Faces of the West County: Elena Lev

Meet cease-fire activist and all around interesting person Elena Lev

Elena Lev (Photo by Steve Einstein)

Sitting down for a chat with Elena Lev checks off a few boxes. First of all, she is one of the local activists who was behind the recently delayed resolution before the Sebastopol City Council calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza/Israel. So that’s pretty relevant. 

She’s also a native Sebastopoler in her mid-20s who has returned home, at least for now, and I’ve wanted to shine a little light on those returnees. 

Full disclosure: I have known Elena ever since she was just starting to bulge out of her mother Wendy’s belly. She is a neighbor in the small co-housing community where we both live. She is a powerful, no-holds barred, positive breath of fresh air. She has many deep-felt opinions and isn’t scared to share them, as you will see. 

And, Elena, let it rip. This longish text represents about a third of our conversation. 

Okay Elena, when and where you born? 

October 1st, 1999. Here in Sebastopol. 

Where did you go to school?

Parkside, Pine Crest, Brookhaven, Analy, and then Scripps College in Claremont, east of LA.

What did you major in? 

Spanish. 

Why Spanish?

I really like speaking Spanish. And I like learning about the language and Spanish-speaking cultures. And it seemed like an interesting way to understand parts of the world that I'm not super familiar with. 

You've actually lived in Mexico for a little while. No?

Yes, Mexico. Yeah. And I was traveling in Central and South America this past year. And I lived in Spain for seven months, studying abroad for a semester, and then I just stayed there. Overnight, COVID hit, and then I had to come home.

A big part of your connection with the Spanish language is through your father. Tell us who's in your family,

My mom is Wendy, and dad is Ben. My sister is Sophie, who's a little older than me. 

So how is it that your father helped you gain an appreciation for Spanish?

Well, I would say the primary thing that did it was when I was in fourth grade, my dad and I moved to Mexico for four months. 

Just you and your dad? 

Yeah, because my mom had to stay home and work, and Sophie was in sixth grade and couldn't miss school. But I could miss school because I was in fourth grade. I actually went to school there, to a Waldorf school in Mexico. 

Was it in English or Spanish?  

Spanish. 

My Dad was working on his master's degree at the University of Guanajuato. I made friends with an eight-year-old girl. I was nine. She was part of the family we were staying with, basically a host family. I became really good friends with her. And then when I went to school I just picked up Spanish really fast because I had that malleable brain of a nine-year-old kid. Later I took Spanish in high school. It was advanced Spanish. It's just fun to be good at something. I've always just been good at it. 

You still seem to have that malleable brain. But weren’t you kind of cheating by studying it in university because you were already so proficient?

Well, the purpose of me studying it wasn't to refine my language skills.  It was classes about gender, and femininity in Spanish literature in the 1900s. Or like the picaresque novel or queer representation in Latin America.  I was studying really interesting content and able to do that in Spanish. It's just like an extra challenge, but also made it more fun. And it was way easier because I was already good at it. Then in my junior year of college, I was in Spain for seven months. Last year, I went for three months to Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador. 

Have you found much use for your Spanish since? 

Actually, since COVID. Since March of 2020, I've had three jobs where it's been advantageous for me to speak Spanish. I was volunteering at California Homemakers Association, a mutual aid membership association in Santa Rosa. I was a caseworker and translator, and I needed it as a lot of those folks that CHA serves only speak Spanish. 

The second job was as a co-founder with Liora Jacob of Study Buddies tutoring, as you know. You were one of our first tutors. It was an all-volunteer bilingual tutoring organization that we were operating in person during the pandemic. We were just a ragtag group of people trying to help kids who were falling behind in school during COVID, keep up. We were the only tutoring group operating in person. We brought in person weekly tutoring for free to low income, mostly Spanish speaking families.

I’m hearing again how hugely impactful the COVID shutdown was for you. 

Yeah, it was. We were really careful with the tutor/student contact. It was all outside and they had to be masked, and ideally six feet apart. Not one of our tutors ever got COVID from a student. Two of the kids got COVID, but they didn't transmit it to the tutor. 

And those kids probably lived in households that were more congested and maybe less inoculated.

That’s true.  Now I'm working as a nanny, and I speak Spanish with my kid.

In Australia they’d say, “no flies on Elena.”  You are one busy woman. Elena, I've known you from before you were born. You and I live in the same co-housing community. What is co-housing, or what is co-housing to you?

Co-housing is when a group of people come together and intentionally decide to live close together and share resources. It’s not typical suburban houses with the garage and, you know, a car in each driveway. We intentionally live closer than we do in typical American society and with all the joys and struggles that come with that. We try to eat together every week and are just more supportive of each other. 

So you're kind of voting with your feet by coming back here to live here in the community after you left home. That seems like an endorsement of this kind of arrangement. 

