A New Asian-Jewish Initiative Strives to Build Mutual Support
Jewish and Asian community organizations in Seattle come together to confront threats from the right and the left.
But First
→Whoever tries these first gets a free lifetime subscription to my newsletter.
Me, knowing that I will definitely try them:
→Mazels to Chabad of the Pacific Northwest for a successful, in-person event on Tuesday at the Westin. One People, One Heart honored the memory of the Rebbe and featured an inspiring and harrowing presentation by Rabbi Mendel Moskovitz of Kharkiv, Ukraine. Mayor Bruce Harrell even made an appearance. Chabad — they get things done.
That’s all. Shabbat shalom!
Seattle’s Asians and Jews Build an Alliance
The communities are coming together over shared interests and challenges.
Both Jewish and Asian communities across the country have been on heightened alert as discriminatory attacks plague individuals and institutions. Though not a new phenomenon, attacks subtle and violent have been on the rise in recent years, with a 34% increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes and a shocking 73% rise in anti-Asian American Pacific Islander hate crimes in 2021.
Jewish and Asian communities overlap in other ways, too. Both are regarded as highly successful immigrant groups, both bear the burden of “model minority” status, and both communities often find themselves reduced to stereotypes.
These shared struggles and experiences are why PNW ADL director Miri Cypers reached out to Asian and Jewish leaders to launch an Asian Jewish Initiative last year. She joined forces with Michael Itti, the executive director of Chinese social service agency CISC; the first community conversation, which centered Asian voices, took place at the Wing Luke Museum on May 17. This past Wednesday, Temple De Hirsch Sinai on Capitol Hill hosted a panel and round table to discuss overlapping issues and to brainstorm ways to move the relationship forward. Event partners included Jewish Family Service, AJC, the Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs, the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), Advocate, and JCRC.
“During the pandemic we’ve experienced a rise in anti-Asian hate and violence, and of course in recent years there’s also been a rise in anti-Semitism and overall just a lot of racism throughout the country, as we’ve all seen and experienced,” Itti said. “So we thought it was important to launch an initiative to bring our communities together to work on common challenges and also opportunities.”
Wednesday’s event featured a panel, led by the JCRC’s Max Patashnik, with Mika Kurose Rothman, a Japanese and Jewish civil rights and employment lawyer; Sen. Joe Nguyen (D-34th); and Temple De Hirsch Sinai senior rabbi, Danny Weiner. They discussed diversity, personal experience, the traumatic memories of World War II, and their pride in past civil rights work as well as recent political activism.
Through the discussion, another shared issue emerged: the frequent exclusion of Asian and Jewish identity in the current progressive political climate.
Admitting that he was entering controversial territory, Weiner addressed the conditional nature of Jewish participation — that despite decades of Jewish allyship with progressive causes and groups, Jews are now finding themselves classified as “white” or too close to Israel to participate fully in social justice movements. Nguyen, who is Vietnamese, took the bait, sharing that while he was campaigning door to door, he noticed that homes with a Black Lives Matter or “In this house, we believe…” sign were the most likely to slam the door on him or say that “he wasn’t one of them.”
“Asians are 9.2% of the population in Washington,” Nguyen shared. Yet they’re “not granted a narrative.”
While addressing this problem isn’t the stated intention of the partnership, Cypers admits it comes up. “Jewish and Asian people have reached out to ADL about DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion],” she said. “Our identities are very nuanced. Where do we sit?”
In the small group discussion, Nguyen sat with Senators Bob Hasegawa and David Frockt as well as JFS CEO Will Berkowitz, Cypers, and Patashnik. The discussion circled the issues Jews face in progressive spaces, the diversity of viewpoints in the AAPI community, and the fear that the vision of a multiracial democracy could unravel — hence the urgent need for partnership and understanding. Cypers pushed the conversation to practical ideas: What would actually be helpful for both communities, now?
Ideas from around the room included policy initiatives, more dialogues, walking tours of Jewish and Asian historic neighborhoods, and even a group community service project, like a trash pickup. Food, naturally, got a couple of mentions. Cypers and Itti will take the ideas and start working on a plan to bring the communities together.
“In Seattle we have a very strong tradition of working across cultures and communities,” Itti said. “All these organizations that formed in both our communities and in other diverse communities, we’re working to support and build community to advance racial equity and social justice and fight for civil rights together.”
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Shoutouts
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Linda Seltzer, who lives in Redmond, recently completed a one-year term of service on the King County Metro Transit Eastlink Mobility Board, providing inputs to the planning of the new bus routes that will go into service along with the new light rail stations in 2023-2024. Having limited driving due to eyesight, she often chooses public transit.
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