8 August 8 • 2019
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Jewish community in the world outside of 
Israel. More than 1 million Jews call this 
place home, and while there are millions 
of others from multiple religions, the city 
has a distinctly Jewish flavor. There are 
lots of beautiful and historic synagogues 
scattered throughout the city. A few 
months ago, I attended my buddy’
s son’
s 
bar mitzvah at the Park East Synagogue, 
an 1888 jewel that looks like it’
s straight 
out of Europe. At the bar mitzvah, the 
Secretary General of the U.N. spoke to the 
congregation about the Holocaust, with 
the U.S. Ambassador to Israel present. 
Only in New York!
I also attended a musical Kabbalat 
Shabbat service (with wine and sushi, of 
course), and marched along with 
100,000 
others in the massive “Celebrate Israel 
Parade” — billed as “the world’
s largest 
gathering in support of Israel” — led by 
Gov. Cuomo and shown on live TV
. 
After the parade, thousands of par-
ticipants headed to Central Park. The 
celebration of Israel continued with 
Israeli flags and banners everywhere and 
attached to anything, from bikes to stroll-
ers to boats. I’
ve been in Israel twice in 
the past two years, and while New York 
isn’
t exactly the Holy Land, it’
s undeniably 
another quintessential Jewish experience.
Contrary to popular myth, I believe 
that people in New York are actually 
nice — they’
re just in a rush. Sure, there’
s 
the occasional rude person, but I think 
that’
s the exception rather than the rule. 
But when I tossed out that theory to a 
New York friend, he cracked up at what a 
naive Midwesterner I am. “You’
re a sweet 
Michigan guy, and I love you for it, but 
you’
re really just a nice bumpkin here.
”
I have been called a lot of things, many 
unprintable, but a “bumpkin”? Detroiters 
are savvy and sophisticated, right? 
New York City is crazy and crowded 
and pricey, but there’
s an energy here 
unlike anyplace else. As Jay-Z says in 
“Empire State of Mind,
” “These streets 
will make you feel brand-new. Big lights 
will inspire you.
” 
I hear his lyrics in my mind as I walk 
the streets of this “concrete jungle where 
dreams are made of.
” 
Not a bad place to spend the summer 
of 2019. ■

Mark Jacobs is the AIPAC Michigan chair for 
African American Outreach, a co-director of the 
Coalition for Black and Jewish Unity, a board 
member of the Jewish Community Relations 
Council-AJC and the director of Jewish Family 
Service’
s Legal Referral Committee.

continued from page 6

In response to an online story about 
the delayed opening of a Burgerim 
restaurant in Dearborn due to local 
backlash because of the restaurant’
s 
Israeli roots, readers wrote:

Esther Allweiss Ingber: Southfield 
and Oak Park have franchises of 
Burgerim.

Vadim Brayman: Open up in West 
Bloomfield or Birmingham. I sure am 
hungry.

Bella Oliwek: What is their nonsense 
reason why they are boycotting? 
Please come to the western suburbs.

Diane Blossey: Come to Midland, 
Michigan.

Marilyn Nelson Kirschner: There is 
one near me. It’
s awful ...

Diane Birnbaum Starr: Boycotts 
work both ways, but, better yet, 
these people need to be educated.

Eric Weiss: Sounds like felony ethnic 
intimidation to me.

Nathan Silverman: Dearborn 
shouldn’
t get any restaurants! Not 

like a synagogue is opening in that 
area. Lots and lots of pure hate. 
More reason to go and support it. No 
matter how good or bad Burgerim is, 
just order fries and a pop.

Alan Shiener: So much for peace-
ful co-existence and support. The 
Jewish community has been fully 
supportive of the Arab and Muslim 
communities in response to Trump’
s 
vicious and racist attacks.

Larry Gunsberg: Another childish 
and pathetic reaction from a group of 
reactionary Muslims. And Dearborn 
(eventually) became a nice place to 
live and all religions and cultures got 
along ... until now.

Several people shared their reaction 
to “Protest at Detroit ICE,” which ran 
in the July 25 issue:

Richard Weinstein: I wish people 
would care about vVeterans as much 
as we care about people who broke 
our laws!

Ihsan Alkhatib: The Congress needs 
to change the law as to what makes 

a person removable and what ave-
nues of relief are available.

Nancy Federman Kaplan: I am 
surprised there has not been a huge 
protest from Christian supporters of 
this administration!

Barbara Hirschberg Mendelson: 
And yet the Iraqi community will vote 
for Trump as they previously did!

Al Wright: So let me get this 
straight. They are not legal citizens 
and many of them have broken the 
law, yet they are allowed to stay in 
America because their own country 
doesn’
t want them back. Yeah, kinda 
reminds me when Cuba emptied the 
prisons and sent everybody here to 
America.

There was strong reaction on 
Facebook to the cover of the July 25 
Jewish News, which showed Bobbi 
Spiegler of Madison Heights holding 
a sign that read, “Never again means 
now. Close the camps.”

Alex Bensky: The comparison 
between the detention centers — 

online comments

continued on page 10

I 

am a Holocaust survivor. I read in 
the paper and saw on the television 
that a congresswoman compared 
American detention 
centers at our Southern 
borders to the Nazi 
concentration camps. 
With all due respect, 
my question would 
be: Do you know what 
happened in the Nazi 
concentration camps? 
The illegal immigrant in these 
Southern border detention centers 
has options. He can obtain legal 
status in this country or return to 
his own country. I, in the ghetto, in 
the concentration camps, had no 
choices. I was forced out of my home 
with my father and mother and my 
grandmother who was very old. She 
was blind in both eyes. That old 
lady, along with tens of thousands of 
Jewish grandmothers, was taken to 
Auschwitz, murdered by poison gas in 

the gas chambers, taken to crematoria 
and burned to ashes. 
We were forced into an old brick fac-
tory in the city of Beregszasz, Hungary. 
We were treated inhumanely. We were 
legal citizens of Hungary who never 
committed a crime. Both my grandfa-
thers fought in the Austro-Hungarian 
army. One was killed. 
I am shocked and dismayed that 
intelligent individuals in this country 
cannot distinguish between American 
detention centers and Nazi concentra-
tion camps. While conditions in these 
centers are maybe not ideal, I am sure 
no one is starving or beaten to death. 
No one is denied medical treatment. 
We, in the Nazi camps, were not 
temporarily detained immigrants who 
were trying to enter the country ille-
gally. I only wish the Nazi government 
would have taken me and the Jewish 
people to an American detention center 
instead of the gates of Auschwitz.
German soldiers packed us into the 

box cars and took us to Auschwitz. We 
were away from our home in the ghetto 
for six weeks. In those six weeks, we 
did not sleep in a bed; we did not eat 
a hot meal; we did not have a shower 
or change of clothes. We had children 
and babies with us. If you could look in 
their faces — they were sleepy, hungry; 
their eyes cried out, depressed. In those 
days, we did not have disposable dia-
pers, formulas, baby food jars. No cribs 
to sleep in. 
After the war, we found out that the 
Nazi governments of Europe murdered 
6 million Jewish people, including 
1.5 million children, the future of the 
Jewish people. Their future, born as a 
Jew in Europe, was cut short. Most of 
them were murdered in gas chambers 
then burned in crematoria. 
This is just a very small part of 
the Holocaust. The history of the 
Holocaust cannot be equated with the 
American detention centers 
 at our 
Southern borders. ■

Michael Weiss is the author of Chimneys and 
Chambers: from Kaszony to Auschwitz to 
Detroit: the lingering smell of the Holocaust.

commentary

There’s A Big Diff
 erence

Michael Weiss