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Good Things Are
Happening
We may be not aware of some very good
things happening in our community. The
massive effort by the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit, Jewish Family
Service, BBYO and synagogues as well as
Jewish day schools called “We Need to
Talk” is designed to reduce teen depres-
sion with significant funding and many
professionals involved.
BBYO has the highest membership in
more than 10 years and is led by Rachel
Ellis Gray, who is superb, as well as the
regional president, Avery Geller.
The day schools are all thriving; and
at the Federation, more dollars are being
raised than ever from more donors than
in many years.
While I regret the closing of the Oak
Park Jewish Community Center, the West
Bloomfield Center is turning around. It is
livelier, with much more going on.
The Jewish Community Relations
Council/AJC is growing stronger, and
wonderful things are constantly coming
from the Friendship Circle.
There is growing number of young
Jewish adults living in Detroit and
Ferndale/Royal Oak.
Let’s be happy with all of this.
Harvey S. Bronstein
Southfield
Trivializing The Holocaust
All three letters to the editor in the June
28, 2018, issue of the JN compared the
separation of children at the southern
border to the Holocaust. The Holocaust
was the result of a plot to totally annihi-
late the Jewish people and resulted in the
mass murder of 6 million Jews.
As bad as the situation at the border is,
there is no comparison to the Holocaust.
If there was, no one would be trying to
come here, legally or illegally. Who was
trying to move to Germany in the 1930s
and ’40s?
My wife’s relative, Genrikh, was born
in Poland; at 13 he was told by his grand-
parents to run for his life. He fled to the
USSR, which was far from welcoming to
Jews, but better than staying in Poland
with the Nazis coming. He was the only
one of his family to survive. His picture
and obituary hang on the wall at Beth
Shalom to this day.
My father, Isak, fled the Nazi invasion
of the USSR in 1941 with his mother. The
crowd of people fleeing in horse car-
riages was bombed. His mother told him
to go and try to save himself because
he had a better chance to survive alone.
Fortunately, he was later able to reunite
with my grandmother.
The separation of children from their
parents is always a tragedy, but there is
a difference between what is happen-
ing now — people taking a risk to try to
get a better life for themselves and their
children — and what happened during
the Holocaust, where parents sent their
children away to save them from certain
death.
Please do not compare the worst trag-
edy in human history with the current
short-term and resolvable events, which
are in the process of being fixed. There
are more than enough people and coun-
tries trying to diminish the significance of
the Holocaust. The last thing we need is
Jews trivializing it themselves.
F. Kevin Browett
Chief Operating Officer
kbrowett@renmedia.us
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Then they came for the Republican
Jewish man, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Republican Jewish
man.
After that they came for the
Independent Jewish woman, and I did
not speak out — Because I was not an
Independent Jewish woman.
Finally, they came for me — and there
was no one left to speak for me.
I call on all people in our community
to publicly condemn this action. If you
wish to be listed in an upcoming ad in the
Jewish News as publicly condemning the
Franklin Hills Country Club for canceling
Epstein’s fundraiser, send me an email
(mdmanson@gmail.com) with “FREE
SPEECH” in the subject line; and please
list your name(s) and city in the email.
Let us not forget the immortal words of
Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for
the forces of evil to prevail is for enough
good men (and women) to do nothing.”
I only hope that this bigotry and hate is
not broadly ascribed to the Detroit Jewish
community at large.
Marc D. Manson
Farmington Hills
Yefim Milter
Oak Park
Condemn Fundraiser
Cancellation
In May 2018, the Franklin Hills Country
Club agreed to host Suneel Gupta, who
is running for election to Michigan’s 11th
District House seat and a member of the
Contributing Writers:
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
Michigan Democratic Party, to hold a fun-
draiser at the country club. Such events
have been held for/by many people
running for various political offices in
Michigan over the many decades of the
club’s existence.
The FHCC had also agreed to host
Lena Epstein, also running for the same
position and who is not only a member of
the Michigan Republican Party but also a
lifelong member of the FHCC (see July 5
issue, page 17). However, just days before
the event, the FHCC Board of Directors,
who represent the membership, and
without notice to Epstein, held a meeting
and unanimously voted to renege on their
agreement with her, as well as their word.
The following is adapted from Martin
Niemöller (1892–1984), writer of the
original, who was a prominent Protestant
pastor who emerged as an outspoken
public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the
last seven years of Nazi rule in concentra-
tion camps.
First they came for the Republican
Jewish woman, and I did not speak out
— Because I was not a Republican
Jewish woman.
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July 12 • 2018
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