American Jewish Committee
Latino & Latin American Institute
Issue 47. Wednesday, May 14, 2008.
IN THE NEWS
LATINO-JEWISH AGENDA
Fighting Hatred against Immigrants
An op-ed on the SAVE Act was published on Thursday May 1st by La Opinion, the largest Spanish newspaper in the country. The piece, co-signed by Seth Brysk, Executive Director of AJC’s Los Angeles Chapter and Angelica Salas, Executive Director of LA’s Coalition for Humane Immigrants Rights, calls upon Congress and the local community to “have the courage to stand up for immigrants and reject a controversial piece of legislation, the Save America through Verification and Enforcement (SAVE) Act.”
An editorial by Rabbi Maynard Bell, Director of AJC’s Arizona Chapter opposing the SAVE Act appeared in the Phoenix Business Journal. Bell is also leading efforts to expose the inherent civil rights violations and negative neighborhood impacts of a series of high profile “sweep” operations in Latino neighborhoods by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
As a response to Amendment 46, an anti-affirmative action that will be on the 2008 local ballot, AJC Colorado Latino Jewish Coalition is hosting a program on to further educate the committee on the subject and map out ways in which both communities can work together.
The Latino Jewish Council in Long Island, together with Molloy College Institute of Interfaith Dialogue, held a panel discussion titled “Immigration: Facts, Morality & Theological Implications.” To read more about it please see the Newsday article.
The Chapter has been involved in the Suffolk County legislative battle regarding HR1105, a bill that would require contractors to verify that employees are legally eligible to be employed in the United States while subjecting them to the loss of their license for noncompliance.
Demographic Changes in Chicago’s Latino Population
Diplomats from fifteen nations attended a briefing featuring Andrea Saenz, Executive Director of Hispanic Alliance of Career Advancement (HACE), on the changing Latino demographics in Chicago. Saenz focused on new data showing that more Latinos live in the suburbs of Chicago than in the city, nearly 70% hold U.S. citizenships and 90% of all Latino children in the region were born in this country. Saenz also highlighted the economic and cultural challenges that hamper many capable and talented Latino students from pursuing higher education.
AJC’s Chicago Chapter staff and lay leaders attended the launching of “An American Agenda from a Latino Perspective,” a landmark report authored by the Latino Policy Forum (f/k/a Latinos United). The Agenda is the product of three years of community meetings with civic leaders, religious and other NGO’s, including AJC, entrepreneurs, public official and community activists. The Agenda evaluates and makes specific policy recommendations in the areas of education, immigration, housing, community safety and civic participation. For more information please visit www.latinosunited.org.
AJC Chapters Host Latino -Jewish Seders
Following its yearly tradition, AJC chapters throughout the country used the Passover Seder as framework to explore common historical experiences and cultural themes, between Latinos and Jews.
In Los Angeles, 40 evangelical pastors and their families participated in their first Seder conducted in Spanish. In Chicago, the Alliance of Latinos and Jews hosted its traditional Sephardic Seder. The Arizona Chapter and the Hispanic Leadership Institute of Valle del Sol held its fourth annual Latino-Jewish Seder with a special Haggadah insert prepared for this event with photos from past Seders and quotations by participants on the topic of freedom.
Latino – Jewish Networking Nationwide
AJC’s Latino Jewish Council (LJC) in Long Island held its lively second annual Salsa and Schmooze networking event on April 9. The Honorable Juan Merchan, NY Family Court Judge, spoke about the dearth of Latinos appointed to New York courts and the need to advocate for more Latino judges. Suffolk Legislator Vivian Viloria-Fisher applauded the LJC’s work and Nassau County Legislator Dave Denenberg and Hempstead Town Clerk Mark Bonilla presented the LJC with proclamations. Co-Chair Yvonne Mowatt highlighted the year’s events and discussed future advocacy efforts.
In Orange County, the local AJC chapter honored Norma Garcia Guillen, President of the Hispanic Bar Association. Garcia Guillen has a long history of working for Latino issues facing residents of Orange County.
AJC’s Detroit Chapter staff met with members with the Association for Mexican Professionals in Michigan (APROMEX), an organization devoted to building the Mexican professional community, promoting the image and development of Mexico and with Latin Americans for Social and Economic Development (La Sed). Both discussions will serve as basis for future collaboration.
