LOS ANGELES — After working a 24-hour shift on the day of the North Valley JCC shootings, Cmdr. David Kalish, the Los Angeles Police Department’s spokesperson, arrived home at 2:30 a.m., exhausted.
“When I responded to the scene, my responsibility was to disseminate information to the media,” said Kalish, who is Jewish and a past president of the Shomrim Society, a fraternal organization for Jews in law enforcement.
“In emergency situations, you can’t allow your emotions to interfere.”
But Kalish finally allowed his personal feelings to emerge as he changed out of his uniform and removed his gun belt in the wee hours the night after the shooting.
“As a Jew, I felt an extreme amount of anger and outrage that Jews had been attacked,” said Kalish, 46. “I also felt frustration, as a police officer, that we knew the identity of the suspect, but we hadn’t yet caught up with him. Yet I did feel a certain amount of optimism and relief that so many people had come together to address the issue.”
Kalish said he would feel comfortable sending his 4-month-old son to religious school when he is old enough, but he also said he would like his synagogue and others to re-evaluate their security options, taking precautionary measures without going overboard. He wouldn’t want to send his son to a Jewish school that resembled a prison.
“This incident and others throughout history have taught Jews that we must be concerned about security, but we don’t need to overreact,” Kalish said.
Kalish grew up in the San Fernando Valley and Anaheim, attending a synagogue in Tustin. He initially dismayed his parents with his intentions of becoming a police officer. Jewish men, they assumed, become doctors and lawyers, not cops.
“It’s cute when a little boy says he wants to become a policeman, but when he grows up and still wants to be a police officer, that causes anxiety,” Kalish said.
Over the years, he steadily worked up the LAPD ranks, serving as a patrol officer in South Central L.A., a detective working with juveniles in Rampart division, captain in the Hollywood patrol division and a commander working in criminal intelligence, among other positions, before Chief Bernard Parks appointed him department spokesperson two years ago.