If I could live in an intentional community for my whole life, I would. It has made me who I am. Certainly the community-oriented, people person that I am.

Hold on. My kids grew up here and they're not really people-oriented. 

I guess it affects us differently.

That might be a vote in favor of nature versus nurture.

Anyway, I love living in community. And it's definitely impacted me in a very powerful way. I really love having intergenerational connections. You know, older folks who are my friends in a way that I might not have in a less connected neighborhood. You and Denise and Michael, and Jim are good examples.

So I want to get a little more personal now. Can we talk about your cousin who died for a minute? 

Sure. 

What was his name?

Tyler. 

And there's actually a law now in the state of California named after him. What's it called?

Tyler's Law.

Tell us about it. 

Well, Tyler’s law requires mandatory fentanyl testing whenever California hospitals order a standard five-panel drug test. My cousin had been in treatment for an opioid addiction. The night he was taken to the hospital was his first time ingesting fentanyl. My aunt asked the E.R. doctor three times if they had tested for fentanyl, and he was misinformed and said yes. If they’d tested him for fentanyl, they would have put him in rehab immediately. Instead, they sent him to a sober living home, where he got his hands on more fentanyl and died the next day. 

How old was he?

19. 

Were you surprised?

Yeah. I don't think everyone in his life was surprised. But I was surprised.

You mean people that knew how bad his problem was understood that he had been close to a fatal overdose for a few years because he'd been in and out of treatment?

Yeah. It made it hard to be close to him.  

I'm so sorry. But much respect to your aunt who went on to push for some kind of legislation.

Yeah, she's amazing. She founded an organization, the Drug Awareness Foundation. They go around doing drug awareness talks around the country. And my aunt, along with a California lawmaker, got Tyler’s Law passed in California. My aunt is in DC right now, working to get support from Congress to nationalize the legislation. It has bipartisan sponsors in both the house and the senate. 

Here in our little co-housing community we now have access to Narcan in our common house.

Yes. You never know. I carry Narcan with me everywhere. I carry it in my purse. Just in case. I have friends that are just taking hard drugs, and not testing them first, or not knowing where they got them. Like, what the fuck?!?  Your life is too precious to throw it away on a good night, a fun night out without being aware of the repercussions. I'm not saying don't do drugs, I'm just saying be smart about where you get them and that you test them. Harm reduction tactics. I know people are going to do what they're gonna do. Carry Narcan with you. It's not that hard. It weighs like an ounce.

But isn’t that like a false layer of protection? It's not like the drugs aren't gonna fuck up your life because you're carrying Narcan with you. 

Test your drugs. Know where you're getting your drugs from.  Know the person who made them. 

Elena, you are a true activist. How did that happen? Well, let me ask this: What was the first thing you remember being so concerned about that you wanted to make an effort to bring it to people's attention and change things.

The first thing I remember really being pissed about was when Trump got elected. I was 17. It was in my senior year of high school, and I remember him getting elected, and a lot of us students staging a walkout. I remember standing up at the walkout and speaking extemporaneously and that being the first time when I was fucking pissed and spoke out publicly. That was the first time I realized that I felt strongly about something, and that I could raise my voice and be heard. Since then, it's been a variety of things. There are times when I felt passionately about causes and marched in the street. And there are times when I felt passionately about educational reform, and I started a tutoring program. I’m a pretty outspoken person, and I love public speaking. I love being in charge and being a leader. So all these things combined make me really enjoy activism work.

So do you think politics may be in your future? 

I don't know if politics are in my future, I don't see a lot of hope in deep systems change from within the systems that oppress so many people. My long-term trajectory is more toward social work or in grassroots organizing. 

Let’s get to the elephant in the room. You and I share a common concern about the Middle East. One reason I wanted to talk to you is that you’ve been active in the effort to advance a resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza before the Sebastopol City Council. As somebody who's also engaged and connected to the Middle East, I couldn't agree more that it'd be nice to see a ceasefire and an end to the terrible suffering there.

Nice?!? It would be a little more than “nice”.

I guess that was a little cynical, being aware of what an intractable problem it’s been.  It would be wonderful if magically there could be that kind of peaceful outcome, let alone immediately. But here's the question. Why Gaza, and not Ukraine, or the homelessness situation on the Joe Rodota Trail, or local hunger issues, or things that we can feel right here in our grasp? How come we're not up in arms about that and spending time rectifying that?

Good question. And it's something that I've been thinking about lately. My answer is multifold. For one, it's the immediacy of the issue. The unhoused folks living on the trail and in campers and trailers around Sebastopol is a chronic problem. I haven't noticed that getting drastically worse over the past few months. But the severity and rapidity with which Gazans are being killed is feeling very intense.

We're certainly seeing a lot of it on the news and in social media. 

