Countywide : Latino Jews to Learn to Halt Hate Crime

Latino Jews will meet in Orange County this weekend to learn how to prevent and respond to acts of anti-Semitism and other hate crimes that occur in schools, workplaces and neighborhoods.

Speaking will be Jonathan Bernstein, director of the Anti-Defamation League of Orange County; and Sonia Adelman, a trainer with the ADL’s “A World of Difference” anti-prejudice program. Spanish translation will be provided.

The public forum was prompted by a 141% rise in reported acts of anti-Semitism in Orange County this year, said organizer Bruno Ledwin, an ADL board member. The event is also an outreach to the county’s Latino Jews, many of whom came from “a hostile environment where anti-Semitism runs very rampant,” Ledwin said.

“The problem is that we, as a group, are the scapegoats for many of the socioeconomic problems” in Latin America, said Ledwin, 54, who immigrated to the United States from Buenos Aires 30 years ago. Many Jews from Argentina, Mexico, Cuba and other Latin-American countries tend to keep quiet about abuses they suffer, according to Ledwin.

“We cannot allow this kind of bigotry and racism anymore,” he said. This is especially important for Orange County’s estimated 1,500 Latino Jews, because they are “a minority within a minority” and therefore potential targets of immigrant bashing and anti-Semitic acts, he said.

“They get it from both sides,” said ADL director Bernstein. To illustrate his point, Bernstein pulled out a crudely-produced flyer that slurs both Jews and Hispanics. These and similar flyers, containing a phone number for the White Aryan Resistance hate group, have been circulated at Orange County schools in an attempt to recruit racists, “especially skinheads,” Bernstein said.

“There’s no perfect response to these sort of things,” he said, but it is vital that acts of hatred are not ignored.

“It comes down to what you’re comfortable with,” said Bernstein. Sometimes “getting up and walking out of a room is enough of a response,” he said. Sometimes a formal complaint letter or an organized community response is appropriate.

Acts of anti-Semitism and other hate crimes should be reported to the ADL and the police, according to Bernstein, who said law enforcement agencies are “taking these incidents more seriously now.”

Police can help victims overcome feelings of isolation and vulnerability by letting them know there is a support network, Bernstein said. And when hate crimes are reported, police can search for patterns and make arrests.

“In California, fortunately, we have some of the strongest hate crime laws,” Bernstein said.

Along with responding to acts of hatred, the ADL does work to prevent such incidents. One example is “A World of Difference,” an eight-hour interactive workshop attended by 10,000 Orange County schoolteachers so far. The workshop is designed to combat prejudice and promote intergroup understanding.

Bernstein points out that the ADL, which was founded in 1913, is “very much involved in non-Jewish issues,” such as fighting prejudice against Hispanics, blacks and other minorities. The primary objective, he said, “is to not simply teach tolerance of each other, but to celebrate our diversity.”

The “Anti-Semitism and Hate Crimes in Orange County” forum is scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Jewish Community Center of Orange County, 250 E. Baker St., Costa Mesa. The cost is $3. For more information, call (714) 751-0608.