18 | OCTOBER 3 • 2019 

S

peaker of the House Nancy 
Pelosi formally announced 
Sept. 24 that Congress 
would be opening an impeach-
ment inquiry into the actions of 
President Donald Trump.
“The president must be held 
accountable,” Pelosi told vari-
ous national media outlets. “No 
one is above the law.”
Pelosi, who’
s been reluctant 
to call for impeachment, said 
that allegations the president 
used his political office to pres-
sure a foreign government to 
investigate his political rival, 
Democratic presidential can-
didate Joe Biden, and his son, 
Hunter, and allegedly exerted 
pressure on the Ukrainian gov-
ernment by withholding $250 
million in funding for military 

aid were a threat to national 
security and the Constitution. 
The momentum for 
the announcement came 
throughout the day as several 
prominent Democrats such 
as Georgia’
s John Lewis and 
freshmen Democrats running 
in competitive 
districts came 
out in support 
of impeach-
ment — includ-
ing Michigan 
Democrats Elissa 
Slotkin and Haley 
Stevens, who, until 
last week, had not 
publicly supported 
impeachment pro-
ceedings against 
the president. Both 

of their districts were previous-
ly held by Republicans.
In a statement, Stevens 
wrote: “Over the last sever-
al days, I have been deeply 
alarmed by reports of serious 
abuse of power by President 
Trump … If investigations 
confirm recent reports, these 
actions represent impeach-
able offences that threaten to 
undermine the integrity of our 
elections and jeopardize the 
balance of power within the 
federal government.”
In an op-ed published 
Sept. 23, Slotkin wrote, “If 
these allegations are true, or 
if the White House refuses to 
clear up these allegations, the 
Congress has no choice but 
to consider all congressional 
authorities available to us, 
including the power of inher-
ent contempt and impeach-
ment hearings, to protect our 
national security. We must 
make exceptionally clear that 
this behavior cannot stand.”

The following day, in an 
interview with NPR’
s Morning 
Edition, Slotkin acknowl-
edged the potential political 
risk but said, “It doesn’
t 
matter,” despite voters in her 
district being divided on 
impeachment.
“I get pulled over in the 
supermarket by people 
talking about it and saying go 
ahead and do it,” said Slotkin, 
who sometimes attends ser-
vices at Temple Israel, “
and 
I’
ve been pulled over by just 
as many people saying please 
don’
t do it.”
But, she told NPR, “no 
matter whether you’
re a 
Democrat or an independent 
or a Republican, the idea 
that a sitting president would 
attempt to leverage dirt on 
a political opponent from a 
foreign leader is just beyond 
the pale. It’
s a game-changer. 
It’
s something different and 
we have to acknowledge it as 
thus.” 

U.S. GOVT.
U.S. GOVT.

 
‘No One Is Above the Law’
Once-reluctant Michigan representatives 
now call for impeachment.

JN STAFF

Slotkin

Stevens

O

n Sept. 21, David 
Holden, president 
of Temple Jacob in 
Hancock, Mich., received a 
call from the Hancock Police 
Department.
“I immediately thought 
something happened to the 
synagogue,” Holden said. “
And 
sure enough, I was right.”
Police Chief Wayne Butler 
informed Holden that he 
received a call from a man 
who spotted two swastikas and 
two SS logos spray-painted on 

Temple Jacob.
The symbols appeared on 
the back door, on the side of 
the sandstone foundation, 
on the front door and on the 
building’
s façade.
“I can’
t say that I was 
shocked because I know this 
has happened all around the 
country,” Holden said. “I was 
just disappointed that it finally 
happened here — this is not 
the character of this commu-
nity.”
Recently, the Jewish 

Telegraphic Agency (JTA) 
reported two synagogues in 
Wisconsin and Boston were 
also vandalized.
This is the first time Holden 
has dealt with this issue during 
his four years at Temple Jacob, 
but he recalls a past incident of 
a Nazi banner hung up on its 
railing and stolen mezuzot.
After receiving the initial call 
from police, Holden rushed 
over to the synagogue and 
began scrubbing the sandstone 
on the sides of the building.
“The next thing I know, 
there are pickup trucks coming 
up the driveway, waving at 
me,” Holden said. “One of the 
folks was a person who was at 
Sherwin Williams and over-
heard a conversation going on. 
The guy got mad, went home 
to grab his power washer and 
came out to power wash the 
building.”
Locals passing by and 
several other groups rallied 
together to help remove the 
graffiti and repaint.

“I wasn’
t scrubbing any-
more,” Holden said. “I was try-
ing to find work for everybody 
who wanted to help out. That 
is what this community is all 
about.”
Leaders from the area, 
including Pastor Bucky Beach 
from Good Shepard Lutheran 
Church in Houghton and 
the president of Michigan 
Technological University, 
Richard Koubek, have been 
outspoken about the issue.
The Hancock Police 
Department shared with 
Holden that an investigation is 
under way.
“I spoke with Chief Butler 
and he told me they were 
examining our neighbors’
 
video cameras that might 
have caught the activity,” 
Holden said. “They are 
reaching out to the FBI for 
additional resources and 
have been speaking with the 
Houghton Police Department, 
since our two communities 
work closely together.” 

Nazi Symbols 

Hancock community rallies together
after synagogue was vandalized.

CORRIE COLF STAFF WRITER

Jews in the D

