Lion Raisins responds after heir arrested over antisemitic threats
Lion Raisins issued a public response after heir Bruce Alfred Lion was arrested on hate-crime charges tied to antisemitic threats, putting Selma's legacy brand on defense.
Lion Raisins is trying to shield a 123-year-old Selma brand after heir Bruce Alfred Lion was arrested on felony hate-crime charges tied to antisemitic threats in Pacific Palisades. The case has pulled the family name into a public crisis that now reaches from Los Angeles back to the company’s home at 9500 De Wolf Ave. in Selma.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Lion was charged June 18 in case 26ARCF01183 with three felony hate crimes, one count of violation of civil rights and two counts of criminal threats. Prosecutors allege he shouted antisemitic threats from a balcony on June 5 around 8 p.m. at a rabbi leading a Sabbath evening prayer service. Lion was arrested June 13, bail was set at $225,000, and if convicted as charged he faces up to nine years and four months in state prison.
Lion Raisins says it was founded in 1903 and remains a family business in Selma. By speaking publicly after the arrest, the company signaled that the allegations against a member of the founding family had become a reputational problem, not just a criminal one. For a business whose identity is tied to Selma’s agricultural economy, the issue now is how convincingly it can separate the company from Bruce Lion’s alleged conduct while keeping employees, customers and longtime local partners confident that the name still stands for something different.
The allegations also add to a longer law-enforcement record. GV Wire reported that Lion was sentenced in Fresno County in 2019 to time served and two years’ probation for criminal threats and illegal gun possession. The same reporting said Fresno police arrested him in late 2023 at his ex-wife’s home for violating a restraining order, and Monterey County deputies arrested him in September 2023 after allegations involving Highway 1 in Carmel Highlands.
KTLA reported that Rabbi Zushe Cunin said the harassment had been going on for months after Lion bought the neighboring home earlier in 2026. Los Angeles City Councilmember Traci Park also condemned the conduct, saying hate has no home in Pacific Palisades, Council District 11 or anywhere in Los Angeles.
For Selma, the fallout is local as well as legal. Lion Raisins has spent more than a century building a family name into a Central Valley business identity, and now that same name is tied to a case that could hang over the company’s standing in the community long after the criminal proceedings move forward.
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