Lena Epsteinȅhas chosen a side. It's not ours.
We grew up with Lena Epstein and have been shocked by the divergence
between her extremist campaign for U.S. Congress and the Jewish values
we were taught as young people raised in Detroit’s Jewish community.
Lena has warmly embraced and exploited Donald Trump’s message of hate
and xenophobia. In response to Trump’s cruel policies that tore children
from their parents, Lena ran TV ads promising that “I'll stand with President
Trump to build the wall, deport the criminals and put America first." She has
embraced anti-Semites, claiming “Ted Nugent is a great American!”, and
inviting Steve Bannon to campaign for her, calling him "inspirational!"
Lena chose to build her political career as a leader of the campaign to elect
Donald Trump. She has aligned herself with a movement animated by a
belief that "globalists" and George Soros are conspiring to destroy America,
that those seeking to immigrate to the US are "invaders.". This same toxic
set of beliefs, emboldened by the President, who in the same week
proclaimed himself a "nationalist", led to a tragic result this Shabbat.
The Torah commands us, "The stranger who resides with you shall be to
you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were
strangers in the land of Egypt." (Leviticus 19:34) The bigotry of the campaign
Lena has chosen to run is squarely at odds with this mitzvah.
We hold a diverse set of political beliefs -- we are Republicans, Democrats
and independents. We believe there is space for reasonable people to
disagree about policy, and we do not question Lena's choice of party. We
are compelled, however, to forcefully condemn her embrace of extremism
for political gain, and urge our community to vote for any other candidate.
Michelle Hutton Bass
Heather Pianko Bershas
Lauren Baker Blanford
Daniel Brooks
David Brown
Beth Kander-Dauphin
Bess Devenow
Rachel Devenow
Ben Falik
Tamra Feldman
Andrew Fine
Gabe Fisher
Seth Fisher
Gabriel Hall
Whitney Harris-Linton
Jenny Hobson
Amy Horning
Robin Joseph
Jeremy Jutkowitz
Adam Kander
Jacob Kander
Jessica De Young Kander
J. Jacob Krause
Michael Krefman
Brooke Leiberman
Joseph Leibson
Scott Levine
Stephanie Markle
Abraham Morrison
Brett Mountain
Sarah Kruman Mountain
Sarah Littman Olitzky
Marisa Patt
Minda L. Patt
Melissa Popour
Robin Weber-Pollak
Adam Rochkind
Caryn Roman
Adam Rosenwasser
Lauren Silverstein
Tanya Shaye Silverstein
Michael Simon
Jennifer Nathan Simoneaux
Eric Singer
Toby Singer
Heather Pearson Statfield
Elissa Lindow Sternberg
Jennifer Soble
Sherri Soble
Jessica Jacobs Steinhart
Lauren Stoller
Michael Stoller
Benjamin Turbow
Erin Pearlman Weiner
Ray Wert
Amelia Patt Zamir
This ad is paid for entirely by the individuals named above, and is not authorized by any candidate or political committee.
jn
November 1 • 2018
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