LAPD Officers Get Briefing on Jewish Holidays

As officers ambled into morning roll call, Larry Blumenstein prepared to toss himself--for the eighth time this week--into the cultural divide between Orthodox Jews and the Los Angeles Police Department.

Suppose, he asked officers, you want to issue a ticket to a man who jaywalks across eight lanes of traffic. If it is the Sabbath or a Holy Day, he said, and the man is an observant Jew, he will respectfully refuse to sign. If you ask to see identification, he may say he is not carrying any. And if you try to hand him the ticket, he will simply lay it on the ground.

“It’s problematic from a police perspective,” Blumenstein said.

Because, he explained, what may be disrespectful on a weekday can be wholly appropriate on the Sabbath.

For 25 hours every week, from sundown Friday to an hour after sundown Saturday, observant Jews honor God’s commandment to Moses to keep the Sabbath holy. They abstain from any form of work, including many everyday tasks such as writing, driving and using the telephone.

As chairman of the police education committee for the Jewish Federation, Blumenstein generally makes the rounds at LAPD stations this time of year to coincide with the Jewish holidays. These educational talks, Blumenstein said, are a way to remind police that because observant Jews travel on foot to their synagogues, they might be seen as “walking targets,” vulnerable to harassment or attack.

As the Jewish community prepares for its High Holy Days, which begin Sunday with Rosh Hashana--the Jewish Federation is conducting briefing sessions for about 600 officers. The organization also briefs police in the spring, before the Passover holiday.

“Jews from all segments are going to be walking to shul” or synagogue, said Annabelle Stevens, the federation’s director of public relations. “They’re with their kids, with their families. It’s like a dead silence in this city on Yom Kippur,” a second holiday that begins this year on the evening of Sept. 29.

Of the 247,668 Jewish households in the Los Angeles area, 10,324 are Orthodox, according to a survey released by the federation in July. The survey covered the area served by the federation, which is most of Los Angeles County and a portion of eastern Ventura County.

In North Hollywood, one of the oldest Jewish enclaves in the San Fernando Valley and home to about 18 synagogues, Blumenstein estimates there are 3,600 Orthodox households.

Some Orthodox Jews were harassed en route to their North Hollywood synagogues about two years ago, Blumenstein said. They endured taunts and objects hurled at them from car windows, he said--attacks that ended with an aggressive police response.

“We just don’t have a major problem anymore,” said LAPD Sgt. Ray Davies of the North Hollywood station.

As Blumenstein pointed out in his briefing, Jews in the United States are often affected by international events, such as terrorist bombings in Israel. Others were born in foreign countries, where “the police were feared and when you saw a policeman, you went the other way,” he said.

So part of his job is to create better understanding.

“I could very well see myself taking something wrong because of ignorance to the culture,” Officer John Kirkpatrick said after the briefing.

The police briefings began at the North Hollywood station about 10 years ago, Blumenstein said. The effort was next extended to Van Nuys.

Last year, the Jewish Federation became involved, expanding the effort to the West Los Angeles, Hollywood, Wilshire and Pacific divisions.

As he concluded his briefing, Blumenstein summed up the fundamentals of traditional Jewish culture. “Basically,” he said, “you go and you pray and you eat.”