Our community is built on storytelling — from reading and re-reading Torah to recounting our legacy of resistance and fighting for justice.
This month is a special opportunity to hear stories at the intersection of two identities: it’s both Jewish American Heritage Month and Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
That’s why we’re excited to partner with and share with you the work of LUNAR: The Jewish-Asian Film Project.
A project supported by Be’chol Lashon, LUNAR aims to highlight the racial and cultural diversity of the Jewish community by sharing stories of young adults who exist at the intersection of Jewish and Asian American. This is a crucial gift for our Jewish community and our movements.
Where should you start? We love LUNAR’s video series on Jewish-Asian American identity, released in 2021.
Here’s some of what they covered in Season 1:
- Examining identity through Asian and Jewish food
- How cultural values — and trauma — are passed down in our families
- Experiences with racism, antisemitism, and the model minority myth
- Designing a dream Asian Jewish Passover, with rituals old and new
You can watch LUNAR’s entire first season — and subscribe for future content — on YouTube now.
Collage of participants in LUNAR's Season 1
This week, LUNAR just premiered a new video: “Outsiders from the Inside.”
In the video, Amanda, Davi, and Meorah discuss their experiences as Jews by Choice or Jewish converts. It’s a powerful, intimate opportunity to hear three people speak at length about their intersecting identities — including conversations about their personal Jewish journeys, the stigma against conversion, being treated as an “outsider,” and more.
There are as many ways to be Jewish and do Jewish as there are Jews. Each Jewish experience is real, valid, and sacred. By telling stories of people who straddle identities in their own words, LUNAR videos are a beautiful opportunity to witness a person’s wholeness and humanity.
At Bend the Arc, our mission is to fight for a vibrant, multiracial democracy where all of us are truly safe and thriving. That’s why — in addition to organizing for progressive change in the halls of power — we celebrate, support, and network the members of our multiracial Jewish community and their stories.
Happy Jewish American Heritage Month! Happy Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month! May we keep working for a world where every person’s full humanity is visible and celebrated each and every month.
The Bend the Arc team
