In 2020, the Jewish haven of Pico-Robertson voted for Joe Biden over Donald Trump, taking its place among the large swath of liberal Westside communities.
But in these politically fraught times, a lot can change in four years.
A red tide washed through the neighborhood in recent months, and Trump drew more votes in Pico-Robertson than the previous two elections combined. Locals attribute the shifting dynamics to the Israel-Hamas war, rising instances of antisemitism and a strong Republican canvassing effort.
Over the last eight years, Trump slowly gained ground in Pico-Robertson. The numbers aren’t exact, because voter precincts change boundaries and take in parts of surrounding neighborhoods such as Beverlywood and Crestview, but data show that Trump has gained thousands of votes over the course of the last three elections.
In 2016, Trump took in 1,292 votes to Hillary Clinton’s 3,632. Four years later, Trump drew 2,693 to Biden’s 5,252. In 2024, Trump surged again, drawing 6,760 votes and beating Kamals Harris in three of the five precincts that touch Pico-Robertson.
Harris still held strongholds in the neighborhood’s two other precincts, which bleed into Beverly Hills and Carthay Square, and tallied a total of 7,321 votes across the five. But the polls show that Trump made significant inroads in this once reliably liberal bastion.
“It’s the constant talk at the synagogues,” said Shlomo Walt, an Orthodox Jew and Pico-Robertson resident. “People want a change, and they have spoken.”
Walt, 49, voted for Trump and said the vast majority of locals he talked to did as well.
“People wear Trump yarmulkes,” he said.
Students from YULA High School enjoy lunch from Jeff’s Gourmet Sausage Factory in the primarily Jewish neighborhood of Pico-Robertson in Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
A neighborhood of roughly 19,000, Pico-Robertson evolved into the epicenter of L.A.’s Jewish community over the last century. German Ashkenazi Jews settled there in the 1910s, and its borders became defined through redlining practices that withheld home loans from minority communities, including Jews. More Jewish groups migrated to the neighborhood after World War II.
The neighborhood’s proximity to the 20th Century Studios lot, then known as 20th Century Fox, made it a natural landing place for Jewish entertainment professionals. Today, it serves as a hub for Persian Jews and Orthodox Jews — the latter of which are prohibited from driving on the Sabbath, making the neighborhood’s walkable synagogues a convenient amenity.
Synagogues, kosher restaurants and Jewish schools line both Pico and Robertson boulevards, with a healthy mix of single-family homes, condos and apartment buildings tucked in the blocks behind. The median home value is $1.338 million, according to Zillow — a bit cheaper than surrounding communities such as Beverlywood, Crestview and La Cienega Heights.
A man walks past a menorah at the Chabad Center in Pico-Robertson. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Over the years, the neighborhood developed a distinct identity separate from L.A. and other Jewish enclaves, according to the late USC professor Martin Krieger, who researched Pico-Roberton’s Orthodox Jewish population, which has been described as more modern compared with the fervently Orthodox sects of the Fairfax district and Hancock Park.
“If you live here, you don’t live in Los Angeles, you live in Pico-Robertson, and that’s a big fact. These people’s lives are focused here,” Krieger told PBS SoCal in 2012.
For November’s election, residents cared most about homelessness and the economy, Walt said. He preferred Trump’s approach to Israel — specifically his decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018. The move was criticized as illegal and irresponsible by Palestinians but celebrated in Israel.
Others in the neighborhood turned to Trump as a result in the rise of antisemitism in the region after Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel’s military response to it.
“We’ve had a lot of crime and antisemitic events happen,” resident Chaim Marks said. “We want change.”
A pedestrian walks past a mural created by artist Cloe Hakakian titled “The Common Thread” in Pico-Robertson. The mural depicts a woman lighting candles for Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Many locals’ fears were validated when six Jewish businesses in Pico-Robertson were vandalized in the days surrounding the election. On Nov. 4, someone smashed the glass storefront of Got Kosher? Bakery on Pico Boulevard.
“Someone is systemically targeting our type of businesses,” owner Alain Cohen told The Times.
A week later, the store was boarded up. A few buildings had broken windows throughout the block.
“This is what happens under the current regime,” said one woman while looking at a broken window on Pico Boulevard.
Walt said that the week after the election, someone called him a “f—ing Jew” while driving by, and that the antisemitism has ramped up in recent months.
He also noticed an uptick in security services — both private and volunteer-led initiatives — that offer aid to businesses or residents who don’t feel safe. Most streets in the neighborhood feature signs that say “Area Monitored by Shmira,” which is an unarmed volunteer safety patrol that protects Jewish communities.
In 2023, a man with a history of making antisemitic remarks shot two Jewish men leaving synagogues. The man was sentenced to 35 years in prison in September.
David Hyam, holding son Akiva, 1 1/2, greets a neighbor. Hyam co-owns the Little Tichel Lady clothing store with his wife along Pico Boulevard. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
On the Monday after the election, there weren’t many Trump signs left around the neighborhood, but there were plenty of Nathan Hochman signs — a potential insight into the tough-on-crime priorities of Pico-Robertson voters. Hochman, who campaigned on restoring public safety, won the L.A. County district attorney election in a landslide, defeating progressive incumbent George Gascón.
April Silverman, a Jewish pro-Trump political activist based in Hancock Park, spent months canvassing Jewish communities such as Pico-Robertson, Valley Village and Beverly Grove, connecting with voters such as Walt.
“Trump’s stance on Israel is important, but people have been unhappy with Karen Bass’s approach to homelessness and Gascón’s approach to crime,” Silverman said. “It’s a bunch of things.”
The 32-year-old ran WhatsApp groups on which she instructed Pico-Robertson residents on how to vote and talked them through voting for specific candidates and propositions. She also helped many residents fill out their ballots, dropping them off at the Downey voting center throughout the early voting period.
Silverman put together a voting guide, which recommended Trump and Hochman. She was able to track who was opening the guide based on ZIP Code data and said 700 people in Pico-Robertson used it.
A pedestrian makes his way toward Factor’s Famous Deli in Pico-Robertson. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Still, the final tally showed that Harris ultimately drew more votes in the neighborhood than Trump.
Sara Hoffman, who moved into a Pico-Robertson apartment last year, said her aversion to Trump overruled her concerns over Harris’ stance on Israel and Palestinians.
“Trump is a bigot, he’s a misogynist, and he’s a felon,” Hoffman said. “He spent four years demonstrating all the reasons why he doesn’t deserve a second chance to be president.”
Hoffman said that the divide was generational — older people voting for Trump, younger people voting for Harris — but that it also played out on religious lines. Orthodox Jews in the neighborhood favored Trump, while more of her Reformed Jewish friends opted for Harris.
She said that Trump may be more publicly pro-Israel than Harris, but that he’s just pandering to get the Jewish vote.
“He says whatever he has to so he can win votes,” Hoffman said. “Obviously it worked.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
