Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti to Jewish Leaders: No City Funds to BLM or any Anti-Semitic Groups

July 8, 2020

During a wide ranging one hour meeting with Jewish leaders, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said that Black Lives Matter organization will not get funds from the City of Los Angeles, nor any other anti-Semitic group. The mayor, who pushed for a $150 million cut to the LAPD, also committed to increasing police presence near Jewish institutions during the upcoming High Holy Days.

“During our meeting, I explained to the Mayor that Jews are experiencing a perfect storm of anti-Semitism," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, SWC Associate Dean and Global Director of its Ed Snider Social Action Institute.

“We are confronted with BLM whose founding manifesto accuse Israel of being an Apartheid state, the use of intersectionality to promote the lie that Israel trains US police in tactics used to murder George Floyd, the ever present, never denounced Louis Farrakhan and Palestinian protesters threatening Jewish communal institutions because of possible West Bank annexation by Israel."

Rabbi Cooper also asked Mayor Garcetti to personally visit businesses that were attacked during a May 30th riot that impacted significantly on the Jewish community.

Also at the meeting were Rabbis Alan Kalinsky and Adir Posy from the Orthodox Union, Dr. Irving Lebovics from Agudath Israel and community activists Scott Krieger and Jack Yellin.

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).