By David Bocarsly
SACRAMENTO, California –As exposed in this morning’s Politico article, the California Faculty Association (CFA) asked candidates to reject endorsements or donations from JPAC – claiming that we “harm working families.”
CFA is a labor union representing 29,000 faculty across the CSU system. Putting aside the fact that we are a nonprofit – we don’t make political contributions or endorsements – this language sets a dangerous precedent. It evokes age-old antisemitic tropes and seeks to exclude an entire community from California’s civic life.
The notion that the Jewish community’s statewide voice – and the very agencies that feed, house, and care for California’s most vulnerable families – could somehow harm working families is deeply offensive.
JPAC, together with our leading Jewish social-service partners, co-wrote a letter to CFA leadership to express our concern, correct the record, and reaffirm what true solidarity looks like.
Here’s what the letter [signed by Dana Toppel, the CEO of Jewish Family Service of San Diego, among others] stated:
Dear CFA Leadership,
As organizations that serve California’s most vulnerable populations of all backgrounds, we are deeply troubled by language in your 2026 candidate endorsement questionnaire that includes the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California (JPAC) among “groups that harm working people” to be “rejected.”
To single out a diverse statewide Jewish coalition for boycott – one whose work is grounded in advancing civil rights, combating poverty, and strengthening the very safety-net systems that working families rely on – is both misguided and offensive. It misrepresents our mission, undermines our shared commitment to working families, and reduces an entire ethno-religious community to a single harmful stereotype.
Misrepresenting JPAC and Its Mission
Let’s be clear: JPAC does not make campaign contributions or endorsements. JPAC is a nonprofit legislative advocacy coalition representing California’s diverse Jewish community through public policy and budget advocacy – not political financing.
We work with more than 40 member organizations to amplify Jewish values and priorities in pursuit of a more just and equitable state: combating hate, expanding social services, uplifting vulnerable populations, and ensuring safety and opportunity for all Californians. Our impact is built on decades of partnership, trust, and solidarity.
Whether born of misunderstanding or deliberate distortion, this mischaracterization ignores basic facts and risks blacklisting an entire community from civic participation.
JPAC and Its Members Strengthen Working Families
JPAC’s member agencies are among California’s leading providers of social and human services. We reach people of all backgrounds and faiths – overwhelmingly low-income communities of color – and many of our staff are unionized.
Across the state, Jewish Family Service agencies are providing critical support to those affected by the current government shutdown – and helping older adults, people with disabilities, domestic violence survivors, foster youth, and food-insecure and unhoused families meet their basic needs. Bet Tzedek delivers essential legal aid for unhoused, trans, and undocumented individuals, as well as those facing wage theft, eviction, and financial abuse. HIAS and Jewish Family Service agencies lead refugee resettlement efforts statewide, Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters mentors children in their formative years, and JVS programs expand access to quality careers and economic mobility.
JPAC is our collective voice in Sacramento – advocating for legislation and budget investments that alleviate hunger and poverty, and expand access to housing, health care, reproductive rights, and mental health supports for working and immigrant families.
To single out leading service providers and advocates for boycott – with the sole objection being our historical connection to the Jewish community – is an affront not only to the Jewish community, but to working families our agencies serve every day.
Harmful Generalizations Perpetuate Anti-Jewish Stereotypes
Suggesting that Jewish communal advocacy harms working people or influences elections is not only factually wrong – it perpetuates long-standing stereotypes about Jews and power that have fueled antisemitism for centuries. By framing California’s diverse Jewish community as inherently harmful, your questionnaire generalizes an entire ethno-religious community into a single, negative caricature. It implies that Jewish participation in civic life is suspect or dangerous and seeks to make collaboration with the Jewish community politically toxic.
At a time when antisemitic hate crimes are surging – making Jews the second-most targeted group in California despite being just 3% of the population – this rhetoric is anything but benign. No other identity-based community was singled out in your questionnaire. That double standard reflects a bias inconsistent with the labor movement’s proud tradition of solidarity and inclusion.
We’re proud of the integral role Jewish Americans played in the foundational story of labor in America. That history makes CFA’s demonization, generalization, and double standard toward the Jewish community especially painful.
A Path Forward
We share CFA’s commitment to fairness, workers’ rights, and inclusion. That is why we respectfully urge you to remove this language from all current and future questionnaires and to publicly affirm that California’s Jewish community – like every other community – has a rightful place in civic and political life.
We also request a meeting to discuss this directly and work toward reconciliation so we can stand together in pursuit of justice for all Californians. If this language remains unaddressed, we will call on elected officials to consider declining endorsements from and working with organizations that traffic in antisemitic stereotypes.
Words matter – especially when they come from institutions that shape civic discourse. We hope you will see this as an opportunity to reaffirm the inclusive values that the labor movement and California’s Jewish community have long shared.
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Besides Bocarsly and Toppel, 11 other executives signed the letter. Their names and organizations follow: Jeffrey Webb, Bet Tzedek Legal Services; Kraig Johnson, Jewish Family Service of the Desert; Isabel Burton, HIAS; Susan Frazer, Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley; Cari Usian; Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles; Trip Oldfield, JFCS Long Beach and Orange County; Dr. Anita Friedman, Jewish Family & Children’s Services of San Francisco, The Peninsula, Marin & Sonoma Counties; Lisa Countryman-Quiroz, Jewish Vocational Service San Francisco; Robin Mencher, Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay; Jeff Carr, JVS So Cal; and Eli Veitzer, Jewish Family Service LA.
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David Bocarsly is Chief Executive Officer of the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California.
