Rev. Dr. Diana Nishita Cheifetz

I am a third generation Japanese American, the child and grandchild of survivors of the US concentration* camps of World War II for people of Japanese ancestry.  My grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles worked hard to rebuild their lives afterwards, retained their humanity, and taught my siblings, cousins and myself to value all that is good in this world.  We are indebted to them all.

My parents also made sure my siblings and I grew up with faith in God.  Church attendance at our large Presbyterian church was mandatory in our household, until I stopped going in my teens, only to return as a young adult.  I had fallen in love with a young, ardent Jewish convert. My parents thought him a great influence on me [eyeball-roll here].  But they were right….and he still is.

Later on, I went through a period of what I call “existential crabbiness.”  Life was good, but I longed for something more.  That led me to a pastoral counselor who had the wisdom and skills to switch to doing spiritual direction with me.  At one point, during a session, she said, “I have been praying about the need for spiritual directors, and your name keeps coming to mind.  Have you ever thought of doing this kind of work?”  My heart leapt and I thought, “I could do this, I would love to do this!” It has been a calling and passion of mine for over 25 years now. 

I am an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), married to a Presbyterian minister, and mother of a Presbyterian minister, our daughter, as well as mother of an artist son.  They along with their fine spouses, our grandchildren, our siblings and all our relatives – Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, agnostic and atheist -  comprise the rich and diverse tapestry that is my family.

*The term “internment camp” is considered a euphemism by the prevailing scholarship on the topic, and thus I am using the terminology employed by many in the antiracism community, and by much of the current Japanese American community itself.  (The correct terminology for the Nazi camps for Jews during WWII is “death camps” or “extermination camps”.)