Raisin Heir Facing 9 Years in Prison After Months of Antisemitic Terror Against Pacific Palisades Rabbi

By The LA Jewish Home Staff

A 64-year-old heir to one of California’s most prominent raisin dynasties is now facing up to nine years and four months in state prison after being charged with three felony hate crimes for allegedly terrorizing his Jewish neighbor — Chabad of Pacific Palisades Rabbi Zushe Cunin — over the course of several months.

Bruce Lion, a member of the family behind Lion Raisins, one of the San Joaquin Valley’s largest raisin enterprises, was charged with one count of using threats or force because of someone’s religious beliefs, and two counts of threatening to commit a crime with intent to terrorize.

And it didn’t start last week.

According to Rabbi Cunin, the harassment began in March, when Lion purchased the $5.275 million mansion directly next door to the Chabad of Pacific Palisades. From that moment, the rabbi says, his neighbor made life a nightmare — for him, his family, his congregants, and the workers around their homes.

“Racial slurs, intimidation, terror, and horror towards myself, and my family, and community,” Rabbi Cunin told ABC30. “Multiple people literally picked up and moved away because of him. He’s only been there since March.”

The videos that surfaced are deeply disturbing. Lion is seen on the balcony of his property berating Rabbi Cunin, shouting antisemitic and racial slurs, and allegedly accusing Jewish residents of setting fire to the Palisades during the devastating January 2025 wildfires. In one recorded confrontation, Lion allegedly threatened to physically harm the rabbi in a vulgar and degrading way.

The harassment didn’t stop at the rabbi. Tensions escalated when Lion allegedly confronted a group of workers outside the rabbi’s home, came at them with a hammer, and threatened to kill them while using antisemitic and racial slurs — even though, as Rabbi Cunin noted, the workers were not Jewish.

“It was horrific,” Cunin told reporters. “I’ve never experienced it, especially in front of kids. Little children. In this country, to have to see this kind of hatred and antisemitism is just unacceptable.”

LAPD responded just before midnight on Friday, June 13, and arrested Lion on the spot. He was held on $50,000 bail and is currently in LA County jail. His arraignment was then delayed — twice — after Lion reportedly refused to leave his jail cell, forcing a judge to order he be physically brought to court.

LA City Councilmember Traci Park, who represents Pacific Palisades in Council District 11, condemned the alleged conduct in a statement: “The hate and harassment directed at a rabbi and members of his congregation in Pacific Palisades is reprehensible and deeply disturbing. Let me be clear: hate has no home in Pacific Palisades, in Council District 11, or anywhere in the City of Los Angeles.”

This is not Lion’s first collision with the law. In 2019, a Fresno County Superior Court judge sentenced Lion to time served and two years’ probation for making criminal threats and illegal gun possession. He also faced two additional arrests in 2023 in Northern California — for throwing rocks at cars and violating a domestic violence protective order.

Lion Raisins, the 120-year-old company his family built, moved quickly to distance itself, releasing a statement emphasizing that Bruce Lion “does not actively participate in the company’s day-to-day operations” and reaffirming its commitment to serving employees, growers, and customers “with respect, dignity, and inclusiveness.”

Lion has denied some of the allegations, reportedly blaming disputes with individuals associated with the rabbi’s congregation.

What This Means for Our Community

A rabbi shouldn’t need to call the police to hold a minyan in his own home — and the fact that Rabbi Cunin had to do exactly that, repeatedly, for months, before action was taken is a sobering reminder of how emboldened Jew-hatred has become, even in the most upscale corners of Los Angeles. The DA’s decision to file three felony hate crime charges sends an important message. We will be watching this case closely.

Sources: Jerusalem Post, KTLA, ABC30/KFSN, NewsNation, GV Wire, Westside Current, Men’s Journal — all published June 13–18, 2026.