Statement from Sara E. Brown, American Jewish Committee (AJC) San Diego regional director; Richard Hirschhaut, AJC Los Angeles regional director, and Seth Brysk, AJC Northern California regional director:
The California Faculty Association (CFA) claims to champion anti-racism and social justice yet revealed a deeply troubling strain of antisemitism. In a questionnaire distributed to political candidates, CFA listed organizations it claims “harm working people” whose contributions and endorsements should be rejected. Alongside the petroleum and tobacco industries, CFA included JPAC, a nonpartisan coalition of Jewish community organizations.
JPAC and its member groups, including AJC, do not make political donations or endorsements, but rather are dedicated to civic engagement. CFA equates Jewish community involvement in politics with tobacco and petroleum, implying that Jews are toxic to individuals and society. The question traffics in dangerous, centuries-old antisemitic tropes.
It is not just irresponsible; it is overt discrimination and cannot be dismissed or downplayed. CFA members must reject such bigoted rhetoric and unequivocally demand accountability and reform within the organization.
If CFA does not end their Animus, may I suggest seeking a court order for them to end their practice you’ve identified. I would estimate, in the plain language that I use, they are deploying anti jewish instruments, including among others, tropes, dog whistles, & litmus tests, in order to drive a lasting wedge between Jews and as many other of their “identity politics” sub groups as is possible, for them.
I believe that CFA must be confronted and challenged, head on. I’m sure that you have highly qualified legal expertise at your disposal. There ARE activities that from which labor unions are prohibited. I would attack their practices with THAT in mind.
labor unions are prohibited from undertaking several activities, largely defined as unfair labor practices under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), as amended by the Taft-Hartley Act.
CUTTING TO THE CHASE:
I asked Gemini Artificial Intelligence if a labor union is allowed to coerce candidates for public office to NOT accept donations from specific groups or individuals. See the response below:
AI Overview
A labor union cannot legally coerce candidates for political office to refuse donations from specific groups or individuals. Such actions would likely violate campaign finance laws and potentially First Amendment rights.
Here’s a breakdown of the relevant legal principles:
Candidate Autonomy: Political candidates have a First Amendment right to engage in political speech and association, which includes the ability to solicit and accept legal campaign contributions. The government cannot generally interfere with a candidate’s ability to raise funds necessary for an effective campaign.
Coercion is Prohibited: Federal criminal law specifically prohibits individuals from discharging, demoting, or threatening a congressional employee for making or failing to make any political contribution, and generally bars using official authority to coerce political activity. While this applies specifically to government employees, general principles of law suggest that private organizations, including unions, engaging in overt coercion over a candidate’s fundraising choices (especially if tied to endorsement or support) would be subject to legal challenge if it infringes on the individual’s political rights or constitutes undue pressure.
Union’s Role in Campaign Finance: Labor unions (and corporations) are prohibited from making direct contributions to federal candidates from their general treasuries. They can, however, establish and finance a separate segregated fund (SSF), commonly known as a Political Action Committee (PAC), which can solicit voluntary contributions from a restricted class (e.g., its members) and then make contributions to candidates.
No Control Over Candidate’s Other Donors: A union’s influence on a candidate’s fundraising decisions is limited to its own internal decisions (e.g., whether its PAC will endorse or contribute to the candidate) and its independent expenditures (which cannot be coordinated with the candidate). They cannot legally control or mandate who else a candidate accepts donations from.
Voluntary Participation: The law emphasizes the voluntary nature of political giving. For example, union members who are non-members (in some circumstances) may request that their dues not be used for political activities they oppose.
In essence, while a labor union can choose which candidates it supports (and potentially condition that support on a candidate’s overall platform or stance on certain issues), it cannot use illegal means, such as coercion, to dictate the specifics of a candidate’s entire donor base.
Not only would I recommend seeking a court order to cease and desist from what they have been doing, I would have my legal representatives seek to punish them financially, if at all possible. There are growing hordes of animus spewing groups and individuals who are determined to cause stress, suffering and pain to Jews. I see no point in attempts at making nice with such people. The only thing they will understand or respect is if you play HARDBALL with them!
The controversy written about above attracted the following comments:
Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area:
The California Faculty Association (CFA) is no longer cloaking its bigotry.
In a new questionnaire, circulated statewide, CFA has asked candidates for political office to disclose if they “have endorsements or take contributions from groups and sectors like AIPAC/JPAC.”
To clarify: CFA is urging candidates to reject money from ‘the Jews.’ There’s really no other way to read the blatantly antisemitic language of this questionnaire.
This development is shocking, but not surprising, given CFA’s recent opposition to AB 715, the bill to protect Jewish students from antisemitism in California’s K-12 schools that was signed by Governor Newsom this month. Still bitter from losing that fight, CFA’s leaders have now decided to employ an antisemitic litmus test in the guise of “dismantling oppression.”
CFA is targeting the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, which is the largest coalition of Jewish community organizations across the state and in which JCRC Bay Area is one of more than 80 member organizations statewide. JPAC’s members are charitable nonprofits and therefore prohibited from political giving. They uplift local communities by performing social services; supporting seniors and the homeless; and advocating for equality and social justice.
Furthermore, CFA has joined the national obsession with AIPAC, or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In recent years, this pro-Israel lobbying group that works to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship through political action and advocacy has faced antisemitic attacks for engaging in the democratic process just like thousands of other interest groups that fundraise for and lobby members of Congress.
History has taught us that a healthy democracy and political participation are both essential to Jewish community security. We hope CFA members will soon have the opportunity to elect new leadership who will truly fight for its members instead of fanning flames of hatred.
In light of rising antisemitism in local and state politics, as well as in unions like CFA, last year JCRC launched Bay Area Jewish Advocacy (BAJA), our affiliated political and advocacy organization. BAJA ensures Jewish voices stay strong in political and labor spaces – advocating for our safety and inclusion – while working to elect leaders who build bridges.