Coming together: Jewish Community Day at the Roundhouse
By Ellen Marks
Visit the Roundhouse during any New Mexico legislative session, and you’ll find the rotunda filled with information tables, musical performances, news conferences and sometimes food — all touting a particular cause or group.
For example, during this year’s 30-day session, there are more than 80 such events, with many overlapping. But there’s never been a Jewish day. That changes on Feb. 4.
Jewish Community Day, on Wednesday from 9 a.m to 4:30 p.m., is the first of its kind in the state’s history, and it was the brainchild of someone who is not Jewish. Sen. Craig Brandt, a Republican from Rio Rancho and a retired Christian minister, says he and a staff person launched the event because “the Jewish community has been attacked pretty brutally at home and abroad… with antisemitism skyrocketing.”
“It’s important to show our support.”
Co-hosts are the Jewish Community Relations Coalition of New Mexico, Santa Fe Jewish Center-Chabad and the New Mexico Friends of Israel Caucus. One theme will be the diversity within the state’s Jewish community, and one purpose will be to bring all of the pieces together, says Juan Dircie, director of the Jewish Community Relations Coalition of New Mexico.
“The idea is to showcase no one single stereotype, but to show that there are many ways to express Judaism and how you relate to your Jewish identity,” he says. “This will be an opportunity for non-Jews to learn about who we are.”
Dircie will moderate a panel on diversity that will feature Rabbi Berel Levertov of the Santa Fe Jewish Center-Chabad, Rabbi Celia Surget, senior rabbi at Congregation Albert, and Rabbi Jack Shlachter of the Los Alamos Jewish Center and HaMakom of Santa Fe. The panel will be a central part of the program, between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m., although table displays will be set up from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
“I think it’s a very good way for us Jews to stand proud in challenging times,” Levertov says. “We love for people to see us and know us in good times and in times of challenge, as well.”
The event also will serve to introduce the Friends of Israel Caucus. Brandt announced the 16-member group last year to “keep an eye on antisemitism in the state,” he says. Although it was meant to be a bipartisan effort, only Republicans have signed up so far. Brandt said it would be inappropriate to disclose whether any members are Jewish.
Ron Duncan Hart, founder and executive director of the Institute for Tolerance Studies in Santa Fe, says while there was some concern early on about event sponsors “being on the Republican side,” the fact that 20 Jewish organizations are now involved shows that most people got beyond those concerns.
Among those that have signed on are congregations, service groups and others such as the Santa Fe Jewish Film Festival, the Jewish Community Foundation and the New Mexico Jewish Journal.
Duncan Hart, who will speak about Jewish heritage in New Mexico, says it’s important to talk about the contribution of Jews because doing so is a way to combat antisemitism.
“Given the situation we’re in in this country now with antisemitism — and its presence in our state — it’s important to give information about Jewish lives,” says Duncan Hart, who also directs the Santa Fe Distinguished Lecture Series. “Part of antisemitism is a skewed knowledge of what being Jewish is. The more information people have, the less likely they are to be antisemitic, I believe.”
Sen. Jeff Steinborn, a Jewish Democrat from Las Cruces, also will be a speaker and says his message will be about multiculturalism, with a backdrop of Tikkun Olam. “I’m a Jewish elected official and proud to be so,” Steinborn says. “My message in today’s times, especially being a government official, is the importance of multiculturalism and supporting different cultures, different people, including Jewish people. I think being Jewish and Tikkun Olam is a big part of why I do what I do.”
But, of course, it wouldn’t be a Jewish event without music and food. Zachariah Grace, a flutist from Santa Fe, will provide music, and the food will be supplied by Levertov’s Manhattan Avenue Deli, a kosher, New York-style eatery in Santa Fe.
As Levertov says of his year-old restaurant: “We combat anti-semitism one sandwich at a time.”
Caucusing for Israel
Formation of the new caucus, Brandt says, came after the Oct. 7 attack and his feeling that God called him to strongly support Israel.
Brandt last year was among three Republican lawmakers to sponsor “A Day for Israel” at the capitol, as pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside for their weekly rally.
“The Old Testament and those of us who believe in the New Testament — both say that Jewish people are God’s chosen people,” says Brandt, a former associate pastor at Celebration Baptist Church in Rio Rancho. “I feel like it’s God’s calling (for) me right now.”
Last year, Brandt says, the caucus made an effort to write into law an executive order that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed in 2022 regarding the definition of antisemitism. Her order adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition and told all state executive agencies to use it in enforcing the law.
After Oct. 7, the ACLU and others pressed the governor to reverse her order, saying the definition would confuse antisemitism with the free speech rights of people to criticize the Israeli government and to support the Palestinian cause.
Brandt said although the effort to enshrine that definition into law failed last year, he will try again next year during the regular 60-day session.
The caucus also sent a letter to University of New Mexico President Garnett Stokes and the regents in 2024, encouraging them to reject a bid by some faculty and student groups to divest holdings with Israel or companies that have an affiliation with Israel.
The regents ultimately did not comply with those demands.
‘I think it’s honestly just to show our support for the Jewish community since it’s been so attacked,” Brandt said of the caucus.
Sen. Steinborn (D-Las Cruces), a strong supporter of Israel, said of the caucus, “It’s something they (Republicans) wanted to do. I support Israel, but I don’t need to be part of a caucus to say that. I have been vocal and out front in support of Jewish people and Israel and our right to exist. That’s how I choose to show my support — just as I am.”
Ellen Marks has been a journalist for more than four decades, including stints in Boise, Idaho, Seattle and Albuquerque. She came to the Albuquerque Journal in 1986 and retired from there six years ago, but continues to do regular assignments for the newspaper.
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