THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Hispanics, Jews Seek to End Misconceptions
By BEN GALLOB
(Copyright 1983, JTA, Inc.)
Representative-S of His-
panic and Jewish organiza-
tions have met twice in re-
cent years in efforts to es-
tablish better understand-
ing and to seek to correct
misconceptions each group
has about the other.
Representatives of the
Northeast Hispanic
Catholic Center and the
American. Jewish Commit-
tee held discussions in a
meeting at the AJCommit-
tee's headquarters in New
York City.
The Catholics were repre-
sented by Father Alvaro
Corrado del Rio, Father
Robert Stern and Father
Carlos Mullins. Represent-
ing the AJCommittee were
Jacob Kovadloff, chairman
of the meeting; and Harold
Applebaum, Judith Banski,
Sonia Kaufer nad Samuel
Weintraub.
One of the salient
points of discussion was
that the teachings of Vat-
ican Council II on rela-
tionships between Jews
and Catholics should be
more widely diffused in
the Hispanic community
to create a better climate
for dialogue. Also dis-
cussed was the need for
dissemination at both na-
tional and local levels of
the rich Spanish-
language literature on
Judeo-Catholic relations.
The participants agreed
that greater awareness of
the two religious traditions
should be sought by a re-
evaluation of material
housed at the Madrid Cen-
'ter for Christian-Jewish
Studies, prepared by Jewish
and Catholic experts.
At an earlier conference,
participants agreed that
Hispanics and Jews have
many common goals, prob-
lems and interests and can
benefit from frequent dis-
cussions of their mutual,
and sometimes varying,
concerns:
The two-day Hispanic-
Jewish Conference on Im-
migration and Accultura-
tion in 1981 in Houston was
described in a .booklet,
!`Jews and Hispanics in
America," edited by the
AJCommittee's Institute on
Pluralism and Group Iden-
tity (IPGI). The conference
was co-sponsored by the
Committee's HouSton chap-
ter and the Immigrant Aid
Society of the America.
Irving Levine, IPGI di-
rector, said the nation of
pluralism "is very com-
plicated," adding that
"our country is not only
about individualism. One
of the essential ingre-
dients in the way this
country was formed was
by cohesive groups creat-
ing a community."
He said one cannot be- a
healthy personality unless
one can recoup one's tradi-
tion — racial, ethnic, com-
munal tradition — and
integrate all of it in one's
personality. He declared,
"Identity means much more
than individual self-
realization alone, which can
lead to narcissim. Identity
is always related to one's
family, community and his-
tory: ,
Dr. Lawrence Fuchs,
former director of the Select
Commission on Immigra-
tion and Refugee Policy,
said that, partly because
"our economic situation is
difficult," there is "a mis-
taken idea that immigrants
are simply mouths to feed,
that they take something
away from the United
States."
He said there is a- feeling
that "there are only so many
jobs, and immigrants take
jobs awayfrom Americans."
He declared that there was
"not sufficient appreciation
of the strengths that im-
migrants bring to this coun-.
try — not only culturally'
but in terms of their spirit."
The conference was
told that all immigrant
groups "bring cultural
baggage: a way of think-_
ing, a way of loving, a
way of living" and that
"all find _themselves
caught between two cul-
tures."
Both Jewish and His-
panic immigrants have
known persecution, poverty
and mistreatment at the
hands of government offi-
cials. Both have come from
cultures in which family,
religion and tradition had a
large role, while the Ameri-
can society is non-
traditional and secular and
has many institutions, such
as public schools, that tend
to weaken the pull of the
family.
The participants also
were told that 'a major dif-
ference is that Jews were
generally not ambivalent
about their decisions to set-
tle in this country and were
eager to become
Americanized, but many
Hispanics have been ambi-
valent about immigration,
Envoy Denies Threat to Jews
WASHINGTON (JTA) —
The Turkish Ambassador to
Washington has denied that
he has' ever implied that
Jews. in Turkey would be
threatened if the 1914-1915
massacre of Aimenians in
Turkey is included in the
Holocaust - Memorial
Museum being planned for
Washington.
Ambassador Sukru Elek-
dag said he was issuing a
statement denying a report
in a Washington Post arti-
cle on the museum April 13,
in which a "White House
-
source" implied that the in-
clusion' of the massacre in
the museum "might have an
impact on Jews in Turkey."
"The proposition that
Turkish citizens of the
Jewish faith are, in any
sense, potentially
threatened by the Turkish
government or the non-
Jewish majority of the Tur-'
kish population is utterly
groundless," Elekdag said.
"That I have ever said any-'
thing that would warrant
an alternate conclusion is
equally untrue."
retain strong ties to their
country of birth, and move
back and forth between this
country and their home-
land.
The conference' was told
that another difference is
that Jews, possibly more
than any other immigrant
group, arrived in this coun-
try well-prepared to create
the kind of self-help organ-
izations on which they had
strongly relied in Eastern
Europe. It was suggested
that Hispanics would bene-
Friday, April 29, 1983 27
We Make'Our Own Glasses
fit if they could build a net-
work of support systems
similar to those of the
Jews.
Jews have largely failed
to preserve Yiddish and
make use of Hebrew
while Hispanics are much
more vigilant about
preserving their language.
The conference and the
report both were funded by
the Texas Committee for
the Humanities and the Na-
tional Endowment for the
Humanities.
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