Three Jewish California-Backed Bills Advance Through Policy Committees, Head to Final Votes

SACRAMENTO, CA – Jewish California (formerly JPAC), the nation’s largest statewide coalition of Jewish organizations, announced today that three of its priority bills for the 2026 legislative session have each passed their respective policy committees and are advancing toward final fiscal committee and floor votes. Assembly Bill 1853 (Pellerin) and Assembly Bill 395 (Gabriel) both cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee, while Senate Bill 549 (Allen) passed the Assembly Education Committee. This was the last week for policy committee votes in the 2025-26 legislative session.

"These votes move three important bills forward – addressing hate in our voter guides, expanding access to schools and public institutions, and ensuring our youngest Californians can access the cultural and linguistic education that roots them in who they are," said David Bocarsly, CEO of Jewish California. "We're grateful to the legislators and our coalition who have pushed these bills forward, and we look forward to seeing all three through to the governor's desk."

AB 1853 (Pellerin) – Hate Speech in Official Voter Guides

AB 1853 closes a gap exposed earlier this year when California's Official Voter Information Guide for the June 2026 Primary was mailed to 23 million registered voters containing a candidate statement with antisemitic conspiracy theories and white nationalist rhetoric. The bill limits candidate statements in official state and county voter guides to a candidate's own qualifications and record, bars attacks on individuals or groups and links to external content, and gives election officials clear authority to reject noncompliant statements. The bill is authored by Assemblymembers Gail Pellerin and Marc Berman.

The bill narrowly passed the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee on June 16 by a 3-1 vote, with one abstention – needing three of the five votes to advance. Following that hearing, the bill incorporated committee-suggested edits addressing First Amendment concerns. On Tuesday, June 30, AB 1853 passed its second committee, Senate Judiciary, by a vote of 11-0 with two abstentions.

AB 395 (Gabriel) – Advancing Equal Access to Schools and Government

AB 395 requires state agencies, local governments, universities, and K-12 schools, to make good faith reasonable efforts to avoid scheduling public meetings, first days of school, and graduations on religious, cultural, or ancestral holidays so no Californian is excluded from civic life by observance. Authored by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, the bill addresses what Jewish California's coalition has called “a quiet but persistent form of exclusion” facing observant members of Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and other faith communities. Notably, it acknowledges Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Passover – alongside other religions’ holidays such as Eid al-Adha and Diwali – in state law for the first time.

First introduced in 2025, AB 395 had stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sustained pressure from Jewish California's coalition brought the bill back to the table this year, and the committee agreed to move it forward after technical amendments addressed its concerns. On Tuesday, June 30, AB 395 passed Senate Judiciary by a unanimous vote of 13-0.

SB 549 (Allen) – Heritage Schools

SB 549 lowers the minimum age for heritage school enrollment to include transitional kindergarten students, ensuring California’s youngest learners are not turned away from the after-school cultural and language programs that serve as a critical source of childcare for working families. The bill brings the heritage school eligibility rules in line with the state’s 2025-26 rollout of universal transitional kindergarten, at no new cost to the state.

Senator Ben Allen introduced SB 549 last month with Jewish California’s support after learning that synagogues running heritage after-school programs for school-age children were being forced to turn away TK-age children from the same families, simply because public TK did not yet exist when the underlying law was written. On Wednesday, July 1, SB 549 passed its first committee since introduction, Assembly Education, by a vote of 8-0 with one abstention.

Next Steps

All three bills now move to their next legislative checkpoints: AB 1853 and AB 395 head to the Senate Appropriations Committee, with a deadline of August 14, while SB 549 advances to the Assembly Floor, with a deadline of August 31. Jewish California and its coalition partners will continue advocating for all three bills as they move through the remainder of the legislative session.

Learn about and track all Jewish California priority bills here.