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(03/09/2001)

James D, Besser - Washington Correspondent

Building Latino-Jewish Coalitions

American Jews and Hispanics have a lot in common. But forging political and social alliances between the groups will take work by leaders in both communities.

That was the bottom line at a groundbreaking conference this week sponsored by B’nai B’rith, the New American Alliance, the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

“Even though there have been relations between Jewish and Latino groups for a long time, this is the first time the communities have met at the national level,” said Dina Siegel-Vann, B’nai B’rith’s Latin American affairs director. “In the past our communities have worked together on an ad-hoc basis. The goal this week is to start creating permanent, systematic relations.”

That relationship is particularly important because “the Latino community is becoming increasingly influential, as well as more numerous — and because it shares a number of core values with the Jewish community,” she said. And 450,000 Jews scattered throughout Latin America and up to 100,000 Latino Jews in this country provide another link between the communities, she said.

Participants agreed to work together on a number of issues, ranging from education to support for each other’s special foreign policy interests — Israel for the Jews, Latin America for the Latinos.

“It’s very important that they stand behind us in support of Israel,” she said, “but they also want U.S. to support their efforts to get aid for Latin America.”

At the session, the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding released the first national survey of Jewish-Latino relations.

Among the results: More Latinos — 65 percent to 60 percent — believe that the Holocaust is not taught enough in schools. Both communities showed strong support for “universal health care” and for stronger family values.

But the communities disagree on bilingual education and on President George W. Bush’s faith-based initiatives.

Still, the commonalties outweigh the differences, said Rabbi Marc Schneier, the Foundation’s president.

“Based on these shared values, there is a strong foundation to create an alliance between Jews and Latinos, especially a social justice agenda, both domestically and internationally,” he said.

But Jewish leaders will have to devote as much time to Jewish-Latino relations as they have to the troubled partnership between blacks and Jews, he said.

“Latino-Jewish relations may not have the history of black-Jewish relations, the feeling of connection and the electricity,” he said. “So we have to energetically take issues and create a sense of shared struggle.

“And we have to understand that coalition building is a two-way street.”

Jews can expect support in many areas from this increasingly important community, he said — but they have to be sensitive to the core issues that Latinos care about, such as bilingual education

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