This week we had the opportunity to visit the Holocaust Muesuem and check out the Jews of Shanghai Exhibit. Before this experience I was completely unaware that Shanghai welcomed about 20,000 Jews during World War II. When I learned about the tragedy of the Holocaust in high school what they taught mearly touched the surface. They informed us of the number of deaths, the populations that were impacted, but they never really highlighted stories of individuals or families that experienced the horrors of the Holocaust.
Through the exhibit I was able to learn about the different stories a few families went through during their voyage to refugee in Shanghai. As I read what some families had to experience to flee the dangers of Nazi Germany, I couldn’t help but get emotional learning about their journey. I couldn’t possibly imagine what it must be like to have to flee your home because you are being prosecuted and that is a privilege I often forget that I have. Being able to peer into the lives of Holocaust survivers was an incredibly insightful yet emotional experience and I am entirely grateful for the hospitality that the Jewish Federation showed us.
But in all honesty as I was driving to the Holocaust Museum that day I was a bit confused why we we’re spending a whole day there, what could this possibly have to do with CAUSE and the Leadership Academy? But as soon as we had the panel with Nancy Yap, the Executive Director of CAUSE, Zach Ritter, the Vice President of Leadership Development at the Jewish Federation, and Jordanna Gessler, the Vice President of Education and Exhibits Chief at the Holocaust Musuem LA, it all made sense.
The topic of the panel related to the importance of cross cultural relations. During the panel Nancy talked about the significance of “Showing up for all of the complexities of our AAPI heritage,” and I feel like that is not something that our community prioritizes. The term AAPI includes nearly 50 different enthinic groups ranging from Chinese, Indian, Filipino, Samoan, just to name a few of the more common AAPI ethnicities the general population is familiar with. Yet just between these four ethnicities there are already drastic differences in their way of life, religion, language, culture, history, etc, which translates to these different communities having drastically different political priorities or needs. But just because our community has so many different cultures, ethnicities, political needs, etc. that does not mean we cannot show up for one another.
During the panel Zach Ritter briefly mentioned his involvement with the Black Lives Matter protests during 2020 and he demands, “If we’re silent when someone is being murdered then who’s gonna speak when we’re being murdered?” This left a lingering thought in my head. We cannot only show up when the issue revolves around us, showing up means participating in the conversation even when you may not personally be impacted by a specific policy, issue, movement, etc., because a threat to one community’s right is a threat to everyone's rights.