Discussing the role of immigrants in a diverse America are, from left, moderator Allyson Gall, executive director of the AJC’s Metro NJ region; J. Frank Vespa-Papaleo, director of the NJ attorney general’s civil rights division; the Rev. Robert Morris, executive director of Interweave; and M. Ali Chaudry, president of the Center for Understanding Islam.
Photos by Robert Wiener
November 20, 2008
In an early celebration of Thanksgiving, speakers from diverse backgrounds urged greater inclusion of recent immigrants in the fabric of American life.
The Nov. 11 event, cosponsored by the American Jewish Committee and a multi-faith learning center called Interweave, featured a panel with the director of AJC’s Metro NJ chapter, a Muslim rights activist, an Episcopal priest, and J. Frank Vespa-Papaleo, director of the civil rights division in the state attorney general’s office.
Setting the event was a recitation from “America’s Table,” a Thanksgiving reader published by AJC to “celebrate our diverse roots and shared values.” The seder-like ceremony included Muslim, African-American, Latino, Asian, and Catholic participants.
Moderating the evening was Metro NJ AJC executive director Allyson Gall.
Gall — a Jew by choice whose background is German and Irish Catholic — also serves as cochair of the new Office of Immigrant Affairs Committee of the NJ Immigration Policy Network.
Leaders representing Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Latino, Asian, and African-American organizations read aloud from “America’s Table,” a celebration of “diverse roots and shared culture.”
She said many recent immigrants face difficult challenges; they must learn English, “and, along with many, many other people in poverty, they have no health care.” She pondered the best way to “integrate newcomers into American society without losing their cultural uniqueness.”
“As a Jew I don’t want to become ‘American’ if that means ‘more bland’ or ‘more white bread,’” she said. “I think integration is an intelligent way of preserving what you have and the best of what you bring of your faith, your culture, and your traditions. But you also accept the best of the host culture.”
In his remarks, Vespa-Papaleo said he gets “very disturbed” when he reads about “immigrant-bashing by people who are probably one generation removed from their own parents coming from wherever.”
“It is disturbing that people who say ‘I am good enough to be here’ now turn around and say, ‘The border should be closed. Sorry, folks. Go home.’
“We should be ashamed when that happens,” he said.
Vespa-Papaleo, a Venezuelan immigrant, described his heritage as “like the United Nations.” His grandmother is from Argentina, his mother is from Italy, and his father is from Newark; he has relatives, he said, “who are black, Caucasian, gay, straight, Jewish, Christian, and agnostic.”
He also emphasized the need for educational services for immigrants.
“I think it is important for every person in the United States to learn English,” said Vespa-Papaleo. “We need to significantly increase the amount of education we offer to immigrants. The worse thing we are doing in this country is denying immigrants opportunity to free education.”
In his remarks to the gathering, Pakistani native M. Ali Chaudry said, “People gave me opportunities, but it is a challenge being a Muslim in the United States, especially after 9/11.” Chaudry, a former mayor of Basking Ridge, is president of the Center for Understanding Islam in Bernardsville.
He said he founded the center after the 2001 terrorist attacks because “we needed to have a conversation about Islam and about Muslims with our fellow Americans, and we among ourselves in the Muslim community need to have a conversation.”
The Rev. Robert Morris, an Episcopal priest who is executive director of Interweave, told the group, “My WASP ancestors were horrified at Catholic immigration. They were desperately concerned about all these German immigrants that set up communities that had German signs all over town and worshiped in German. We’ve been here before,” he said, noting the oppression of impoverished Irish and Jewish immigrants. “We forget our history.”
Morris said his ancestors date back to the Jamestown colony in Virginia. He said his great-great-grandmother was a Cherokee medicine woman, and he suspects that one branch of his family may have been “conversos” — Jews forced to convert to Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisition.
“America is one of the most interesting experiments on the planet in sustained social conflict in the interest of progress and pursuing visions,” he said.
Asked by moderator Gall to define “the bottom line of what it means to be an American,” Chaudry said, “The essence of being an American is freedom from fear in the sense that you have the ability to be what you want to be.”
“People elected to office sometimes fear the backlash of constituents,” said Vespa-Papaleo. “But there is also a fear related to our war on terrorism. Everything has been cut except expenses related to our war on terrorism. There is more money for people who wear uniforms and carry guns,” he said, noting that his own civil rights budget has been cut by 40 percent in recent years. “Why? Because when there is fear around, someone needs to control things. This is more than just an immigrant-rights issue.”
As a gay man who was married in California in June, Vespa-Papaleo said he was worried about “his right being taken away at the ballot box” by the referendum that overturned the state’s new law sanctioning same-sex marriage.
“We should never allow a public vote on whether a people as a minority should have a right taken away from them,” he said. “The minority will always lose that battle because of their numbers.”
“We’ve all been here before,” said Morris, “This fear and this taking away of civil rights; and this country has lived to regret it — and will look back on it in shame.”
“My problem is that people actually use and propagate fear of something that does not exist,” said Chaudry. Office-holders use their power, he said, to “create something that doesn’t exist” in order to stir up fear as a means of consolidating political power.
“What is wrong with being an Arab?” he asked. “What is wrong with being a Muslim? People who are propagating fear are the ones who need to be confronted.”
“It is un-American,” said Gall.
To obtain AJC’s “America’s Table,” visit www.ajc.org or call 973-379-7844.
--TOP--
Comment: comments@njjewishnews.com
