文化战争紧张局势搅动比佛利山庄学区董事会选举。围绕以色列、反犹太主义和种族的斗争近年来震动了比佛利山庄，并分裂了这个昔日的民主党社区。
Culture War Tensions Roil Beverly Hills School Board Race Battles over Israel, antisemitism and race have shaken Beverly Hills in recent years and divided the formerly Democratic enclave.
自新冠疫情以来，全国各地的学区董事会选举——曾经波澜不惊——被美国的政治和文化分歧搅得天翻地覆。种族正义教育。加沙和以色列。跨性别者权利。
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, school board elections around the country, once sleepy affairs, have been convulsed by America’s political and cultural divides. The teaching of racial justice. Gaza and Israel. Transgender rights.
但很少有哪场斗争能像加州比佛利山庄正在上演的这场一样，同时夹杂着财富、特权和名流。而今年，争夺学区董事会两个席位的竞选已演变成一场全面的政治混战。
But very few of these battles have had the same mix of wealth, privilege and celebrity as the one that is going on in Beverly Hills, Calif. And this year, the campaign for two seats on the school board has devolved into an all-out political brawl.
“国家政治的丑陋已经来到了比佛利山庄，”现年70岁的活动人士盖伊·艾布拉姆斯说。她在这座城市生活了数十年，最近组织了“不要国王”集会。
“The ugliness of national politics has come to Beverly Hills,” said Gay Abrams, 70, an activist who has lived in the city for decades and recently organized “No Kings” rallies.
内鬼已渗透进群聊。警方已出警处理数十起竞选标志被盗的报警。其中一名候选人因对手被指控人肉搜索而获得了针对对手的限制令。而在这个犹太人高度集中的社区，对以色列的感情以及反犹太主义的定义一直是焦点。
Moles have infiltrated group chats. The police have responded to dozens of calls about stolen campaign signs. One of the candidates has a restraining order against an opponent over allegations of doxxing. And in this heavily Jewish community, feelings about Israel and the definition of antisemitism have been at the forefront.
比佛利山庄虽然一直有大量共和党人，但数十年来在总统选举中一直投票支持民主党，唯独罗纳德·里根是个例外。这一情况在2024年发生了变化，当时这座人口约3万的城市投票支持唐纳德·特朗普，成为洛杉矶县广阔的蓝色版图上的一个小红点。
Beverly Hills, while it has always had plenty of Republicans, for decades voted for Democrats for president, save for Ronald Reagan. That changed in 2024, when the city, which has a population of about 30,000, voted for Donald Trump and became a small red dot on the vast blue map of Los Angeles County.
同年，比佛利山庄选出了两名新的学区董事会成员，保守派以3比2的微弱优势获得了多数席位。
That same year, two new school board members were elected in Beverly Hills, securing a narrow 3-2 conservative majority.
随后争议开始不断累积，首先是在2024年大选后，比佛利山庄高中举办了一场支持特朗普的集会。根据一名教师提起的诉讼，少数族裔学生称自己遭到了霸凌，支持特朗普的学生高喊“驱逐所有墨西哥人”。该教师称，她因在社交媒体上发帖批评这次集会而被解雇。
And then controversies began piling up, starting with a pro-Trump rally at Beverly Hills High School after the 2024 election. Minority students said they were bullied, with pro-Trump students yelling, “Deport all Mexicans,” according to a lawsuit filed by a teacher who said she had been fired for a social media post criticizing the rally.
随着时间的推移，在一些晦涩问题上的紧张关系爆发出来，比如何时允许在董事会会议上进行公众评议，以及章程规定董事会副主席应如何选举。随后是政治争议：是否在学校展示以色列国旗；在一所小学的展览中将查理·柯克与马丁·路德·金等著名美国人并列展出；以及从同一展览中撤下一本马娅·安杰卢的书。
Over time, tensions boiled over arcane issues like when to allow public comment at board meetings and how the bylaws say the board’s vice president should be elected. Then came the political disputes: whether to display the Israeli flag at schools; the inclusion of Charlie Kirk next to notable Americans such as Martin Luther King Jr. at an elementary school exhibit; and the removal of a Maya Angelou book from the same exhibit.