Israel@60 Celebrated by Hispanic Media
A special op-ed aimed at the Hispanic readership was penned by Juan Dircie, Assistant Director of AJC’s Greater Miami and Broward County. The editorial was posted in several newspapers nationwide. Click here to read editorial.
MONTHLY FEATURE
Latinos and Jews: Working for a Better America
In the last years, AJC’s Latino and Latin American Institute has worked to strengthen ties between Jews and Hispanics in this country by identifying a shared agenda and understanding each communities’ individual concerns. The growing commitment to our partnership has been based on the possibility of experiencing first hand each partner’s historical roots and cultural heritage while discovering what reinforcing what brings us together. Inspired by two AJC initiatives aimed at journeying together to the “Homeland,” following are the eloquent testimonies of two committed partners and friends.
U.S. Dominicans, Jews --Partners, Kindred Spirits
By Alejandra Castillo
I just came back from a joint mission of 27 U.S. Dominican and Jewish leaders to the Dominican Republic. The visit sponsored both by the American Jewish Committee and my organization, among others, included the capital city of Santo Domingo, as well as Sosua, a refuge that the Dominican Republic had provided for European Jews desperate to escape during the Holocaust.
The four-day mission shed light on the cultural and historic roots and heritage of the Dominican community in the United States as it underscored the diversity of both the Latino and Jewish communities (there is a small, but prominent Jewish community on the island).
The United States shares a wealth of bilateral concerns with the Dominican Republic. Relations between both countries have never been better, based on a commonality of values and interests. Trade, immigration, energy, democracy, the threat of terrorism and bilateral, relations with the U.S. and Israel were some of the issues that Dominican top government officials, opinion molders and local Jewish leaders discussed during our trip.
In addition, by deepening awareness and appreciation of both communities' shared histories, we expanded the ability to work together to advance and address common goals in this country. In fact, collaborative initiatives in the areas of immigration, homeland-Diaspora relations and U.S.-Israel-Dominican Republic ties have already derived from the trip.
As a New York-born Dominican American, I saw the story of the 759 Jews of Sosua as a slight blur in the torrid history of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo's oppressive and bloody dictatorship. Yet, my understanding of why Trujillo stood as the only head of state during the 1938 Evian Conference to commit to welcoming thousands of Jewish refugees during World War II, remained confused at best.
During those few days in Sosua, I witnessed the power of our humanity -- the power of individuals creating a community and a new beginning. This beautiful resort stands witness today to the hard work, determination and commitment of the Jewish people, but also to the Dominican generosity of spirit. While only a handful of Jewish families remains in the city and surrounding areas, the power of their stories and experiences moved all the members of our delegation.
This came into sharp focus when we heard the words of 99-year-old Luis Hess. He reminded us that our life histories can shape who we are, but do not bind us as we reinvent ourselves blessed by the right opportunities and a strong will. We also met the Strauss family, which is very much responsible for the upkeep of the tiny, but significant Sosua Jewish Museum and Synagogue.
Regardless of the reason as to why Trujillo may have decided to welcome Jewish refugees to the Dominican Republic, the fact remains that in Sosua, families of a persecuted minority rejected in most places around the world were able to thrive and find a new home. In fact, Dominican society embraced the newcomers despite their national, ethnic and religious differences. Even today, it is remarkable how anti-Semitism is practically absent from Dominicans attitudes.
Concurrently, the Dominican Republic benefited from the many contributions made by Jewish immigrants. Most continue to enjoy the dairy, cheese and many other food industries developed in Sosua.
But more important, this enlightened chapter both in Dominican and Jewish histories reminds us why our communities became partners and kindred spirits, particularly at a time when the world was undergoing some of the direst challenges in our human condition.
In the midst of the Holocaust, we are proud to say that a small nation in the Caribbean served as a safe haven.
Alejandra Castillo, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney, is vice president of the Dominican-American National Roundtable.
A Latino Rumination on Israel’s 60th Anniversary
By Larry Gonzalez
The experience still hasn’t left me. I told my father that visiting the Holy Land was a “life-changing” experience for someone who was brought up in a staunchly Catholic, Mexican-American household. He didn’t understand what I meant by “life-changing.”
In retrospect, perhaps “a defining experience” is a better description. My trip to Israel defined for me why I have been, and remain, committed to bringing Latinos and Jews together. My experience there crystallized for me that not only do we share a multitude of values, like family and a strong sense of heritage, but issues around community, quality education and the right to immigrate in time of crisis are concerns that should bind America’s Jews and Latinos.
