When Nathan Hochman is sworn in as Los Angeles’ district attorney today (Tuesday), following his decisive victory over incumbent George Gascón, he will wear a suit with a yellow ribbon pinned to it. This ribbon serves as a personal reminder of the hostages still held by Hamas, more than 14 months after the October 7 terror attacks in Israel.
“This is a daily reminder for me about this issue,” Hochman shared in an interview last month with Jewish Insider. “The minute you stop thinking about the hostages in Gaza is the minute that you’ll start thinking about a whole lot of other things, and then they will be forgotten.”
Hochman, 61, has deep ties to the Los Angeles Jewish community, and his concern for the hostages highlights a key theme of his campaign. The war in Gaza, despite its geographic distance from Los Angeles, played a significant role in his race for DA.
The surge of anti-Israel protests, such as those blocking freeways and attacking Jewish community centers, provided Hochman with a clear message to Jewish voters: “If you want to shut down a freeway, if you want to shut down the airport, if you want to vandalize a college campus and make it so students can’t get an education there, if you want to attack Jews in front of a synagogue in the Pico-Robertson area, you will be held accountable.”
Hochman’s message resonated with voters frustrated by a perceived rise in crime under Gascón, a progressive prosecutor who had been in office since 2020.
"In 2024, the Jewish community banded together in a very unique and palpable way to not only elect a great Jewish prosecutor, Nathan Hochman, but to reject the four years of misguided policies of George Gascón," said Sam Yebri, a lawyer and Jewish community activist. “Nathan did not shy away from talking about how important fighting antisemitism was, as well as standing with Israel.”
