Hate Has No Home in New Haven: Standing With the AAPI Community

On Thursday, March 25, 2021, community, faith and city leaders from across New Haven gathered out front of Pho Ketkeo in solidarity against a rising tide of racialized hate and violence against the Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. 

In the one year since the onset of COVID-19, reported hate crimes against members of the AAPI community increased by more than 150%. One of these victims was Ketkeo Rajachack, owner of Pho Ketkeo, who was attacked twice last year, and whose business and employees' cars were vandalized.

Watch the full press conference, read Federation CEO Judy Alperin's remarks, and browse photos from the event, below:

Federation CEO Judy Alperin's Remarks

To Attorney General Tong, Mayor Elicker, thank  you so much for gathering us together today. To my fellow colleagues and leaders, thank you all for the work you do each and every day in service to our community.

Thou shall not hate.  It isn’t one of the commandments received by Moses at Mt. Sinai from God, but it should have been.

It’s been a very long year for us all and the pandemic has certainly impacted and hurt people differently and in the case of black and brown communities harshly and unfairly.

The divisive rhetoric, tribalism and scapegoating that has been unleashed prior to the pandemic and fueled during the pandemic has brought us to this moment.

Here we are again to stand together in solidarity, to raise our collective voices, to declare that New Haven is no place for hate and the United States of America is no place for hate and this world is no place for hate.  Thou shall not hate.

To the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, the Jewish community stands resolutely beside you in condemning the bias and hatred that has led to horrific violence perpetrated upon you.  The inciting and vindictive scapegoating that has happened since the beginning of this pandemic has led to triple digit percentage increases in hateful crimes. We stand with you  with understanding and shared pain. We have felt similar pain throughout our own historical experiences: Jews were senselessly blamed for the Black Death in medieval Europe, and similar tropes are still perpetuated today, leading to antisemitic violence and persecution. 

We mourn the tragic loss of lives in Atlanta, 8 people who meant the world to their families, their friends and their communities. And we must take stock of this powerful statistic: Stop AAPI Hate, a coalition that documents anti-Asian hate and discrimination, recorded 3,795 reported hate incidents from March 19, 2020 to Feb. 28, 2021. This represents only a fraction of the real crimes against Asian Americans that for a variety of reasons go unreported.

As people of faith and moral values, we must continue to come together to insist on love rather than hate; on community and solidarity rather than divisiveness; on kindness rather than cruelty.  This horrible climate that we are living in must end because it is what leads to increasing xenophobia, bigotry, and white supremacy and we know that is what leads to hate-fueled killings like we saw in Charlottesville, Pittsburgh, El Paso, and too many other communities. In 2019, the FBI reported a record number of hate crime murders—a crisis deeply felt in the Jewish community, as we have confronted an alarming rise in antisemitic hate crimes since 2017.

All identity-based bias attacks don’t just injure the victims — they terrorize entire populations. That’s their intent.

We are about to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover which retells the story of the exodus from bondage in Egypt to freedom. As Jews, we know that freedom and safety for any of us depends on the freedom and safety of all of us.

And It’s up to all of us.  Each us must take the time to get to know one another.  In order to build a truly inclusive society, we must do it together from the ground up. To our brothers and sisters in the Asian-American & Pacific Islander communities, we hear you.  We see you.  And we stand with you.

Speakers at Hate Has No Home In New Haven

Attorney General William Tong

Mayor Justin Elicker

Alder Abby Roth

Alder Frank Douglass

Ketkeo Rajachack, Owner, Pho Ketkeo

Annie Lin, Cultural Equity Task Force

Christine Son, Pho Ketkeo

Steve Ginsburg, Director, Anti-Defamation League

Michael Piscitelli, Economic Development Administrator, City of New Haven

Judith Alperin, Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven

Shuei Kozu, SCSU

Christine Kim, Resident

Bishop Boone, Cathedral of Higher Praise  

Imam Bajwa, Director of Muslim Life at Yale   

Pastor Steele, Varick Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church  

Pastor Wilkins, Marantha Life Changing Ministries    

Pastor Gouborn, Church on the Rock    

Pastor Luk De Volder, Trinity Episcopal Church on the Green    

Pastor Jocelyn Gardner Spencer, New Haven United Church on the Green   

Pastor Romero, Betania Christian Church   

Pastor Otero, Una Iglesia para la ciudad   

Pastor Diaz, Second Star of Jacob   

Pastor Caraballo, Centro Cristiano Getsemani   

Pastor Brooks, Beulah Heights First Pentecostal Church  

Pastor Steven Cousin, Bethel A.M.E. Church  

Rev. Grubbs, Christian Community Action  

Pastor Dejesus, Radio Amo