As has so often been the case, local Federations have a long standing tradition of pioneered outreach and collaboration with the Hispanic community. They have started surfacing best practices, which we would all do well to emulate. Among them is the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston. 

Erica Winsor , Public Affairs Officer for the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston, shared with me several best practices for outreach from the Federation’s work with Hispanic communities around Houston and suggested that a unique two-pronged approach had been particularly effective: missions to Israel with Hispanic leaders and local gatherings, which empowered those leaders to put their learning and relationships to use in the wider community. 

Erica has been the Public Affairs Officer for the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston for 15 months and suggests that her story indicates how readily others might build on existing relationships across communities. She found one to be of particular strength: a local Chicano Christian from El Paso, who discovered that he had Jewish roots. His sister had converted to Judaism, so he felt a sense of kinship with the Jewish community, though he himself did not identify as part of it. Instead, in Winsor’s words, he “decided that it was important for people to go to Israel” to “experience Israel up close” and formed the Center for Latino-Jewish Relations (CLJR), whose mission was to take Latinos to Israel. It has nearly 300 alumni, many of whom we eager to do more.

Houston has unique demographic opportunities as a city, with a large and growing Hispanic population. Much of it is Mexican-American, though Winsor acknowledges that “not all” is and that she has to work to make “sure that everything we do is not Mexican” in focus. 

Likewise, Houston has the second largest Hispanic Jewish population. Many are “Jews who are from Latin countries,” whose families had emigrated to Latin America after World War II as refugees from Europe. They speak fluent Spanish and understand Latino cultures, while they are more Ashkenazi in identity. These are natural bridge-builders between Jewish and Hispanic communities and also benefit greatly from seeing more than one of their identities represented at the same time.

Since October 7, 2023, CLJR has been unable to lead trips to Israel. This past year, they journeyed to Mexico City instead, but hope to return to Israel journeys as soon as it is feasible. This created a sense of pent-up energy, both for those who had been to Israel before and those who went to Mexico City and wanted to connect more deeply with the local Jewish community in Houston.

These alumni, along with leaders from CLJR reached out to Winsor and other Federation leaders to see how they could deepen local relationships. They suggested that there might be a beautiful connection with the story of Chanukah, which is situated in the Land of Israel and about the affirmation of Jewish identity. CLJR had always had a party by way of word-of-mouth but wanted to do something more organized. They asked the Federation to help find a large venue – and ended up filling  the Holocaust Museum Houston with 300 joyful revelers in the first public and collaborative “Chicanukah” event on December 19th of this past year. 

Much as the event was filled with elected officials – and their family members – the biggest success was social. Participants were making new friends left and right, leaving with each others contact information and celebrating shared values. They were eating, laughing, and enjoying the remarks from speakers who helped shine, in Winsor’s words, “a light in the darkness.” While there was much learning, most of it was informal. This was not an educational program so much as one that brought two communities together and empowered Hispanic Jews to celebrate both of their identities. 

Winsor expects Chicanukah not only to become an annual event, but also to build upon the relationships it fostered this past December. Latino-Jewish collaboration may well become a mainstay of a city with multiple thriving populations.