学校董事会竞选是无党派的，但这一裂痕涉及常见的派别分歧。董事会中的保守派多数一直支持以色列，并抵制承认族裔历史。自由派则推动庆祝更多元化，并表示批评以色列不等于反犹主义。
The school board race is nonpartisan, but the rift involves familiar divisions. The conservative board majority has been supportive of Israel and resistant to recognizing ethnic history. Liberals have pushed for celebrating more diversity and said that criticism of Israel does not equate to antisemitism.
在学校董事会竞选的保守派一方是46岁的朱迪·马努切赫里，她是一名律师，也是现任主席，以及她的盟友、53岁的大卫·西恩富戈斯，一名人身伤害律师，在墨西哥和加利福尼亚长大。自由派一方则是两位政坛新人：47岁的律师兼母亲杰基·克鲁格；以及39岁的全职母亲金·利夫希茨。
On the conservative side of the school board race is Judy Manouchehri, 46, a lawyer and the incumbent president, as well as an ally, David Cienfuegos, 53, a personal injury attorney who grew up in Mexico and California. On the liberal side are two political newcomers: Jackie Kruger, a 47-year-old lawyer and mother; and Kim Lifschitz, 39, a stay-at-home mother.
这四名候选人，加上支持度较低的第五名参选人，将角逐两个由学区全体选民投票选出的全区席位。
The four candidates, along with a fifth entrant who has less traction, are competing for two at-large seats that all voters in the school district will choose.
马努切赫里女士的家人于1979年革命后逃离伊朗，她在比佛利山长大。她认为自己无党派，并表示更愿意关注学区的考试成绩提升。（虽然一些数据显示考试成绩有所提高，但她的对手指出，比佛利山高中在《美国新闻与世界报道》中的排名有所下降。）她说，比佛利山联合学区内部的分裂令她感到沮丧。
Ms. Manouchehri, who grew up in Beverly Hills after her family fled Iran following the revolution in 1979, considers herself nonpartisan and said she would prefer to focus on the district’s improvements in test scores. (While some data shows gains in test scores, her opponents have pointed to a decline in Beverly Hills High School’s ranking in the U.S. News & World Report.) She said she was frustrated by the divisiveness within the Beverly Hills Unified School District.
她在最近的一次采访中说：“这件事令人受伤且失望，我每天醒来，目标之一就是努力用事实、数据和理由来对抗负面情绪，让比佛利山社区为比佛利山联合学区感到骄傲。”
“It’s something that hurts and is disappointing, and I wake up every day and one of my goals is to try to counter the negativity with facts, data and reasons for the Beverly Hills community to be proud of B.H.U.S.D.,” she said in a recent interview.
她说，围绕文化战争议题的争执很少见，且在社交媒体上被夸大了。不过，她为两起加剧城市分歧的事件道歉。
She said dust-ups over culture war issues are rare, and exaggerated on social media. Still, she apologized for two episodes that have fueled divisions in the city.
其中一起，她投票反对一项设立文化遗产月的决议，该决议包括黑人历史月，她质疑该市为何不庆祝欧洲遗产月。“回想起来，我认为自己没有意识到这对社区的严重性，”她说。（该决议以3比2通过。）“我确实为我对该决议的投票造成的伤害感到遗憾，”她补充道。
In one, she voted against a resolution establishing cultural heritage months, including Black History Month, asking why the city didn’t celebrate a European heritage month. “Looking back, I don’t think I realized the gravity it held for the community,” she said. (The resolution passed on a 3-to-2 vote.)“I do regret the hurt that my vote on that resolution caused,” she added.
