Anti-Israel protesters in Los Angeles, California, US, Oct. 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Daniel Cole

California’s State Assembly has passed a bill calling for new protections for religious houses of worship amid rising incidents of antisemitic violence and political extremism.

The “Safe Worship Zone Act,” or AB 2664, passed the California State Assembly by a bipartisan vote of 61-2 late last month. The measure, which would create 100-foot, protest-free buffer zones around entrances and exits to houses of worship, received the endorsement of Jewish California, a leading Jewish advocacy group.

Authored by Democratic Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, a Democrat, the bill would also prohibit protesters from coming within eight feet of worshippers without their consent. It now heads to the Senate and could be one of the final pieces of legislation considered by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who leaves office in January.

Incidents of hate crime, vandalism, and swarm-protests across California forced the bill on the legislature’s agenda, across which a succession of laws intended to combat antisemitism in recent years have passed. California lawmakers passed Assembly Bill 715 just last September, establishing a new Office for Civil Rights for monitoring antisemitism in public schools and barring antisemitic materials from the classroom. But new imperatives emerged as the “antisemitism crisis” accelerated. Anti-Zionist extremists began showing up at synagogues, allegedly violating fundamental civil rights in the process.

In June 2024, for example, protesters swarmed the Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles. Armed with invective, keffiyehs, and Palestinian flags, the masked agitators blocked the building entrance, shoving, punching, and screaming at those attempting to defend it. In one instance, according to videos of the chaos, a Jewish woman was shoved to the ground and stomped on by pro-Palestinian activists as pro-Israel counter protesters struggled to ward the swarm off her.

New York City has seen similar demonstrations. In November, hundreds of people amassed outside the Park East Synagogue in the Upper East Side section of the borough of Manhattan chanting “We don’t want no Zionists here!” and “Resistance, you make us proud, take another settler out.” Anti-Zionists led another bombardment of Jewish houses of worship in May, showing up at the Young Israel of Midwood synagogue.

On Thursday, Jewish California said such demonstrations are unlawful.

“Today’s Assembly vote is a powerful statement that California stands with every person of faith and their constitutional right to worship,” CEO David Bocarsly said in a statement. “Jewish community members already navigate metal detectors and armed guards just to enter a synagogue. This is not normal, and it shouldn’t be. We need de-escalation strategies like AB 2664 for all faith communities that are facing rising animosity. We are grateful to Assembly member Bauer-Kahan for her leadership and to every Assembly member who voted to protect the dignity of California’s faith communities.”

Attacks on Jewish religious institutions declined somewhat in 2025, according the latest annual audit of antisemitic incidents conducted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) but they remain historically high, with 1,129 recorded that year.

At the same time, violence against Jews is getting deadlier, as perpetrators increased their use of weapons in assaults on Jews by nearly 40 percent. That upward shift is reflected in the shocking murders of Jews in antisemitic attacks in the US for the first time since 2019. Two Israeli embassy staffers — a young couple set be engaged — were shot dead in Washington, DC last May, and weeks later a firebombing in Colorado claimed the life of an octogenarian. In both crimes, the alleged killers cited anti-Zionism as their motivating ideology.

“[The year] 2025 brought some of the most violent antisemitic attacks in recent memory. Even as overall incidents declined, the surge in physical assaults is a stark reminder that a historically high level of antisemitism puts Jewish lives at risk,” ADL senior vice president Oren Segal said in May.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.