A second component is the US complicity in this war. The US supplies so much money, and so many weapons to the IDF (Israel Defense Force). It's my tax dollars that are funding this war, and I don't know what other atrocities and other countries my tax dollars are funding. My tax dollars are funding the mass killing of innocent people. 

The third component is I feel personally invested as a Jewish person. I've been raised Jewish, and  I care deeply about my Judaism and Jewish connections and heritage and Jewish culture. I feel deeply embarrassed and ashamed that this mass killing is being carried out in my name, or in the name of the safety of the Jewish State and for my people.

That’s three solid reasons. We’re seeing a huge outcry from college campuses and it reminds me of when I was in college and I too was swept up into a movement for social justice. It was the later 70s and we were calling out the Shah of Iran for his brutality in Iran, and for US complicity. I remember walking down Main Street in Madison, Wisconsin, chanting, “the Shah is a US puppet, down with the Shah! The Shah is a US puppet, down with the Shah!”

There's a nice ring to that chant.

I was with hundreds or thousands of other students who were equally outraged by the Shah of Iran and American involvement in Iran. Of course, he was replaced by a rather reprehensible Islamic regime that followed him, but never mind that. The reason that I bring it up is that I really didn't know what I was talking about, yet I felt very passionately about a need to bring the Shah down.  

What made you feel so passionately about that?

I think I was swept up by the moment. What I'm saying is that I'm feeling like to some degree, that's what's happening on campuses now around Israel and Gaza.  People are very sincere, and very much motivated by compassion and a desire to see the end of any kind of suffering, but they don’t really get the complexity of this terrible situation. 

What do they not get? 

I don't think they get the scope of the massacre of Oct. 7th, the intense feelings of responsibility in Israel to the hostages, the evidence of systemic rape, the thousands of rockets fired from Gaza over many years, the longstanding Hamas goal of Israel’s eradication…tell me when to stop. What's not complex is how much suffering and death we're seeing right now, every day in Gaza, and how important it is to help stop that. I get it. There’s a lot of trauma over there, on both sides.

There are many ways to change a political ideology rooted in deep ancestral trauma, but bombing the shit out of people is not one way to do that. There are many non-violent and diplomatic ways to go about that. The bombing and mass destruction is actually only going to radicalize more people. It's actually only going to instill even deeper trauma in more innocent kids who are then going to grow up wanting to hurt people because of their own trauma, and fear and need for revenge. That's the cycle of war. 

So in this instance, it should be Israel who decides not to retaliate with violence, and simply plead for a conversation about this thing and resolve it peacefully?

I'm not a political analyst. My passion is around non-violence and around stopping the bombing from both sides. I feel particularly passionate about Israel stopping their bombing. Of course, I don't want Hamas to be hurting people either. Look, I definitely am not the most aware person of what's happening or the long tragic history of this thing,  but I've been reading a lot and trying to understand. 

Elena, you’re very aware. You’re hyper-aware! Does Israel have a right to exist?

I think Israeli people have a right to exist in peace. And I think any country that relies on subjugating another people for its continued existence is not a country that should exist in its current form. The same way that I actually don't think the United States should exist as it is, relying as we do on the oppression of migrant labor, on the oppression of indigenous people that we colonized and committed genocide to. I think if it was up to me, the US would have a completely different government and leadership system and the people that we have oppressed and marginalized would get to be more in charge. 

Where did your family come from? 

Ukraine. 

So you're a Ukrainian American, to some degree, living here on Pomo land? Jews in Israel have made a pretty good argument that they are now back in their ancestral land and that to some degree they're actually the indigenous people in that part of the Middle East. It’s been their homeland, not to the exclusion of others, for thousands of years. 

Agreed, but I think indigeneity is not an excuse to oppress other people.

You helped craft the resolution calling on the Sebastopol City Council to endorse an immediate ceasefire. Should our city council really get involved in complicated international conflicts? 

It doesn't have to be complicated. 

But it is. It is complex as evidenced by how much pushback there was when it came up. It’s pretty contentious. But issues that are complex or contentious aren’t grounds for not dealing with them. Should the city council's business be limited to the immediate needs of the citizens here, including sewers and schools, healthcare, public safety and the budget deficit? Should it be the business of our city council to weigh in on international affairs?

Absolutely.

This is not the first time that international issues have been brought to the Sebastopol City Council. We have been vehemently anti-war in Ukraine with our sister city, Chyhyryn. It goes against the ethics of any town that calls itself “Peacetown” not to take a stand for peace. Peace is not just something that we build in our little 8000-person town. I think we can all agree that peace work requires an international effort and participation. 

Okay, but just between us girls, I think the Peacetown moniker is silly. 

It's totally silly. 

I don't think we are any more concerned and invested in seeking peaceful coexistence with all of humanity than the people of Windsor or Vacaville.

Absolutely, it's a silly little title, but if we're gonna think that way about ourselves, we might as well live up to the name. We represent something bigger if we're gonna call ourselves that. And I think everyone would agree.

