SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – San Diego is home to 100,000 people who identify as Jewish, making up about 2% of the city’s population — and the data and the people behind it reveal a community as diverse as the city itself.

The Jewish Federation’s most recent survey found that 18% of San Diego’s Jewish community identifies as Hispanic or as a person of color. Nearly a quarter — 23% — regularly speak a language other than English at home, and 17% of Jewish households include someone born outside the United States, including the USSR, Israel, Latin America, Europe, South Africa, and Mexico.

Heidi Gantwerk, the President and CEO of the Jewish Federation, said the community’s diversity is reflected in everything from food to faith.

“It’s wonderful. The foods are different, and the way they say the prayers is different. The way they think about the holidays is different.”

“And they all bring their own rich cultural traditions and history with them, which makes for a really exciting blend of different practices – cultural and religious both,” Gantwerk said.

Half of San Diego’s Jewish community does not identify with any specific denomination. More than half — 51% — of Jewish couples are in interfaith relationships.

“If you ask people what Judaism is, what being Jewish means to them, religion is not the first thing many people will say,” Gantwerk explains.

“We have an expression we talk about – Jewish peoplehood; to be part of the Jewish people. That has historical implications. Cultural implications. Religious implications. Genealogical implications. And there are a lot of people in SD who feel very strongly that they are part of what we call K’lal Yisroel, part of the Jewish people, but they’re not religious.”

Sixteen percent identify as LGBTQ+, and 30% have lived in San Diego for less than a decade. The Jewish population also skews slightly older than San Diego overall, with 27% above the age of 65.

Beyond the numbers, individual congregations reflect that diversity firsthand. Ohr Shalom Synagogue, located in Bankers Hill, recently celebrated 100 years in its historic building. The congregation draws members from around the world, including some who cross the border to attend services.

One member said the congregation’s diversity is what makes it feel like home.

“The fact that we’re able to hold a multitude of being, ways of expressing, and ways of really holding each other, is amazing! And I really think that goes to the heart of what the US is traditionally about,” said Alex Van Frank, whose family has roots in Mexico and Europe.

“It’s really a coming together of a lot of different things to make this really sweet, I dunno, melody of friendships that you wouldn’t otherwise find,” she said.

Gantwerk adds that a look at some other numbers breaks the stereotypes commonly associated with Judaism.

“People have the impression that all Jews are wealthy,” she says. “That’s a trope, and it’s false. We are just as economically diverse as every other community. 15% of our Jewish community is struggling every day to make ends meet.”

Van Frank says that rich diversity gives the Jewish community a lot to share with San Diego at large.

“We are open to sharing some of our values, like education and taking care of community, family, and friends. I think these are the types of things that permeate living in society. And all of our collective responsibility to each other to be in community…

“We practice by living. And living our Jewishness means we are out in the community with everyone else as well. And we are helping to improve the world – Tikkun Olam. I think that’s a very important thing. I know a lot of people outside the (Jewish) community also try to make the world a better place. For us that’s a driving force.

This reporting is part of coverage of San Diego’s Jewish community during Jewish American Heritage Month. It grew out of ABC 10News Anchor Jared Aarons’ participation in the Karsh Fellowship — the nation’s first and only fellowship dedicated to journalism about Jewish topics. The fellowship included three weekends of learning in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., focused on covering issues from antisemitism to religion with greater depth and nuance.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

SAN DIEGO — Like schools across the U.S., the Islamic Center of San Diego had sought to prepare its students for the possibility that a gunman could breach its walls.

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When two armed teenagers stormed the mosque Monday — and those “active shooter” drills were put to the test — the young students in one classroom did exactly as they had practiced and “went straight to business,” their teacher’s assistant told NBC News.

“If they didn’t, then this could have been a different outcome,” said the assistant, Imani, who teaches second and third graders and asked to go by her first name.

Authorities have said the three people gunned down at the mosque, described on its website as San Diego County’s largest, were all outside. No one who was inside the center at the time — including dozens of students attending school — was injured, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl has said.

One of the victims, security guard Amin Abdullah, fired at the teens when they sought to enter the mosque. He then used his radio to trigger a lockdown protocol, Wahl told reporters.

An imam at the mosque, Taha Hassane, said the center practices the lockdown drills multiple times every school year. Abdullah, he said, had been with the mosque for several years and knew about the system, which notifies teachers in their classrooms about active shooters.

The gunmen returned fire, as did Abdullah, who was killed in the gunfight, Wahl said.

Wahl said Abdullah “delayed, distracted and ultimately deterred” the shooters from gaining access to the areas of the mosque where there were as many as 140 kids.

As soon as Imani heard the gunfire, she recalled, she looked at a colleague, and they immediately knew what was happening.

“We told the kids this is not a shooting drill,” she said. “There is an active shooter, and let’s go.”

The students did as they had done in practice drills, she said, filing into a corner of the classroom, staying low to avoid windows and making sure the doors were shut and locked.

The students remained silent, even as they could hear the shooters banging on doors and trying to open them, she said.

“We are just so proud of them and their bravery,” Imani said, adding: “They held it together.”

Some of the security video from inside the mosque showed the gunmen moving from room to room, Wahl said, but those areas were empty. The shooters ultimately found two men — Mansour Kaziha and Nader Awad — in the parking lot outside and fatally shot them, Wahl said.

Each of those victims is “worth more than 1,000 men,” Imani said. “They are the reason all 140 of us made it out alive.”

Authorities said the gunmen, identified as Caleb Vazquez, 18, and Cain Clark, 17, are believed to have taken their own lives after they fled from the mosque.

Authorities investigating their motives are trying to authenticate a 75-page document that they may have written and posted online, law enforcement officials have said.

The material espouses anti-Islamic, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ views, and it refers to accelerationism, a white supremacist ideology that promotes violence to speed the formation of a white ethnostate.

“These subjects did not discriminate on who they hated,” an FBI official, Mark Remily, told reporters Tuesday.

Morgan Chesky reported from San Diego and Tim Stelloh from Alameda, California.

SeaWorld San Diego wants to change the bad reputation of sharks thanks to movies like “Jaws,” “The Meg” and “Sharknado” from apex predators to endangered species with a refreshed aquarium exhibit at the marine life park.

Shark Encounter reopens on Friday, May 22 at SeaWorld San Diego after an eight-month refurbishment that added fresh paint, redressed rockwork, new props, digital screens and projection scenes to the exhibit. SeaWorld hosted a media preview of Shark Encounter on Tuesday, May 19.

ALSO SEE: First look at Nate Bargatze’s $350 million Nateland theme park

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The entrance to the Shark Encounter exhibits where visitors can view sharks from above at Sea World on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

A nurse shark and other species can be viewed from above at the Shark Encounter exhibit at Sea World on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

A hallway that leads to the tunnel viewing at the Shark Encounter exhibit at Sea World on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Visitors view whitetip reef sharks at the Shark Encounter exhibit at Sea World on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Sydney the shark mascot greeted guests at the Shark Encounter exhibit at Sea World on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

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The entrance to the Shark Encounter exhibits where visitors can view sharks from above at Sea World on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (Kristian Carreon / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

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