06/11/2025
Last Friday at the Pico Union Project, helicopters circled overhead as we shared lunch. There was quiet, then came the whispers—rumors of mass raids, detentions, a staging area just up the block. The rumors weren’t all true, but the fear was. Homeland Security was sweeping day laborers at Home Depot. Again.
This neighborhood isn’t a war zone - it’s a home. It’s where people work, raise families, and live—undocumented. Moments like this aren’t new. History is full of times when good people stayed quiet while injustice was carried out in the name of law. Think of Europe in the 1940s. Silence—especially from those with the power to speak—has a cost.
As a proud Jew, I believe now is the time for our community to come together—to open our arms and our hearts—and recognize that fear and pain are not ours alone. They’re shared across communities. And our safety is bound up in the safety of others.
TV and social media only tell part of the story. The Pico Union community I see every week—people who raise families, who contribute, who belong, and who live with the daily fear that their presence is a crime—that’s the real story. They’re not on the news. But they’re the heart of this city. And each of us has a choice to make: will we be bystanders, or will we be neighbors?
The time is now. Maybe we didn’t come together thirty years ago. Maybe we looked away, stayed quiet, or waited for someone else to act. We don’t have to make the same mistake twice. Let’s not miss this opportunity to step up, reach out, and stand together.
To my friends who share this concern: I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. But I do know that showing up, listening, and standing together is what builds trust and community.
I urge you to come to Pico Union when we gather with our undocumented neighbors. Not to make a statement—just to be there. The more of us who show up, the safer it is. And when the time comes, it won’t be for strangers. It’ll be for neighbors. For friends.
Hilda Solis Eunisses Hernandez Studio City Sound Seeds of Hope Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights CHIRLA Downtown Los Angeles Better Angels Healing Urban Barrios Alex Sanchez Urban Voices Project United Way of Greater Los Angeles NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change CicLAvia Craig Taubman Word Of Encouragement Church Studio City Sound Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles
Gaia Music Collective IKAR Najuma Smith Richard Foos
