Over the past few weeks, students at Oakland Hebrew Day School studied the contributions of minorities and immigrants to American history. And culminating Americana Week, OHDS made a little history of its own: The school welcomed to the campus Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, the first Asian American woman elected as a big- city mayor.
As revealed in her Feb. 18 speech, Quan has a touch of Jewish in her background. Her husband, Floyd Quan, graduated from Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Decked out in red and gold in honor of the Chinese New Year, Quan, 61, was greeted by students, parents and staff at a rousing morning assembly. After the national anthem and “Hatikvah,” and a scene-stealing performance of “You’re a Grand Old Flag” by the kindergarteners, Quan spoke.
She recounted her family history, growing up in Oakland the daughter and granddaughter of Chinese immigrants. She attended U.C. Berkeley, becoming a civil rights activist in the turbulent 1960s.
Much earlier in her career, while her husband completed medical school, she lived in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, getting to know some of the old-timers who remembered when that neighborhood was the hub of Jewish immigration to New York.
“We always had a lot of Jewish friends,” she recalled of those days in the late ’60s and early ’70s. “The emphasis was on eating.”
After returning to Oakland, she worked in community organizing, eventually running for the Oakland School Board. That led to two terms on the Oakland City Council and her upset win in the mayoral election last fall.
Answering student questions, Quan said that visiting schools is “one of my favorite things to do. A lot of my meetings are not so nice.”
She also talked about her visit to the White House last month for the state dinner honoring Chinese President Hu Jintao. When she asked President Barack Obama for his autograph, she pressed him to secure Hu’s signature as well.
“You’re pretty pushy for someone who’s only been mayor a couple of weeks,” she recalled Obama joking to her. But pushy worked: She got Hu’s autograph as well.
After the speech, student body president Miriam Applbaum presented Quan with an original artwork created by OHDS students. A collage made of torn paper, glitter paint and string, it depicts the Statue of Liberty and the Oakland skyline. Quan said the painting would hang in the Oakland City Hall conference room.
Teacher Laurie Bellet, who heads the school’s nationally recognized art program, conceived the artwork and made sure all 166 OHDS students could contribute.
“This was Oakland culture,” Bellet said of the painting. “This is the first time we’ve presented art outside the Jewish community.”