26 April 11 • 2019
jn

yeshivah does not discuss particular 
students and why any student may or 
may not be receiving semicha.
”
Linzer added that the yeshivah 
could have handled the process of 
informing Atwood in a much better 
manner.
 “I’
ve never been more disappointed 
in Modern Orthodoxy and its institu-
tions,
” Lopatin said. “We are supposed 
to stand for an unfearing loyalty to 
Halachah, and it seems to me there are 
so many who are acting out of fear and 
not who they really believe halachically 
can be a rabbi. We’
re supposed to fear 
God alone; we’
re not supposed to fear 
what other Jews are going to say about 
it … It’
s a real shameful moment”
Several graduates of the school said 
alumni are divided over the school’
s 
handling of this decision.
“People look to Chovevei to be a 
beacon for people who are trying to 
stay committed to the Orthodox world 
and at the same time not have to com-
promise their moral values,
” said Rabbi 
Aaron Potek, an alumnus and now 
the rabbi at GatherDC in Washington, 
D.C. “If the leadership at Chovevei 

can’
t find a way to make space for gay 
Orthodox rabbis, that sends a pretty 
devastating message to that commu-
nity and to the broader Orthodox 
community about what is and is not 
possible to be included in that world.
”
Others defended the school, noting 
the requirement for YCT students 
to be fully committed to Orthodox 
Halachah and Atwood’
s recent engage-
ment to his partner with whom he 
lives. In 2010, YCT faculty members 
issued a document urging compassion 
and inclusion for LGBT members of 
the Orthodox community, but also 
asserted that “Halakhic Judaism can-
not give its blessing and imprimatur to 
Jewish religious same-sex commitment 
ceremonies and weddings, and hal-
akhic values proscribe individuals and 
communities from encouraging prac-
tices that grant religious legitimacy to 
gay marriage and couplehood.
”
Linzer, who has been the rosh 
yeshiva of YCT since its founding 
and assumed the role of president last 
fall, has long been an advocate for 
acceptance of LGBT members of the 
Orthodox community. ■

continued from page 24

jews d
in 
the

Iraqi Detroiters Detained
by ICE Face Deportation

After a two-year legal battle, some 
Metro Detroit Iraqi nationals detained 
by U.S. Immigration & Customs 
Enforcement face deportation after the 
full U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals 
on April 2 upheld an 
earlier ruling by a three-
judge panel from that 
court, according to 
a story in the Detroit 
News.
In June 2017, the 
Jewish community 
immediately reached 
out to support the 
Chaldean community when 114 
Iraqi Christian immigrants in Metro 
Detroit were rounded up by immigra-
tion authorities. A team of volunteer 
attorneys went into Federal District 
Court and got the emergency order 
they sought, an immediate stay of 
removal from Judge Mark Goldsmith 
that applied nationwide. Goldsmith is 
a member of the Woodward Avenue 
Shul.
Goldsmith issued a subsequent 
ruling that the detainees should be 
given bond hearings and could not be 

deported until they had a chance to 
plead their cases in immigration court. 
That ruling led to hundreds of detain-
ees being released to their families late 
last year after having spent up to 18 
months in detention.
The U.S. government appealed that 
ruling and a three-judge panel ruled 
in December that Goldsmith had 
overstepped his authority. The full U.S. 
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.
The ACLU, which argued that 
detainees sent back to Iraq could face 
torture or death for their Christian 
faith or for having served in the 
U.S. military, brought the case titled 
Hamama v. Adducci on which the 
ruling was based. ACLU attorneys say 
they have now run out of options.
Members of Michigan’
s congres-
sional delegation signed a bipartisan 
letter to the Department of Homeland 
Security on April 8 demanding a stop 
to the mass deporation of Iraqi nation-
als until individual cases can be con-
sidered and evaluated by both DHS 
and immigration judges, epsecially 
considering the risk of persecution 
faced by Iraqi Christians. ■

Judge Mark 
Goldsmith

JERRY ZOLYNSKY

Questions?

Email Sy Manello at 
smanello@renmedia.us 
or call him at 248-351-5147.

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Deadline is May 10, 2019.

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students who are graduating this spring from 
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Yearbook 2019, which will be published 
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