Latinos, Jewish people not some undivided chasm, unless we let it be

It was an odd juxtaposition of stories I encountered on the Internet Tuesday afternoon – one about a poll saying that half of Latinos think the United States is too supportive of Israel, and another about an effort in Texas to bring Latinos and Jewish people together.



Are they on to something in L.A.?

For it seems that people reacting to the poll by the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding said this is a sign that Jewish people should be concerned about the growing Latino population – and need to figure ways to reach out to us so we can find our common ground.

IT SEEMS THAT some of us are already reaching out. And it really isn’t that hard to find common ground – many of the nativist nitwits who look for any excuse they can find to berate Latinos probably got their practice throughout the years claiming that Jewish people weren’t American enough, in their minds, to deserve to live in this country.

Now I suppose I come from a different perspective on this particular issue, since I gained a Jewish step-mother when my father remarried. In fact, after them being together for 27 years, my father finally converted to Judaism just over a month ago.

Personally, I sat through the service where he was officially welcomed as a new Jew and heard him talk of his “loss of faith” with the Catholic Church years ago (while also talking about how, as a small boy spending summers with relatives in Mexico, he contemplated becoming a priest), and wondered why he hadn’t made this jump in faith years ago.

Just because my father is now Jewish, I can’t say it has impacted our relationship in any way. It hasn’t created some cultural gap that we can’t bridge.

IN FACT, DEALING with my step-mother’s family throughout the years, I’d have to say they have been people who were more than willing to be open to the idea of aspects of life coming from a culture not rooted solely within los Estados Unidos.

About the closest I can come to a moment when I felt “out of the loop” is one that is more humorous than anything else – my young niece last year jokingly uninvited me from Hanukkah celebrations because I wasn’t Jewish.

My point in all of this is that I have been around enough Jewish people to find it’s not a very mysterious group. In fact, about the only people who find it something strange are the people who have deliberately isolated themselves.

Which is what I think the foundation found when they conducted their poll. Among its findings?

FIFTY-EIGHT PERCENT OF Jewish people surveyed think Latinos have prejudices that are anti-Jewish. Guess what, 46 percent of Latinos surveyed agreed. It may well be they interviewed too many people who just came out of Mass that day.

Then again, there are signs that the prejudice can be found all the way around. The poll found that 54 percent of Jewish people were supportive of the overbearing moves by Arizona state government to get local law enforcement involved in federal enforcement of immigration laws.

But it seems that 46 percent of Latinos surveyed are inclined to agree with the nativists who think the United States government is too supportive of Israel, with many Latinos saying they “don’t know” whether we should support Israelis or Palestinians.

Which makes me think that by being split apart, the only people who gain are the nativist element who would just as soon be rid of both of us. It seems many of us on all sides could use an education process.

WHICH IS WHY I was pleased to read the accounts from the San Antonio Express-News newspaper about a recent meeting of the minds, which former Mayor and federal Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros said could turn into a national coalition with some influence, if handled right.

Cisneros said it would be a coalition of “common experiences” and “common interests” bringing the two groups together.

Which is the step in the right direction. For if we start getting all the individual groups working together, eventually the nativists will get to be isolated all by themselves.

Isolated into irrelevance, while our society advances beyond them.

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