Antisemitism emerges as a defining issue in California gubernatorial race |
JTA — In a state where housing costs, wildfires and water shortages usually dominate campaign rhetoric, the 2026 race for California governor is being shaped to a significant extent around a different flashpoint: antisemitism.
At a packed gubernatorial forum Thursday night at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, five leading candidates — Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, entrepreneur Tom Steyer and Republican businessman Steve Hilton — competed to present themselves as the strongest defenders of Jewish safety.
Three other candidates who met the forum’s viability criteria — former US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Rep. Katie Porter — were invited but did not attend.
The event, organized by a coalition of major Jewish groups including Jewish Federation Los Angeles, Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area and Jewish California (formerly The Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California), drew more than 1,000 attendees and was livestreamed on YouTube. With Gov. Gavin Newsom term-limited and widely seen as a likely 2028 presidential candidate, the contest to succeed him is one of the most closely watched gubernatorial races in the country.
California is home to an estimated 1.2 million Jews — second only to New York among US states — and its public schools and universities have become central battlegrounds in the national debate over Israel and antisemitism since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
That tension was on vivid display this week. The forum coincided with three major antisemitism lawsuits filed in rapid succession against California educational institutions.
On Thursday, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights and StandWithUs sued the state of California, its Department of Education and several school districts, alleging that officials allowed antisemitic harassment of Jewish and Israeli students to “fester” in K-12 schools. The lawsuit seeks court-ordered oversight........