For as long as they can remember, Ziggy Valdez has been immersed in Jewish life. Their first job was as a madricha, or teaching assistant, at their synagogue’s religious school. They spent summers at Jewish camp, joined the youth group NFTY, and engaged in synagogue life. In college, they enjoyed Hillel and Jewish events. But it wasn’t until later that Ziggy began to embody their full identity as a Latin Jew and find a Jewish community where they felt whole.
“Growing up, I really thought that the only Mexican Jews out there had the last name Valdez: my dad, my two siblings, and me,” they shared. After taking a class on Jewish migration where they learned about Jews who escaped to Mexico and South America during the Spanish Inquisition, Valdez felt inspired to find and connect with other Mexican and Latin Jews.
Toward the end of college, Valdez encountered their first organized JoC space through Avodah Service Corp’s JoC cohort, which they joined following graduation. “Finally, I was meeting another Mexican Jew for the first time in my entire life that wasn’t related to me and it was so amazing and so beautiful! It was also a little heartbreaking to be in this room full of Jews of Color and know that all of us had grown up thinking we were just the only ones.” Valdez explained the isolation that occurs for JoC youth who are not connected to other Jews of Color: “to go through that loneliness as children and teenagers feels like there’s no one who understands what is going on in your world. Us finding each other is one of the most powerful moments.”
Valdez’s experience in Avodah motivated them to deepen their involvement in JoC-led initiatives, including Ammud, Jewtina, and Keshet’s Queer JOC Shabbat series—all JoCI grantees. “[Becoming part of Jewtina] really helped me find my people,” Valdez, who is now part of the organization’s Puentes Fellowship, said. “I’ve been able to experience this explosion of learning and community. I feel like I’m really discovering what it means to be a JoC and a Latin Jewish leader.”
Joining JoCI’s LA Professional Network only strengthened Valdez’s newfound learning experiences and community. Unlike some professional networking groups, the JoCI Pro Network welcomes participants across the spectrum of professional experience—from those who have worked in Jewish communal spaces for decades, like Valdez, to those who are brand new to the field. For Valdez, it is a space to both grow professionally and find deeper community as they build their own Jewish adult life in Southern California.
“It’s really wonderful being involved in the Pro Network. I feel like I’ve grown professionally…and it’s also been so nice to connect with different organizations and to hear how everyone is thinking about being a JoC in the Jewish world or in the of-Color world and building bridges between the two spaces.”
In addition to strengthening their professional skills and expanding their network through the Pro Network, it also led Valdez to unexpected personal connections. In fact, they met LA Pro Network participant and JoCI grantee Sophia Morgan of Correlate JOC at their very first Pro Network event—an introduction that eventually led Valdez to attend a queer JoC Authentic Relating event. There, Valdez met their now-partner, and is blessed to be building a home together that is grounded in JoC joy.
In their current professional role at Tzedek America—a JoCI Addressing Antisemitism Through a JoC Lens grantee that creates anti-bias training for high schoolers—Valdez makes the JoC community more visible and accessible to JoC youth. “I was an adult when I discovered that the JoC community was there and that Latin Jews were in this country too. Meeting young JoC and them being like, ‘I’ve never met another one of us!’ and being able to say to them, ‘well let me tell you, there’s a whole world of us out there!’—that really gives me a lot of hope.” Moments like this inspire Valdez’s ever-blossoming Jewish communal career.
In Valdez’s work, they often draw on the momentum built in Pro Network gatherings. “We’re changing the narrative of what community is supposed to be and what Jewish community can mean. Being part of this Pro Network means we’re each part of dispelling the idea that there’s only one Jewish narrative.”
Valdez’s engagement in Jewish life has flourished within a communal field rich with offerings for Jews of Color to connect and grow professionally. This is just one example of the power of JoC-led initiatives—whether through our grantees or the JoCI Professional Networks—and speaks to how crucial it is to sustain the growing JoC field to empower current and future leaders.
