Continuing events commemorating the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the Jewish Federation Los Angeles Monday will host a program at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills billed as a way to “remember victims and honor the resilience of survivors.”

Organized by the Jewish Federation Los Angeles, Israeli-American Council, StandWithUs and Temple of the Arts, doors open at 6:30 p.m. Monday for “L.A. Remembers.” Among those expected to attend are actress Mayim Bialik, Israeli actress Moran Atias, Israeli performer Raviv Kaner, as well as more than 30 elected officials including Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks.

There will also be a candle-lighting ceremony and speeches from relatives of hostages.

The event will be livestreamed at https://form.jotform.com/JFedLAForms/LARemembers-waitlist.

“Coming together to commemorate October 7th offers all of us an opportunity to gather strength as we share a sense of community that supports Israel and fights to keep the faces of the hostages front and center in everyone’s hearts until they all come home to their families,” Roz Rothstein, founder and CEO of StandWithUs, said in a statement.

Additionally, Beverly Hills community leaders, elected officials, religious leaders and residents will gather at 6 a.m. near the city’s Israel Flag installation to commemorate the one-year anniversary. Beverly Hills Mayor Lester Friedman and council members John Mirisch, Mary Wells and Craig Corman are expected to attend.

Meanwhile, IfNotNow Los Angeles will gather at downtown’s Gloria Molina Grand Park, which they say will be attended by “hundreds of American Jews” to honor the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel, and the ensuing “brutal collective punished by the Israeli government” over the past year. The event slated for 6 p.m. is intended to “remind elected officials and fellow Americans that violence is antithetical to Jewish values and that it will never keep any of us safe.”

On Sunday, the Jewish Federation Los Angeles held a reception and candle-lighting ceremony at the Museum of Tolerance Los Angeles.    

“It was not the last chapter of my life,” Andrey Kozlov, who was held hostage for eight months and a day, said at the event that coincided with the exact moment of the Oct. 7 attacks.

“Something better is coming, and here I am with lots of opportunities. I became some kind of voice of hostages, and I am able to speak.”

Mayor Karen Bass said “Today, we must continue our prayers for safety and peace. As conflict rises in the Middle East, we often see a troubling rise in antisemitism around the world, including here in L.A. So let me be unequivocally clear — antisemitism has absolutely no place in L.A.”

Many voters in Los Angeles County, one of the most progressive and steadfastly Democratic counties in the nation, may be considering a former Republican for the Los Angeles County District Attorney in November general election as Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor, is leading by double digits in a poll against the incumbent, George Gascón.

In an effort to reassure Los Angeles voters that he’s no hard-liner, Hochman, who became independent in 2023, said he too is against mass incarceration like Gascón. But the difference, Hochman said, is that if he is elected, he would look at each case individually.

“I reject extreme policies as any prosecutor actually does,” Hochman said, bashing what he called Gascón’s “blanket” policies. “You have to look at each case individually. Look at the defendant, the defendant’s background. Look at the crime committed and the impact on the victim to determine who the true threats are to our public safety and need to be behind bars and quite candidly the ones that aren’t.”

Despite the endorsements from Los Angeles police unions and law enforcement associations, criminal justice reform advocates including Black Live Matter and the American Civil Liberties Union may be concerned Hochman would try to reverse some of the reforms implemented by  Gascón.

But the one-time California attorney general candidate assured during an interview with NBC Los Angeles’ NewsConference that he too would free wrongfully convicted people and pursue police accountability – only more efficiently than the incumbent 

“I will be the first DA in history that not only has a prosecutorial background, but actually a defense attorney,” Hochman explained “I go into court every single day promoting the presumption of innocence, forcing the government to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury at a unanimous level.”

When it comes to responding to campus unrest led by pro-Palestinian protesters as seen at UCLA and USC, Hochman said he would draw the line.

“A DA needs to say that proactively and say very clearly to the protestors, ‘Here are the lines, I’m going to enforce it, here are the real consequences. And if you cross those lines, yes, you will be held accountable and go to jail.’ Hochman said.

“My fervent goal as being DA is to promote deterrence. I will know I have created an effective criminal justice system if criminals are being deterred from committing crimes in the first place.”

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón may be more than 20 points behind his challenger in a recent poll, but he wants voters to remember what he has done for them for the last three years.

One of the accomplishments he touted is his crackdown on employers who committed wage theft.

“We now have 325 workers that were given over $3 million back,” Gascón said during his interview on NBC Los Angeles’ NewsConference, adding his office has also gone after environmental crimes and rigorously yet “thoughtfully” pursued police accountability.

While Gascón is well aware of the criticism that he may be soft on crime and that his policies may have led to Angelenos feeling unsafe, the District Attorney appeared to blame the COVID-19 pandemic for the sentiment as FBI statistics show violent crime and homicide rates decreased in 2023 and early 2024.

“We went through a horrible period of time during the pandemic. I think it had a tremendous impact on, not only in the criminal legal system, but it had a tremendous social displacement,” Gascón said. “While things are starting to come down, we’re still living with a residual of two years of very, very tough times.”

The district attorney for one of the largest counties in the nation also insisted that his office has been prosecuting aggressively when necessary but with a “thoughtful” approach to avoid wrongful convictions.

“If it’s appropriate, we’ll go after (murder convicts) for life without the possibility of parole. What we are doing is when we’re alleging enhancements, we are being much more thoughtful, but we’re doing so when it’s appropriate,” Gascón explained. 

He also defended his progressive reforms he implemented, including policies that aim to end mass incarceration.

“We are prosecuting cases aggressively. We’re sending people to prison aggressively when they need to be. But we’re also trying to ensure that when people are being convicted because they deserve to be convicted,” he said.

Gascón also said his progressive mission to reform Los Angeles County’s criminal justice system needs more than one term.

“You cannot reform an entire process that’s been broken for so many years over a four-year period of time, the DA said. “It would be an honor if I had (voters’) support, but I understand this is a democracy, and people have a right to elect who they choose.”