Latino-Jewish Relations Explored in New AJC Book

American Jewish Committee
Monday, 10 June 2002

For decades, Jews and Latinos have joined hands to advocate for immigrants and promote social justice, but the two communities don't really know, understand or trust each other.

A new report by the American Jewish Committee seeks to fill the gaps and strengthen the relationship between the two groups, claiming both share an interest in building a pluralistic, diverse and tolerant society.

"Latinos and Jews: Old Luggage, New Itineraries," is a compilation of essays from the worlds of scholarship, journalism and community relations. Together they portray two communal journeys and show what unites as well as what divides the two groups.

"No one has a crystal ball and can say definitively where Latino-Jewish relations will be in a decade or two," David A. Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, writes in the foreword of the report. "But it behooves us to get to know one another on more than a superficial level, and to come to understand what issues are seen as critical to the interests of each group."

Both Jews and Latinos have struggled to integrate into American society, while retaining a unique identity based on "communal experiences in times and places far distant from American shores," notes Roberto Suro, in "Two Peoples on a Journey," one of the essays. From this perspective, the key difference is that "they are on different stages in this journey."

At the same time, there are profound demographic and socio-economic gulfs that separate the groups. The Latino population is young and rapidly growing – with a population of 35.3 million, they are expected soon to become the new "majority minority" – while the Jewish population is shrinking in its percentage of the overall American population and aging.

And Latinos typically maintain ties with their countries of origin, while Jews severed theirs with the Old World but feel a connection to Israel not well understood by Latinos.

The report concludes that Latinos and Jews will enjoy mutual benefit from strengthening their relationship. But they must build a strong enough foundation to withstand the tensions that will certainly crop up around bilingualism, abortion, foreign aid or school vouchers and other issues of church-state separation, notes Charles Kamasaki, in the article, "Divergent Understandings or Conflicting Interests? Latino and Jewish Policy Differences."

Jews overwhelmingly oppose vouchers, for instance, while more than 70 percent of Latinos polled support them, according to Kamasaki, who is senior vice president in the Office of Research, Advocacy and Legislation of the National Council of La Raza.

Historically, Jews have sought to work in coalitions because a small minority cannot further its goals alone in the policy arena. Now, in an era of increased Latino power, it is all the more important that Jews solidify these alliances, writes Ann V. Schaffer, author of "Jews and Latinos: The Inescapable Network of Mutuality," one of the essays in the report. Only in this way will they advance their agenda in areas of education, civil rights, electoral reform, anti-terrorism, media-stereotyping, foreign aid to Central America, South America and Israel, says Schaffer, the director of the Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Center for American Pluralism of the American Jewish Committee.

For Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center and author of "Strangers Among Us: How Latino Immigration Is Transforming America" (Knopf, 1998), demographics also makes it, in part, about Jewish self-interest. "Failing to invest in [Latinos] now will have inescapable costs in the not-distant future." He calls on Jews to reinvigorate their longstanding support for public schools, calling it "an essential starting point for any effort to assure cooperative relations with Latinos."

In turn, the writers say, Latinos will benefit from a partnership with Jews on their own policy goals, tapping into long-time Jewish activism, coalition building and clout.

Ethnic politics is ever-shifting and increasingly complicated, making it challenging to build bridges of trust and understanding. But the report concludes that both Jews and Latinos – and not just at the elite levels - can benefit from sitting together at a table to which each brings different but complementary assets.

Strengthening inter-group relations has been a hallmark of the American Jewish Committee's work for more than nine decades.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org