views essay community view Charlottesville As Reminder Our Shared Values A M bout two decades ago, I drove and Nazi flags. They carried posters from my childhood home depicting a hammer smashing a Star in suburban Detroit to East of David. Armed white supremacists Lansing, Mich., to begin my under- congregated outside of a synagogue. graduate studies at Michigan State Anti-Semitism is alive and well and University. The two places are only many white Jews are justifiably about 70 miles apart. But my experi- scared right now. ence growing up Jewish in Metro I’m scared, too. But I also know Steve Bocknek Detroit did not begin to prepare me that the violence and hatred that for what it would be like to be Jewish white Jews are being reminded of by a mere hour drive away. the horrific events in Charlottesville Growing up, my family was proud are what people of color have been of and felt safe in our Jewish iden- experiencing all along, with a rise in tity. I can’t recall a single instance from my hate crimes since the election last November. youth of feeling threatened or hated because White supremacists have been emboldened of my Judaism. So the series of anti-Semitic by the events in Charlottesville and the incidents that I experienced while at college administration’s deplorable response thereto. shook me to my core: a swastika carved into As a result, people of color are unquestion- a friend’s dorm room door; a brick painted ably more vulnerable today than they have with anti-Semitic graffiti thrown through been in the recent past and white Jews must the window of our Hillel building; claims of act. Instead of turning inward and focusing responsibility for an act of arson by a militia only on our own vulnerability, let’s leverage group calling itself the “Nazi Fourth Reich” our historic experience with confronting anti- that burned down half of the Hillel building. Semitism. Let’s redouble our efforts to fight These experiences caused me to reconsider for racial justice in this country. Let’s call out what I thought I understood about my place bigotry, racism and hatred wherever we see in the world. On one hand, as a white Jew, I them. Let’s amplify the voices of the most vul- probably wasn’t actually less secure than I nerable communities. Let’s commit ourselves had been before. I had benefited immeasur- and our institutions to forming or strengthen- ably from white privilege and from living ing alliances with communities of color and at a time and in a place in which Jews were organizations led by people of color. thriving in America. And notwithstanding the Now is when each of us must decide what acts of hate that I had observed on my college kind of future, what kind of country, we want campus, I would continue to benefit in those for ourselves and our children. With the ter- ways. On the other hand, what I experienced rible images from Charlottesville fresh in as a college student forever fractured my our minds, let’s band together with people of sense of immunity from hate and anti-Semitic color and fight the scourge of hatred and big- violence. otry together. • For many white Jews, the events in Steve Bocknek is the senior director of external rela- Charlottesville similarly shattered their sense tions for Avodah, a national organization that works to of security in this country. The neo-Nazis who descended on the city chanted “Jews will strengthen the Jewish community’s fight against poverty. He grew up in Farmington Hills and now lives with his not replace us” while marching with torches wife and children in Brooklyn, New York. Contributing Writers: Joshua Lewis Berg, Ruthan Brodsky, Rochel Burstyn, Suzanne Chessler, Annabel Cohen, Don Cohen, Shari S. Cohen, Shelli Liebman Dorfman, Adam Finkel, Stacy Gittleman, Stacy Goldberg, Judy Greenwald, Ronelle Grier, Esther Allweiss Ingber, Allison Jacobs, Barbara Lewis, Jennifer Lovy, Rabbi Jason Miller, Alan Muskovitz, David Sachs, Karen Schwartz, Robin Schwartz, Steve Stein, Joyce Wiswell Arthur M. Horwitz Publisher / Executive Editor ahorwitz@renmedia.us F. Kevin Browett Chief Operating Officer kbrowett@renmedia.us | Editorial Managing Editor: Jackie Headapohl jheadapohl@renmedia.us Story Development Editor: Keri Guten Cohen kcohen@renmedia.us Arts & Life Editor: Lynne Konstantin lkonstantin@renmedia.us Editorial Assistant: Sy Manello smanello@renmedia.us Senior Columnist: Danny Raskin dannyraskin@sbcglobal.net Contributing Editor: Robert Sklar rsklar@renmedia.us | Advertising Sales Sales Director: Keith Farber kfarber@renmedia.us Account Executives : Wendy Flusty, Annette Kizy, Paige Lustig Sales Manager Assistants : Andrea Gusho, Karen Marzolf | Business Offices Billing Coordinator: Pamela Turner ore than 3,000 Elie Wiesel said, “I years ago, swore never to be silent a group of whenever and wherever Hebrew slaves, made human beings endure up of people from many suffering and humilia- races, languages and tion. We must always cultures, fled the oppres- take sides. Neutrality sion and hatred of Egypt. helps the oppres- Rabbi Aaron They were inspired by sor, never the victim. Bergman an idea so radical that Silence encourages the it helped create the tormentor, never the American Revolution. tormented. Sometimes These Hebrews, our we must interfere. ancestors, said that there is When human lives are endan- only one God, that no human gered, when human dignity is in is God and, most importantly, jeopardy, national borders and that all people are created in sensitivities become irrelevant. God’s image, and are, therefore, Wherever men or women are beloved and indispensable. persecuted because of their They said that the world that race, religion or political views, they would create would pro- that place must — at that tect the widow, the orphan and moment — become the center the stranger. No one would live of the universe.” in fear just because they were a We as a people have survived minority. the worst of atrocities because There is no Declaration of we refuse to give in to hate Independence without their and fear. We have flourished courage and insight. As it says, because we carry the values of “We hold these truths to be self- those Hebrew slaves into the evident, that all men are created world, in every generation. We equal, that they are endowed have kept our promise to them. by their Creator with certain We cannot abandon that prom- unalienable Rights, that among ise now. Each of us has to find these are Life, Liberty and the our own way stand up to hate, pursuit of Happiness.” and replace it with love, respect America is not America and appreciation. • unless we embrace fully the idea that all people are created in Aaron Bergman is a rabbi at Adat Shalom God’s image. We cannot stand Synagogue in Farmington Hills. He sent by when one group asserts this message to his congregants last week. superiority over all others and demonizes and terrorizes them. | Production By FARAGO & ASSOCIATES Manager: Scott Drzewiecki Designers: Kelly Kosek, Amy Pollard, Michelle Sheridan, Susan Walker | Detroit Jewish News Chairman: Michael H. Steinhardt President/Publisher: Arthur M. Horwitz ahorwitz@renmedia.us Chief Operating Officer: F. Kevin Browett kbrowett@renmedia.us Controller: Craig R. Phipps | Fulfillment Joelle Harder jharder@renmedia.us | Departments General Offi ces: 248-354-6060 Advertising: 248-351-5107 Advertising Fax: 248-304-0049 Circulation: 248-351-5120 Classifi ed Ads: 248-351-5116 Advertising Deadline: Monday, 10 a.m. Editorial Fax: 248-304-8885 Deadline: All public and social announcements must be typewritten and received by noon Tuesday, nine days prior to desired date of publication. 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