how to use python with javascript?

I have an object "company". When I use company inside of html, it works fine. But when I tried to use that object inside javascript I get the "Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token &".

What I am trying to do is getting the objects from db then display them on html page then change up some divs using js.

the url:

('^all_companies$', 'companies.views.all_companies')

the view:

def all_companies(request): 
    companies = Company.objects.all().order_by('id')[:5];   
    return direct_to_template(request, 'all_companies.html', {'companies': companies} );

the html:

{% block sidebar %}
    <div id="sidebar">
        <!-- like google maps, short list of company info -->
        <ul>
            {% for comp in companies %}
                <li>{{ comp }}</li>                 
            {% endfor %}
        </ul>
    </div>
{% endblock %}

the js:

var tmp = {{ companies }}