By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – The California state senator who heads the first-in-the-nation Jewish legislative caucus says it’s time for Jews in the U.S. Congress to form a caucus too, and adds that U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the Florida congresswoman who chairs the national Democratic party, agrees with him “100 percent.”
State Sen. Marty Block (D-San Diego) also said in an interview that he is considering introducing a bill that would require candidates for student governments in the University of California and California State University system to take an hour of training in civil rights law and tolerance issues.
That proposal won’t be introduced until next year because of the California Legislature’s bill cycle. It was prompted by two instances when students seeking offices on their college campuses faced critical questions about their religion from screening panels. The mandatory training could be conducted by the Museum of Tolerance or by the California Attorney General’s Office, said Block, in order to make student panels aware that questions about a job-seeker’s religious beliefs as well as other personal matters are clearly illegal.
“Perhaps the students didn’t realize that they were crossing that boundary, so an hour’s training with handouts may be good for them,” Block said. “We can require that of student government candidates.”
Block said efforts on campuses to promote boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel; Holocaust remembrance ceremonies; and standing up against anti-Semitism are some of the issues that the Jewish Caucus of the California Legislature has been dealing with. In addition, he said, the caucus helped persuade the Legislature to vote its backing for Gov. Jerry Brown’s efforts to develop more trade between Israel and California.
The state senator noted that Jews in Congress traditionally have eschewed forming a caucus, perhaps fearing to play into stereotypes about Jewish power. However, he said the time for being so low profile has come to an end. “I think it is well past time for Jews to take their place with other ethnic caucuses and make sure that our community’s needs are met and I don’t see any good reasons not to do it.”
In California, there are three members of the state Assembly who are Jewish and seven members of the state Senate – bringing to ten the number of caucus members, or, one might say, a minyan. In addition several members of the Assembly who are not Jewish, but who feel an affinity for the Jewish people, are associate members.
Asked if caucus meetings include prayer, Block responded: “No, we are strictly a secular caucus. Now some of the members may be very religious in their separate lives but in the interest of keeping church and state separate the caucus is ethnic instead of religious.”
He identified Senate members of the Jewish Caucus in addition to himself as fellow Democrats Robert Hertzberg of Van Nuys (a former Assembly Speaker); Mark Leno of San Francisco, Lois Wolk of Davis, Hannah Beth Jackson of Santa Barbara, and Ben Allen of Santa Monica. A seventh member if Senator Jeffrey Stone, a Republican from Riverside.
In the Assembly, the three members are Richard Bloom of Santa Monica, Marc Levine of San Rafael, and Tony Thurmond of Oakland. All are Democrats. Thurmond, noted Block, “is an African American who converted to Judaism early in his life.” Associate members include two Democrats, Jose Medina of Riverside, “whose ex-wife is Jewish and is raising his daughter Jewish;” and Adrin Nazarian of Van Nuys, “who is Armenian and on a trip to Jerusalem found a great deal of identity there and wanted to become part of the caucus.” A third associate member is a Republican, Eric Linder of Corona “whose grandfather is Jewish and grew up with a lot of Jewish culture”
The caucus meets one Wednesday a month. Early in the legislative session, caucus meetings lasted two hours. Later in the session, Block said, they were cut to one hour because of the press of other legislative business.
The caucus divides up responsibilities. For example Bloom is in charge of an upcoming initiative to honor outstanding California Jews at a legislative ceremony, similar to the way in which other ethnic caucuses honor members of their communities. Levine is finance chair for the caucus, which Block said raises money for non-political causes. Wolk keeps track of elections in which Jewish candidates are running.
A little known fact, said Block, is that Jews constitute “the largest ethnic caucus in the Senate, which is amazing. Everyone thinks it is the Latino Caucus, which has a large amount of members in the Assembly and some in the Senate.” However, when the delegations to both the Assembly and the Senate are added up, the Latino Caucus is the largest ethnic caucus in the Legislature, he said.
Besides the ethnic caucuses, there is the Women’s Caucus and an LGBT caucus, Block said.
Recently, he said, the chairs and vice chairs of all the caucuses got together for an annual dinner to discuss ways the various caucuses can cooperate.
An extension of the Jewish Caucus in Sacramento is the Capitol Knesset, in which legislators are joined by Jewish staff members and lobbyists five times a year for lunch in the Governor’s Council Room. Usually between 60 and 70 people attend.
As an example of cooperation among the various caucuses, Block related that after a homeowner in Sacramento decorated his house with swastikas, legislators held a news conference the next day to ask the homeowner to take the offensive symbols down. “I had the leaders of the Latino Caucus, the API (Asian-Pacific Islander) Caucus, the Black Caucus, the LGBT Caucus, and the Women’s Caucus all join the Jewish Caucus in calling for the removal of that swastika.” The homeowner didn’t respond immediately to the appeal, Block said, but two weeks later somebody, “I don’t know who, drove by, tore it off, and tore it up… and the guy never put it back.”
The Latino Caucus has worked closely with the Jewish Caucus on immigration issues, “knowing the Jewish community’s interest in immigration, based on a lot of things, not the least of which was that Jewish immigrants from Europe were turned away and sent back to Europe before and during World War II. We feel strongly about our immigration policies — not ‘open borders,’ but ‘friendly borders,’ and the appropriate treatment of people who are here, no matter how they got here.”
Prior to his election to the state Senate, Block served in the state Assembly, and earlier chaired the boards of San Diego Community College and the San Diego County Board of Education. He also served as a professor and administrator at San Diego State University. He is considered one of the Legislature’s experts on higher education. Currently serving his first Senate term, he said he plans to run for the one more term for which he is eligible before he must retire from the Legislature under the state’s term limit laws.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. Your comment may be sent to donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com or posted on this website provided that the rules below are observed.
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