California Assembly advances a bill enabling voluntary race/ethnicity self-identification on state forms; Henry Stern is the current California official referenced in debates surrounding this policy.
California lawmakers are advancing a bill to add “Jewish” as an ethnicity option in state demographics. The measure aims to improve data on Jewish Californians for policymaking, while privacy guards are cited. The bill could help track hate crimes but faces concerns about counting Jews as a single ethnicity. The proposal has been amended to shield funding and privacy safeguards.