Members of a group of prominent Asian Americans, just back from an eventful trip to Israel, are planning joint efforts between the Asian American and the American Jewish communities.
While Jews and Asian Americans have long been involved in coalitions on various domestic issues, including immigration and hate crimes, the agenda has expanded to include foreign policy, said Neil Sandberg, director of the Los Angeles-based Pacific Rim Institute of the American Jewish Committee.
“It seemed only natural to want to extend this (relationship) to the world scene,” Sandberg said.
This shift is due in part to the increasing ties in recent years between Israel and Asian countries including China, Japan and India.
The Feb. 19-28 trip was believed to be the first involving Asian Americans of varying backgrounds, including Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese. The 11 participants live in cities across the United States, from San Diego to Atlanta.
This was the participants’ first trip to Israel, and it happened to coincide with the Feb. 25 murders of Palestinian worshipers in a Hebron mosque by a Jewish settler.
Several of the participants, contacted after their return home, were still trying to sort out their emotions and impressions of the trip, which was sponsored by Project Interchange, an AJCommittee institute.
“I got so much information from the trip, it will take me many days to digest,” said Susan Lew of San Diego, a businesswoman born in China.
North Vietnam-born Tony Lam of Westminster, Calif., did not wait to come home before contacting Vietnamese Americans to discuss his trip.
While in Israel, Lam called a U.S. radio station that he said reaches 300,000 Vietnamese Americans and spent about 35 minutes on the air.
‘THEY LOVE ISRAEL SO MUCH’
Lam, who serves as mayor pro tempore of Westminster, an Orange County community with a heavy concentration of Vietnamese Americans, said he told his listeners about the Vietnamese community in Israel and put some members of this community on the radio.
According to Lam, there are about 200 Vietnamese who fled their homeland and have been living in Israel since 1979.
“They were the first boat people ever accepted by any country,” Lam said. “They love Israel so much,” Lam said. “They talk about how nice people are, and their children are in the army. To them, (Israel) is their country. That story is so good to the Vietnamese listener.”
“Early on, Israel was very forthcoming and sensitive to the plight of the boat people and took in a number of refugees,” said Sandberg. He added that Israel “has done a very good job in involving the Vietnamese immigrant community in the national life of the society,” including in schools and in the army.
“The area of escape from persecution is an area Jews know well,” Sandberg said.
Lam said his trip gave him an understanding of the issues involved in the Middle East conflict. “It is a matter of survival for Israel to defend itself,” he said.
He added that television news only showed rock-throwing in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho.
He plans to talk to a Jewish group in Orange County about his trip. “I also work as an ambassador of good will, as a liaison between the two communities here,” he said.
Lew also plans to discuss her trip before a joint Asian-Jewish group. She hopes to see the Jewish community “more integrated in a network” with Asian Americans. “There is a lot of similarity between Asian and Jewish people,” she said.
She said she hoped the Mideast peace process would succeed and result in an expansion of trade between Israel and Asian countries. Such trade has already grown in the past few years.
But participants, including Clifford “Kip” Tokuda of Seattle, a Japanese American, said the focus of the trip tended to be politics and social programs rather than trade.
Project Interchange has contacted American-Israel chambers of commerce in cities where participants live, asking the business groups to send material to participants who are interested in fostering Israeli-Asian trade ties, said Andrea Hillman, Project Interchange’s assistant director.
Tokuda, who is director of the Washington Council for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, is planning to discuss his trip before a joint board meeting of the Japanese American Citizens League and the local AJCommittee chapter.
HOPING FOR MORE SUBSTANTIAL RELATIONS
He said the two groups held a joint meeting a couple of years earlier, but he hoped this time it would lead to a more substantial relationship.
Such joint plans are exactly what Project Interchange hoped would result from the trip. Also, Project Interchange hopes that the Asian American leaders will share their experiences with their communities, Hillman said.
Tokuda said the trip was “a pretty amazing time,” the “best short course I’ve ever had from a historical, political and cultural standpoint.”
The participants’ agenda included a visit to a refugee absorption center and a meeting with the Arab director of a new Arab-Jewish community center in Jaffa.
“I thought that was pretty unique, given the conflict and a lot of what we had seen,” Tokuda said of the joint Arab-Jewish program.
Lam, of Orange County, also said he was impressed with the community center, calling it “really advanced. I can use it as a model for my city as well.”
Pin Pin Chau of Atlanta, a Hong Kong-born banker, said she would like to write about her experiences, including being in Israel during the Hebron murders and visiting Yad Vashem. “It was ery emotional to me,” she said.
Chau said that after her visit she “can appreciate how difficult it is to maintain” calm in Israel.
“The Jewish people have my admiration,” she said.
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