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Lion was later charged with making terror threats and held on $50,000 bail, the sheriff’s department said.
By Shula Rosen
Lion was later charged with making terror threats and held on $50,000 bail, the sheriff’s department said.
Bruce Lion, a 64-year-old heir to the Fresno-based Lion Raisins agricultural company, was arrested in Pacific Palisades and charged with making terror threats following what authorities described as ongoing criminal threats targeting his neighbor, Rabbi Zushe Cunin, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department took Lion into custody and booked him on suspicion of making criminal threats.
He was later charged with making terror threats and held on $50,000 bail, the sheriff’s department said.
The New York Post reported that Cunin had endured months of harassment allegedly carried out by Lion after the raisin company scion moved into a $5.3 million mansion in Pacific Palisades.
The rabbi said the conduct began after Lion purchased the property next to his Chabad center for $5.275 million in March.
According to the New York Post, Lion shouted antisemitic slurs from his balcony and made late-night phone calls in which he told the rabbi to leave because “Iran is coming to get you.”
California Post reported that it obtained multiple videos allegedly showing Lion yelling at Cunin from the balcony of his home and directing grievances at Judaism and the rabbi personally.
Cunin also accused Lion of disrupting worship services at Chabad of Pacific Palisades, shouting slurs targeting Jewish and Black people and accusing Jews of causing the Palisades fires.
The rabbi said Lion interrupted a congregation gathered at his home while making antisemitic remarks in front of children.
“It was horrific,” Cunin said. “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.”
In one incident cited in the reports, Lion allegedly shouted: “I ain’t going nowhere Jew boy, lose some f—ing weight. Go f—ing work. Do something for a change. Your fake f—ing gospel don’t mean s—t. You’re f—ing done. You kill Jesus, you’re going to f—ing hell. Do you understand?” He also allegedly threatened to “pull” the rabbi’s nose.
The reports further alleged that Lion played Christian devotional music and Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” at high volume to disturb Cunin and members of the surrounding Jewish community.
Lion has previously been arrested for throwing rocks at cars and served time in jail for threatening someone with a firearm and violating a domestic violence protective order.
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