Eric Garcetti elected to second term as LA mayor
Jewish mayor of Italian-Mexican descent wins 81 percent of vote in city with America’s second-largest Jewish community
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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was elected to a second four-year term.
Garcetti, 46, a Democrat, was reelected on Tuesday with 81 percent of the vote, defeating 10 other opponents. Voter turnout was low, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Garcetti, who was a councilman for 12 years before being elected mayor for the first time in 2013, is the son of a Jewish mother and was raised Jewish. On his father’s side, he is of mixed Italian and Mexican heritage.
Los Angeles’ 600,000 Jews, about six percent of the city population of some 4 million residents, make up the second-largest Jewish community in the United States.
Thank you, Los Angeles. I’m deeply honored to serve a second term as your Mayor. EG
— Eric Garcetti (@ericgarcetti) March 8, 2017
In a 2014 interview, Garcetti told The Times of Israel that “Jewish history informs the decisions I make all the time along with the kind of values I was raised with in my family: the interconnectedness of morals and the importance of establishing local roots, but having global awareness. And I think the idea of having a kind of duty to give back and stay engaged, not just because it makes you feel good but because it’s part of your contract with your fellow human being.
“I grew up in a pretty secular family so there wasn’t anything specific, but I think every day I have a sense of the members of my family that came before me and what they struggled to go through and achieve.”
The Times of Israel Community.