Asian Jewish Initiative Summit: “Diverse in Heritage, United in Cause”

  • January 18, 2019
Pictured from left: Asian Jewish Initiative Co-chair Sasha Rivkin, ADL LA Board Chair Scott Harris, Korean American Coalition Executive Director Eunice Song, ADL LA Regional Director Amanda Susskind, ADL National Commission Co-chair and Asian Jewish Initiative Co-founder Faith Cookler, Asian Jewish Initiative Co-chair Vince Gonzales, Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP) President and CEO Linda Akutagawa, LEAP Director of Development Nancy Yap, and LEAP Board Chair George Wu.

 

A diverse group of community and thought leaders attended ADL’s Asian Jewish Initiative summit meeting, Diverse in Heritage, United in Cause: A Summit for Leaders of the Jewish and Asian American Communities in Los Angeles, on January 15 at UCLA. The event was co-hosted by ADL, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP), and the Korean American Coalition.

The first two hours comprised a program with keynote speaker pairs, table discussions, and a group discussion on issues of mutual interest and concern to the diverse Jewish and Asian American communities represented in the room. The last hour was a reception and press conference in which the co-hosts presented a joint statement and took questions from attending media.

The program opened with welcome remarks from Asian Jewish Initiative co-chairs Vince Gonzales and Sasha Rivkin, and an introduction by ADL LA Regional Director Amanda Susskind.

The first keynote speakers were Jerry Kang, Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at UCLA and Erika Moritsugu, Vice President of Government Relations, Advocacy, and Community Engagement at ADL. The pair discussed the challenges involved in increasing access to education and professional opportunities, issues related to intersectionality in academic and activist contexts, and the many ways ADL engages these issues.

ADL LA Regional Director Amanda Susskind and LEAP President and CEO Linda Akutagawa give keynote remarks.

The second pair were Linda Akutagawa, President and CEO of LEAP, and Amanda Susskind, who spoke about why leadership development is important to the two communities and how they can work together to ensure all communities are fairly represented in positions of leadership.

The final speaker pair were Faith Cookler, Co-chair of ADL’s National Commission and Co-founder of the Asian Jewish Initiative, and Sylvia Kim, Chief Innovation Officer at the Asian Pacific Community Fund (APCF) and former Regional Director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice-LA’s Orange County office. Faith spoke about the ways bias and stereotypes affect the Jewish community, as well as the divisions within the Jewish diaspora regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sylvia echoed those thoughts, describing the Asian American community as non-monolithic and how, as the fastest-growing group in the U.S., its diasporas and their relationships with their countries of origin are still developing.

During the press conference, ADL LA Regional Director Amanda Susskind read the joint statement prepared by the four co-hosting organizations, and signed by APIs Mobilize, CAUSE USA, and the Filipino American Service Group, Inc., which included a consensus to stand up to all forms of hatred and bigotry and to commit to the betterment of the community as a whole through continued and open dialogue.

From left: Asian Pacific Community Fund Chief Innovation Officer Sylvia Kim, ADL Glass Leadership Institute Participant and Asians in LA Co-founder Nancy Yoon, ADL Vice President of Government Relations, Advocacy, and Community Engagement Erika Moritsugu, and Asian Jewish Initiative Co-founder Faith Cookler.

The event was covered by The Korea Daily, The Korea Times, and Asians in LA.

To be added to the ADL Asian Jewish Initiative interest list, please email LA@adl.org.