Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Local Synagogue’s Social Justice Committee to Host Immigration Panel on Sunday

California State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez and Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Executive Director Angelica Salas

State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez and CHIRLA’s Angelica Salas are among four panelists; PJTC Senior Rabbi Joshua Ratner will moderate

The Social Justice Committee of Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center will host an Immigration Panel and Discussion on Sunday, May 17, the committee said in materials released this week by its chair, Carl Selkin.

The four panelists are California State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Executive Director Angelica Salas, Julie Mitchell, and Rabbi Suzy Stone. Rabbi Joshua Ratner, the senior rabbi at Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, will moderate.

Time and venue for the panel were not provided in the announcement materials, which directed prospective attendees to the Social Justice Committee for the RSVP link go register and get the informaton.

In its materials, the committee describes its mission as one of responding to societal conditions and contemporary issues based on traditional Jewish values and the prophetic admonition “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof — Justice, justice shall you pursue.”  The same admonition appears on the synagogue’s Social Justice Committee page.

The panel comes in a year marked by the destruction of Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center’s 1434 N. Altadena Drive campus in the Eaton Fire on January 7, 2025, and a sustained period of federal immigration enforcement activity in the San Gabriel Valley.

Pérez represents the 25th State Senate District, which includes Pasadena, Altadena, and 19 other San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire communities, according to her official Senate biography. She was elected in November 2024 and sworn in on December 2, 2024. She authored Senate Bill 805, the No Vigilantes Act, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law on September 20, 2025, and she introduced Senate Bill 1105, the Protect California Rights Act, on February 16, according to her office and reporting by South Kern Sol and ABC7. In a statement issued by her office, Pérez said clear identification and accountability were the motivation behind the law and that SB 805 “will expand existing police impersonation laws.”

Salas has led the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, known as CHIRLA, as executive director since 1999, and joined the organization in 1995, according to CHIRLA’s website. She was born in Durango, Mexico, came to the United States as a child, grew up in Pasadena, and is a graduate of Pasadena High School and of Occidental College, according to CHIRLA. CHIRLA was founded in 1986.

Ratner became senior rabbi at Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center in August 2025, according to reporting in The Forward. He is a former lawyer.

The Social Justice Committee’s stated activities have included partnerships with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, including a Welcome Circle to support an Afghan refugee family in Pasadena, according to the committee’s page on the synagogue’s website. The committee previously hosted an immigration panel and discussion in April 2013 at the synagogue’s former Galpert Sanctuary that also featured Salas, according to a contemporaneous Altadena Blog announcement archived by the Altadena Historical Society.

The Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, founded as Temple B’nai Israel of Pasadena in 1921, is the only Conservative Jewish congregation in the western San Gabriel Valley, according to its website.

Prospective attendees can contact the committee at sjcpjtc@gmail.com or the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center office at (626) 798-1161.