Culture Shot

The Filipino owners of an Asian restaurant at work. Aglimpse of Thai worshippers praying inside a Buddhist temple. A man perusing anArmenian bookstore.

These are just a handful of the photographs captured by 15local Los Angeles Unified School District high schoolers participating in theOperation Unity cultural exchange program. And while it may seem as ifOperation Unity’s founder and executive director, Cookie Lommel, footedoutrageous travel expenses to send the teens on a hunt for these exotic images,the photos were, in fact, all snapped here in Los Angeles.

What unites the 15 prints in “A Youth Exploration ofDiversity — California Kibbutz” is that they draw their philosophicalinspiration from a place foreign to the inner-city streets where many of theseteens live: the kibbutz. The goal of the art project was to take a group ofpeople from a variety of backgrounds and build cross-cultural appreciation byhaving the students work with one other while exploring other ethnicities.

Lommel led the teens, of African American, Latino, Armenianand Asian descent into sections such as Boyle Heights, Little Tokyo andKoreatown to expose them to a breadth of cultures.

The resulting work spans the city and its ethnic pockets.Ellen Sedrakyan, an Armenian girl, took a portrait of a Latina docent in frontof a plaque describing Los Pobladores in historic downtown; Trivelle Bidelle,an African American boy, captured the Jewish Historical Society’s Tu B’Shevatevent at Breed Street Shul by depicting people nearby a sign with greetings inSpanish and in Hebrew.

“This exhibit tells a great Los Angeles story,” Lommel said.”It paints a visual and verbal picture of how youth can help bridge racial gapsand work together, promoting harmony through diversity.”

Lommel, an African American author, fell in love withkibbutz life after visiting Israel in the early 1990s. In 1994, upon her returnto Los Angeles, she founded Operation Unity, a project that simulates thekibbutz experience for inner city children on the Malibu-based Camp JCA Shalomgrounds. The nonprofit Operation Unity has since attracted various sponsors,including the Jewish Community Foundation, City of Los Angeles Human RelationsCommission and the Roth Foundation.

For most of the students hailing from neighborhoods such asSouth Central, Compton, and East Los Angeles, Operation Unity was their firstexposure with nature and with Jewish and Israeli culture.

For Simmons, “The highlight of my experience was about theJewish community” when she visited the Museum of Tolerance.

“I was crying because it was so sad,” said Quinisha Simmons,18. “I never met anyone who went through that. It was always hearsay. But herewas someone in person, and he showed us his tattoo and he was crying and he toldus how his family was killed. You never forget something like that because itwas so tragic.”

Through the photo project, Simmons learned about her ownculture snapping actress Christine Nelson as Biddie Mason, founder of the FirstAME Church and the first African American woman to own real estate in downtownLos Angeles.

Sedrakyan, 17, said that she had no idea that her photoswould wind up as part of a traveling exhibit.

“I was the only Armenian in the whole [photo] trip,” saidSedrakyan, “but she didn’t want me to do my own culture, so she gave me theMexican community.”

Sedrakyan  embraced the subject matter.

“The reason I wanted to [photograph the] Mexican community,”Sedrakyan said, “is because, in my neighborhood, there are a lot of Latinos notgetting the recognition they deserve.”

She cited Pio Pico, the first governor of California, as anexample.

Lommel would like to see the multicultural-embracing kibbutzmodel incorporated into American life.

“What people overlook is that they see the kibbutz idea asIsraeli, but it’s very global,” said Lommel, who remembers a local teen tellingher that he had never met a Korean person until he was on a kibbutz in Israel.

“Even though it’s very diverse here,” she said, “[people]still don’t interact.”

Sedrakyan’s experience with Operation Unity has helpedfurther her interest in cultural relations.

“I was always involved in my community the Hollywood area,”Sedrakyan said. “Now I’m getting involved as an intern at the Armenian NationalCommittee, where I’m trying to get the mulitcultural point through.”

She said she derived a universal truth from her OperationUnity experience.

“Everyone’s the same, basically, but they don’t see it.”

“A Youth Exploration of Diversity — California Kibbutz” will be displayed at Aon Center, 707 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, thru March 7. It will continue to Manufacturers Life Building, 515 Figueroa St., Los Angeles, from March 10-22; and Wells Fargo Center, 330 S. Hope St., Los Angeles, from March 24-April 10. Call (310) 577-0363 or visit www.operationunity.org.