Created in 1994, the Alliance of Latinos and Jews builds relationships between the two communities by building relationships between people. Participants have included individuals from the Chicago area's largest corporations and most successful small businesses, elected and appointed officials, volunteer and professional leaders from some of Chicago's most prestigious non-profit organizations, essentially leaders from all walks of life.
When we started this all-volunteer organization very few relationships existed between the Latino and Jewish communities in the Chicago area. We changed that! Individuals have formed relationships and so have organizations resulting in new business contacts, board memberships, friendships and combined efforts in important causes.
Activities and programs focus on business and economic development, immigration, social, and cultural events. We initiate the co-sponsoring of programming between Jewish, Latino, other ethnic, and non-ethnic related organizations.
Highlights from past years:
July 1999: More than 100 people attended our program titled "Traditions in Philanthropy," hosted by Harris Bank. Two Jewish and two Latino panelists offered insights into their personal giving as it related to the values instilled by their respective communities.
October 1999: The first trip ever comprised of Latinos and Jews, 24 participants, visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
January 2000: Reception to honor the new dean of Loyola University's School of Business, Dr. Enrique Venta, hosted by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.
February 2000: Approximately 250 people attended an incredible evening at Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies to view an exhibition, "The Nazi Olympics" and to hear from special speakers Marlene Owens Rankin, daughter of gold medal winner Jesse Owens; Ralph Metcalfe, Jr. son of gold medal winner Ralph Metcalfe; and Fritzie Fritzshall, Auschwitz survivor. Joset Wright, then President of Ameritech-Illinois, emceed the program.
October 2000: Noted Professor Pastora San Juan Cafferty discussed her recently published book, An Agenda for the Twenty-First Century: Hispanics in the United States which she co-edited.
February 2001: Annual meeting featuring Paul Green (professor, radio personality, and political pundit) discussing the November elections and the implications for re-districting with particular focus on the impact on the Jewish and Latino communities.
April 2001: Evening at the Chicago Latino Film Festival with dinner and discussion following the movie, Un amor en Moisesville.
May 2001: Reception, dinner and presentation with Costa Rican Ambassador to the United States, Jaime Daremblum. Hosted by the Jewish Community Relations Council.
May 2001: Celebration of the one year anniversary of the Free Trade Agreement between Mexico and Israel. 300 people attended the reception and program held at Harris Bank. The planning committee was chaired by the Alliance of Latinos and Jews and included America - Israel Chamber of Commerce Chicago, Bancomext, Trade Commission of Mexico in Chicago, Consulate General of Israel, Government of Israel Economic Office, Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago and the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce. The Governments of Mexico and Israel were the hosts. Harris Bank and Holland & Knight LLP sponsored and underwrote the event.
July 2001: Cooperating organization for the breakfast event organized by the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce held in conjunction with the Chicago visit of Mexico's President Vicente Fox.
July 2001: Visit to the Fiesta del Sol festival in Chicago's Pilsen community.
July 2001: Volunteers from the Alliance helped serve dinner to those in need at the Uptown Cafe
October 2001: Congresswomen Loretta Sanchez (CA) and Jan Schakowsky (IL) spoke to the Alliance about September 11, issues of particular and common concern, political empowerment, and opportunities for coalition.
December 2001: Author and journalist Achy Obejas gave a presentation on her most recently published book "Days of Awe" and the research she did on Cuba in preparation for writing the book.
December 2001: Holiday party
December 2001: Special fundraising effort initiated in Chicago by the Alliance to help people affected by the financial crisis in Argentina to buy food and other necessities.
February 2002: Annual meeting held at the largest museum of Mexican art in the United States, the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum.
April 2002: Board elections and creation of three new operating committees: Programming, Communications and Membership.
April, May 2002: Evenings at the Chicago Latino Film Festival and the Israel Film Festival
June 2002: Ethnicity and Judgment, How Ethnicity Shapes Justice featuring
Federal Judges Ilana Diamond Rovner and Ruben Castillo, respectively the highest-level Chicago area federal judges from each community. We were joined in this unique program by co-sponsors the Decalogue Society of Lawyers and the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois.
July 2002: Launch party for the The Great Book's Foundation's New Publication "A Latino National Conversation: Readings on Assimilation" with a special presentation by Professor Ilan Stavans, "Latinos and the Melting Pot."
July 2002: Members luncheon featuring special presentations on volunteerism by representatives from Volunteers for Israel and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago's TOV program.
August 2002: Publication of our first newsletter in several years by our new Communications Committee.
November 2002: Día de los Muertos event at the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, reception and viewing of the largest public Día de los Muertos art exhibit.
