28 Oct Jewish Journal: Nathan Hochman on Tikkun Olam and Being a Public Servant
By Benjamin Raziel, October 28, 2024
In summer 2010, rabbis led Nathan Hochman and his son Tyler into a small apartment in Sderot, Israel, belonging to a man who lost his leg in a Hamas attack but could not afford a functioning wheelchair.
It was one stop in a journey across Israel for Tyler’s bar mitzvah project of raising funds for wheelchair deliveries to Israel.
Nathan Hochman insisted they drive across Israel to deliver each wheelchair, so Tyler could witness the effort required to change someone’s life — and one mitzvah’s impact on an entire community.
“We have this idea that if you save even one life, you’ve saved a whole world,” Hochman said. “Tikkun olam, repairing the world, is not something you say idly. You actually have to go out and do it, and it’s hard work, but it’s not an optional exercise. It’s an obligation.”
Hochman said this philosophy influenced him to become a public servant. As a California federal prosecutor, he helped convict gangs and environmental criminals before serving as Assistant Attorney General and overseeing the U.S. Justice Department’s Tax Division.
“If you take those Jewish lessons seriously — that you have an obligation to give back, that giving back is a form of justice, and that you can focus on helping one person at a time — it gives you good grounding on what you can do with your life,” Hochman said.
Now, he is running to replace George Gascón as District Attorney of Los Angeles County: the country’s largest local prosecutorial office.
With less than two weeks until the election, Mark Karlan, a professor at UCLA’s law school and Anderson School of Management, said his vote for Hochman comes as support for stability amid a growing public safety crisis.
“Having a solid, strong capable district attorney is essential,” Karlan said. “He (Hochman) has the right temperament to do the right thing.”
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