do think accountability is important. It sends a message that this is serious. We charge these cases and we work with the victims. And we recognize that when it comes to hate crimes, your victim pool is everyone who shares the identity of the victim. So, we have to address it in a wider manner. This was why it was so important to me that my own team receives this kind of training on the Holocaust so that we can absolutely serve as our best and truly understand the history and the issues.
Brown: I want to thank you for being proactive and taking the lead to bring this important training to your staff. This is not just a Jewish issue, it’s a societal one. And I’m certain that knowing you are working to combat antisemitism and fight hate in San Diego makes the Jewish community feel safer in these troubling times.
Stephan: I want to assure the Jewish community that we are here for you. We won’t’ tolerate anyone hurting you or your family. We want your children to grow up without fear of hatred or any kind of harm. Everyone deserves dignity and should be able to practice their faith, their culture, their heritage without fear and without intimidation.