November 2002: Co-sponsored a panel discussion, "Mexican Immigrant Workers and the U.S. Economy: An Increasingly Vital Role," presented by The American Immigration Law Foundation Immigration Policy Center
November 2002: The first monthly discussion group began, to be called the "Tertulia/Havurah" group. This group composed of Alliance leaders will hopefully become a model to involve others. The group will choose topics of mutual interest. As an example, here are the first two topics: multi-cultural interactions within each community, a discussion about the many differences there are in the ways that Hispanics and Jews relate to and identify with their own traditions and identities; and second, a discussion about the similarities between the ethics and values of the two communities. What do we share? What differs? This initial group committed to meet monthly until May 2003.
December 2002: Gala Holiday Party co-sponsored with the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting, Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement, Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois, Latino Employees of Exelon/ComEd, Latino Technology Association, National Society of Hispanic MBA's, and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.
January through May 2003: Once each month, 18 members of our board met in a discussion group called Havurah/Tertula. Each evening we discussed a different topic including self-identification, stereotyping, politics, and holiday celebrations. The discussions were open, honest, enlightening and often surprising.
January 2003: We co-sponsored with KFAR a club performance featuring East Coast music sensation Hip Hop Hoodios. The group included Jewish, Caribbean and South American musicians to offer a different-than-usual take on hip hop.
April 2003: We kicked-off our Immigration Task Force led by then Alliance co-chair Bertha Magaña with a program including speakers Susan Gzesh, Josh Hoyt and Al Lanier. The meeting was held in the offices of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago with about 40 people attending.
May 2003: We held our annual meeting at Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies with a private viewing of Spertus Museum’s exhibition “Southern Exposure – Photographs of South American Jewish Life.” We presented our new logo, which we were able to have designed with the generous support of The Fel-Pro Mecklenburger Foundation. Another highlight, we awarded a scholarship to one of the young people sponsored by the Jesús-Guadalupe Foundation.
June 2003: The Alliance was a promoting partner of Chicago United for their continuing breakfast forum series on Race & Business. This program, “Does Your Name Affect Your Marketability?” featured University of Chicago Professor Marianne Bertrand.
October 2003: We joined a great group of coalition organizations to promote a seminar and luncheon organized and led by Latinas in Leadership, “Raising the Bar.” In addition to lots of great speakers on various self and community growth topics, the program featured actress Diana Maria Rivas and Latin Grammy winner Jorge Bencomo Lobaco.
December 2003: We hosted a holiday party at Nacional 27.
January 2004: Approximately 60 people joined us for a new and prospective members party at Emilio’s Tapas Restaurant in Chicago. The evening featured great food and salsa music spun by Eddie “Mozkito” Cruz of Chicago tropical station La Clave Radio, WAIT 850 AM.
February 2004: We hosted a special reception for Jewish and Latino elected officials at the offices of Gardner, Carton & Douglas in Chicago. About 80 people attended. We heard remarks about the importance of the relationships between the communities from some of the elected officials including US Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky and State Representative Susana Mendoza.
February 2004: We held a family event at the award-winning Chicago Children’s Museum. We got to visit the museum’s permanent exhibits and its special exhibit, “Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street?” where everyone became part of everybody’s favorite neighborhood. All the kids designed and made their own t-shirts.
February 2004: Our Immigration Task Force arranged a panel discussion by leading national immigration experts to discuss the major post 9-11 shift in immigration philosophy, policy and legislation. Panelists included the Honorable Carlos Manuel Sada Solana, Consul General of Mexico; Brian Perryman, former District Director of the Chicago District Office of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service; Patricia Mendoza, Bureau Chief of the Civil Rights Division of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office and previously Regional Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund; Paul Zulkie, President-elect of the 8,000-plus member American Immigration Lawyers Association and Sandra Del Toro, Policy and Advocacy Coordinator for the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
March 2004: Alliance members gathered at the Russian Tea Time Restaurant for a special presentation by award-winning author and Yale professor Sergio Troncoso. Mr. Troncoso read from his latest novel, The Nature of Truth and spoke about his own life traveling between different places and communities.
March 2004: We helped pack Passover packages for Maot Chitim, a local Jewish organization that arranges and delivers food packages to needy Jewish individuals and families.
April 2004: We held our first annual Passover Sephardic Model Seder at Northern Trust Bank. Professor Isaac Daniel of Northwestern University led the Seder, done in the style of the Jews who were expelled from Spain and Portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries.
April 2004: The Alliance brought volunteers together again. This time we cleaned the outdoor for the homeless families living at the Su Casa Shelter, in Chicago’s Back-of-the-Yards neighborhood.
