Oakland’s Temple Sinai made a $7,000 contribution toward the installation of security cameras in Oakland’s Chinatown neighborhood in response to a rash of anti-Asian attacks during the past year.

The synagogue “adopted” the corner of 10th and Webster streets in downtown Oakland as part of an initiative by the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce to place security cameras throughout the area.

“This was a beginning of a kind of partnership,” said Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, Temple Sinai’s senior rabbi and the nation’s first Chinese American rabbi. “Our hope is that other Jewish communities in particular, but anybody in general, will be interested in helping out and stepping up as well.”

Chinatown communities in San Francisco and Oakland have been hard-hit by a slew of violent attacks against Asian people since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. According to a report by the California attorney general’s office, attacks against members of the Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) community more than doubled in 2020.

The Jewish American experience is also sidelined in conversations around what diversity means … it’s a similar kind of experience as an Asian American.

For Mates-Muchin, the rise in anti-Asian hate is personal, as she has a large Chinese family with deep ties to the Bay Area. Meanwhile, Temple Sinai recently received a federal grant to beef up security measures as local Jewish and Chinese communities look to prevent future hate crimes.

“Creating a better security system is not about sheltering ourselves, it’s about improving our armor at the same time so that we can continue to go out into the world and do what we want to be doing,” said Mates-Muchin. “We know as Jews that we will actually never entirely be satisfied with the world that we have. We are here to continue to make the world better.”

Mates-Muchin said the rise in hate crimes against AAPI and Jewish communities highlights the need to broaden conversations around diversity and the impacts of prejudice.

“I think that the Jewish American experience is also sidelined in conversations around what diversity means,” she said. “And I think it’s a similar kind of experience as an Asian American.”

Mates-Muchin presented Temple Sinai’s donation at an event with the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce on Sept. 30. Verkada, a cloud-based security company, also donated 20 cameras.

“By implementing these cameras we know many people feel much safer,” OCCC President Carl Chan said at the event.