Walter Tejada, the Virginia state director for LULAC, spoke on the collaboration between Virginia's Latino, Jewish and Asian communities in the Jewish World Review. "In recent years, , the Jewish and Hispanic communities are finding increasing common ground. Family, community, education, a strong sense of heritage, the right to immigrate in time of crisis these are some of the concerns that bind America's Jews and Latinos."
In the Washington area in particular, the Jewish-Latino relationship seems to have gained momentum. "A lot of national issues are local issues to begin with," pointed out Walter Tejada. "The Jewish-Latino relationship is now viewed as an absolute priority for our community," said American Jewish Committee Washington, D.C., Area director David Bernstein. "There are over 300,000 Latinos in the Washington area and we see them as increasingly active politically and more and more willing to work with coalition partners in achieving our collective goals."
This collaboration has been emerging during the past five to 10 years. Groups such as the AJCommittee and the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington have been forming coalitions with organizations such as the National Council of La Raza and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