May 2004: We awarded a scholarship to a student, Sandra Garcia, selected by the East Village Youth Program at their major fundraising event. This very successful mentoring organization was founded by one of our original founders, Jess Levine.
May 2004: Our tenth annual meeting featured Carmen Prieto, Associate Director of the Wielbolt Foundation and the Chair of the Board of the Chicago Foundation for Women. Carmen spoke about the importance of relations between communities. We also invited Sandra Garcia to the meeting who received our scholarship award a few weeks earlier at the East Village Youth Program event.
May 2004: The Alliance kicked off its tenth year of connecting people, connecting communities, by bringing our members and friends to a special presentation of the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum exhibit “Risking the Abstract: Mexican Modernism and the Art of Gunther Gerzso.”
June 2004: We had our own booth at the bi-annual Jewish Folk Arts Festival, P.O.C.E.T. Our board members who helped at the booth brought our message to visitors about the importance of relationships between our communities.
June 2004: The Alliance received special mention for helping to promote the U.S. - Mexico Chamber of Commerce’s 2004 Double Eagle Awards Dinner and Conference, Featuring a keynote Address by His Excellency Vicente Fox, President of Mexico.
August 2004: Our volunteers helped pack food packages for need Jewish individuals and families to use for celebrating the Jewish New Year.
October 2004: We invited new and existing members to Adobo Grill for an evening of great food, music by Escandalo Entertainment DJ and salsa lessons.
November 2004: Juan Andrade, President of the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute and Jay Tcath, Vice President of the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago and Director of its Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) offered us their perspectives on the recent 2004 elections and the voting patterns within each community. The law firm Sidley Austin Brown & Wood hosted our program with about 50 people in attendance.
December 2004: Judge Sheldon Gardner spoke to members about his new book, The Converso Legacy. Blackman, Kallick hosted this luncheon program.
December 2004: What is Kosher? Initiated from the curiosity of our Latina Alliance Co-chair’s mother-in-law, we put together this great food and education program at Taboun Grill, one of Chicago’s most authentic feel Israeli/Moroccan restaurants. Rabbi Dan Sherbill gave the presentation and helped answer lots of questions from Latinos and Jews.
January 2005: Congressman Luis and Soraida Gutierrez addressed a luncheon co-sponsored by The American Jewish Committee. The Congressman and his wife spoke about their recent Project Interchange seminar in Israel and Jordan. Approximately 60 people attended the luncheon.
April 2005: We hosted our 2nd Annual Sephardic Model Passover Seder at Taboun Grill. Rabbi Michael Azose led the Seder with more than approximately 80 people in attendance.
April 2005: About 20 volunteers gathered to help Maot Chitim pack Passover food baskets for delivery to needy Jewish individuals and families.
May 2005: 15 volunteers helped clean up the yard and did some landscaping at Su Casa Homeless Family Shelter on Chicago's South Side.
May 2005: With Mariachis, we welcomed the start of year 12 for the Alliance. We made our annual meeting, held at Lalo's restaurant, a celebration of the great past year. Co-Chair Brad Schneider turned over the reins to Michele Ilene Ruiz who joins Judge Patricia Mendoza in leading the Alliance during the next year.
September 2005:
Continuing what has become a tradition for the Alliance of Latinos and Jews, we gathered a few weeks before the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, to volunteer for Maot Chitim to pack food packages for needy Jewish families and individuals.
The Alliance of Latinos and Jews and the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce, Mid-America Chapter in cooperation with: Consulate General of Mexico in Chicago, Hispanic Bankers Association, Chicago Chapter, Ministry of Social Development of Mexico (SEDESOL), Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois, Mexico Tourism Board, National Society of Hispanic MBAs, Chicago Chapter, Trade Commission of Mexico in Chicago, Rauner Family YMCA of Pilsen/Little Village, Chicago Sister Cities International, Mexico City Committee celebrated Mexico's Independence Day with a Business Networking Event & Tequila Tasting. More than 350 people attended this fabulous event.
Still another September event, the Alliance of Latinos and Jews put together a team to participate in the first-ever ADL Walk Together, Celebrate Diversity and Stomp Out Hate, and helping to unite Chicago's diverse communities.
December 2005: On the night of the biggest snow storm of the winter in Chicago, we co-sponsored with several other organizations a holiday party organized by the Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE). The Museum of Contemporary Art hosted the event which featured their then current major Brazilian exhibit.
