HTLA – Episode 49: Shining a Light on Anti-Semitism in LA County

Hannah Jacqueline Kaye  00:00

[outdoor ambi- people talking in background] Before my mother was murdered in her synagogue for being a Jew on the last day of Passover, April 27th, 2019- in a way I was a little bit removed from the reality of the anti-Semitism and hatred of today. [music in] I had always lived a Jewish life. I grew up with all of the Jewish rituals and customs. I went to a Jewish school. And I was always learning about the past, but there was some naivete and innocence. And then when the shooting happened, of course, it was a shock. But at the same time, I wasn't surprised. The rise of anti-Semitism is a real life thing. Surviving the shooting just blasted me into this very painful reality and all of that innocence and naivete was shot out of me, if that makes sense. [singing begins]

Brian De Los Santos  01:01

This is How To LA, the show where we talk about complex issues that affect all of us. I'm Brian De Los Santos. Today is the third day of Hanukkah. It's time for Jewish people worldwide to come together with friends and family, light the menorah and exchange gifts. But this year feels a little bit more solemn. As we know, hate crimes and particularly anti-Semitic ones are on the rise. Today we're taking a look at the real impact of this on the Jewish community here in Southern California. Last week, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles held its second annual Shine A Light event at Grand Park in Downtown LA. LA political and Jewish leaders spoke to raise awareness of the rising rates of anti-Semitism. Our producer, Megan Botel, was there. [music out]

Announcer  01:53

[outdoor ambi- people talking in background] The first woman to run the city, the second African American to be elected as the city's chief executive- Ladies and gentlemen, Mayor Karen Bass. [applause and cheering]

Karen Bass  02:07

It is definitely my pleasure and my honor to be here with you today. And Rabbi Farkas, everything that you said in terms of how you would like to see the city is rooted in my DNA. Uh, I absolutely am committed to healing this city, to bringing this city together, and lifting up all of the beauty and wonder that Los Angeles has. [cheering and applause]

Hannah Jacqueline Kaye  02:34

I really want to emphasize that it's been the humanity of other people in this world that has helped me to survive the unfathomable.

Megan Botel  02:41

This is Hannah Jacqueline Kaye. Her mother was killed by a gunman at Chabad of Poway synagogue near San Diego. She came to the Shine A Light event and told me her story.

Hannah Jacqueline Kaye  02:52

My mother wanted me to go to the synagogue with her that day, because it was the last day of the Jewish holiday of Passover. And on the last day of Passover, it's a time where Jews say this very special prayer called Yizkor. It's a ceremony where you can honor ones who have passed. And my mother had lost her mother in October of 2018. And so this was the first time that she was going to be able to say Yizkor at the synagogue. So I drove us to the synagogue the morning of- The gunman entered the synagogue and immediately murdered my mother in the hallway.

Megan Botel  03:21

Hannah's mother, Lori Gilbert Kaye was 60 years old when she died.

Megan Botel  03:26

Do you fear for your own life or the lives of other Jews?

Hannah Jacqueline Kaye  03:31

Yes, every day. I just, I have to emphasize that there must be security at every single Jewish institution in this country. The threat of anti-Semitic hate is real. It is constant. It is ever-growing. And it is essential that we pay attention and learn from the recent tragedies that have occurred in Pittsburgh, in Poway, in Buffalo, and find ways to come together to be able to protect our fellow human beings.

Megan Botel  04:02

Being a survivor of a shooting is already extremely traumatic, and then being present for this tragedy- It's sort of unimaginable. And this was recent. How do you recover from that?

Hannah Jacqueline Kaye  04:17

In the first two years, I was completely obliterated, and I was not able to function. I had to drop out of school. I really fell into a deep depression and with suicidality, but thankfully, I've had the endless, constant support of my family and I, I credit specifically my aunt Randi, my mother's beloved younger sister. They were best friends. At my mother's gravesite on the second birthday that my mother wasn't alive- And my aunt said, Do you want to go back to school? And I said, I think I'm ready. And I also credit my mother's strength, but it's, it's moment to moment. And in a way, it's hard to even put language to describing the experience of what it's like to grieve something like this. It's beyond language. Truly...

Randi Grossman  05:04

I look back and I think I probably didn't register it for a while. It was just too extraordinarily devastating to think that we were the victims of such a hate that I was really not absorbing that for a while in my grieving process.

Megan Botel  05:20

This is Randi Grossman, Hannah's aunt, and Lori's younger sister.

