Late last month, the man who killed Paul Kessler was sentenced to serve a lenient 365-day term in county jail for his brutal and deadly assault during a peaceful pro-Israel rally in 2023.
On Nov. 5, 2023, the 69-year-old Kessler went to a protest in Ventura County. He came to exercise his right to free speech, as every American has the right to do.
Twenty-nine days after Hamas massacred approximately 1,200 people in Israel, with Jewish communities across the country still reeling, Kessler decided to show up.
A counter-protester struck Kessler in the face with a megaphone, and Kessler died three days later of blunt force trauma.
While we respect the court’s decision and appreciate the efforts by the justice system, particularly the district attorney and Ventura County sheriff, to hold the perpetrator accountable, the sentence feels inadequate.
Whatever the killer’s motivation, the intentional targeting of Jews impacts our communities deeply. Inadequate public responses to such violent crimes leave the American Jewish community feeling deeply insecure and fearful.
It is especially concerning that the court spent much of the sentencing hearing expressing dismay with the letters received from the Jewish community, and asking the District Attorney’s Office to make a statement correcting the perceptions of the 132 community members who felt compelled to express how this woefully inadequate sentence would impact them.
Despite the court’s pointed statements about the Jewish community, the judge never once expressed dismay at the defendant who took Paul Kessler’s life. The judge merely asked the defendant to stay late to sign some paperwork.
The attacker’s attorney described the incident as a simple altercation between two older men. It was not.
Kessler, and the pro-Israel activists alongside him, were vastly outnumbered. The defendant was 20 years his junior. According to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, he approached Kessler and struck him deliberately.
This was not an isolated incident. In the immediate aftermath of the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, between Oct. 7 and Oct. 27, 2023, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) documented a 539% increase in antisemitic incidents compared to the same period in 2022.
And ADL tracked another 817 antisemitic incidents in California in 2025, including acts of harassment, vandalism and violence. Antisemitic assaults in the state have increased 123% since 2022.
Nationally, 2025 saw the third highest number of antisemitic incidents ever recorded by ADL. Antisemitic incidents have increased by 567% in just a decade.
In Ventura County, where Kessler was killed, antisemitic incidents rose 188% in 2025 alone.
These are not merely numbers. They are crimes that affect actual people. People who were followed home from synagogue; children who were bullied and even assaulted in school; or friends and neighbors who were attacked for wearing a Star of David.
California is already struggling with a crisis of accountability around antisemitic violence, harassment and intimidation.
In LA, the city attorney charged only two of the nearly 350 people arrested at the 2024 UCLA and USC encampments, where Jewish students were blocked from campus and subjected to harassment.
Just prior to that decision, another court questionedwhether the same Jewish city attorney could possibly be unbiased in charging anti-Israel protestors who blocked the 110 Freeway.
Across California’s K-12 schools, a February 2026 lawsuit by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the pro-Israel StandWithUs organization documented a statewide pattern of Jewish children being bullied, segregated and targeted by their own teachers while state agencies stand silently by.
Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters
California Post News: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedIn California Post Sports Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X California Post Opinion California Post Newsletters: Sign up here! California Post App: Download here! Home delivery: Sign up here!Page Six Hollywood: Sign up here!
Claiming that the US Department of Justice lawsuits against the University of California are politically motivated, the state has refused to settle allegations of civil rights violations against Jewish victims throughout the UC system — once again stymying progress toward accountability and meaningful reform.
The thread in each instance is the same: When Jews are the victims, accountability is optional.
Antisemitism does not stay on one street corner. It does not stop at one courthouse, schoolyard or college campus. It spreads precisely because it is allowed to, because the consequences remain minimal, the accountability optional and the victims easy to overlook.
Every crime against Jews that is ignored or minimized is not just a failure of justice; it is a green light for future attacks.
California cannot claim to stand for equality while its courts, schools and institutions send the unmistakable signal that Jewish lives deserve less protection, and less accountability.
Nothing — no rulings, memorials, nor empty words — will bring Paul Kessler back to life. But that doesn’t mean it’s too late for California leaders make sure he did not die in vain.
Political leaders, campus administrators, local law enforcement and the courts must send a clear message that antisemitism in all forms is unacceptable.
It takes concrete actions to ensure that a violent crime like this never happens again.
Joshua Burt is regional director of ADL for the Santa Barbara/Tri-Counties region and a resident of Ventura County.
The post Light sentence for Paul Kessler’s killer sends wrong message on antisemitism appeared first on New York Post.