January 2006: The Alliance of Latinos and Jews arranged a very special program, "Comprehensive Immigration Reform: What is Needed?" Panelists representing a full spectrum of viewpoints included: Melanie Bassett - Executive Director of Congressional and Public Affairs U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Maricela Garcia - Board Member Latinos United; Laura Garza - Director of Institutional Division, Recording Secretary, SEIU Local 1; Marketa Lindt - Chair of the Chicago Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association; and Brian Perryman - former District Director of the Chicago Office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. We had a wonderful group of co-sponsors: American Immigration Lawyers Association - Chicago Chapter; American Jewish Committee - Chicago Chapter; Centro Romero; Chicago Bar Association Immigration and Nationality Committee; Erie Neighborhood House; Frida Kahlo Community Organization;Hebrew Immigrant and Aid Society; Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois; Hispanic National Bar Association; Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; Immigrant Assistance Program-(Illinois Attorney General's Office); and SEIU
Local 1.
March 2006: We held our third annual Sephardic Model Seder. More than 125 people attended, our largest group yet. The Seder was led by Rabbi Michael Azose and featured Cantor Alberto Mizrahi. We had 13 sponsors who helped make the evening a great success.
September 2006: The Alliance of Latinos and Jews put together a team of walkers for the ADL's second annual "Walk Together." The Alliance has helped to support this great event each of its first two years.
November 2006: We co-sponsored The American Jewsih Committee's reception and celebration of America's Table, a Thanksgiving reader honoring the pluralistic mosaic of American society, which featured readers from various religious and ethnic communities, including our own board member Dan Ventura. The event was held at the Zhou B Art Center.
December 2006: The Alliance co-sponsored with several other organizations a holiday party, organized by the Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE). The party was held at Gallery Marchetti and for the first time featured a speed networking opportunity.
Decemeber 2006: We were a supporting sponsor of Nextbook's presentation by Maocyr Scliar and Professor Ilan Stavans. Their remarks focused on Latin American Jewish Literature.
January 2007: The Alliance hosted a night at the theatre to see Steppenwolf's production of Sonia Flew, the story of a family with a Cuban wife and Jewish husband. The play illustrated the challenges of children fleeing from Cuba in the early Castro era, often separated from their parents and other family members.
March 2007: We held our fourth Annual Sephardic Model Seder, led by Cantor Alberto Mizrahi. What a spectacular evening of both education and entertainment! Almost 130 people heard the melodic interpretations of Cantor Alberto Mizrahi in Hebrew, Ladino, and the Spanish from five hundred years ago. Cantor Mizrahi shared much knowledge with us about the traditions of the Jews who lived in Spain and Portugal, many of whom settled in Latin America and how their Passover celebration.
November 2007: We invited our members to participate in three different events: a night at the theatre to see the acclaimed play, "The Cook" at the Goodman Theatre; followed by the 35th Annual Reading Series of The Poetry Center of Chicago, which featured Peter Cole talking about and reading from his new book, The Dream of a Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain 950-1492; and then, at the Instituto Cervantes new location and co-presented by the Consulate General of Argentina. an evening of Jewish, Sephardic and tango music performed by the New Tango Ensemble.
December 2007: The Alliance featured a lunch program with Cristina Benitez, author of Latinization and marketing expert, and supporter of the local arts. Cristina spoke about her book and its implications on our future.
On Thursday, March 6, 2008, the Alliance held its first ever women's event, Speed Mentoring, hosted at the offices of Sidley Austin, LLP. It only took the Alliance 15 years to decide to organize a women's event, but it was worth the wait. About 80 women attended this sold-out round robin event with small tables hosted by women leaders in the business, professional services, arts and not-for-profits worlds, representing both communities. These exceptional women leaders shared their best career advice for women; how they found their passion for what they do; and how their ethnicity influenced their career choice and its impact on a day-to-day basis. Erika Maldonado, a Univision Reporter/Part-time, served as our Emcee. The mentors were Karina Ayala-Bermejo, Executive Director, Sun Times Judge Marovitz Lawyers Lend-A-Hand to Youth Program; Jill Bishop, Founder and President, Workforce Language Services, Luisa Echevarria, Director of Community Relations & Public Affairs, Univision Chicago/Telefutura; Elizabeth Evans, Executive Director, Illinois Charter Schools Network; Bertha Magaña, Executive Director, Latino Education Alliance; Hon. Patricia Mendoza, Associate Judge Cook County, Juvenile Division; Angelique Power, Director of Marketing, Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art; Michele Ilene Ruiz, Partner, international law firm of Sidley Austin LLP; Julie Smolyansky, President and CEO, Lifeway Foods, the youngest female CEO of a publicly held firm; and Neli Vazquez-Rowland, CEO, Be! Products, Inc., a professional nail care company. It was an inspiring and an empowering event for those that attended. Event co-chairs were Amy Klein, Olga Rojas and Becca Youngerman
