A 64-year-old scion of a major California dried-fruit company was arrested late Friday and charged with making terror threats after what a neighboring rabbi describes as months of escalating antisemitic harassment in Pacific Palisades, a wealthy Los Angeles enclave still recovering from this year's devastating wildfires.
Bruce Lion, whose family's Fresno County, based Lion Raisins boasts "five generations of greatness" and more than $71 million in estimated 2024 revenue, was taken into custody just before midnight after LAPD officers responded to calls near his $5.3 million mansion. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department confirmed he was held on $50,000 bail.
The charge caps a pattern of alleged conduct that, if the videos and witness accounts hold up, paints a picture of a man with deep pockets and a long criminal history who terrorized a Jewish congregation, including children, from the comfort of his balcony.
Rabbi Zushe Cunin, who leads Chabad of Pacific Palisades, told The Post that his troubles with Lion began in March, when Lion purchased the mansion next door to the chabad for $5.275 million. Cunin said Lion interrupted worship services, shouted antisemitic statements in front of children, and used slurs against Jewish and Black people.
Cunin described the experience in stark terms:
"It was horrific. 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."
The California Post obtained several videos that it says show Lion harassing Cunin from the balcony of his mansion. In the footage, Lion can reportedly be heard using the N-word repeatedly in separate outbursts and threatening to "pull" the rabbi's nose. He also allegedly accused Jewish people of burning down the Palisades.
One recorded exchange captures Lion directing a profanity-laden tirade at Cunin, telling him: "I ain't going nowhere Jew boy... You kill Jesus, you're going to f***ing h***." The language is vile on its face. It is also, notably, the kind of conduct that tends to get excused or slow-walked when the targets are members of a Jewish congregation rather than a more politically favored group.
On the day of his arrest, Cunin said Lion called him repeatedly in the middle of the night. When Cunin picked up, Lion allegedly launched into another tirade, telling the rabbi: "Iran is coming to get you. You should move out."
Cunin called the phone calls "really crazy stuff." He and others had repeatedly complained to police before Friday's arrest.
The Post spoke to Lion at his Pacific Palisades property a day before his arrest. Far from denying the conduct, Lion appeared to revel in it. He said he played Christian devotional music as "loud as I can" to annoy his Jewish neighbors and blasted Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" because he wanted them to know they were "gross pigs."
"I want them to know they're going to hell, and it makes me happy."
Lion did acknowledge what he called a "run-in" with Cunin, claiming it happened "because he was being belligerent." He then pivoted, saying of the rabbi: "It's not him, he's a good guy. It's his guys that live with him." He also accused people at the chabad of "hiding bodies", a claim presented without any supporting evidence.
The gap between Lion's casual admissions and the severity of the charge, making terror threats, tells its own story. A man who openly brags about tormenting his neighbors over their faith is not a sympathetic defendant.
Lion's arrest Friday was not an isolated incident. His criminal history stretches back years and spans multiple California counties.
In 2019, Lion served jail time for making criminal threats and possessing a firearm despite a court order barring him from owning one. He had been convicted of violating a domestic violence restraining order after authorities said he possessed a firearm and made threats. That alone should raise questions about how he continued to operate freely in the years that followed.
In 2023, Lion was arrested in Monterey County for allegedly throwing rocks at cars, blocking a highway with debris, and assaulting construction workers. He was booked on charges including assault, false imprisonment, vandalism, and assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm. The Post reported it could not confirm the outcome of that case.
That same year, Fresno police arrested Lion again after they said he violated a domestic violence protective order at the home of his ex-wife. That arrest came just one day after officers had responded to another domestic violence, related incident at the same address, but had not taken Lion into custody. The pattern of law enforcement contact followed by release followed by new alleged offenses is familiar to anyone who has watched California's revolving-door justice system up close.
Accountability failures at every level of the justice system have become a recurring theme. Whether it involves dangerous offenders who escalate until a crisis forces action or officials who face scrutiny only after prolonged misconduct, the pattern is consistent: warning signs ignored, consequences deferred.
Lion Raisins, the Fresno County fruit company that bears the family name, employed an estimated 400 people and generated more than $71 million in revenue in 2024. The company promotes "120 years of growing experience and expertise."
But in January, the Department of Labor named Bruce Lion in an order requiring Lion Raisins to pay back wages and penalties after a federal investigation determined the company had neglected to transport workers in a safe vehicle following a deadly crash. The action adds a layer of alleged disregard for the welfare of others, this time, the company's own workers, to a biography already crowded with legal trouble.
The contrast between the company's polished marketing and the conduct attributed to its scion is worth noting. Five generations of greatness, the company says. The public record tells a different story about at least one member of the current generation.
City Councilwoman Traci Parks, whose district covers the Palisades, 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. We appreciate LAPD taking these concerns seriously and acting swiftly to protect our community. Let me be clear: hate has no home in Pacific Palisades, in Council District 11, or anywhere in the City of Los Angeles."
Parks deserves credit for speaking clearly. But the statement also raises an uncomfortable question: if Cunin and others had been complaining to police for months, why did it take until Friday, and apparent middle-of-the-night phone calls referencing Iran, for an arrest to happen?
That question matters beyond Pacific Palisades. Across the country, Jewish communities have faced a sharp rise in threats and harassment, particularly since October 2023. The willingness of law enforcement and local officials to act early, rather than after a situation becomes a crisis, is a test of whether "hate has no home here" is a policy or just a press release. Cases involving alleged antisemitic or pro-Hamas conduct by politically connected individuals have drawn similar scrutiny over whether accountability arrives fast enough.
Several facts remain unclear. The specific statute underlying the terror threat charge has not been publicly identified. The outcomes of Lion's 2023 cases in Monterey County and Fresno are unconfirmed. Whether any protective orders or stay-away orders have been issued in connection with the Pacific Palisades incidents is unknown.
The full contents and timestamps of the videos obtained by The California Post have not been made public. And the question of whether Lion will face additional charges, or whether the system will once again process him and move on, remains open.
Incidents like this test whether institutions meant to protect communities actually function. When officials tasked with security and accountability fall short, the consequences land on ordinary people, in this case, a rabbi, his congregation, and their children.
Lion's property in Pacific Palisades reportedly features multiple paintings of Jesus Christ. Whatever his private beliefs, the conduct described in the videos, the witness accounts, and his own admissions to a reporter bear no resemblance to any recognizable Christian ethic. Blasting music to torment your neighbors, screaming slurs at children during worship, and calling a rabbi in the middle of the night to tell him "Iran is coming to get you" is not devotion. It is harassment, and, if the charge holds, a crime.
The system had years of warning signs with Bruce Lion. Whether it finally holds him accountable, or simply processes him through the same institutional machinery that has struggled to deliver consequences in case after case, will say more about California's commitment to public safety than any councilwoman's statement ever could.
When a man with a rap sheet this long can buy a $5 million mansion next to a synagogue and spend months terrorizing its members before anyone in authority acts, the problem isn't just one bad neighbor. It's a system that lets him keep going.
