My friends,
It is not my nature to engage in discussion of American politics and elections in my role as rabbi. I firmly believe each person, each voter can and should make up their own minds. When it comes to matters of law and policy in America, there is a rabbinic doctrine of “Dina D’malchuta Dina”, which translates from the Aramaic as roughly, “the law of the land is the law”. There are some guiding principles of this doctrine. First is that the law needs to apply to all citizens equally and that it not discriminate against Jews nor conflict with Torah and its basic values. Among our basic Torah values is “love your neighbor as yourself”. The very idea of hate speech and bigotry are against basic Jewish values.
What causes me to write to day is my waking up this morning to an email (included below) from the Southern California Board of Rabbis, decrying in the State of California “Official Voter Information Guide”, one of the candidates for Governor posted a full on anti-Semitic rant as his “Candidate Statement”. The statement has nothing about his qualifications for office, only his hate of Israel and people of the Jewish faith.
It is beyond the pale for the State of California, on an official state document, to print and distribute at taxpayer expense hate speech of any kind. This hate speech needs to be called out for the trash it is, and how it is not a value of the State of California or the United States of America. The letter below from the SoCal Board of Rabbis has several links to for your use to sign various petitions. In addition to that, I encourage us all to write our State of California elected representatives, assembly representatives, the Governor and Secretary of State. All of them can be accessed via the internet and their websites.
This is not about “Freedom of Speech”. It is about calling out hate speech (which is protected speech) for the trash it is. After something is shared in the public sphere, it can be reviewed, debated, accepted, refuted, rejected… And in the case of bigoted speech, it can and should be called out for the trash it is. We must not allow hate speech to be funded and distributed by any governmental agency. We need to ask our state of California government, why they allowed it this time.
חזק ואמץ —Be strong and have courage,
Rabbi Ron
From: Ahud Sela <rabbisela@trz.org>Subject: Antisemitism on the ballotDate: May 4, 2026 at 10:59:41 PM PDTTo: borsocalFriends,By now I’m sure that you have heard about the disgusting antisemitic screed that is being passed off as a candidate’s statement and appeared in the voter information guide mailed to every registered voter in California.I personally called the office of the Secretary of State to complain, but was told that there were no guidelines regarding what was printed under a candidate’s name as long as they had filled out their paperwork properly and paid their fees. This seems to directly contradict information from California legislators.You can still raise your voice to complain.Please take a few minutes to make your opinion known.Thank you.Ahud—
Rav Ahud SelaTemple Ramat Zion17655 Devonshire St.Northridge, CA 91325President, Board of Rabbis of Southern California