Randi Grossman  05:24

You know, I think I was always aware, like all Jews are. I mean, it, it's part of our, our, our history, that we've always confronted anti-Semitism and hate and violence. So the concept, of course, I grew up with. And all of a sudden, everything we knew about anti-Semitism was now in a shul, in a synagogue, in a city, in our country? I was shaken, truly shaken by that. And I felt like that might have been a turning point.

Megan Botel  05:56

People here are making speeches, and you know, all over the country today, and, and the people are saying, We need to come together and mobilize against. What does that look like to you?

Randi Grossman  06:08

One of the reasons why I was so honored to be invited to this, this event is because it is all about bringing people from all walks of life together to say, This is our problem. This isn't a Jewish problem. This is our problem. [music in] If there's hate spewed at one group, there's hate spewed at all groups, potentially. I hesitate every morning to turn on the news to see what else has happened. And what worries me is blatant anti-Semitism that we're seeing. And the normalizing of anti-Semitism that we're seeing. So to have an opportunity to come together and not just talk about the darkness, but talk about the unity, the message of we're going forward, we're going to stand up, we're going to call out hate, we're going to perpetuate goodness and kindness and love and caring and compassion. And we have to do it together. [music swells]

Brian De Los Santos  07:17

That was Hannah Jacqueline Kaye and her aunt, Randi Grossman, at last week's Shine A Light event in Downtown. That thing Randi said about this not being only a Jewish problem, that's an important point because unchecked hate spreads. The LA County Human Relations Commissions published a report this month, [music out] showing the hate crimes in LA County reached the highest level in almost two decades. And religious crimes spiked 29%. Of those attacks, almost three-quarters of them targeted Jewish people.

Jeffrey Abrams  07:48

So at ADL, we have a fundamental belief that the ultimate solution to all this hatred is education.

Brian De Los Santos  07:53

That's Jeffrey Abrams. He's the Regional Director at the ADL, the Anti- Defamation League. They track and report anti-Semitic incidents nationwide.

Jeffrey Abrams  08:02

So for over 40 years, ADL has conducted an annual audit of anti-Semitic incidents. 2021 was the worst year on record. On average, seven incidents each and every day. Here in Los Angeles, it also was a terrible year- a rise to 28%. We had 14 incidents of assault. People who were assaulted simply because they were Jewish.

Brian De Los Santos  08:21

As Jeffrey mentioned, the ADL believes education is the solution to fighting against all this hate. The ADL developed their own curriculum that's being rolled out to public schools around the country.

Jeffrey Abrams  08:32

It's a one hour online curriculum for high school students, and it talks about the Jewish American experience.

Brian De Los Santos  08:38

But he says it's not just education in schools. Ongoing education to the public, like the Shine A Light campaign, is needed.

Jeffrey Abrams  08:45

All too often, when it comes to anti-Semitism, the harm is minimized. And part of what you're seeing in the Shine A Light campaign, which is a national campaign, urging that the same attention be given to anti-Semitism, just as it has been appropriately given over the last several years to anti-AAPI hatred, or the African American bias that was the focus of attention after the murder of George Floyd.

Brian De Los Santos  09:14

[music in] So is this a time of hope for our city?

Jeffrey Abrams  09:20

We're about to enter the holiday season of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Light, and fundamentally, that celebrates hope, a time when there was supposed to be oil for only one day but it lasted eight days. And that's in part the moment we're in. These are difficult times. We seem like there's just too precious little oil. But the miracle is is that the light keeps shining. The light's gonna continue to shine. [music swells]

Megan Botel  09:59

You mentioned this has propelled you to live a life of meaning. You know, if you were on your deathbed and you're looking back, like what would that look like?

Hannah Jacqueline Kaye  10:08

Literally moments after the shooting, even before my mother had been taken to the hospital, I remember a deliverance that I received from my mother, in which I felt that she had bestowed me my purpose in this life, which is to understand what it means to suffer as a human being, but also the duty to be of service to others and to help others who have gone through the unfathomable and the unimaginable. And I hope in my lifetime, I can be able to actualize that for my mother. And my mother was an extraordinary human being who embodied kindness, generosity, compassion. So I hope to embody her attributes. [music swells]

Brian De Los Santos  10:57

This is How To LA. I'm Brian De Los Santos. Alright y'all, that's all we have for you today. I hope this holiday season brings some peace and you take care of yourselves and enjoy each other. Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. [music out]