Each May, Jewish community members from across California come together in Sacramento to meet with government representatives on public policy issues of importance to the broader Jewish community. This week, over 85 JPAC (Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California) advocates from the statewide Jewish community united to advocate for the social service budget and the restoration of cuts to safety net programs, anti-bullying legislation and human trafficking legislation. It was an exciting couple of days at the Capitol with the inauguration of Speaker Toni Atkins, the Governor’s May Budget Revise coming out, and hearing from issue experts on multiple issues of importance to the community.
The event kicked off Monday night with state legislators joining JPAC at a reception at the Citizen Hotel in downtown Sacramento. JPAC honored Assemblymember and Budget Committee Chair Nancy Skinner with the Legislator of the Year Award. Skinner graciously accepted her award and offered words of encouragement and support for JPAC, stating that it has been a champion of promoting services for the state’s most vulnerable and a major player in helping government do what is right in Sacramento. Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom dropped by, as well as Senate President pro tem Darrell Steinberg, Senator Marty Block who is the Legislature’s Jewish Caucus Chair from San Diego, Assemblymember Bonnie Lowenthal, Assemblymember Steve Fox, Assemblymember Steven Bradford, Assemblymember Cheryl Brown, Assemblymember Katcho Achadjian, Assemblymember Richard Bloom, and Senator Mark Leno.
On Tuesday, the conference was in full swing, with a full morning of panel discussions, speakers, awards, and finally, the legislative meetings at the Capitol. Just after the May Budget Revise was released, advocates heard from Assemblymember Nancy Skinner and Senator Carol Liu on the state of funding for social services, along with expert Scott Graves of the California Budget Project. One of JPAC’s lobbying items for this year is to restore the COLA for SSI/SSP grants for seniors and to increase funding for the State Emergency Food Assistance Program (SEFAP) to $5 million annually.
Following that panel, our advocates heard from Assemblymember Shirley Weber, Senator Lois Wolk, Anti-Defamation League staffer Nancy Appel, and Avi Levine, a UC Berkeley student who is part of UC Berkeley’s Zionist campus organization, on the issue of campus climate and what is happening on our college campuses with regard to Jewish students. Advocates also heard from Senator Marty Block and Senator Ted Lieu on their respective human trafficking bills. Finally, Abigail Browning of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development made a brief stop to give an update on the trade MOU signed by Governor Brown and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Jewish community members in attendance were engrossed and engaged in these discussions, and energized by the time they went to the Capitol to lobby their representatives on our issues.
We had a great time this year and hope to get even more people to join us next year to represent the Jewish community in Sacramento!
Julie Zeisler is Association Director, Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California. For more information, visit www.jpac-cal.org. Our Federation is a proud member of JPAC, and our Community Engagement Strategic Initiative works to build a strong Jewish community, meaningful relationships, and a better city and state.
