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Judging by its new lineup, the city's embattled Commission on Human Relations won't have an issue with diversity.
The eight new commissioners introduced by Mayor Nutter yesterday at a City Hall press conference represent a panoply of races, religions, ethnicities, sexual identities and physical capabilities.
Among them: The agency's first Muslim; first female rabbi; first disabled person; and first duo of openly gay commissioners. Also, executive director Rue Landau is a lesbian - another first.
Only the chairman, the Rev. James S. Allen of Vine Memorial Baptist Church in West Philadelphia, was retained from the previous commission, which many felt was ineffective in investigating discrimination complaints.
Nutter promised that the new commission would be "a more active, vigorous, engaged and involved entity. It's just a whole new ball game."
The appointees include: Rabbi Rebecca Alpert, an associate professor of religion and women's studies at Temple; and University of Pennsylvania School of Law professors Regina Austin, an authority on economic discrimination, and Fernando Chang-Muy, a refugees expert.
Also: Tom Earle, CEO of Liberty Resources Inc., an advocacy organization for people with disabilities; Cynthia Figueroa, executive director of Women Against Abuse; and Chukri Khorchid, founder and director of Al-Aqsa Islamic Academy.
Completing the group: Nicholas Torres, president of Congreso, a Latino advocacy group; and Kay Kyungsun Yu, a partner with Pepper Hamilton LLP and president of the Asian American Bar Association of the Delaware Valley.
The commission, created in 1951 to mediate community disputes and enforce civil-rights laws, meets twice monthly. Commissioners have open-ended terms and are paid $100 per meeting. Landau has a staff of 33, down from a high of 50-plus in 1988.
"Our real goal is not so much having the power to cure as having the opportunity to prevent," State Rep. Babette Josephs said in an interview. "I see incredible leadership here."
When asked if he had followed any self-imposed diversity quotas in selecting the new members, Nutter replied no, emphatically.
"We have Muslims, physically challenged people in Philadelphia," he said in an interview. "We have blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians. That's our city.
"If you're going to have a commission that represents Philadelphia, you have to have people from different constituencies. I wouldn't consider that a quota. I'm looking for good people, first and foremost."
A commissioner from the Muslim community is important because of the rise in hate crimes and discrimination against the group, said Khorchid, 62, in an interview. "We really can't keep up with it."
The biggest misconception about Muslims "is that we are violent terrorists, not people who are working hard like everybody else," he said. "That's what the radio and TV are saying all day long."
Rabbi Albert, 58, a lesbian and cochair of the Mayor's Commission on Sexual Minorities under the Rendell administration, said she was "ecstatic" at having three openly gay commissioners.
During her tenure, then-Councilman Nutter was a key ally in the drive for domestic-partner benefits, she said. "He stood up in ways that other council people weren't prepared to do."
"We shall demonstrate to the city, the region, the country and the world that we are intolerant about intolerance here in Philadelphia," Nutter said.
"This will be the No. 1 human-rights organization in the United States of America. That is our commitment. That is our promise. That is what we will do."
First meeting of the new commission is July 18, Landau said.
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