A California Raisin Heir Allegedly Waged a Month-Long Antisemitic Campaign Against His Rabbi Neighbor. Now He’s Under Arrest.

Just before midnight on June 13, 2026, Los Angeles police arrested Bruce Lion, 64, at his $5.275 million Pacific Palisades mansion. He was charged with making terror threats and held on $50,000 bail, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The charge capped what neighbors and congregants described as weeks of escalating antisemitic harassment directed at Rabbi Zushe Cunin, executive director of the Chabad of Pacific Palisades — whose center sits next door to the mansion Lion purchased in March 2026.

Lion is the scion of Lion Raisins, a Selma, California agribusiness founded in 1903 that the family bills as the largest grower and processor of California raisins — with more than 400 employees and over $71 million in annual revenue as of 2024. The alleged conduct, captured on video and witnessed by members of Cunin’s congregation, included shouting antisemitic insults from his mansion balcony, interrupting worship services, blasting loud music to disturb his neighbors, making false and incendiary accusations against Jewish people, and placing threatening late-night phone calls to the rabbi.

Lion’s arrest is not his first. His criminal record spans more than seven years and multiple California counties — including a 2019 felony conviction tied to a different restraining order and gun possession, and a 2023 arrest in Monterey County for assaulting construction workers with rocks while blocking a highway. He is presumed innocent of the current charge until adjudicated.

• $50,000 bail — set after LAPD arrested Lion just before midnight June 13, 2026, on a charge of making terror threats · Source: LA County Sheriff's Department via NY Post
• 1903 — the founding year of Lion Raisins — now the family business Lion represents in LinkedIn as “administrator,” with 400+ employees and $71M+ revenue · Source: YourCentralValley / GV Wire
• 41 original charges — filed against Lion in his 2019 criminal case, reduced to a felony gun count and a misdemeanor for criminal threats before sentencing · Source: ABC30 Fresno
• 46 — anti-Jewish hate crimes logged by LAPD in Los Angeles in the first five months of 2026, putting the city on pace for a 12% increase over 2025 · Source: JNS / LAPD Det. Dara Hamilton

Police responded to the Pacific Palisades neighborhood just before midnight Friday, June 13, 2026. According to the LAPD and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, officers arrested Bruce Lion, 64, at his residence on charges of making terror threats — a felony under California Penal Code Section 422. Bail was set at $50,000.

The arrest came after Rabbi Zushe Cunin and other members of his congregation at the Chabad of Pacific Palisadeshad repeatedly complained to police about Lion’s alleged conduct. Cunin told reporters that on the night of the arrest, Lion had called him multiple times in the middle of the night; when the rabbi answered, Lion allegedly launched into a profanity-laced tirade that included the statement “Iran is coming to get you. You should move out.” Cunin described the pattern of incidents as “horrific,” particularly when they occurred in front of children attending the center’s programs.

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The New York Post and local outlets reported on multiple videos of Lion allegedly shouting antisemitic and racial slurs from the balcony of his $5.275 millionmansion — a property he purchased in March 2026, just months after the January Palisades Fire had devastated the surrounding community. In the videos, Lion is seen directing a stream of inflammatory statements at Rabbi Cunin’s adjacent Chabad center.

The alleged harassment extended beyond shouting. Lion is accused of:

• Interrupting Shabbat and other worship services at the Chabad of Pacific Palisades by yelling slurs at congregants, including in front of children
• Deliberately blasting loud music — including Christian devotional content played at maximum volume — to disturb the Jewish community center next door
• Falsely and publicly accusing Jewish people of being responsible for setting the 2026 Palisades Fire
• Making threatening late-night phone calls to Rabbi Cunin, including statements that he interpreted as terror threats

Cunin and congregation members documented the incidents over a period of weeks and provided evidence to the Los Angeles Police Department before the June 13 arrest. All allegations are based on police reporting, witness accounts, and videos described in that reporting; Lion has not yet entered a plea.