The fact is, until I visited Israel through a program called Project Interchange, and felt the spirit and energy of its people, I was working in the Latino-Jewish with one eye closed. Created by the American Jewish Committee, Project Interchange was designed to introduce American leaders from different ethnic and faith groups to Israel through a one-week educational seminar in the country.
The dictionary defines interchange: “To give and receive mutually; exchange.” Such was my “interchange” in Israel. There was as much of a willingness on the part of the people we met to learn about the experiences of Latinos in the United States as there was for us to learn about Israel’s history. To be sure, much of the trip was designed for us to meet with political and public policy experts, but it was balanced with visits and real dialogue with families trying to balance their personal and professional lives, and the constant fear of violence and bombings unknown to many Americans. There were no pretensions in these interchanges. It was important to them that we understood who they were and how they struggle to maintain their spirit.
Like my colleagues, I returned from Israel believing that, although Latinos and Jews are working together here in the United States, mutual admiration is sometimes not enough. There is no substitute for a first-hand experience of how they are and where they came from to better understand our partners.
So, as I wish Israel a Happy 60th Birthday, and long to again visit her shores and its genial people, my rumination reminds me that Israel is, in many ways, an evolving country, still in the process of defining its identity and borders. So too is America, nearing its 232nd year, and its relationship with Latinos.
Larry Gonzalez is a Principal with the Raben Group and former D.C. Director for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO).
QUOTES AND FIGURES
National Latino Museum Signed into Law
"The Congress and the President have joined together to acknowledge that America's success would not be possible without the political, cultural and economic contributions of the Latino community… The National Museum of the American Latino Community is an idea that is overdue -- Latino culture, dreams and advancements are not outside but within the very fabric of American life, and I am delighted that we are working to share these proud traditions with the public."
Words by Senator Robert Menéndez (D-NJ) on Thursday, May 8 as President Bush signed the bill to build a National Latino Museum in Washington, D.C.
Surge in Hispanic Population Driven by Birth, Not Immigration
Hispanics now account for more than 15% of the U.S. population, and their surge is largely the result of births among people already in the country, according to new Census Bureau data.
In an annual report, the Census said there are 45.5 million Hispanics in the U.S., up from 35.7 million in 2000, when they made up 12.6% of the population. It said growth among Hispanics was responsible for half of the U.S. population gains between 2000 and 2007.
Hispanics surpassed blacks as the largest U.S. minority in 2003 and continued to widen the gap by growing at nearly three times the pace of the black population, Census Bureau figures showed.
Today, racial and ethnic minorities account for more than one in three Americans, a new milepost on the United States' journey toward greater diversity and a harbinger of the growing political clout of minorities.
Information partly taken from the Wall Street Journal, Reuters and Star Tribune.
LATIN AMERICA AND MIDDLE EAST PERISCOPE
AJC HIGHLIGHTS
"The Miracle" Headlines Israel at 60 Multimedia Package
AJC is celebrating Israel’s 60th anniversary with a multimedia package. The Miracle, a new video dedicated to Israel's birthday and AJC's deep ties to the Jewish state, is now available. VIEW. Wall Street Journal carries a full-page ad celebrating how Israel benefits the world. VIEW AD. "By my reckoning, Israel is quite a success story. Actually, Israel itself is nothing short of a miracle," writes David Harris at his Jerusalem Post blog. READ.
102nd Annual Meeting Concludes
More than 1,200 AJC members and friends participated in AJC's 102nd Annual Meeting in Washington. Featured speakers included Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; French Prime Minister Francois Fillon; Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Shaul Mofaz and Haim Ramon, both deputy prime ministers of Israel. Participants explored top issues facing world Jewry, celebrated Israel's 60th anniversary, and discussed energy independence. Jewish leaders from more than 55 countries and the graduating class of the Israel National Defense College also attended the week long event.
Over 35 Latin American Jewish representatives from 11 countries in Latin America were also present in Washington, where they held strategic meetings and worked on future cooperation.
AJC Opposes Anti-immigrant Ordinances
AJC urged an appellate court to uphold a decision striking down local ordinances that prohibit employment and housing of undocumented immigrants in Hazleton, PA. "Immigration is a federal issue. State and local ordinances such as those in Hazleton are unhelpful and even harmful,” said AJC in the amicus brief. READ NEWS RELEASE. | 
