Partnership spans local, state, and federal races as California becomes ground zero for the national antisemitism crisis

Elizabeth Barcohana, Chair of the California Republican Party’s Subcommittee for Jewish Engagement, has partnered with the Israeli-American Civic Action Network (ICAN) to direct Republican candidates at every level, local, state, and federal, to ICAN’s endorsement process ahead of the 2026 elections.

ICAN is the only bipartisan organization that endorses candidates on pro-Israel and combating antisemitism issues at the state and local level. While similar organizations exist on the Democratic side, there has been no comparable endorsement infrastructure for Republican candidates on these issues, until now. Barcohana’s partnership with ICAN gives Republican candidates across California a clear path to earning the pro-Israel community’s endorsement for the first time.

Through the partnership, Barcohana is connecting candidates across the ballot with ICAN’s questionnaire and interview process.

Unlike traditional pro-Israel endorsement processes that focus narrowly on foreign policy and the U.S.–Israel relationship that have typically only been available for a limited number of federal races, ICAN evaluates candidates across the full range of issues that affect Jewish and pro-Israel communities on the ground — from K-12 education policy and ethnic studies curricula, to public safety, hate crime legislation, and antisemitism at every level of government, in addition to Israel, IHRA, and BDS. Candidates who meet ICAN’s standards are considered for endorsement and promoted to the organization’s network of Israeli and American advocates.

ICAN’s evaluations are powered by the ICAN “Mamdani” Index™, the organization’s proprietary political intelligence platform that tracks and scores elected officials and candidates on Israel-related and Jewish community issues at the state and local level. The Index gives ICAN a data-driven foundation that no other pro-Israel organization has at this level of government, allowing the organization to identify where candidates stand before they ever sit for an interview.

“No one else is doing what we’re doing,” said Dillon Hosier, CEO of ICAN. “On the Democratic side, you have several organizations that endorse on Israel issues at the state and local level. On the Republican side, there’s been no real available option at the state and local level. ICAN is filling that gap, and Elizabeth is making sure Republican candidates know it. We go deeper into data and information than anyone. We are going to look at where you stand on ethnic studies mandates that erase Jewish identity. We want to know your position on hate crime enforcement. We want to know what you’ll do when a mob blockades a synagogue in your district. We want to know what you’ll do when Jewish and pro-Israel kids are being bullied in your local schools and the district looks the other way.”

The partnership comes as California has become ground zero for the national antisemitism crisis. Since October 7, 2023, the state has recorded among the highest levels of antisemitic incidents in the nation — 1,344 in 2024 alone, second only to New York. In Los Angeles County, anti-Jewish hate crimes nearly doubled between 2022 and 2023. Jewish Californians have been shot leaving synagogues, had their homes targeted during Hanukkah, and watched the ruins of a synagogue destroyed in the Eaton Fire vandalized with anti-Zionist graffiti. A 69-year-old Jewish man, Paul Kessler, was killed at a rally in Thousand Oaks in November 2023, the first American to die in a confrontation linked to the post-October 7 radical protest movement.

On campuses, the crisis has been equally severe. Just recently, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an 81-page federal lawsuit against the University of California system, alleging a hostile work environment for Jewish and Israeli employees at UCLA, where antisemitic incidents surged from 4 to 130 in the year after October 7. UCLA has also had $584 million in federal research funding suspended over its failure to address antisemitism. At UC Davis, a student government passed a BDS boycott resolution with just 8 votes out of nearly 50,000 students; the UC Davis Law School student government was subsequently suspended for approving a discriminatory boycott of Israel.

At the K-12 level, Jewish families across California have reported second-graders directed to write anti-Israel messages and place them on the door of their school’s only Jewish teacher, students taunted with Hitler jokes while administrators took no action, and teachers instructing children that Israelis massacred their own families on October 7. Dozens of California cities, including Oakland, Sacramento, Long Beach, and Pasadena- passed one-sided ceasefire resolutions, with Oakland’s city council voting 6-2 to reject amendments that would have condemned Hamas’s killings and hostage-taking.

“October 7, 2023, was a turning point for Jewish Americans that impacted every facet of our lives, including politics,” said Barcohana. “The California Republican Party leadership has always been steadfastly pro-Israel and resoundingly rejects antisemitism. Jewish voters in many places in California, including Los Angeles turned out in higher numbers to vote for President Trump in 2024, so it was a natural progression to create the Jewish Community Engagement subcommittee in 2025 to be a voice for the concerns of these voters and connect them to the candidates at every level of government that are prioritizing them as part of their platforms.  ICAN has built a comprehensive endorsement process in pro-Israel politics, and I want to make sure every Republican candidate has the chance to be considered.”

ICAN is the only bipartisan pro-Israel organization endorsing candidates at every level of government, local, state, and federal, including primaries. The endorsement process is open to any candidate of any party.

“We built ICAN because the threats to Jewish communities weren’t just coming from Washington — they were showing up in statehouses, city councils, and school boards, and no one had the data or the process to deal with it,” Hosier added. “Now we do. Our Index tracks every legislator in the state on these issues. Our questionnaire and interview process goes deeper than anyone else’s. Any candidate who is serious about fighting Jew-hatred and standing with Israel can come to us and make their case.”

Candidates or party leaders interested in ICAN’s endorsement process can visit icanaction.org/elect.