Author: Eric Fingerhut
Publication: Washington Jewish
Week
Date: October 24, 2002
URL: http://washingtonjewishweek.com/localstory.html?/wjw/276158745900158.bsp
Israel, India and the United States
are all fighting terrorism, a common enemy that has helped spur another
partnership -- between the American Jewish and Indian American communities.
Several major Jewish organizations
-- including the American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, American
Israel Public Affairs Committee and B'nai B'rith International -- have
forged relationships with Indian American political groups and individuals
in recent years. In the face of terrorism, those links have become even
stronger in the past year.
Relations between Israel and India,
though, have been blossoming during the past 10-15 years, ever since the
Indian government began to move away from the anti- Israel policy backed
by the Non-Aligned Movement of developing countries, a United Nations voting
bloc formed during the cold war, according to B'nai B'rith International
executive vice president Dan Mariaschin.
In recent years, Indian leaders
coming to Washington customarily meet with representatives of major Jewish
organizations.
Those contacts have led to the Jewish
and Indian American communities working more closely together on issues
of common interest like fighting terrorism. Jews also have been advising
Indian American activists on how most effectively to organize and advocate
on behalf of their community.
Kap Sharma, a vice president of
Madison Government Affairs consulting firm who works with the Indian-American
Center for Political Awareness, said that the Jewish community has acted
as somewhat of a "mentor" to politically active Indian Americans.
Jewish groups are educating Indian
Americans "about political empowerment" and the "successes and downfalls
of the American Jewish community" in the political world, lessons that
"may or may not apply" to his community, said Sharma.
"A lot of folks in the Indian American
community look at what [American] Jews have done and try to model themselves
after it," said Ajay Kuntamukkala, an associate at Hogan & Hartson
and president of the South Asian Bar Association of Washington, D.C.
Sharma said the Indian American
community's political activism is "still in its early stages" and not as
unified around particular issues or a specific agenda as the American Jewish
community.
For example, while Indian Americans
are interested in U.S. policy toward India, their concern is of a different
degree than Jewish worries about Israel.
Krishna Kumar, a local Indian American
political activist, noted that while Israel is a small country that "requires
a whole lot of vigilance," India is "such an ... enormous country" that
the "level of threat" is "very different" and "not quite as much a motivating
factor" among Indian Americans.
He acknowledged, though, that the
"nuclear threat" could change that equation somewhat.
But both groups are concerned about
"making the world safe from terrorism," said David Bernstein, Washington
area director of the American Jewish Committee, which is sponsoring a session
for Indian American leaders with the AJCommittee's Israel office director
Eran Lerman next week.
Bernstein also is working on forging
ties between business leaders in the two communities. (See sidebar.)
Chuck Brooks, the American Jewish
Congress' Washington representative and National Capital Region director,
provided some "general advice" to INAPAC, a new Indian-American political
action committee that recently formed in New Jersey.
Brooks, who led the pro-Israel National
PAC before joining AJCongress, pointed out that the Indian and Jewish communities
both are highly educated, and that the Indian community is attempting to
"follow in the footsteps" of Jewish political involvement.
AJCongress has also been forging
ties with Indian Americans and the Indian Embassy here, said Brooks. He
compared the growing relationship between India and Israel to the one that
already exists between Turkey and the Jewish state.
Jews and Indian Americans also have
worked together on domestic matters, such as hate crimes and workplace
religious freedom issues, said Tejpal Chawla, an attorney at Crowell Moring
who works with the Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force.
After Sept. 11, such issues became
even more important to Sikhs, who were often confused with Muslims in the
days following the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.
But the fallout from Sept. 11 is
not limited to Sikhs. Kumar said that while Indian Americans support the
war on terror, they also are troubled by some of the anti-terrorism measures
put in place. Almost every Indian American has been the victim of some
sort of racial profiling, he said.
Kumar said Indian Americans -- many
of whom are Hindus -- feel particularly comfortable working with the Jewish
community because, unlike some Christian and Muslim groups, it is "not
a missionary community ... they're not interested in trying to convert
us."
The Indian American community played
a role in a key election this summer, ironically in a race in which American
Jews also made an impact.
While Jews were upset at Rep. Cynthia
McKinney's (D- Ga.) attitudes toward Israel, Indian Americans were bothered
by her criticism of India, based on "misinformation," said Sharma.
"We tried to explain [the truth]
to her," Sharma said, "but she didn't take heed," so Indian Americans supported
her opponent, Denise Majette.
McKinney has said that India sponsors
terrorism, among other statements.
Sharma said that while some Indian
Americans made donations to Majette's campaign, members of the community
also volunteered and helped in get out the vote efforts.
McKinney obviously noticed. In a
statement on the House floor last month, she criticized the "heavy involvement
of Indians in the primary" and railed against India's "record of illegal
interference in U.S. elections" -- even though the Majette supporters were
Americans.