另一起事件中，她说，一个学校俱乐部邀请以色列裔美国网红本·阿祖莱（Ben Azoulay）是个错误。阿祖莱曾因承认与未成年人发生性犯罪而入狱。她说，阿祖莱漏过了学区的审查流程。
In another, she said it was a mistake for a school club to host the Israeli American influencer Ben Azoulay, who once served jail time after pleading guilty to a sex crime with a minor. She said Mr. Azoulay slipped through the district’s vetting process.
围绕阿祖莱的争议是克鲁格女士决定参选学校董事会的原因之一。她说，现任董事会成员“在制造混乱、煽动分裂，并表明他们只为极少数少数群体服务”。克鲁格女士于1980年逃离苏联，她说她的父母做出了牺牲，让她能在比弗利山庄的学校就读。
The controversy over Mr. Azoulay was one of the reasons Ms. Kruger decided to run for school board. The incumbents, she said, are “creating chaos and sowing division and demonstrating that they are only here to serve a very small minority.”Ms. Kruger fled the Soviet Union in 1980, and she said her parents had sacrificed so she could attend Beverly Hills schools.
最近一个傍晚，支持她和利夫希茨女士的居民挤进了她那栋朴素的白色小屋，这栋房子位于一条林荫大道上，两旁是价值数百万美元的住宅，在比弗利山庄被视为中产阶级聚居区，与城镇另一边宽阔的草坪和庄园截然不同。在三明治和烤肉串的招待下，家长们忙着打电话，联系选民。
On a recent evening, residents supporting her and Ms. Lifschitz packed into her modest white cottage on a tree-lined street of multimillion-dollar homes that pass for a middle-class enclave in Beverly Hills and feel far away from the wide lawns and estates on the other side of town. Over sandwiches and plates of kebab, parents worked the phones, dialing voters.
克鲁格女士大部分时间都在法庭上，参加一场关于延长她针对西恩富戈斯先生所获得的限制令的听证会。她指控西恩富戈斯先生拍摄她家的视频、在社交媒体上发布她的地址，并指责她的儿子偷竞选标志。“这是我们一夜之间回归正常的机会，”她谈到董事会选举时说。
Ms. Kruger had spent much of the day in court, for a hearing about continuing the restraining order she had secured against Mr. Cienfuegos, whom she has accused of videotaping her home, posting her address on social media and accusing her son of stealing campaign signs. “This is our opportunity, overnight, to come back to normalcy,” she said of the board election.
39岁的利夫希茨女士说，她决定参选，是为了对抗她所认为的选区极端右倾转变。
Ms. Lifschitz, 39, said she had decided to run to counter what she saw as an extreme, rightward shift of the district.
“老实说，看到这种情况真的很可怕，这种MAGA渗透竟然蔓延到地方层面，”她说。
“It’s really scary to me to see this, honestly, this MAGA infiltration down to this local level,” she said.
竞选期间，利夫希茨女士陷入争议，原因是在群聊中，她似乎嘲笑了一张某位学校董事会成员在耶路撒冷西墙前的照片，以及另一位董事会成员在某个活动中以“宠物动物园里的宠物般的细声细气”介绍大屠杀幸存者的方式。截图在网上泄露，身为犹太人的利夫希茨被指控为反犹主义者。（“那只是成年人在发泄，”她说。）
During the campaign, Ms. Lifschitz became engulfed in controversy when, in group chats, she appeared to mock both a picture of one school board member at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and the way another board member introduced Holocaust survivors at an event in a “sing-song-y voice like they were pets in a zoo.”Screenshots were leaked online, and Ms. Lifschitz, who is Jewish, was accused of being an antisemite. (“It was just adults venting,” she said.)
