Return & Resolve

A Rosh Hashanah Story of StandWithUs San Diego 

Rosh Hashanah is a pause and a promise—a time to remember, return, and begin again. In San Diego, that promise became a two-year journey that moved from history’s footsteps back to our own streets.

The journey started on the road. StandWithUs San Diego led missions through Portugal and Spain, tracing 1,000 years of Sephardic Jewish life in the long shadow of the Inquisition, and then to Poland, walking the story of 1,000 years of Ashkenazi life from vibrant neighborhoods to silenced tracks. They travel because memory makes strength possible. “You can’t understand what you lost if you don’t understand what you had. That’s why we’re leading these missions—we are learning about 1000 years of living Jews.” says Executive Director Oz Laniado. “In Iberia, the status of Jews changed within less than a decade—a reminder of how quickly history can turn.”

Back in San Diego, that memory became muscle. Under Executive Director Oz Laniado, with Associate Director Ashley Levy and Antisemitism Task Force (ATF) Director Liat Cohen Reeis—the chapter rewired how a city learns, links arms, and leads. It has also emerged as StandWithUs’s Southwest hub, serving communities well beyond county lines. This past school year alone, the team delivered 50 programs in San Diego that reached 11,000 students and brought Holocaust survivors to speak to hundreds at local high schools—carrying witness into the places it matters most.

Alliances widened and deepened. StandWithUs San Diego was front and center at community-wide events—from Yom Ha’atzmaut to JPride and the House of Israel Lawn program—reaching thousands. The chapter convened church partners for pro-Israel programs (including an evening with Dr. Einat Wilf) and brought in bridge-builders like Dumisani Washington to strengthen African American–Jewish ties. We marched alongside our Hindu brothers and sisters in solidarity and friendship. We had the privilege of meeting Native American leaders from the First Nations where we forged meaningful connections and began planning collaborative events. A Muslim–Jewish dialogue traded suspicion for conversation. And in public squares, Jewish and Hindu neighbors marched together, turning a moment into ongoing collaboration. Even the quiet corners changed: in recent years the chapter supported the House of Israel with security and educational materials so its doors could stay open—a steady heartbeat in Balboa Park.

Some stories explain the mission better than any spreadsheet. A non-Jewish student from Iraq, who survived ISIS, found her footing in San Diego and is now a StandWithUs Emerson Fellow—teaching classmates about fanaticism, freedom, and why silence is never neutral. That’s the kind of coalition you can’t fake.

Inside this broader mission, Liat Reeis’s Task Force plays a specific role: small, fast, factual—special forces in service of a larger army of educators and allies. It helped city leaders move from confusion to clarity as IHRA passed unanimously in El Cajon, Chula Vista, and the City of San Diego Human Relations Commission, with five more municipalities preparing votes this fall. It pushed a measured response to celebrity rhetoric—the Kehlani campaign reached over five million people—and kept the chapter’s voice steady with 21 placements in local and national media. It backed tens of cases through legal channels, so harassment met consequences, not shrugs, and supplied a “Beware of CAIR” brief so policymakers had facts at hand, not rumors on their phones.

The rhythm has been relentless and intentional. Early September brought a Christian–Jewish solidarity gathering that felt more like family than coalition; September 11 hosted a tough conversation with Brigitte Gabriel on radicalization and community preparedness; and a leadership roundtable is bringing 10 IDF soldiers together with local Christian pastors for first-hand understanding that can’t be tweeted.

What changed behind the scenes? Relationships matured. Ashley Levy became a force multiplier—turning introductions into pipelines, ideas into committed action, and civic curiosity into ongoing briefings. The Advisory Board and Task Force Board—rooted in the shared vision of Dan Feder and Oz Laniado—traded “we should” for “we did,” while Laniado kept the compass set on education first, coalition always, and results you can count. The chapter learned to move quickly without becoming noisy (helped, rumor has it, by excellent coffee).

Even celebration is part of the plan. This year, StandWithUs San Diego is honoring courageous community leaders and students—people who chose to act when a headline became a hallway conversation. And on November 16, the chapter gathers for its Gala with Michael Rapaport—serious purpose with room for laughter, because resilience and joy are not rivals.

Rosh Hashanah asks for cheshbon hanefesh—an honest accounting. San Diego’s reads like this: we remembered, so we could rebuild. We learned Iberia to honor what was; we walked Poland to face what was lost; and we came home to make both stories useful. In between, educating students and community members, gathering in grief and celebration, sharing stories of survival and resilience, alliances grew, officials were briefed, policy got clearer, cases were prosecuted, and a city remembered how to stand together in daylight.

The shofar’s call is simple and not easy: wake up. San Diego is awake. With Laniado’s vision, Levy’s creativity, Reeis’s precision, and boards that think like builders, the chapter enters the new year with a promise—to keep doors open, keep facts close, and keep each other closer. May our remembering make us brave, and our beginnings make us kind.

Shanah tovah u’metukah. Extra honey encouraged.

Learn more at www.standwithus.com.