Jews in the D

18 | NOVEMBER 14 • 2019 

Activism 
Urged

NCJW speaker says 
“things [women] have 
taken for granted are 
now on the table.”

BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
T

here’
s good news and bad 
news for women in the 
current political climate, 
said legal and political pundit 
Dahlia Lithwick in her keynote 
address to the National Council 
of Jewish Women, Michigan at 
their annual Women of Vision 
luncheon Oct. 24 at Adat 
Shalom Synagogue.
A graduate of Yale University 
and Stanford Law School, 
Lithwick has been covering 
the U.S. Supreme Court for 20 
years; she calls it “the best job 
in journalism.
”
A senior editor and legal cor-
respondent for Slate, an online 
magazine, Lithwick, 52, is also 
a frequent contributor to NPR, 
MSNBC and C-Span. Her 
op-eds have appeared in the 
New York Times, Washington 
Post, Los Angeles Times and 
more. She lives in Brooklyn, 
N.Y., with her husband, artist 
Aaron Fein, and two sons, 16 
and 14.
Women’
s reproductive rights 
are under attack in many states, 
Lithwick said. The Supreme 
Court agreed to hear a case, 
June Medical Services LLC v. 
Gee, that revisits what should 
have been established prece-
dent, she said. The case is sim-
ilar to a Texas case decided in 
2016, in which the court ruled 
that limiting the availability of 
abortion clinics was an undue 
burden on women exercising 
their legal rights. The Louisiana 

law in the June Medical 
Services case, if upheld, would 
limit abortions to a single doc-
tor in the entire state. Other 
state laws making their way 
through the courts put severe 
limits on abortion with no 
exceptions for rape or incest.
Lithwick says she’
s concerned 
that upcoming cases could limit 
women’
s access not only to 
abortion but to contraception. 
“Things we’
ve taken for 
granted are now on the table,
” 
she said, with a court that 
includes two justices who have 
been “credibly accused of sexu-
al misconduct.
” This is an “exis-
tential moment” for women, 
she said.
Other important cases on 
the court’
s docket deal with 
the rights of homosexual and 
transsexual people, immigra-
tion, limitations on guns and 
religious liberty.
Although women are much 
more visible in law firms and 
courts than a generation ago 
— 50 percent of Lithwick’
s law 
school classmates were women 
— since the 2016 election, 
 
women have been disappearing 
from the legal power struc-
ture. Of the 42 U.S. attorneys 
appointed since 2017, only one 
was a woman. The 150 most 
recent federal judicial appoin-
tees have been 80 percent male 
(and 90 percent white). 
But all is not gloom and 
doom, she said. “We in this 

room have an enormous 
amount of power. As long as we 
deploy it, we can make a dif-
ference.
” Women need to find 
the “sweet spot” where activism 
and the law interact.
To counteract anti-woman 
legislation, women need to 
engage in “civic visibility,
” she 
said. Women need to see and 
be seen by calling and visiting 
their elected representatives, 
writing op-eds and letters to the 
editor, and getting out the vote. 
“It’
s tedious work but it needs 
to be done,
” she said.
At the start of the meet-
ing, attended by 330, NCJW 
Michigan presented its 
Josephine S. Weiner Award 
for Community Service to 
Lisa Lis, a full-time volunteer 
who works with Gleaner’
s, 
Henry Ford Hospital, the 
Detroit Zoological Society and 
Forgotten Harvest. She is a past 
chair of the Jewish Women’
s 
Foundation and past presi-
dent of the Jewish Federation’
s 
Women’
s Philanthropy effort.
The group’
s Women of 
Vision Award was presented 
to Jackie Victor, co-founder of 
Avalon International Bakery in 
Detroit. The business, started in 
1997, has grown to four retail 
locations and 120 team mem-
bers. Victor is also a strong 
supporter of Detroit’
s urban 
agriculture movement and of 
the Isaac Agree Downtown 
Synagogue. 

Women of Vision Award honoree 
Jackie Victor, speaker Dahlia 
Lithwick and Josephine S. 
Weiner Award honoree Lisa Lis

Lecture on Henry Ford’
s 
Anti-Semitism

Jewish Historical Society 
of Michigan will hold a 
free 45-minute lecture and 
exhibition, “Reams of Hate: 
The Legacy of Henry Ford’
s 
Anti-Semitic Newspaper,
” at 
7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 
at Congregation Beth Ahm, 
given by JHSM Executive 
Director Catherine Cangany, 
Ph.D.
The evening represents 
a collaboration between 
JHSM, Beth Ahm, the 
Anti-Defamation League 
(ADL), the Rabbi Leo M. 
Franklin Archives at Temple 
Beth El and the Dearborn 
Historical Museum (DHM). 
Spearheaded by the ADL, 
it developed in response to 
the city of Dearborn’
s recent 
reluctance to acknowledge the 
Independent and its ongoing 
power.
Before and after the lecture, 
the public is invited to browse 
two pop-up exhibitions on 
the newspaper and the Jewish 
community’
s fight against 
it, curated and presented by 
the Rabbi Leo M. Franklin 
Archives at Temple Beth El 
and the DHM.
This year marks the cen-
tennial of Henry Ford’
s 
anti-Semitic newspaper, The 
Dearborn Independent. In 
its heyday in the 1920s, its 
readership was second only 
to the New York Daily News. 
Its articles are still published 
in a four-volume set, The 
International Jew, which 
serves as inspiration to mod-
ern-day extremist groups and 
routinely receives five-star 
reviews on Amazon.com.
Cangany will discuss Ford, 
his newspaper, the Jewish 
community’
s successful efforts 
to shut it down and strategies 
to fight against its ongoing 
vitriol.
A light dessert reception 
will follow the lecture. For 
more information or to reg-
ister, visit michjewishhistory.
org/calendar. 

COURTESY NCJW