与居民聊足够久，谈论他们城市的政治动荡，他们会指出一种更深层的冲突，这场冲突可以追溯到几十年前，当时许多犹太裔的波斯人逃离伊朗革命，定居在比弗利山庄。波斯裔犹太人往往比比弗利山庄的老一辈更保守——例如，许多人支持对伊朗开战——而比弗利山庄的老一辈主要是欧洲血统的阿什肯纳兹犹太人。
Talk to residents long enough about the political upheaval in their city, and they will point to a deeper clash that goes back decades, when Persians, many of them Jews, fled the Iranian Revolution and settled in Beverly Hills. Persian Jews tend to be more conservative — many support the war on Iran, for example — than the old guard of Beverly Hills, who are predominantly Ashkenazi Jews of European descent.
比弗利山庄的许多自由派犹太人认为学校董事会过于关注以色列，并指出一项让学校悬挂以色列国旗的努力。（在引发哗然后，教育总监让步，理由是安全担忧。）“我是犹太人，在这个学区长大，我真的不希望我的董事会关注一个与我的课堂毫无关系的外国和问题，”艾米·阿雷巴洛说，她在该学区教了几十年书，去年退休。
Many liberal Jews in Beverly Hills believe the school board has focused too much on Israel and point to an effort to have schools display the Israeli flag. (After an uproar, the superintendent backed down, citing safety concerns.)“I’m Jewish and I was raised in this district and I don’t really want my board focusing on a foreign country and an issue that has nothing to do with my classroom,” said Amy Arebalo, who taught in the district for decades and retired last year.
“但这已经成为董事会的优先事项。”最近一个下午，保守派现任议员拉塞尔·斯图尔特在比弗利山庄枪店的办公桌前，该枪店位于威尔希尔大道一栋办公楼的五楼，只接受预约。斯图尔特先生运营一个名为《比弗利山庄标准》的网站，该网站发布由人工智能生成的文章，攻击他的对手。
“But this has become the board’s priority.”On a recent afternoon, Russell Stuart, a conservative incumbent not facing re-election, was at his desk at Beverly Hills Guns, an appointment-only gun dealer located on the fifth floor of an office building on Wilshire Boulevard. Mr. Stuart runs a website, the Beverly Hills Standard, that produces articles generated by artificial intelligence that have attacked his opponents.
他将比弗利山庄的分裂描述为主要发生在犹太社区内部。整个由五名成员组成的教育委员会（包括斯图尔特先生）均为犹太人。
He framed the split in Beverly Hills as one largely within the Jewish community. The entire five-member school board, including Mr. Stuart, is Jewish.
“我认为在比弗利山庄这座城市，白人犹太人和波斯裔犹太人之间肯定存在分歧，”斯图尔特先生说。
“I think that in the city of Beverly Hills there’s definitely a divide between the white Jews and the Persian Jews,” said Mr. Stuart.
“波斯裔犹太人在这个国家、这个州、这个城市取得了多么巨大的成就，这是绝对无可否认的，”他补充道。“我认为存在一种怨恨，真正的怨恨，怨恨他们过得太好。”
“It’s absolutely undeniable how well the Persians have done, in this country and this state and this city,” he added. “And I think that there is a resentment, truly a resentment of how well they’ve done.”
被问及这种分歧时，马努切里女士说：“开始让人感觉就是那样。”在比弗利山庄的政治分歧之上，人们普遍感到一种失落感——失去了人们所说的曾经定义这座城市公共生活的文明与礼仪。
Asked about this divide, Ms. Manouchehri said, “It’s starting to feel that way.”Across the political divide of Beverly Hills, there is a sense of loss — of the civility and decorum people say once defined public life in the city.
“大家就是觉得，很悲伤，也很疲惫，”48岁的电视制片人大卫·拉基说，他有一个读三年级的女儿。
“Everyone is just, it’s sad and tiresome,” said David Lucky, 48, a television producer who has a daughter in third grade.
“我不知道为什么，”他接着说。“我觉得没人知道为什么。我也不知道之后会发生什么。”
“I don’t know why,” he continued. “I don’t think anyone knows why. And I don’t know what happens after.”