California Assembly advances race/ethnicity data for Jews; Henry Stern, active state senator, has steered data-collection bills amid changing identity classifications.
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.