The Horizons project, created by the LUNAR Collective, emerged from a vision to place Asian Jews at the center of bridge building between Jewish and Asian American communities. Through Horizons, Asian Jewish leaders are expanding the scope of what it means to respond to antisemitism and modeling a future where coalition and curiosity replace isolation and fear.
Through the Horizons project, LUNAR’s Leading Light Fellows—20 Gen Z and millennial Asian Jewish leaders from six cities—are equipped to support connections and solidarity between the Asian American and Jewish communities. “We’re really excited about the LUNAR Horizons project because it gives us a chance to place Asian Jews at the forefront of our bridge-building work, and to invest in Asian Jewish leaders,” said Maryam Chishti, Co-Executive Director of LUNAR.
The initiative began with a Shabbaton training retreat in September, where 14 fellows gathered for in-depth learning on the intersections of antisemitism and anti-Asian hate, facilitated by Asian Jewish antiracist educator Liz Kleinrock. Fellows gained practical tools for inter-community dialogue, and strategically responding to moments of bias, which they will now bring back to their home communities—New York, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, and Seattle—to design and lead workshops that strengthen Asian Jewish leadership and Asian American and Jewish connections.
“Liz Kleinrock proved to be a skilled facilitator, elevating our retreat with her learnings around the intersectionality of anti-Asian hate and antisemitism, as well as the tools needed for bridge building,” Chishti reflected. “These tools included listening across differences, affirming shared humanity, and holding discomfort with compassion.”
Fellows also had space to deepen their own Jewish practice, taking turns leading Shabbat rituals and offering reflections on their own connections to identity and spirituality. The combination of spiritual grounding, leadership training, and practical skill-building prepared fellows to return home with knowledge and a mandate: each community will implement two to three local bridge-building programs over the next year.
“This retreat was really powerful,” Chishti said. “I noticed a tangible shift between the cohorts. While the first year cohort was addressing imposter syndrome around their leadership, the year 2 cohort feels inherently confident in their ability to lead, and are fired up and ready to go.” Chishti is proud to see such a noticeable impact of LUNAR’s multi-year fellowship for Gen Z and Millennial Asian Jews.
Bridge Building on the Ground
The power of Horizons lies in its grassroots implementation. Because fellows live in different cities across the U.S., they develop programs that reflect the needs of local Asian and Jewish communities. Fellows’ diverse locations enable an examination of various regional influences and communal needs, providing invaluable insight for how to scale these efforts in the future.
“We can use this program as a vehicle to understand the needs of the Asian and Jewish communities in New York versus Seattle versus Chicago. The community leaders really get to figure that out as part of their own growth and development,” Chishti explained.
This localized, youth-led approach is key for the Jewish communal response to antisemitism. Horizons ensures that the solutions are shaped by Asian Jewish leaders themselves who understand the dual experience of holding both Jewish and Asian identities, and who can speak authentically across both communities.
For Chishti, the Horizons project emerges from years of conversations with Asian American leaders and community members, who often noted that despite facing parallel experiences of discrimination, Jewish and Asian communities rarely communicate or advocate together. “There’s a real chance for us to be in better communication and to be better allies for each other,” Chishti said. “Asian and Jewish Americans often recognize [that] we share so many cultural similarities, and there’s a hunger to connect more.”
The urgency of this work sharpened after October 7th, when antisemitism spiked in new and painful ways. Horizons is LUNAR’s response: building a new model for allyship and resilience led by Asian Jews, and expanding the circle of relationships that can sustain communities in a polarized time.
Chishti hopes the work will extend beyond young leaders to include elders as well. “I honestly hope that we get to connect throughout the process with our Asian elders. I feel like that’s an element of youth-led work that has been missing, and I think it’d be such a rich relationship and super exciting also for LUNAR members, who also struggle with not feeling Asian enough, and all of us who experience a little bit of loneliness.”
Growth and Next Steps
The Horizons project also reflects the growth of The LUNAR Collective itself, which began as a film project supported by its very first grant from JoCI. “We truly couldn’t have done this without JoCI,” said Chishti. “It was our first-ever grant when we were an origin film project…It’s an exciting moment in our growth that we can take on a grant like this that adds new elements to what we do at LUNAR.”
Looking ahead, Chishti hopes Horizons not only equips young leaders to respond to antisemitism, but also helps both Jewish and Asian American communities in the future. “I think we’re at a time now where we just need a new path forward. And we need new relationships to be forged. Antisemitism doesn’t look the same after October 7th. So I’m excited for us to pave a new road forward, figure out our shared values, and use that to advocate for each other.”
LUNAR Horizons is a prototype for how leadership by Jews of Color can model responses to antisemitism and build meaningful coalitions across difference. Learn more about the cohort of grantees Addressing Antisemitism Through a JoC Lens.