JPAC and Leading Jewish Service Agencies Respond to Harmful CFA Questionnaire

JPAC and Leading Jewish Service Agencies Respond to Harmful CFA Questionnaire Coalition calls on California Faculty Association to retract language that targets Jewish community and misrepresents their work supporting working families

CALIFORNIA – The Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California (JPAC) and a dozen leading Jewish social and human service organizations in JPAC's coalition have issued a joint letter to the California Faculty Association (CFA) expressing deep concern over language in the union’s 2026 candidate endorsement questionnaire that identified JPAC among “groups that harm working people.”

The questionnaire asks candidates to reject endorsements or donations from JPAC – activities that JPAC does engage in. CFA represents 29,000 faculty members across the California State University system and plays an active role in statewide policy discussions.

“JPAC does not make campaign contributions or endorsements – our work is to strengthen the very systems that working families depend on,” said David Bocarsly, Executive Director of JPAC. “To suggest that our community’s statewide voice, and the agencies that feed, house, and care for vulnerable Californians, ‘harm working people’ is both misguided and deeply offensive. It echoes age-old antisemitic tropes and sets a dangerous precedent for Jewish civic participation in California.”

The letter is co-signed by all seven Jewish Family Service agencies in California, the state's two JVS agencies, HIAS, Bet Tzedek, and Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters Los Angeles – all JPAC member organizations that help shape its annual policy agenda.

Together, JPAC’s member agencies provide essential services to Californians of all backgrounds – including food assistance, housing, mental health care, legal aid, refugee resettlement, and workforce development. The coalition emphasized that these agencies overwhelmingly serve low-income communities of color and reflect the very values of solidarity and inclusion that the labor movement has long championed.

In the letter, the coalition calls on CFA leadership to:

Remove the harmful language from all current and future endorsement questionnaires; Publicly affirm that California’s Jewish community – like every community – has a rightful place in civic and political life; and Meet directly with JPAC and partner organizations to engage in dialogue and repair.

“This moment is about reaffirming what real solidarity looks like,” Bocarsly added. “We stand ready to find a constructive path forward with CFA rooted in inclusion, dignity, and our shared commitment to California’s working families.”

Read the full letter here.