With Israel!

Local voices uplift Jewish homeland in strong show of support.

Don Cohen
Special to the Jewish News

I

t was a sea of Israeli and American
flags, signs and banners as more than
375 pro-Israel activists gathered at
the southeast corner of Orchard Lake and
Maple Roads in West Bloomfield during
afternoon rush hour on June 8 to chal-
lenge the chorus of criticism directed
against Israel for its enforcement of the

ON THE COVER

Frankel Jewish Academy shows its
support of Israel: Teacher Debbie

Wrotslaysky rallies with students
Joshua Kahn, Jessica Curhan and

Stephanie Curhan; FJA grad Aaron

Goss; and future FJA students Josh
Broner and Jesse Adler.

Rally photos by Kiya Gibbons

blockade against the Hamas-controlled
Gaza Strip.
Israel has been widely condemned for
enforcing the Israeli and Egyptian block-
ade by intercepting and boarding six ships
on May 31 that were part of an ostensibly
humanitarian flotilla that ignored Israeli
attempts to divert them to the Israeli
port of Ashdod to unload their cargo for
inspection and delivery to Gaza.
Israeli soldiers boarding the largest ship,
the Turkish Mavi Marmara, encountered
fierce resistance resulting in injuries to
both sides and eight Turkish deaths and
one Turkish American death. Israel claims
both the blockade and its enforcement
were done in concert with international
law and that there was no choice, but to
respond to the violent resistance.
"We felt it was important to show the
Jewish community's visible support for
Israel and to challenge the unfair and
uninformed condemnations of Israel's act
of self-defense said Eugene Greenstein,

president of the local Zionist Organization
of America, ZOA-MI.
Together with Margot Gardner, co-chair
of StandWithUs-MI, Andre Douville, co-
chair of last month's Walk for Israel at
Temple Shir Shalom in West Bloomfield,
and David Rott of the Michigan Friends
of the Israel Defense Forces, the four gath-
ered a group of activists and announced
the demonstration late last week.
Rott served in the IDF and led a coun-
ter-demonstration in downtown Detroit
during the Israel-Hamas war in early 2009.
Greenstein says he approached the
Jewish Community Relations Council of
Metropolitan Detroit to ask it to organize a
demonstration, but the JCRC was not sup-
portive of the idea and responded that it
had other pro-Israel activities in the works

Center of West Bloomfield, Michigan
Friends of the IDF, Greater Detroit Chapter
of Hadassah and American Red Magen
David for Israel came on board. Several
synagogues made announcements and
sent e-mails that went viral, with many

(related story: next page).

Disappointed but undeterred, march
organizers decided to press on themselves.
In short order, Aish HaTorah, the Sara
and Morris Tugman Bais Chabad Torah

Tayla Horwitz, 3 months, of Windsor

shows support for Israel, too.

With Israel on page 18

16

June 17 • 2010

