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And while I’m not sure I agree
that the Billy Bush thing was just
locker room talk, the truth was
if he were preparing to become
president his whole life, he would
have been a lot more careful not
to engage with the press in such
There is a danger in
assuming all the people who
voted for Trump support
everything he has
said or done.
Rabbi Steven Rubenstein
talk like your average politician.”
She added, “Most Trump
supporters are sick of the main-
stream media and, most of all,
Hollywood telling us how to
think … They made him look
so objectionable and Hillary so
saint-like that those who were
against him became terrified of
him.”
She added that her support for
Trump was based on policies she
objected to that took hold in the
Obama years — open borders,
globalism, being more forgiving
to international enemies. “I felt
Democrats were not standing up
for America and values that were
important to us.”
According to Syme, “Both
candidates were deeply flawed.
People said, ‘We know her. We
don’t like a lot of things she’s
done. Trump has said some hor-
rible things, but we might as
well give him a chance.’ So they
ignored misogyny, racism, anti-
Muslim sentiment and gave him
a chance … Now we will see.”
THE ELECTION
AFTERMATH
“Even though there are many
Trump voters who are not racists,
it’s Trump’s message and rhetoric
to me that says our country is
divided,” said Syme’s close friend
Rev. Kenneth Flowers of Greater
New Mount Moriah Baptist Church
in Detroit, an African-American
congregation. “Let’s not sugarcoat
it. There is racism and sexism and
bigotry. That’s reality. We can no
longer act as if it no longer exists.”
In the week following the elec-
tion, that became apparent locally
12 November 17 • 2016
as middle school students in Royal
Oak chanted “Build the wall!” a nd
a Muslim woman in Ann Arbor
was forced to remove her hijab by
a man who threatened to set her
on fire if she did not.
In fact, the Southern Poverty
Law Center has counted hundreds
of instances of “hateful intimida-
tion and harassment” following
the presidential election: Black
freshmen at the University of
Pennsylvania found violent and
racist messages on their phones;
#Go back to Africa” and “Make
America great again” were writ-
ten on a toilet paper dispenser
at a high school in Minnesota;
and the words “Sieg Heil 2016”
and “Trump” — with a swastika
substituted for the T in Trump —
were spray-painted on a building’s
glass window in Philadelphia.
Many across the country have
taken to the streets to protest
Trump’s election, some demon-
strations becoming violent.
MOVING FORWARD
“As a community organizer, my
instinct is to get to work,” Alpert
said. “But as a rabbi, I know that
we have to grieve, to take time to
feel our feelings, before we can
really face what is coming.”
After the election, Rev.
Flowers sent Rabbi Syme a text
that inspired him: “The power
of prayer and our faith in God
brought us through slavery
and the Jim Crow era — prayer
and our faith will also bring us
through this. As God delivered
my Jewish brothers and sis-
ters from Egypt and from the
Holocaust, he will bring you
through this, too.”
If you’re having a hard time
getting through your post-
election blues, Dr. Daniel
Rosenbaum of Counseling
Associates in West Bloomfield
said that the anxiety and depres-
sion you’re feeling are a function
of uncertainty.
“The election resulted in a
lot of uncertainty for everyone.
Healing takes a lot of time and
effort on both sides.”
Rubenstein said he continues
to tell people — especially those
who are frightened by the results
of election — that he has a lot of
confidence in our system of gov-
ernment.
“All of us, liberals and conserva-
tives, Republicans and Democrats,
who have concerns about Trump’s
rhetoric and social policy should
take advantage of opportunities
we have as Americans to speak
out against things that are trou-
blesome to us.
“There are many Jewish val-
ues that will come to bear in
these conversations ... having to
do with the way we speak, the
importance of community and
our responsibility of making our
society what we think it should
be,” he added.
Tammy Betel
of Farmington
Hills, a Hillary
supporter,
wrote on her
Facebook page
last Friday,
“I have hope
that these past
Tammy Betel
20 months,
although mad-
dening and
frightening, were just campaign
rhetoric. Hope that our new
president will not follow through
with his promises. Hope that his
supporters, the ones who wear
bigotry and hatred outwardly,
will be calmed by Mr. Trump.
“He is our president-elect.
I respect the office of the
president. Whether he gets our
respect will be up to him and
whomever he selects to work
with him.”
Rev. Flowers said, “We will
work with the president. I will do
everything in my power to work
with him providing he doesn’t
hurt oppressed people or the dis-
enfranchised. I will not support
CREATING
CONVERSATIONS
As the shock of the surprising
results of the election fade, we
need to begin conversations —
with our children, our neighbors
and our fellow citizens. Some of
those conversations will be dif-
ficult. For example, how do you
explain to your children that
someone who acted like a bully
on the campaign trail is now the
leader of our country?
“Parents can talk to their kids
directly about the things said and
done during the campaign that
they object to,” Rubenstein said.
“Some of the rhetoric has been
particularly problematic this cam-
paign. It’s up to us to teach our
children what we think about it.”
We also need to get outside of
our own bubbles and try our best
to hear and understand other
people’s perspectives. “Part of
what happens is we self-segre-
gate,” Silverman said. “When we
no longer talk to people who are
different from us, it is very easy to
demonize them.
“After all, the Talmud is a dis-
cussion of people who disagree —
all done with respect. It’s impor-
tant for us to interact with each
other. The way to move forward is
not to stay in our own echo cham-
bers,” she added.
Last week, Rabbi Yonatan
Dahlen of Congregation Shaarey
Zedek in Southfield led a discus-
sion about the need for listening
and respect in our conversa-
tions. After the presidential
election, he said, he felt it was
There can be no business as
usual in the face of rising
fascism.
Rabbi Alana Alpert
those types of policies. We must
continue to build bridges but
hold him accountable.”
Rabbi Alpert of Detroit Jews
for Justice said, “We will resist
whatever efforts there are to ‘nor-
malize’ the situation. There can
be no business as usual in the
face of rising fascism. We expect
to be welcoming a wave of new
activists committed to fighting
for racial and economic justice.
The Jewish community must not
remain neutral.”
an appropriate topic.
“The election has been a wake-
up call; now we have to listen to
each other,” he said. “To safeguard
the ideals of
our country,
we have to be
able to talk and
listen to one
another … We
haven’t had a
dialogue in a
long time.”
Rabbi Yonatan
*
Dahlen