All six of the bills that Jewish California sponsored and believes are “critically important” to the Jewish community passed their respective appropriations committees in the California Legislature on Thursday, the advocacy group said.
The committees determine if the state can afford the costs associated with each bill.
Both AB 2664, which creates 100-foot, protest-free buffer zones around entrances and exits to houses of worship, and AB 1836, which expands the California Nonprofit Security Grant Program to include offsite events for eligible nonprofits, passed the California Senate Appropriations Committee in a 7-0 vote, according to Jewish California.
AB 395, which requires public schools and agencies to try to avoid scheduling major events on holidays like Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and AB 1763, which excuses absences of religious students in public schools for holidays without requiring written parental requests and principal approvals, also passed the committee unanimously.
AB 1853, which prohibits hateful content in candidate statements in official voter guides, passed the committee 5-0, with two abstentions.
SB 1387, which requires state agencies to recognize Jews as an ethnicity under state law and in data collection, passed the California Assembly Appropriations Committee in an 11-0 vote, with four abstentions, according to Jewish California.
All of the bills head to final floor votes over the next two weeks.
“Every one of these bills solves a problem our community asked Sacramento to fix,” stated David Bocarsly, CEO of Jewish California. “We’re grateful to the committee members and leaders who voted to keep them moving, and we’re not letting up until they cross the finish line.”
