TPR.org

At first glance, Jews and Latinos may appear to have very little in common. That impression may begin to change somewhat on Tuesday with the launch of a new organization that brings the two groups together. It's called the Texas Latino-Jewish Leadership Council, and it's modeled after a fairly new national group by a similar name. Southern Methodist University professor Luisa del Rosal is a founding member of the group, and says members of the Jewish and Latino communities have a lot in common. "We are actually groups of very diverse backgrounds that share, together, an identity, whether it's because of faith or because of shared languages," del Rosal says. She says the largest diasporas of people from Israel and Mexico are in the U.S. Del Rosal points out that Jews also have connections to Latin America. She says her group has a pragmatic purpose, too: to give a voice to people in both communities.