8 August 29 • 2019
jn

views

employee. Motivation, trust and perceived value 
decline with every comment. Personally, they make 
me feel small and unimportant. 
Furthermore, all these micro-inequities have been 
drastically exacerbated as many of the women in the 
office have come to realize the gap in pay between 
themselves and men in the office is significant. 
Even men who have left the organization received 
significantly more than the women who currently 
hold the same position. It’
s truly the perfect recipe 
for thwarting motivation and productivity. 
Perhaps this is analogous to what we’
ve read in 
the Bible, which doesn’
t present one unified view 
of women. At times, women are presented as men’
s 
equals — as in the first creation in Genesis. At other 
times, they are secondary in status — as in the 
laws that place women under the authority of their 
husbands and fathers. However, Jewish law has never 
been static; it has adapted across the generations. It 
has always been influenced by the world in which 
the Jews live. I grew up with Abraham, Isaac and 
Jacob, but now my kids have Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel 
and Leah. Change is possible. 
Just as Judaism has changed in its views of 
feminism, so must we. We must stop with the subtle 
machismo. We must detect and eliminate micro-
inequalities and focus on true gender equality. This 
is no longer the Mad Men era. Let’
s stop looking only 
at women to coordinate the lunches or meetings. 
And, even as I write this, I’
m imaging the eye-
rolling of some of the men who will read this article. 
There will be comments made, “Oh, now I cannot 
ask you to order the food, right?” My answer: Yes, 
we can order food, but so can you. 
I ask the same men to pause and consider how 
they would react if constantly marginalized and 
devalued simply because of their gender? From 
experience, I can tell you it’
s horrible. It reverberates 

throughout the entire organization and impacts 
productivity, drive and efficiency. 
Fighting gender bias starts with knowledge and 
understanding, and that’
s why I’
ve written this. To be 
heard. To shed light on this issue. Maybe to start a 
conversation.
The Detroit Jewish community is one of the best, 
no question. There’
s also no doubt that women 
are a critical part of this community, the Jewish 
Federation and its agencies. 
 
With greater equality comes greater success. So, 
imagine, for a moment, how much more we can 
accomplish, how many more people we can help 
and how much greater we can all be — with total 
equality. ■

“Gender Bias” from page 6
“Th
 ese micro-inequities 
are subtle, but mighty, 
expressions of bias. Bit 
by bit, they peck away at 
the morale of the female 
employee. Motivation, 
trust and perceived 
value decline with every 
comment. Personally, they 
make me feel small and 
unimportant.” 

rabbis, chose the site to dramatize 
their concerns about abhorrent con-
ditions at the border with Mexico. 
They fear the country is descending 
into authoritarianism under President 
Donald Trump. As survivor Rene 
Lichtman told the Jewish News, “It is 
very appropriate (for us to be here) 
because this museum stands for what 
happened and could happen.” They 
carried signs that included: “ICE = 
Swastika” and “Close the Camps!”
The Jewish counter-protesters 
included Holocaust survivors, long-
time conservative activists and 
Trump supporters. They were joined 
unexpectedly by about 15 “Proud 
Boys” — a decentralized group that 
the Anti-Defamation League defines 
as “a right-wing ‘
fraternity’
 who pres-
ent themselves as defenders of con-

servative values and put a premium 
on confronting or attacking leftists.” 
“Proud Boys” affiliates have been 
associated with white supremacist 
activities in Charlottesville, New York 
and elsewhere.
Counter protest organizer Eugene 
Greenstein told the Jewish News, 
“People should not be using the 
Holocaust Museum as a prop for 
their political agenda.” Counter pro-
test speaker Rabbi Aryeh Spero told 
the Jewish News “it is just terrible to 
use the backdrop of the Holocaust 
Memorial Center to somehow por-
tray to the public that there is no 
difference between the real concen-
tration camps and detention centers.” 
Counter protester signs included: 
“Anti-Semite Left (Commies) Go 
Home/Proud to Defend Jews,” “Stop 

Exploiting The Holocaust” and “Build 
the Wall.”
The protesters are correct to sound 
the alarm about the slippery slope 
toward right-wing authoritarianism 
they believe is occurring. Conditions 
at the detention centers are disgrace-
ful, and the seeming lack of humanity 
coming from our country’
s leadership 
is appalling. 
The counter-protesters are also 
correct to claim that comparing the 
detention centers to Nazi concentra-
tion camps is knowingly inaccurate 
and insensitive to the survivors who 
endured them. 
As the child of one survivor and 
the son-in-law of another, the HMC 
is a place for me to remember family 
members, renew strength in the face 
of current challenges, and derive 

inspiration from those who refused 
to stay silent. Visitors to the HMC 
typically depart with resolve to take 
some form of action — large or small 
— against intolerance. 
While the HMC sidewalk along 
Orchard Lake Road is available for 
the espousal of collective points 
of view, the protesters and count-
er-protesters would have benefited 
more from a visit (or repeat visit) 
inside the HMC — as individuals 
— to wrestle with the lessons of the 
Holocaust, understand its unargu-
able truths and nuances, more fully 
inform their points of view … and 
respect the institution they were both 
claiming for their backdrop. ■

Arthur Horwitz is publisher and executive edi-
tor of the Detroit Jewish News. See a related 
story on page 16.

guest column

adoring gaze from the mirror. Meanwhile, I work up a 
heavy sweat on the treadmill, walking at speed number 3, 
and call out things like, “Don’
t lift that weight over your 
head! What if you drop it!?”
Recently a few of my more ambitious relatives and I 
have started doing 5Ks together. It’
s a great healthy activ-
ity, something fun to bond over and a huge ego boost. 
There are all these lovely cheering spectators shouting 
encouraging things and a finisher’
s medal — even for folks 
like me, one of the very last to cross the finish line, who 
spends much more time ambling along and schmoozing 
on the phone than doing anything that even remotely 
resembles running. 
A few weeks ago, we participated in the Electric Bolt 
in Ann Arbor, which raises money for ALS research. We 
were hugely excited to hear my 13-year-old son Avi’
s name 
being announced — he came in second in his age catego-
ry! We were whooping up a storm, and only discovered 
later that out of the hundreds of participants, the grand 
total of runners in his age bracket was … two. 
All in all, I figure parenthood means payback-time — I 
totally did this to my parents as a teen, too. So at least I 
know this “embarrassing parent thing” does come to an 
end one day. But working out together (if you’
re going to 
be generous with your terminology and allow me to call 
what I do “working out”
… ) is definitely, I feel, a step in 
the right direction. Everything else, I just take in stride. ■

for openers

publisher’
s notebook “Deep Political Divide” from page 5

“Step by Embarrassing Step” from page 5