“The hate and harassment directed at a rabbi and members of his congregation in Pacific Palisades is reprehensible and deeply disturbing.”

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Traci Park · Statement on the Bruce Lion arrest, June 2026

Bruce Lion is the son of Alfred Lion Jr., president and CEO of Lion Raisins, Inc.— a Selma, Fresno County company founded in 1903 by Alex Lion and now operated by the fifth generation of the family. The company, which touts “five generations of greatness” and “120 years of growing experience and expertise,” is widely regarded as the largest grower and processor of California Thompson Seedless raisins. As of 2024, the company employed more than 400 people and reported over $71 million in annual revenue. Bruce Lion is listed as administrator on his LinkedIn profile.

Despite — or alongside — that business pedigree, Lion has accumulated a substantial criminal record in California courts. In 2019, he was sentenced on a felony charge of illegally possessing a firearm (while under a court-ordered ban) and a misdemeanor for making criminal threats — the result of a 41-count case that prosecutors reduced to two counts before sentencing. He received credit for time served, two years’ probation, and a therapeutic counseling requirement. That probationary period ended in January 2021.

In September 2023, Monterey County deputies arrested Lion after he allegedly threw rocks at vehicles and assaulted construction workers along Highway 1 in the Carmel Highlands. The charges included assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment, resisting arrest, and vandalism. In December 2023, he was arrested again — this time at his ex-wife’s home in Fresno for allegedly violating a domestic violence protective order.

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The Lion arrest lands in a city that is documenting an accelerating wave of anti-Jewish hate crimes. The Los Angeles Police Department reported 46 anti-Jewish hate crimes in the first five months of 2026 alone — an average of 9.2 per month, up from 8.2 per month over all of 2025. At that pace, L.A. is on track to record more than 110 such crimes in 2026, a roughly 12 percent increase over the 98 logged in 2025, according to LAPD hate-crimes coordinator Detective Dara Hamilton.

The pattern reaches beyond local statistics. The ADL’s Central Pacific Region has reported that Northern California alone saw a 202 percent increasein antisemitic incidents in recent years, with California logging the highest per-region spike in the country. Jewish leaders across the state have described the surge as visceral in a way that antisemitism “hasn’t been felt in a long time.”

In accounts relayed to reporters, Cunin described the harassment pattern as systematic and deliberate. On the night of the arrest, he said, Lion had phoned him repeatedly in the middle of the night; when Cunin answered, Lion allegedly told him “Iran is coming to get you. You should move out.” Cunin told reporters that one of the most disturbing incidents was when Lion interrupted a gathering at the Chabad while shouting antisemitic statements in front of children enrolled in the center’s programs.

The Chabad of Pacific Palisades, which Cunin leads with his wife Zisi, runs an early childhood center, the Gan Izzy Day Camp, and the Friendship Circle special-needs program. It serves a community that was already dealing with the aftermath of the January 2026 Palisades Fire when Lion allegedly began his campaign. Cunin said he and other community members reported the incidents to police repeatedly before the June 13 arrest.

“Iran is coming to get you. You should move out.”

Statement attributed to Bruce Lion in a late-night call to Rabbi Zushe Cunin, per the rabbi’s account to reporters · June 2026

The cost here is not primarily financial. It is in the texture of a community trying to practice its faith while a neighbor allegedly weaponizes noise, midnight phone calls, and incendiary statements against it. A Chabad center runs youth programs and serves families with special-needs children; the alleged campaign struck at all of that. Los Angeles City Councilwoman Traci Park called the conduct “reprehensible and deeply disturbing” and affirmed that “hate has no place in Pacific Palisades or anywhere in Los Angeles.”

The legal cost for Bruce Lion, if convicted on the terror threats charge, is a California felony on top of an already documented criminal record. For the Lion Raisins brand — which markets itself on five generations of family integrity — the reputational exposure is straightforward: the family heir and company administrator stands accused of antisemitic harassment and now faces a felony charge. We will update this page as the case proceeds through the Los Angeles court system.

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Last updated June 14, 2026