Have you spent time recently thinking about your identity? You know… what makes you…you? Or more specifically, the various aspects or traits in your life, let alone the experiences that have shaped who you are today?

Over the last several years, as we have seen a prominence of antisemitism’s ugly tentacles permeating throughout society, I have spent a lot of time thinking about how Jews have had to defend their identity in ways that other people of faith have not been forced to do. In fact, it is not only our identity that we have had to defend, but also the institutions that help provide us experiences and opportunities to celebrate and strengthen our identity. In 2025, it is estimated that Jewish institutions spent over $750 million dollars in security. Let that sink in for a moment. So rather than be able to spend that money to provide opportunities to enhance Jewish life, it had to be used to protect Jewish life.

I am sharing this in my weekly message because of a bill that is working its way through Sacramento that has everything to do with Jewish identity. Senate Bill 1387, authored by state Sen. Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles) and sponsored by Jewish California (which I am very proud to say that our Jewish Federation is one of 43 Jewish organizations throughout the state who are members), would make California the first state to recognize Jewish identity as an ethnicity and allow Jews to be counted as such in demographic data. This is one of the bills that was lobbied on during Jewish California’s Capital Summit back in May.

In his Op-ed discussing the importance of this bill, Jewish California’s CEO David Bocarsly talked about how a bill like this can have a lasting impact on supporting each of our identities by allowing us to finally be fully accounted for and acknowledged alongside other ethnicities. And he discusses how “At its base, SB 1387 is about being seen. The secular Jew, the Israeli American, the Jew of color, the atheist who finds meaning in the pursuit of justice. All of us deserve to look into the state’s own mirror and recognize ourselves in it.”

When I go and speak with school (and district) administrators following an antisemitic incident that is reported to me, very often I talk about how no one should be the target of hate because of who they are. No child should ever have to defend their identity or feel like they have to hide it out of fear; not being able to celebrate who they are and feel pride. We know, both anecdotally and from recent studies, that Jews have felt like they have felt the need to hide their Jewishness. That is what antisemitism and the rise of anti-Jewish/anti-Israel hate has done of late. But now is the moment for us to do what we can and find ways to feel pride, once again, in being Jewish.

Please read David Bocarsly’s Op-ed and learn more about how a bill like SB1387 will strengthen Jewish pride and recognition in ways many of us have not felt comfortable expressing recently.