metro » continued from page 14 police offi cers have a common concern: They both have more reason to fear for their lives than most of the rest of us.” — Jeremy Salinger continued from page 14 John Hardwick “Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘The ultimate mea- sure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy,’” Greenstein said. “We need our politicians to be leaders and not pander by immediately blaming the police as racists when there is an altercation.” Others feel better communication is key. Martina said people need to “listen deeply to one another and build empathy. Otherwise, the fear and frustration between communities of color and law enforcement will simply escalate.” Schwartz said, “All Americans have a moral imperative to speak out and demand an end to any abuse of fellow citizens. Jews in particular stood with African Americans during the 1960s civil rights struggle and should do so today.” Dr. Richard Krugel, presi- Jonathan dent of the Jewish Community Schwartz Relations Council, said, “We are a people who are sadly all too familiar with the ugly consequences of prejudice and discrimination. This cannot be the new normal for the America we love. The Jewish community is compelled to act out of respect for the dignity of all human life and pledge to work to improve race relations, sup- port police-community relations and to combat the rising levels of violence in our society.” Richard Krugel Gamalski said, “We need to listen to and raise up the expe- riences of people of color. We need to talk to our parents, grandparents, children and congregations about racism and violence and to urge one another towards compassionate action.” Brenda Naomi Rosenberg of Bloomfield Hills, who describes herself as an “agent for change,” said, “We are at a critical moment in history. We can turn our sadness and grief into action. We can choose to self-destruct or create new dis- course and be in the presence Brenda of the best of our humanity.” Rosenberg * 16 July 28 • 2016 article quotes community members expressing outrage over the decision to move the Jewish Federation and Jewish Community Council from 163 Madison in Detroit to Maple and Telegraph in Bloomfield Township. “From my point of view, it sends a bad message to the Detroit commu- nity, and it’s a bad move,” said Stanley Winkelman, the late owner of the for- mer Winkelman’s clothing store chain. “It’s very important that the community takes extra efforts to strengthen black- Jewish relationships so that the physical move when it comes will be irrelevant.” According to Horwitz, “The Federation move was largely the result of these agencies going where their donors and volunteers had moved 20 years earlier. Yet, the optics were of a community leaving Detroit in its rear- view mirror. “Sinai Hospital remained the Jewish community’s most visible presence in Detroit, with the vast majority of its patient census comprising African Americans from the city’s Northwest quadrant,” Horwitz says. “However, Sinai endured significant financial problems and, by the mid-1990s, was sold to the Detroit Medical Center, which attached the Sinai brand to its Grace and Huron Valley hospitals and took the wrecking ball to the hospital facility.” The Intersection Project REPAIR THE WORLD Ben Falik, co-founder of the nonprofit group Summer in the City who now serves as manager of Detroit service initia- tives for the Jewish social action group Repair the World, is among those work- ing hard to build new bridges. Since 2002, Ben Falik he has been bring- ing together diverse groups of young volunteers to perform community service projects in Detroit in a respectful and inclusive way. “I think that at the community level the relationship between the Jewish and black communities is not robust,” Falik says. “There are some strong individual relationships and some projects that bring us together, but I don’t think we JOHN HARDWICK matter. Both blacks and hoodlums who were bent on stealing, pillaging, looting business houses and resorting to arson … The looting and destruction of property were not aimed at Jewish businesses, it was agreed. But in the path of the fire and bombing, looters succeeded in wiping out many small firms their Jewish owners had spent years building up.” In the 12th Street area alone, 79 Jewish businesses were reduced to 39 almost overnight. Martin Herman watched it all unfold but never left the city. He came to Detroit in 1962 to work at WSU as an assistant Martin Herman professor in Monteith College’s Division of Humanistic Studies. He has lived in the same house near Curtis and Warrington for 50 years. “I understand why people left, and I don’t bear a grudge; I don’t have a chip on my shoulder,” says the longtime member of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue (IADS), the only free-stand- ing synagogue remaining in Detroit. “They made their choice, and I made my choice. I stayed partly because of principle, partly because it was conve- nient for me to get to work; I am very committed to the city.” Karen “Chava” Knox is an African American/Jewish Detroiter and presi- dent of Eden Gardens Block Club, which created a thriving community garden in collaboration with IADS. She grew up in Detroit, moved out of state for several years, and returned home to Chava Knox the city’s East Side. “We have open conversations about race and other issues in Detroit, but I think it has a long way to go,” Knox says. “A lot of blacks say the Jews left us. They feel like after the ’67 riot, Jews left Detroit and abandoned blacks, and I think that’s where a lot of the resent- ment comes from.” Today, there is not much of a Jewish institutional presence remaining in the city. An Aug. 31, 1990, Jewish News JOHN HARDWICK “The lives of all people are at the place of engagement, solidar- ity and support that we want to be. I’m not entirely sure why. “There is a lot of good energy and a lot of anecdotal work going on, but I think if 1967, as we understand it, tells us anything, it’s how little differ- ent groups of people understood each other’s experiences.” He believes if we are going to grow together, we need to open up and try to understand each other’s experiences as ancestral Detroiters — a sentiment echoed by Flowers and others. “There is a great racial divide in America,” Flowers says. “There is some- thing called white privilege which is different than white racism. Our Jewish brothers and sisters are the recipients of white privilege without realizing it. They are able to move and gravitate and go far in society because of the color of their skin — they’ve been able to suc- ceed in part because they’re white.” “My message to our Jewish broth- ers and sisters is make your presence known in the inner city,” he continues. “Don’t just come for the symphony and leave. Get involved with education, creating jobs, economic development — take the time to hire some African American people. Don’t just talk about it from afar. Work in terms of hands-on experiences.” Summer in the City provides the type of hands-on involvement Flowers describes. The program attracts approx- imately 200 volunteers per day over eight weeks, bringing together church- es, schools, block clubs, city agencies and others to landscape, clean up city parks, create green spaces, construct murals and more. “I’m optimistic,” Falik says. “I think what Repair the World does is a great point of entry to get people together. We really push for serving with oth- ers; doing with rather than doing for is a totally different and critical value proposition. “Solidarity is not inherent to service. We have to go further than that and look critically at our own narratives and experiences and really try to chart a path forward. I would say we’ve got miles to go before we sleep.” * Nearly 50 years after a police raid at 12th and Clairmount streets ignited violence and car- nage, the Detroit Journalism Cooperative, which includes the Detroit Jewish News, is exploring whether conditions that produced the civil unrest have improved for Detroit residents in a series of stories called “The Intersection.” Look for future stories from the JN on this project throughout 2016. To see all the stories done by our partner media agencies, go to www. detroitjournalism.org.