Young Jewish leaders voice opposition to Trump

Sixty-four local young Jewish leaders are denouncing what they call “Donald Trump’s discriminatory and insensitive comments” in an open letter to the community.

Signatories include Republicans, Democrats and independents. Among them are Bet Tzedek CEO and President Jessie Kornberg; California Sen. Ben Allen; Valley Beth Shalom Rabbi Noah Farkas; and Rabbi Aaron Lerner, executive director of Hillel at UCLA.

Two attorneys — Sam Yebri, the president of 30 Years After, a group of Iranian-American Jewish community leaders, and Jesse Gabriel, a board member of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles — drafted and circulated the letter, which begins, “Our Generation Will Not Remain Silent.”

“We felt it was incumbent on the Jewish community, especially the self-described young Jewish leaders, to raise our voices in denouncing comments and actions that marginalized other minorities, and we felt we weren’t hearing enough from Jewish leaders,” Yebri told the Journal. “We felt as young leaders we could push the entire Jewish community to stand up to these types of comments.” 

Yebri and Gabriel were working independent of their board affiliations, they said in separate interviews.

The letter, which appears as an advertisement in this week’s Journal, states, “…the undersigned, representing the broad diversity of our Los Angeles Jewish community, feel compelled to speak out with one voice to denounce Donald Trump’s discriminatory and insensitive comments. We reject his efforts to marginalize other minority groups, and note with increasing concern the manner in which his campaign has encouraged and inflamed anti-Semitic bigotry.”

Since entering the presidential race last summer, Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has angered several minority groups, including Hispanics, Muslims and Jews.

“In short,” the letter says, “Mr. Trump’s comments are contrary to both our American and our Jewish values.”

Republican Jewish Coalition communications director Fred Brown said Trump does not have a monopoly on offensive behavior during the current presidential election cycle. 

“While tone and rhetoric matter when discussing these issues, so does actual policy, which is why what we saw from the Democrat National Convention was so appalling,” Brown said in a phone interview.

In collecting signatures for the letter, Gabriel, 34, and Yebri, 35, attempted to reach out to influential people representing a broad cross-section of the community under the age of 40, Gabriel said. Both organizers are supporters of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee. 

 “We wanted to put together a list that reflects the diversity of our Jewish community — men and women, the Russian-Jewish community, the Persian-Jewish community, Israelis, the LGBT community, Democrats, Republicans, AIPAC, JStreet, Federation, AJU, people who serve on the boards of synagogues and Jewish summer camps,” Gabriel said. “If you look at the list of names, the signatories are prominent leaders in a whole range of important community organizations.”

The signatories of the letter include attorneys, rabbis and others who describe themselves as “young leaders from across Los Angeles … deeply committed to sustaining and strengthening our Jewish community.”

Attorney Alex Grager, 37, co-founder of RuJuLA, the Los Angeles Russian Jewish Network, signed the letter and explained his participation by telling the Journal, “Mr. Trump’s message is dividing not uniting, and in this day and age, or any day and age, that’s probably not a good thing.”