JACL Weekly Digest

October 29, 2024

JACL National News

Applications for the 2025 Norman Y. Mineta Fellowship are Available Now!

The Norman Y. Mineta Fellowship is named for the late Secretary and Congressman from San Jose, CA. The fellow will monitor key legislative initiatives of importance to the JACL mission, and design and implement JACL-sponsored programs among other tasks and duties.

This fellowship provides the opportunity to work on advocacy issues and educational programs at a national level through the JACL Washington, D.C. Office. As a fellow, you will become a key component of the national staff; representing JACL and its members within D.C. and various community networks. Fellows can expect to play a large role in policy initiatives and execute programs such as JACL / OCA Leadership Summit, the Kakehashi Program, and JACL National Convention.

Priority Deadline: November 11, 2024 at 11:59 PM HST. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

Program Dates: Start January 2025. This fellowship term lasts 1 year, with the possibility of being extended for an additional year.

JACL Commends the Biden Administration’s Apology for Indigenous Boarding Schools

Friday, October 25, 2024 - 

"On Friday, October 25th, 2024, President Biden spoke at the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona and offered an apology for the U.S. government’s past practice of forcibly removing Indigenous children from their families and transferring them to government-operated boarding schools.

As early as 1819 and lasting until the late 1960s, the United States government established and operated boarding schools to “civilize” Indigenous children - what we now recognize as a euphemism for an attempt at the systematic and deliberate destruction of the culture and society of Indigenous communities in the United States. These institutions are a lasting stain on American history and serve as only one of many examples of the mistreatment and bigotry that Indigenous communities have faced at the hands of our government."

JACL Calls on White House to End Funding of Israel’s Military and Human Rights Violations

October 24, 2024 - 

"As a nearly century-old organization, the JACL has a long history of supporting the civil and human rights of all those targeted by injustice or hate. With this history in mind, and in accordance with Resolution 1, passed with an overwhelming majority at our 2024 national convention, we call for an end to the U.S. government’s funding of the Israeli military, where that aid enables the continued violation of international humanitarian laws, including the Geneva Conventions, and US law including the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, 22 U.S.C. §2378-1. The Foreign Assistance Law expressly prohibits the assistance or the exportation of military weapons to countries that directly or indirectly restrict the transportation or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance."

Recognizing Mis/Dis/Malinformation and How to Combat It

Looking Into the Future Together - Make Your Suggestions and Contributions to JACL

This past summer, JACL gathered in Philadelphia for its 54th National Convention themed “Looking Into the Future Together”. With our partners APIAVote and OCA Asian Pacific American Advocates, we brought together the Asian American civil rights community for three days of programming. Together, members were able to learn about and discuss issues affecting our communities ranging from the local issues of disappearing ethnic neighborhoods to the global issues of anti-China rhetoric impacting us as Asian Americans. Joining forces also primed us to think about the future of the Asian American community and the role we play in our government and society, culminating in the Presidential Town Hall which featured remarks from Vice President Kamala Harris...

After reflecting on what our organization has done, we look forward to what JACL will be. *Okagesama de, kodomo no tame ni. Because of our ancestors, we are in relatively privileged positions so for the sake of our children, let us invest together and be ancestors they will also look up to. We ask you to contribute to JACL by telling us what JACL means to you and what you envision JACL to be for your descendants, whether they be third generation or 8th generation, Japanese American or simply passionate about protecting civil and human rights. We also need your financial support. After you give us your suggestions, please donate what you can so JACL will have the resources to respond to a changing world and our changing Japanese American community.

We are one community with many voices and we want yours to be heard. All comments will contribute to preparing JACL for our centennial in 2029 and beyond.

JACL is Hiring! Looking for a Director of Fundraising and Membership Development

JACL Chapters News

If any JACL Chapters would like to submit stories or events to the Weekly Digest, please send inquiries to Education Programs Manager, Matthew Weisbly at mweisbly@jacl.org

San Diego JACL Monthly Virtual Dialogue November 2024

Reparations: Building Solidarity and Community - A screening of Jon Osaki’s film Reparations and a panel discussion

From Our Partners

JAVA and NJAMF's Annual Veteran's Day Program

Japanese Americans and Mexican Americans work together to open museum  in Crystal City Texas featuring Internment Camp exhibit

The above image is an artist rendering of the exhibit space. 

The Crystal City Pilgrimage Committee, a group of Japanese  American and Japanese Peruvian incarceration survivors and their descendants, are preparing to open the first  permanent exhibit dedicated to their experiences in Texas during World War II. Between 1942 and 1948, the little-known Crystal City US Department of Justice site held thousands of Japanese and German nationals,  along with their US-born family members. The camp also imprisoned thousands of Latin American families of  Japanese ancestry who were extradited from 13 countries in Central and South America as part of a prisoner of  war exchange program. The Crystal City detention center exhibit titled “America’s Last WWII Concentration  Camp” and funded by the Tomoye & Henri Takahashi Charitable Foundation, will open during the Crystal  City Spinach Festival on Saturday, November 9, where it will be housed at the My Story Museum - The  Story of Us: Tres Historias en Crystal City. 

Located in South Texas two hours Southwest of San Antonio, Crystal City is currently home to a population of  approximately 6,500 who identified as over 95% Hispanic on the 2020 US Census. Known as the “Spinach  Capitol of the World,” and home to the nation’s largest spinach-growing operation, Crystal City also played a  significant role during the Chicano Movement as the site of numerous student protests in 1969 that led to  school reform and election victories by working-class Mexican American farm laborers who became leaders of  the progressive political group The Raza Unida Party. 

My Story Museum is the brainchild of former city manager Diana Palacios – herself one of the 1969 student  protest leaders, who helped organize a series of school walkouts in response to the unequal treatment that  Mexican Americans were receiving at that time. Palacios imagines the museum as a way to bring local history  to life for both local residents and out-of-town visitors. Exhibits will feature topics related to Crystal City’s  role in the Chicano Movement, the history of Zavala County, a wall honoring local veterans of foreign wars,  and the WWII internment camp.

My Story Museum will host its grand opening on Saturday November 9 from 4-8pm CT. The following  day on Sunday, November 10 from 12-2pm CT a panel discussion will be hosted at the museum including  former internees Kaz Naganuma and Hiroshi Shimizu alongside Crystal City community leaders Diana  Palacios and Ruben Salazar will explore the shared connections between the Japanese and Mexican American  communities that have allowed this project to flourish. 

My Story Museum - The Story of Us: Tres Historias en Crystal City is located at 224 E. Zavala Street,  Crystal City Texas 98839.

DOJ Community Relations Service is Hiring

DOJ Conciliation Specialist with the Community Relations Service

This is a Conciliation Specialist position in the Department of Justice, Community Relations Service (CRS). CRS' mission is to provide tension reduction and conflict resolution services to diverse stakeholders to both resolve and prevent community-level disputes. CRS provides facilitated dialogue, mediation, training, and consultation to assist these communities to come together, develop solutions to the conflict, and enhance their capacity to independently prevent and resolve future conflict.

NPS Announces JACS and JACE Grant Applications Now Available!

The National Park Service is accepting project applications for two types of grants that help preserve and interpret United States sites where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II and educate the public about the historical legacy of the federal government’s war-time policy. 

The deadline to apply for a JACS or JACE grant is Thursday, November 14, 2024. The Notices of Funding Opportunities outlining the grant application and selection process for both grants are available online at www.grants.gov. 

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