News - Noticias

Second Jewish-Hispanic community meeting
On October 30th, the Hispanic community hosted the second meeting with representatives of the Jewish community at the Hall in St. Patrick's Cathedral on Broadway, in Spanish Town. Present were Art Abramson, Executive Director of the Baltimore Jewish Council, Jose Ruiz, Mayor O'Malley's Liaison with the Hispanic community, and Israel Patoka, Director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhoods.

Other leaders of the Jewish community present were, Harriet Kornfeld, Erica Siegel, Dana Stein, Jay Caplan, Barry Kamenetz, Lois Rosenfield, Ed Gutman, Nate Feinstein, Herb and Harriet Ross, Bernie Berkowitz and Peggy Wolfe.

For the Hispanic community were Jorge Austrich, acting Chairman of the meeting, Gilberto de Jesus, Ricardo Flores, Gigi Guzman, Luis Borunda, Jaime Scwartzberg, Jeanne Velez and Javier Bustamante.

Topics of conversation ranged from the care of the elderly, transportation and affordable housing for seniors, and improved access for the disabled, to mental health care, support for public education, as opposed to vouchers, and religious freedom. This latter issues is of extreme importance to both our communities considering the sharp turn to the right of the extreme conservative wing of the Republican party.

The Hispanic community agreed on all those points and brought about issues of language access to recent immigrants and the case of police brutality by the Sheriff department in the recent case of Rolando Sanchez. Everyone had heard of the case which had ocurred at the Lexington Market in September.

The two communities vowed to continue working together in the next legislative session in Annapolis to pursue our common goals. Both groups also promised to meet again soon and to cotinue periodic meetings to strengthen ties of friendship and cooperation.