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An Open Letter to Lena
from Ben (Only)
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10
December 20 • 2018
jn
Dear Lena,
I hope — and I hope that you’ll
take me as sincere throughout — that
this message finds you and your fam-
ily well. I can only imagine the roller-
coaster you were on
these past months.
We don’t know
each other that well.
Of everyone who
signed and funded the
Detroit Jewish News
Ben Falik
ad (“Lena Epstein
has chosen a side. It’s
not ours.”), I was probably the most
peripheral to the youth group world
that so many found so formative. I
remember being impressed and not
a little jealous by the leadership and
camaraderie I saw at the sporadic
NFTY programming I attended.
Still, I think we have a few things in
common. We’re both proud products
of this community, both were legacy
students at elite schools, both motivat-
ed to make names for ourselves back
home — neither a shrinking violet.
We served together on the inaugu-
ral board of the Detroit Jewish News
Foundation. I don’t know about you,
but I consider it to be my most mean-
ingful lay leadership. Though you and
I disagreed about how best to activate
the archives and make them accessi-
ble, I respected the value you placed
on the JN’s content and your emphasis
on sustaining the foundation.
I have to give you credit. I have
been tempted to throw my hat in the
ring for elected office only to balk at
the scrutiny of candidates, the centrif-
ugal force outward from the political
center — the cynicism of the whole
process. I won’t speculate about your
inner monologue along the way, but
you showed endurance and tenac-
ity throughout your campaign for
Congress.
Over the course of the campaign,
you made some choices — even con-
trolling for our political differences —
that I didn’t understand. For all of the
relevant Jewish texts and values avail-
able, I kept coming back to an Islamic
teaching I learned during my time at
Repair the World: “If a friend among
your friends errs, make 70 excuses for
them. If your hearts are unable to do
this, then know that the shortcoming
is in your own selves.”
I imagine the spotlight of such a
high-visibility, high-stakes race could
seem brilliant or blinding — and feel
at times like a warm glow and at oth-
ers like searing heat.
Will cooler heads prevail now that
the midterms are behind us? Lena,
you are in a unique position to turn
down the heat. Whether you feel
burned or burnished by the election, I
hope you realize that you can help us
reach a more temperate place.
What’s next for you? Happy and
healthy holidays with your family,
God willing. Then back into the polit-
ical fray as attention shifts rapidly
toward the 2020 ticket?
An earnest and empathetic question
for you to consider as you chart your
path forward:
Would you make your (valuable)
support for the president and the
party contingent upon, if nothing
else, their consistent condemnation
of hate groups and an end to calling
the media “the enemy of the people”?
Those seem like two reasonable steps
toward making civic life civil and safe.
I may be the last person you want
advice from. Indeed, it’s a lot easier
to put your name on a letter than a
ballot. But now that you’re off the
rollercoaster, I’d at least encourage
you to spend some time in the — our
— Jewish News archives. I’ll spare
you the cliches about history and just
share my own sense of pride in help-
ing to preserve it and of cautious opti-
mism for the future we’re writing.
Sincerely,
Ben Falik
Republican Lena Epstein lost to Democrat Haley
Stevens, 52 percent to 45 percent, in Michigan’s 11th
Congressional District in Oakland and western
Wayne counties in the Nov. 6, 2018, election.