For the record, from the first week of this crisis, I too wanted to see an immediate cease-fire. If the city council has no jurisdiction over the use of any federally designated monies, why go this way?

The city council is the platform through which regular people can exercise their democracy. We can exercise our feelings and feel like we have a voice in local government. You know, individuals aren't going to make a difference by going and knocking on Nancy Pelosi’s window. City government is where we can actually make our voices heard. We're lucky enough to have a small enough town where we can actually go to city council meetings and speak out during public comment. I went to the meeting last week when our resolution came up for consideration, (it had already been decided to table the resolution temporarily) and my public comment was written down and entered into the record.

And I must say, you spoke beautifully.

Thank you. And I think yeah, this is how people can make their voices heard. And also it has a ripple effect. Cotati has passed a resolution, and big contingencies of supporters have been going to the Petaluma and Santa Rosa city council meetings, trying to get them to pass one. It's a ripple, and it sets a precedent. That's what I said in my public comment. Over 100 municipalities have passed these resolutions so far. That might finally put pressure on our US government to promote a permanent ceasefire from both sides, and a return of all Israeli hostages, and Palestinian political prisoners, and a start of long-term peace negotiations.

As we like to say, from your mouth to God’s ear. Have you been to Israel?

Yes. I went in 2012 after my Bat Mitzvah with my mom, on tour. 

Just your mom? Nice. The first time I went was in 1966, and it was with my mom. And? What did you think? 

I remember that we went to the West Bank. We have family who live in a settlement there.

Oy.  That's a complicating factor. 

Oh yeah. Well, I remember it was a guided tour and the other families on the tour were pretty conservative. I remember one woman telling my mom, “I want my kids to love Israel, and I'm teaching them to love Israel above all else. Don't you think that should be the priority?”  And my mom said, “No, I'm teaching my kids to make their own decisions and draw their own conclusions.”  I remember we went to the border with Jordan and I got to hold a gun, and I got to meet some IDF soldiers.

Well, I think you need to go back to the occupied territories. I think your outrage, and your sense of injustice would be even more heightened by exposure to some of the realities there, but you’ll also find a lot of Israelis who think very much like you do. And many of them are actually in the IDF. 

I get that. You know, I was actually talking with my mom last night about the crisis in Sudan. Why we choose to care about certain things and not others. I'm a very empathetic person. I care deeply about making the world a place that's more just for everyone, and there's only so much hurt in the world that I can focus on. I have to pick and choose.

Are you a reader? 

I'm in the middle of a good book right now. It’s The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese.

It's supposed to be great.

It is. It's about a family in India in the early 1900s. It's really cool to learn about a history and culture that I'm unfamiliar with and to learn about different traditions. 

A favorite movie?

I’ll tell you my favorite book. It's called The First Bad Man by Miranda July. 

One sentence why.

It’s a deep character study into someone's neuroses and how it affects her and other people in her life. Miranda July writes about these neuroses in this fantasy world. She writes with delightful accuracy, and really puts my own little stories that I make up about myself and other people into perspective.

Let’s wrap this long schmooze up. Two more things. If you had an extra 100 bucks, what charity gets it?

Okay, but it’s going to involve Gaza again. I would probably donate to the GoFundMe of the family that runs Falafel Hut in Santa Rosa. They're from Gaza and are trying to get their family out of Gaza. 

I’ve met them. They’ve actually lost a number of family members, and businesses and homes in Gaza that were destroyed. Really, exceptionally nice people. Their shwarma is pretty good too. 

Okay. Last one:   When you take a hike around here, what’s your favorite trail?

I'm not telling.

Oh, come on. 

Okay, I don't actually like gatekeeping about it. There's so much abundant nature out here, I think people should just enjoy it. I was just being facetious. It’s the Watershed Trail on Coleman Valley. Some people call it the Lookout Trail. It's beautiful and short. If you're walking slow, and you're looking for mushrooms on the trail, it’ still only 45 minutes there and back. 

Or longer if you're already on mushrooms! That's a great choice of trail. Elena, I wonder what the future really holds for you. 

I don't know what the future holds. But I think this organizing work that I've been doing, organizing with Sonoma County for Palestine since October, has felt like a kind of political and vocational education. Grassroots organizing might be my future. After college, I kind of took a break. I was just chilling for a year, traveling, and nannying. Then all this horrible stuff happened from October 7th on, and I've kind of snapped out of my reverie and kind of snapped back into making the world a better place. I want to be part of that, and promoting peace. 

Elena Lev, thanks for this honest chat, and for everything you’re doing to make things better during this especially challenging time. We’re lucky to have you on the job. 

Here’s a link to donate to the Gazan family from Felafel Hut in Santa Rosa: https://gofund.me/154a4c2f.